“The love of one good woman is worth more than all of those tarts combined. What your mama and I have had for the past thirty-five years? You can’t buy it. You can’t drink enough to fake it. It’s soul-deep. I love her so much I can’t breathe, Eli. Even when she makes me want to strangle her tiny little neck. She makes me feel so much. She gave me six amazing children. She makes me laugh.

“I want that for you. You are capable of so much in this life, Eli. I want you to love what you do. I know you’re going to make our company better than I ever did. But more than that, I want you to fall in love. Have babies. Love her so much you can’t breathe.”

“But, you know what?” Declan continues as I blink hard, coming out of that moment with my dad that I’d forgotten. “It doesn’t matter. Kate’s not hard to please, Eli. All she’s ever wanted was someone to be kind to her. To love her. To be someone she can trust to protect her. Someone to fight for her.”

“And you just let her go,” Savannah agrees.

I just let her go.

“Look, man, if you don’t love her, fine. It’s not a requirement to love Kate, although how anyone could not love her, I don’t know. But calling her at 2:00 with safe travels, after everything you’d done and been through was a dick move.”

Such a fucking dick move.

“I love you so much,” Savannah says with tears in her eyes. “I saw how different you were with her. You smiled so easily. You were tender with her. It was the Eli that hasn’t been around in a long time. And now that she’s gone, so is he. And I miss him.”

“I’ll let her know that we misunderstood about Cindy,” Declan says, as he and Van stand to leave.

“No.” I shake my head as they both spin around to stare at me.

“What? Why?” Savannah says.

“I’ll tell her.” I swallow hard and stand, push my hands in my pockets, fingering the half-dollar.

“If you’re planning to call her, she won’t answer,” Savannah warns me.

“I’m going to see her.”

“She won’t want to see you,” Declan says with a smile. “I kind of wish I was gonna be there to witness this.”

“You also have a dick side,” I comment calmly. “Must run in the family.”

“Rhys is there,” Dec says. “He might try to beat the shit out of you.”

“He lives with her?”

“Yeah, they share a place, since neither of them are there often. But, come to think of it, he has a bum shoulder. You can take him.”

“Duly noted.”

“Good luck.” Van grins, and comes around the desk to kiss my cheek. “You do deserve her. No one else does.”

I hug her tight and pray she’s right. Because living without her is pure agony.

I need her.

***

Kate and Rhys’s house is in a newer development in Denver. The homes are modest, but nice, with trim yards and enough space between houses to be comfortable.

I pay the cabbie and walk to the door, not sure what in the hell I’m going to say.

Sorry just sounds…lame.

I ring the bell and am not surprised when a tall, broad blond man answers the door.

“Yes?”

“Is Kate available, please?”

“Who wants her?”

“Eli Boudreaux.”

His nostrils flair, eyes narrow, and just when I think he’s going to slam the door in my face, he steps back, and gestures for me to come in.

“I’m Rhys,” he says and holds his hand out for mine, which I shake firmly.

“I figured,” I reply, as he leads me into a living area littered with chocolate wrappers, popcorn, and used wine glasses. “Did you have a party?”

“Something like that,” he replies. “Kate has stepped out for a few minutes, which is convenient, because I’d like to have a word with you privately.”

“Okay.” I look him in the eye, ready for him to rip me a new asshole, but instead, he blows out a gusty breath and sits in the chair opposite me.

“If you’re here to fuck with her head some more, you can just get the hell out of here now. I won’t have her hurt anymore. Not by anyone. Ever again.”

“I’m not here to fuck with her head.”

He licks his lips and leans back in the chair, crossing his ankle over his knee.

“Look, Rhys, I understand that you’re protecting her, which I respect. I have three sisters, and if anyone even looks at them sideways, I want to rip into them. I don’t want to hurt Kate. I’m nothing like her ex-husband.”

“There are few people out there like her ex-husband. He’s a murdering sonofabitch motherfucker,” Rhys says matter-of-factly.

I nod, in complete agreement, when one word brings me up short.

“Murdering?” I ask, much more calmly than I feel.

“I know a lot of people don’t consider the loss of unborn life to be murder, but in this case, it was brutal murder, man.”

I frown, lost, and then the conversation from the graveyard comes to mind.

“Did he ever put you in the hospital?”

“Once.”

“Are you saying he—”

“She didn’t tell you,” he mutters and curses, pushing his hand through his hair. “Yes, he did.”

“I know that he hurt her.”

Rhys lets out a humorless laugh.

“Yes, he hurt her. He used her for a punching bag. For sport.” He clears his throat and has to stand to pace the living room. “Look, this is her story to tell, but I’m going to tell it anyway, because you need to know what she had to overcome just to let you close enough to touch her, man.

“That fucker smacked her around regularly. Not usually in the face to leave bruises, or when I was in town, because he’s a spineless asshole. But then she got pregnant.”

I swallow hard, hating the words about to come out of his mouth, and feeling so fucking helpless it’s almost crippling. I also stand and pace, unable to sit.

“She thought the baby would make him change.” Rhys shakes his head. “Men like that don’t change.”

“No. They don’t.”

“So, she pissed him off one day. I don’t know how. Sometimes all it had to do was rain for him to hit her. He knew she wanted that baby.” Rhys stares at me, blinking hard. “All I know for sure is that he kicked her in the stomach, repeatedly, then threw her down the stairs. He made her miscarry, at fifteen weeks. It wasn’t an easy miscarriage. She was in the hospital for a week.”