But even if everything played out in her favor, and even if Ash was ready to abandon that hookup-island life, and even if he was telling the truth when he said nothing about his wealth— Was she ready for him?
Was she ready for something serious?
That was the real question she couldn't answer. But it seemed to be the only question that mattered.
Chapter 12
Kallie
Kallie sat at her desk, going over her appointment list for the week. She had kept things light because she figured she would be settling into the home she and James were preparing. Still in that honeymoon stage of bliss. Still the light of each other’s eyes. She sent off a few emails to some clients she knew wanted her services that week, letting them know she was free. Open to help them in any way she could. She tried not to think about the past couple of weeks. About the fact that she had given up one relationship and was halfway out of another one.
She figured the time would fly if she was getting her heart broken, so she might as well work while she had the time.
A videoconference call devolved into her client asking her questions about her wedding. Wondering how it went. Asking her about her honeymoon. And it was the first time she truly thought back on what happened. Recounting it to her client forced her to see it from an outside point of view. It gave her the ability to remove all of the emotions she was experiencing in that moment and see it for what it was. A brief moment in time where her judgment had lapsed. Her client balked when she talked about James trying to apologize for what he had done. How he had betrayed her on their sacred day. Kallie closed her eyes and told her client briefly that she had taken the honeymoon anyway. To have some time to herself. And her client cheered her on, telling her it was what she deserved after what her ex-fiancé put her through.
If only she knew what had really taken place on that island.
That was true karma.
Kallie stayed up most of the night batting things back and forth. She kept volleying between wanting Ash and not wanting him. About wanting to call James and not wanting to call him. The history she had with a man she loved crept into the forefront of her mind during the early hours of the morning. And then, they were washed away with the tidal wave that was Ash. In some ways, she thought Ash and the island were her own dose of karma. She hated the way she had been judged by James and his family, and then she judged James for his singular action on their wedding day. Dumped him without allowing him to give an explanation. Left him without giving them the chance to recover.
And yet, she knew that any other woman would have made the same choice she had that day. She knew any other woman—her mother included—would have left him standing there in the middle of the narthex of the cathedral they were supposed to be married in with his tail between his legs. But years of history was hard to erase. Years of whispering “I love you” in the middle of the night and years of making love until the sun came up. Years of traveling and years of arguments and years of crying tears together. Years of coming back from the brink of darkness Kallie never thought they would come out of.
What did she and Ash have? Some island with a storm and an ex that wielded her money like the raging confidence of that storm.
Kallie felt like she had been sitting at her desk all day. But when she looked down at the clock on her computer, she realized she had only been at work for an hour. And a shadow that loomed over her ripped her from her trance. She looked up and saw a delivery man with a bright smile on his face at her door. He handed her a package. She furrowed her brow and peeked at it, reading her name written in a beautiful cursive on top of the package.
She recognized that handwriting.
And her stomach instantly dropped.
Kallie carefully unwrapped her package and found a black velvet box inside. There was a card on top of it. With the name “Kal-Bear” written in that beautiful cursive writing. James had sent her something. Some sort of present. And she held her breath as she set the present on her desk and picked up the card.
My dearest Kallie,
You mean more to me than anything in the entire world, and I want our love to endure. I want us to be able to handle the pressure of this world and the heat we will attract from others for loving the way we do. Because when heat is combined with pressure, and you give it enough time, the most beautiful thing appears.