Page 3 of After You

No oneneeded to know the details. He had come out of Hannah’s betrayal looking like a freaking liberated, real-life hero. Everyone thought they were still the best of friends. In fact, the whole town—minus his two best friends, Derek and Scott—thought that Kyle was amazing for loving Hannah enough to let her go after her professional dream.

Yeah, her fucking dream had been to come home to Sapphire Falls, marry him, practice next door to him, and grow old surrounded by the eight children, three dogs, four cats, and town full of people who loved them. Or so she’d said. For ten years. He didn’t know what the fuck she was doing in Seattle.

But no one here knew that. No one here knew that he could barely say her name without his chest tightening and gut churning.

He’d done it because he couldn’t stand to see her family and friends—who were also his family and friends—hurt. And because Kyle Ames always had control. He didn’t get surprised. He didn’t get shaken up. And certainly not by a woman he’d known all his life and had loved for ten years.

The town counted on him to be steady and sure. It wouldn’t have done anyone any good to know that their rock-solid town physician had had his entire plan turned inside out, his heart trampled, and that he’d started questioning everything he thought he’d always known. They needed to trust that he always knew what was going on and, more, that he was orchestrating everything.

And then there was Alice. He’d seen how heartbroken Alice had been by Hannah’s decision not to move home. He had refused to pile onto that by letting on he was also heartbroken. No one was as important as Hannah to Alice, but he was a close second. The grandson of Alice’s best friend since kindergarten, he was more of another grandson than anything, and he knew she loved him dearly. She’d been upset about Hannah not returning to live and work in Sapphire Falls as planned, but if she’d thought Hannah had hurt Kyle in the process, Alice would have been devastated.

He didn’t give a shit how Hannah felt. He wasn’t protecting her for her sake. But he’d be damned if he’d let her hurt Alice more than she alreadyhad.

“You know that everything Hannah did, or didn’t do, is not on you, right?” Derek asked.

“Yeah, well I'm the one who's here and has to make it work. It’s better for everyone to think that I’ve got it all covered.”

“You don’t have to always have it all covered, Doc,” Dereksaid.

For all of his laid-back, fourteen-year-old-boy-in-a-twenty-nine-year-old-body tendencies, Derek was a great man and a great friend. Kyle knew that Derek was actually concerned about him. “Actually,” Kyle said. “Ido.”

It was what he did. He had it all covered. And he liked it thatway.

Not that he was the only one in town who did things. He was looking at one of the men who kept the town going. Derek was everyone’s go-to guy for everything from maintenance and repairs to rallying the troops. But Kyle was the planner. The guy who saw a problem and knew how to solve it. Derek, Scott, and any number of other people in town were more than willing to jump in and make the plan happen, but Kyle was the problem solver. And he loved that. It was where he was comfortable and where he felt he contributedmost.

Derek shook his head. “Man, I think you love Alice more than your own grandmother.”

Kyle cracked a smile at that. “She's sweeter than my grandmother. My grandma cheats at pitch, can't bake a cookie to save her life—and doesn't care—and still threatens to swat me with a wooden spoon.”

“I love your grandma,” Derek said with agrin.

Alice, Kyle’s grandmother Ruby, and Derek’s grandmother Susan, had been friends since they’d been little girls. And they routinely got together and beat Kyle and Derek in card games. Pretty much any cardgame.

Kyle loved his grandmother too. Ruby was awesome. She was the sassy one. She was incredibly loyal and generous with her friends, and she was happy having just two friends she could completely trust and count on. She said what she thought and tended toward grumpy more than congenial. Alice was the one who was sweet, outgoing, and friends with everyone. And Susan was the shy, quiet observer. Which was hilarious once you got to know her grandson. Though Kyle had to admit that Derek had inherited some of his grandmother’s observant and insightful genes.

“Okay, so, you can go out the back,” Dereksaid.

Kyle glanced toward the window in the swingingdoor.

“Kyle,” Derek said warningly, moving between Kyle and the door. “Out the back. You can deal with all of this, with her, tomorrow.”

God, he really wanted to go out there. But why? Did he want to yell? That would make sense. He certainly had plenty of bottled-up bitterness and anger. But that didn’t feel like the main reason. He just wanted to…see her. In person. Up close. To make sure she really wasokay.

Dammit.

She’d stood him up. They were supposed to meet at the gazebo at midnight two years, eleven months, and one week ago. She’d known he was going to propose. That had been the plan. He would propose when she finished PT school and came back to start her practice in Sapphire Falls. They would be engaged and plan the wedding during his last year of residency. Then when he was done and came home to start his practice right beside hers, they’d get married.

Sure, it had been cheesy and unnecessary to make it all An Affair to Remember and to choose the gazebo as their Empire State Building. But it had also felt right in so many ways. He’d wanted it to be a grand gesture, meaningful and memorable. So he’d chosen the heart of the town they both loved and the gazebo where he’d first kissed her. The moment he’d known she was TheOne.

Burning the thing to the ground had crossed his mind only about a dozen times sincethen.

And that wasn’t totally off the table, now that she wasback.

“Fine. But,” Kyle added as he headed for the back door, “Hannah McIntire is going to hear the things I have tosay.”

“Fair enough.”

“And don’t fucking text me about where she is anymore.” The last thing he needed was someone keeping tabs on her for him and distracting him all damnedday.

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