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  “We were supposed to be the power couple, you know?” He blinked.

  She felt his pain for a second, then pushed it away. Ty had always said they were a “power couple” when they’d worked together before in Boston. “Ty—”

  He took her hand. “You, me, starting our own firm one day. We could have killed it together.”

  As she looked at their hands, anger swept through her and she yanked hers back. “I should have come to Denver sooner to be with my mother.”

  He cursed. “Is that what this is about? Is that why you turned down my proposal? Because I kept you in Boston too long? Because I helped you get fast-tracked for junior partner?” His tone had turned angry. “Do you remember that I’m the one who actually got you on at the firm here?”

  Unwilling tears misted in her eyes. “Mama was sick for a whole year before I came, because you kept talking about how Boston was the epicenter of the world, how we needed to be in Boston to build this … empire!” She realized her hands were shaking, and she made an effort to still them. “I should have been here sooner.”

  “No one can predict death, Jewel,” Ty said quietly. “No one.”

  She pressed her fingers to her temple. “I can’t do this.”

  “Wait, I need to talk to you about something else, too.”

  She shook her head and began walking away. “Look, if this is about my father’s lawsuit, then I’ll just tell you I’m not happy you took Rosie on as a client.” Rosie, her father’s neighbor, was suing because she wanted to use the easement between their properties to develop the land.

  Ty reached for her arm. “I’m not here to talk about your father and Rosie.”

  She stopped. “Please don’t touch me.”

  He dropped his hand and he held the present out. “Please just take it,” he pleaded.

  Nervous angst wove through her. The man was persistent; he’d been texting her almost every day, even if she ignored him. Often, he would show up at the office when she was working late and leave dinner. Reluctantly, she took the present and unwrapped it, revealing one of her favorite books: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

  “I couldn’t find an exclusive first edition or anything, but I thought you could use a new copy.”

  She stared at the book. When her mother had been ill, Jewel had read to her from the book every day. “Thank you.”

  Ty nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  “I have to go,” she murmured.

  “So dinner would be out?” Ty asked.

  “I’m sorry, Ty. I can’t keep doing this with you.” She reached for the door handle of her car.

  “Wait, Jewel.” His hand took the door and pulled it open for her.

  She turned to face him. He was close enough to kiss.

  “I miss you,” he said, his brows creasing in the middle.

  Her heart beat quickly. At one point they had shared so much.

  He reached up, caressing her cheek. “I just want you back. I need you. I need you by my side. You know how good we are together.” He pushed his hand behind her head and gently massaged her neck.

  The feel of his touch muddled her senses.

  As if sensing the chink in her armor, he leaned in and kissed her softly. “Come back to me. I know you don’t want to marry me. I don’t care. I just want you back.”

  Abruptly, she shook her head and steadied herself on the car. “Please … Stop.” She hesitated. “You should go back to Boston, Ty. Go back to the firm and do everything you want. Because you’re an amazing attorney.” She pulled in a shaky breath. “But it’s not going to work between us.” She put her bag inside the car.

  “I just have to know … Did you know about Kent’s wife before you refused to marry me?”

  Slowly, she turned back to face Ty. They didn’t talk about Kent Hardman. Ever. “What are you talking about?”

  Ty let out a long sigh. “Did you know Kent’s wife was dead when I proposed to you?”

  “She’s dead?” Jewel felt like she’d been sucker punched. Her mind flashed to Addy, the tall, blond girl who’d married Kent. The only time they’d met was when Jewel had caught the woman kissing him in front of his apartment when she’d shown up for a surprise visit.

  Ty studied her face. “She’s dead. Almost a year ago.”

  Her mind spun with questions. “H-how?”

  “Car crash. I found out last week from Kent’s brother, Beau. I couldn’t believe he actually reached out to me but I guess he was desperate enough to track down a college roommate.”

  She stumbled back, holding to the car. Kent’s brother reached out to him?

  Ty let out a long breath. “I guess Kent’s been off-grid for a couple of months, not responding to anyone. After Addy’s death, he went to Africa, working for Doctors Without Borders. And he won’t return his brother’s calls.”

  Jewel couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  Ty stepped forward, steadying her by placing his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

  Jewel’s heart raced as she flashed back to that last night in Santa Monica, back to the look in Kent’s eyes as he’d held her and proposed.

  “You still love him, don’t you?” Ty asked softly.

  Jewel forced herself to focus. She pushed his hands away. “Ty, you need to leave.”

  Ty stepped back, a sad look on his face. “I knew you always loved him. I just hoped you could love me, too.” He turned away from her. “Happy birthday, Jewel.”

  Less than half an hour later, Jewel pulled up to her father’s house. The long, stately columns of her father’s home always reminded her of a Southern plantation. The black shutters were a stark contrast to the white-painted walls, and the air was sweet with the comforting scent of the roses just barely starting to climb their trellises. It made Jewel long for the days of sitting on the porch and enjoying the fresh Colorado night with her mother—time she would never get back.

  She parked, gathering her things. The shocking news about Kent’s wife played over and over in her mind. Addy was dead. Kent was in Africa.

  When she got to the front door and turned the knob, it stuck, as usual. Jewel put her shoulder into it, giving it a shove. It opened and the faint sound of Jeopardy sounded in the background.

  Her father lifted his hand and called out to her over his shoulder. “Happy birthday.”

  Jewel put her laptop and jacket on the newspaper-covered counter and pulled a glass out of the cupboard. An empty pizza box sat on top of the stove. “Sorry I missed dinner.”

  “I knew you would, so I bought pizza. There’s leftovers in the fridge.”

  Jewel picked up one of the letters on the counter, recognizing the letterhead from Ty Sherman’s firm. A dull ache started to form behind her right temple.

  Wasn’t it enough she’d just seen him, now she had to deal with him over this stupid lawsuit, too? “I see you got another letter about the lawsuit. It says here that you haven’t complied with a document request for copies of the deed to the land.”

  Another missing letter. Her dad insisted on taking random mail out of the mailbox and putting it in various places around the house that he couldn’t keep track of. “Did they send you a letter about that, Dad? ’Cause you didn’t give it to me.”

  He still didn’t turn away from the television. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. It’ll blow over. Your old boyfriend’s going to handle Rosie for me.”

  At the mention of Ty, she cringed. “Dad, he’s not handling Rosie, he’s working for Rosie.”

  “Naw, it’s going to be fine.”

  Puzzled, Jewel scanned the rest of the letter. The problem had just become serious. There were deadlines when dealing with attorneys. Her father should know that. She fished through the heaping pile of newspaper and found two more bills between the sports section and a crossword puzzle. She opened them and noted they were past due. Her irritation ratched up a notch. “You need to give me the mail when we get it, Dad.”

  Her father finally stoo
d and padded over to her. “How’s my birthday girl?” Clearly, he was ignoring the mail issue.

  He kissed her cheek, and she softened. The dark polo shirt and CSU sweats he wore had become his regular uniform for the last six months, ever since his heart attack and subsequent retirement from teaching at the university.

  Her father searched her face. “You look tired.”

  She dropped the letters on the counter and kept her composure. “They asked for a copy of the deed to the land, and the deadline is tomorrow. You should have given me the other bills, too. Is there any other mail I need to look at?”

  Her dad plopped down on the stool next to the counter and gave her the half-shoulder shrug that made him look like a teenager. “If you had been home for dinner three hours ago, we could have had a nice conversation about the mail. But like I said, Ty will handle things with Rosie, don’t worry.” He opened the can of almonds in front of him and popped some into his mouth. “And the bills always get paid.”

  She didn’t want to fight with her father tonight. “Okay,” she said, turning to the fridge and opening it, pulling out the pizza.”

  “You’re too stressed out. Will you just stop for a minute?”

  She took a bite, not caring if it was cold or not. She was starving. “I’m fine.”

  “Did you do anything fun on your birthday? Go out to lunch with the twins?”

  She was grateful he was changing the topic. She thought of her two friends that he called “the twins,” even though they weren’t. They’d all been best friends since elementary school. She shook her head. “Just court today, but I’ll be seeing Molly and McKay for lunch next week. McKay says if I ditch them, she’ll hunt me down and dye my hair bright orange again.”

  This sent her father rocking back with laughter and slapping his hand against the counter. “Ah, you had so much fun at those sleepovers when you guys were young. Your mother never thought she’d get the color out of the bathroom rug. She was chapped over that for a while.”

  Jewel couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her. Her father’s happiness had always been infectious. “Yeah, she was.” Her smile faded as she was paralyzed by images of her mother cleaning the bathroom rug, taking her to a professional hair salon for the first time to dye her hair back. Jewel held to the counter and closed her eyes. Even after a year of having her gone, it didn’t make the sudden moments of loss any less acute.

  “I know, sweetie.” Her father’s hand rested on hers, and she opened her eyes to see him watching her. Lately, his grey-flecked black hair and the deep lines in the corners of his eyes made him look tired. “I miss her, too.”

  Jewel put her pizza crust down and leaned into him, gently kissing him on the cheek. Old Spice lingered around him like a comforting blanket.

  He put his arm around her and brushed her hair back. “You okay, cupid girl?” He’d given her that nickname when she was six and couldn’t stop talking about Valentine’s Day and a cupid running around shooting arrows at everyone.

  She pulled back, nodding. “I got some other news today that’s thrown me off a bit.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you remember Kent?”

  His eyebrows went up. “You mean the man I still need to beat in Charades?”

  She smiled and thought of how she’d brought Kent home for spring break. “Yeah.”

  He nodded. “I remember Kent.”

  “His wife is dead.” The words hung in the air.

  His eyebrows lifted. “What happened?”

  She let out a long breath. “Ty told me today that Kent’s wife died in a car crash almost a year ago.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  Her heart raced and she thought about how she hadn’t told her parents all of it.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She blinked and pushed down the emotion she could usually contain when she thought of Kent. “I never told you this, but I was engaged to Kent.”

  Her father froze.

  She rushed on, fighting to get the words past the mixed feelings. “Mom was so against me doing anything but going to Harvard, she’d even taken on an extra job to save for it, and you guys had always encouraged me so much and I was—”

  “You should have told us,” her father said slowly.

  Tears of regret filled her eyes. “I should have. There’s so much I should have done.”

  Her father took her into his arms. “What happened?”

  “We got engaged on the last day we were together in Santa Monica. He wanted to elope, but I convinced him we would wait.”

  Her father shook his head. “Your mother shouldn’t have put that pressure on you not to get married.” He grimaced. “I told her that you loved that boy.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling like she couldn’t breathe. She flashed them open, trying to clear her mind. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  Her father reached for her hand. “What happened to end it?”

  “A couple of weeks into school, I decided to surprise him one weekend and hopped on a plane to go see him. When I got to his apartment, he was kissing Addy.”

  Her father let her go, keeping her hands. “He cheated on you?”

  She shook her head. “I … I thought he had then.” She sniffed. “I was so angry I wouldn’t let him explain, I just went back to the airport and flew back to Boston.” She sighed. “I wouldn’t take his calls and even when he showed up the next weekend, I wouldn’t listen. I was so hurt. But, I regret it now.”

  She rubbed her hands nervously. “Kent’s in Africa now, can you believe it?”

  “Africa?” her father asked.

  “He’s doing Doctor’s without Borders.”

  Her father drummed his fingers against the counter. A grin stretched his face. “I should call him.”

  Her eyes flashed open. “Why?”

  “Because nobody knows how hard it is to lose a wife except those who have lost them.”

  “Dad, I doubt the man wants to hear from an old girlfriend’s father.”

  Her father pointed at her. “Fiancée’s father. That’s different.”

  “Pfft.” Her father could be so stubborn. “Stop, Dad. Anyway, I’m sorry about missing dinner. Have you taken your pills?” She proceeded to load some dirty dishes into the dishwasher.

  “Ah, Jewel.”

  “Yeah, dad.” She put detergent into the dishwasher and turned to face him.

  He held out a brochure to her. “Listen, the ironic thing is—I’ve been thinking of going to Africa for a year and teaching English.”

  “What?” She was stunned to see the brochure. Sure, her father had always talked about doing something, going somewhere, but when her mother got sick, all of that had stopped. She pulled the brochure out of his hand. Worry filled her. “Dad, you can’t go until your blood pressure gets handled.”

  “I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot. I think it’s time for me to make a change.” He smiled and reached for her hand. “Come with me, Jewels. Let’s go for a year.”

  This was all too much. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came.

  “What do you say, Jewel?”

  She was so close to junior partnership at her new firm. “I can’t just throw away my career. I’ve been working so hard, and I have a million things going on. Plus, what about your pills and your doctor appointments and …” She floundered.

  “Hold up.” He squeezed her hand. “Just hold up. Don’t worry.”

  She was already worrying.

  “Let’s put all of this on hold and talk about something nice—like your birthday present.”

  His words calmed her. “Put it on hold.” Yes, on hold was good.

  Her father moved to a cupboard and opened it, pulling out a small box.

  “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

  He put the box in her hand. “I wanted to.”

  The box had a bow on it. She gave the bow an easy pull and took the box apart in one movement. For a second, she
couldn’t speak. Her mother’s silver butterfly necklace, the one she’d worn in the picture Jewel kept on her bedside table, lay polished and shiny before her.

  “She always said you loved it so much that when you were little, she thought you would break it off her neck from grabbing at it.” His voice caught. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want it, but it reminds me of her and of you.”

  Reverently, she pulled the locket from the box. The weight of the gift made tears come to her eyes.

  “None of that.” He patted her on the shoulder, took the locket out of her hands, and fastened it around her neck. “She was so proud of you. She always told me you would change the world.”

  Jewel’s fingers brushed over the butterfly, and she wondered if she would ever be able to make her mother proud. Her mother’s vision of law had consisted of what every freshman law student soon discovered wouldn’t get them anywhere: idealism. “Thank you.”

  He hugged her. “You know when you came back home she was the happiest I’d seen her in a long time. I think it gave us another year with her.”

  She blinked back her tears; she knew it was hard for him to see her cry. “Thanks, Dad. I love it.”

  He cleared his throat and pulled back. He gave her a tiny salute and returned to the television. “Night, sweetie.”

  “Night, Dad.” She clutched the locket in her hand and wondered what her mother would think of him going to Africa.

  Chapter 4

  “Doctor, Doctor, you have a phone call.”

  Kent had just returned from a trip to a remote village. It’d been two long, dusty days.

  “Doctor Kent, this way!” Hoppy repeated. The fourteen-year-old boy had taken on the role of helper at the clinic.

  Rousing himself from his weariness, Kent jogged into the building and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “About time I heard my brother’s voice.”

  “Beau.” Kent grinned and felt a surge of warmth. “What are you doing, calling here?”

  Beau growled. “Well your cell phone doesn’t seem to be getting my calls.”