Page 40 of Keeping Kaitlyn

“Went—the guy who brought you home last night,” he says it carefully, like maybe his memory is playing tricks on him again. Like maybe hedidn’twatch me introduce my dog to a tattooed giant in front of the elevator before he kissed me and asked me out on a date.

And just like that, I feel like my lungs are being shrink-wrapped and my heart is pinballing around my chest.

“He’s married?” I repeat it back to him, giving myself time to remember how to breathe. “I don’t understand. How do you know?—”

“He told me.” Setting his coffee down again, Ryan crosses his arms over his chest with a scowl. “We were all at his shop a couple weeks ago, hanging out for Con’s bachelor party and the guys started giving him a hard time about the framed drawings he has hanging on his walls. While he was tattooing me, he just blurted it out—she’s my wife.”

Why?

Why would Went do that?

Why would he tell Ryan that he has a wife when?—

“He just blurted it out—” Shaking my head, I try to make sense of what Ryan’s telling me “she’s my wife.In front of everyone?”

“No.” Ryan gives me another scowl. “I’m the only one who heard him.She’s my wife.When I asked him how long he’d beenmarried, he saidabout five years. When I asked where she was, he saidaround.”

Nodding my head, I recap his medication bottle and put it back in the cabinet while my heart ping pongs around my chest. “Oh…”

“I don’t know what’s going on with you two or if the two of you—” He blanches like someone just waved a dead, week-old fish under his nose. “I just thought you should know. That way you can decide for yourself if seeing him is something you still want to do.”

“Okay.” Still nodding, I put Ryan’s refilled pill caddy back before I shut and lock the cabinet. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Shit…” Unlocking one of his arms from around his chest, Ryan swipes his coffee cup off the counter with a sigh. “I’m so fucking bad at this. I should’ve just minded my own?—”

“No.” Looking up at him, I shake my head. “You’re just trying to look out for me and I appreciate it.” Meds poured, I give him a flat smile of my own. “If there isn’t anything else you need me for, I’m going to take Mook for his morning walk—I promised him a burrito from Benny’s.” Because we both know he doesn’t need me for much anymore, I turn around before he has a chance to answer me and go home.

TWENTY-TWO

WENTWORTH

2013

Jerard comes backa few hours later, carrying a zippered garment bag from one of the shops in the lobby, along with a message.

“There’s a gentleman at the front desk, demanding to see you. His name is Damien and he’s claiming to be your brother. Shall I have him escorted off the premises by security?”

While it was never a secret that Suzi Bravebird, Hawthorne Helena’s celebrated head chef, was once married to my father, or that the marriage produced children, it’s not something that’s advertised either.

That’s the way Suzi’s always wanted it so that’s the way it’s always been played—first by my grandfather and then by me. That my mother would never lower herself to visit this hotel and that once my father divorced Suzi, he never returned, makes it an easy fact to downplay.

“No.” Tossing the garment bag over the back of the couch, I scrub a rough hand over my face. “Send him up.”

If my instructions surprise him, Jerard doesn’t let on. “Very well, sir.” He gives me a bland smile before stepping back onto the elevator.

I wish I could say that I’m surprised that Damien is here, but I’m not. I told him that not only am I in love with his boss’s daughter, that I’m getting ready to marry her. Of course he jumped in his truck and broke the land speed record to get here before I could make good on my threat and fuck up not only Kait’s life but his life too.

Pulling out my phone, I shoot Dakota a quick text.

Me: Where are you?

Kota: Just finishing up at the spa.

Before I have a chance to answer her, she sends another text.

Kota: You could’ve told me who she is. It would’ve made this whole thing easier.

I stare at my phone for a second, trying to figure out which one of them told her, Kait or Damien before I realize it doesn’t matter because she’s right. I should’ve told her what was going on from the beginning.

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