Page 130 of Homecoming

“I’ll fight for you. I promise.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry again if I was a dick…”

“It’s okay.”

“Nah, it really isn’t. I took it out on you—both times—and it wasn’t and isn’t your fault. You’re trying to help and sitting here with nothing but time on my hands, I’ve come to recognize that.”

Kara was impressed by Keith’s insight and felt her heart go out to him in a way it never had before. She’d tended to avoid him, sensing the potential peril that accompanied him and his rough attitude.

“Thanks for coming, you guys. We appreciate you putting your own lives on hold to help us.”

“Let us know if you need anything,” Kara said.

“Mom’s been bringing me stuff. I’m okay.”

Kara gave her brother a quick hug before the guard led him away.

“Are you okay?” Dan asked.

“As okay as I can be after seeing my brothers in jail.” She followed him through a door he knocked on to have opened for them. “What did he mean about both times?”

“Uhhh, well…”

“Must’ve been the time you got them out of jail on the morning of our wedding.”

Dan stopped short and turned to her. “You know about that?”

Kara patted him on the face. “Dan, honey, wives knoweverything. For someone so smart, I would’ve expected you to figure that out by now.”

“Seriously, though, how’d you find out?”

Kara headed for the main entrance, eager to get out of there. “I’ll never tell.”

Everything had beenweird at work since the night Myles had stopped by Renata’s house. She kept waiting for him to say something about their conversation that night, but he didn’t. In fact, he didn’t say much about anything over the next couple ofdays. Rather, he kept to himself in his office, with his head down, getting more work done in a day than he normally did in a week, or so it seemed to her.

There was no chitchat, no teasing banter about her paper cut or random coffees showing up on her desk along with the lemon Danish he knew she loved.

Damn it all to hell, she missed him.

And that infuriated her. What the hell was wrong with her? She’d told him exactly why she could never date her boss, and apparently, he’d respected her thoughts on the matter by backing off.

So why did she feel like absolute shit?

Renata grabbed her phone and took it outside for a break. Not that she’d done a damned thing to deserve a break, but she was taking one, nonetheless.

She called Kara, thankful to have her best friend close by for once. Until Kara came home, she hadn’t realized how much she’d truly missed having her around.

“Hey! How’s it going?”

“Awesome.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Tell me what you’re up to first.” She wanted to be respectful of why Kara was in town. The arrests of Keith and Kirby counted as real problems compared to her manufactured situation.

“Dan and I just came from seeing Keith and Kirby.”

“How’re they holding up?”

---