Reminders of Him

options. Because if you stay here, someone will eventually recognize you.
Because if we keep working together, we’ll shatter whatever is left of our
flimsy boundary.
I don’t say any of those things, though. I just look at her pointedly
while I run my thumb across her wrist. “You know why.”
Her chest rises and falls with her sigh.
But then she jerks her hand from mine at the sudden knock on my
office door. I immediately stand up straight, and Kenna folds her arms over
her chest. Our reactions make us look really guilty right now.
Mary Anne is standing in the doorway looking back and forth between
us. She grins and says, “What did I just interrupt? An employee
evaluation?”
I walk around my desk and pretend to be occupied by my computer
screen. “What do you need, Mary Anne?”
“Well. This suddenly feels like the wrong moment to mention this, but
Leah’s here. The woman you were supposed to marry today? She’s out front
asking for you.”
It takes everything in me not to look at Kenna to see how she reacted
to that. Somehow I manage to stay focused on Mary Anne. “Tell her I’ll be
right out.”
Mary Anne backs away from the door, but she leaves it open. Kenna
immediately follows her out without looking back at me.
I’m confused, because why would Leah be here? What could she
possibly want? Is she having more of a reaction to what today was supposed

---

to be than I am?
Because I’ve hardly thought about it. I think that proves it was the
right decision. For me, at least.
I walk out of my office, but I have to pass by Kenna on my way to the
front. We make two seconds of eye contact before she looks away.
I exit the kitchen and look around the room, but I don’t immediately
spot Leah. It’s a lot more crowded now than when I went to my office to do
payroll, so I glance around for a moment before making my way behind the
bar. Mary Anne is at the other end of the room, so I can’t ask her where
Leah went.
Roman sees me and points at a group of guys. “I haven’t taken their
order yet.”
“Where’s Leah?”
Roman looks confused. “Leah? What?”
Mary Anne is walking toward me. She grins and leans over the bar
when she reaches me. “Roman was getting swamped, so he asked me to
grab you. I was kidding about Leah. I was just trying to build some angst
for you because girls love angst. You’re welcome.” She picks up a tray full
of drinks and glides over to a table to deliver them.
I shake my head in confusion. I’m irritated she lied, because now
Kenna’s mind is probably going in a thousand different directions. But I’m
also relieved she lied. I didn’t want to see Leah.
I stay and take a few orders and close out three tabs, but as soon as
Roman is caught up, I head to the back. Kenna isn’t in the kitchen. I look
around for her, but Aaron motions toward the back door to let me know
she’s on break.
When I push open the door to the alley, I find Kenna leaning against
the building with her arms folded over her chest. She looks up at me as
soon as I walk outside, and I can see the immediate relief wash over her.
She was jealous. She tries to hide it by forcing a smile, but I saw the
look on her face before she shoved it away.
I walk over to her and mimic her position against the wall. “Mary
Anne was lying. Leah wasn’t here; she made that up.”
She narrows her eyes in confusion. “Why would she . . .” Kenna stops
talking, and a small smile spreads across her lips. “Wow. Mary Anne is

---

messy.” She doesn’t seem angry that Mary Anne lied. She appears
impressed.
Her smile makes me smile, and then I say, “You were jealous.”
Kenna rolls her eyes. “I was not.”
“You were.”
She pushes off the wall and heads for the stairs, but she pauses right in
front of me. She faces me, and I can’t tell what her expression means.
I don’t know what she’s about to do, but if she tried to kiss me, it
would make my fucking night. I’m tired of the back-and-forth with her. I’m
tired of hiding her. I’d give anything to be able to get to know her better
without worrying about consequences, to be able to ask her questions that
have nothing to do with Scotty or the Landrys. I want to openly kiss her, I
want to take her home with me, I want to know what it’s like to fall asleep
next to her and wake up next to her.
I fucking like her, and the more I’m around her, the more I don’t want
to be apart from her.
“I’m putting in my two-week notice,” she says.
Shit. I chew on my lip until I’m positive I won’t drop to my knees and
beg her to stay. “Why?”
She hesitates and then says, “You know why.”
She disappears back inside the building, and I sit in my fucking
feelings.
I stare at my truck with an intense urge to drive straight to Patrick and
Grace’s house and tell them all about Kenna. I want to tell them how
selfless she is. I want to tell them what a hard worker she is. I want to tell
them how forgiving she is, because every single one of us has been making
her life a living hell, yet she somehow doesn’t seem to resent us for it.
I want to tell Patrick and Grace every wonderful thing about Kenna,
but even more than that, I want to tell Kenna how wrong I was when I told
her Diem wouldn’t benefit from having her in her life.
Who am I to say that to a mother about her own child?