Kennedy collapsed onto the couch. “You’re the best,” she said.
Ava delivered the food on a plate and included a glass of apple juice. She sat next to Kennedy, an expectant look on her face.
“Nothing new to report,” Kennedy said, lifting the sandwich. “Hopefully he’ll show signs of improvement tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
“He’s tough. He’ll be okay.”
Kennedy nodded, then took a few bites of her sandwich. She didn’t have much of an appetite, but Ava had been nice enough to make her something, and she hadn’t eaten anything all day, save for a granola bar at the airport.
“You didn’t tell me how you left things with Maverick,” Ava said after Kennedy put her plate on the coffee table.
“It…it just ended.”
“What do you mean just ended? Like he said he doesn’t want to talk to you again?”
“We didn’t say goodbye. I couldn’t find him before I left.”
“Can’t you text him?”
“I don’t have his number.” A little silver lining in all of this: she wouldn’t be tempted to get in touch with him.
“How hard can it be to find? Just call the inn.”
Tempting, but…
Ava narrowed her eyes. “Something happened. What was it?” She crossed her legs in her lap, settling in for a discussion.
Kennedy knew her sister, and if she didn’t give her some explanation, she’d bug her relentlessly. She also knew herself, and if she didn’t talk through the letter she’d found, she’d be up all night thinking about it.
“When I went to say goodbye to him this morning, he wasn’t home, so I let myself in to his house to leave him a note.”
“Okay.”
“I found some letters he’d written to Nicole on his kitchen counter, and in one of them he mentioned me.”
At Ava’s frown, she added, “I think he wrote the letters to stay close to her and to cope with his feelings. Which is admirable, and I’m ashamed I peeked at them. I shouldn’t have. But maybe they were left out for a reason. So I could feel his love for someone else and be reminded that Maverick isn’t the first man to—”
“Stop right there. Maverick is nothing like our soon-to-be brother-in-law the asshole.”
“I know,” she agreed. Deep down she knew that, but on the surface, it helped to think otherwise.
“You said one of the letters was about you. What did it say?”
Kennedy had memorized most of it, so she recited what she remembered. When finished, she let out a deep breath. “Was I a joke to him?”
“What are you talking about? For someone so smart, you are really dense sometimes.”
“Excuse me?”
“He called you intriguing and smart and his equal, Ned. He said you’re the reason he fell in love with Nicole.”
“So?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“So! He was in love with you.” She didn’t need to say, “Duh.” It came through like a bullhorn.
“Don’t be ridiculous. We hated each other.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate.”
“Now you sound like Andrew.”
“It’s true! He basically admitted he had feelings for you he never acted on, so when he met Nicole, he realized he’d been pigheaded and didn’t want to miss another chance at being with someone amazing.”
“But he hated that I was on the ranch. He wished I’d arrived after he’d left.”
“Because his feelings came back! Probably worse because you’re even more incredible now. You freaked him out and he didn’t know what to do, so yeah, he might have wanted you gone, but that was before you guys spent time together! From what you’ve said, he sounds like a man with integrity, and there’s no way he’d toy with your emotions if he didn’t genuinely like you.”
Kennedy let that sink in. She allowed her mind to go to how wonderful it had felt to be with him—on outdoor adventures, birthing puppies, in a bookstore, eating sushi at his kitchen counter, slow dancing, and wrapped in each other’s arms.
He’d shown her he cared. Whispered it, too.
“He said he planned to be scarce, and then you showed up and he was around all the time, right? That’s because he wanted to see you. He might not have been willing to admit it out loud, but his actions speak for themselves.”
Could Ava be right? Had Kennedy misinterpreted certain parts of the letter he’d written because she was scared? Because leaving on bad terms was much easier than leaving on good terms and wondering what if things were different?
“You need to get his number and call him.”
“I don’t know.”
“I do. I may be younger, but I know what I’m talking about.”
“It’s too late, and right now I need to stay focused on my career.”
“You can have a boyfriend and a career.”
“Whatever, Miss Expert. Let’s talk about you and your potential boyfriend instead.” Ava’s coffee date had been, to quote, “like the best scene out of a rom-com.”
And just like that, her sister switched topics. She spoke nonstop for a solid five minutes and Kennedy soaked it up, loving the enthusiasm in Ava’s voice and the happiness written all over her face.
The minutes reminded her of standing in the Owens’s kitchen with Mary Rose and Nova. She reached into her pocket and rubbed her fingers over the glass ladybug she’d kept on her since receiving it.
“Can I ask you something?” Kennedy said when Ava took a breath. “Did you ever talk to Mom about personal stuff like sex?”
“Eww. No,” Ava said, nose wrinkled in disgust. “Did you?”
Kennedy shook her head.
“She isn’t that kind of mom,” Ava said. No, she wasn’t. Not like Maverick’s mom, who talked openly with her daughter. She put people at ease and had such a warm and welcoming manner about her that Kennedy had easily shared parts of herself she didn’t normally divulge with someone she’d just met.
“You never asked me about it.”
“That’s because you were in med school and I didn’t want to bother you. I did think about asking, though.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We talk about everything now.”