Page 86 of Tragic (Lark Cove 3)

“I know,” I told her. “But I want to.”

It was time to make up for the years we’d lost. It was time to finish the things here I’d left undone.

Because when I went back to Lark Cove, I’d be staying for good.

I was done running.

Standing in front of the window in my guest bedroom, I stared out at Kaine’s cabin. It sat there, empty, just like it had for the past nineteen days.

It had been almost three weeks since I’d told Kaine I was pregnant and he’d thrown such awful accusations in my face.

Just like I’d promised him, I left the shop after dropping the baby bomb and gave him a night to come to grips with our situation. I came home, got sick—again—and tried my best to get some rest. Though with how angry I was at Kaine, sleep was fitful. So I got up early the next morning, did some work, and puttered around the house until I decided his time was up.

By all rights, he should have come to me. But one thing I’d learned in our months together, that man was damn stubborn. He could brood like no one I’d ever met. And since I knew he wo

uldn’t come to me, I pushed aside my own stubborn tendencies and meandered along the path to his place.

I found the cabin empty. There were no dishes in the sink. His bed was made. And something about the air, so undisturbed and too quiet, told me he hadn’t been there in hours.

His silver truck was gone from its normal place in his driveway, and I doubted I’d find him in the shop, but I went to check anyway.

All of the lights were on and the large bay door was open—to the building he locked up religiously. The cold night air had crept inside and taken away the shop’s normal warmth. I closed it all up so the animals couldn’t get inside, then went back to my house.

I kept a careful eye on his place all day. Waiting. Stewing. Then I began to worry.

Was he okay? Was he hurt? I didn’t know his family or friends, so I couldn’t call to check with them. And it wasn’t like I could call the man himself because I didn’t have his phone number.

So I waited. For days, I came to this window and checked to see if he was home. I spent hours standing here, watching his house. And after days without any sign of Kaine Reynolds, I got mad.

Really, really mad.

Because my sexy, caring, shy, dumbass of a neighbor had just disappeared.

He’d clearly severed ties with his former life before coming to this mountain. What was stopping him from doing it again? It certainly wasn’t me or the baby I was carrying.

The bastard was so chicken-shit scared he’d run away.

For nineteen, almost twenty days, I’d nursed my anger. I’d coddled it and let it grow. Because if Kaine ever set foot on my mountainside again, I wanted to be prepared. I had a few things to say about his behavior, and if he came back, he was going to hear it.

Sipping my decaf tea, I kept my glare on his house. It was a dick move for him to leave without telling me, and one day, I desperately wanted to say that to his face.

Along with something else I’d learned in the last nineteen days.

Tires crunched gravel, and I abandoned my post by the window. I’d left the front door unlocked this morning because Thea was coming over. In Lark Cove, I didn’t have to fear leaving a door unlocked for a few hours here and there, unlike in the city.

“Hello!” Thea opened the door.

“Come on in!” I shouted down the hallway as I hurried to greet her.

We hugged as she came inside, though she was missing her normal entourage. “Where are the kids?”

“I left them home with Logan.” She smiled. “He wanted some extra time with them since he’s got to fly back to New York next week.”

“Ah.” The foundation was having a quarterly board meeting, and as the chairman, Logan was going back for the week.

Since I’d started as Logan’s assistant, I’d never missed a board meeting. Even though flying was supposed to be safe, I wasn’t taking any chances with this pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, when the risk of miscarriage was high.

“It feels weird not to be going back with him.”