Nicole Edwards - Travis

There had been a guardian angel present that day though. His name was Beau Bennett.

Gage was the one to drop her in the middle of hell, but Beau – a close friend of Travis’ brother from what he told her – had insisted on getting her out of there. He seemed just as angry on her behalf, and that had helped ease some of the pain for the interminably long drive back to her house in Killeen.

Beau was cute and surprisingly funny, and she got the impression he was trying to make her smile. Refusing to let anyone else see her fall apart, Kylie had pasted on a smile, laughed when appropriate and tried to enjoy herself because she had known even then that it was only a matter of time.

It was after he dropped her at the house, insisting on walking her to her door, that all of the memories from so long ago came flooding back in a rush. Wave upon wave of anger and pain had battered her, knocking her down and dragging her under until she wasn’t sure she could breathe anymore.

Still, nearly three weeks later, the lingering effects of the stunt Gage had pulled still irked her. Sort of like a month long hangover and no amount of aspirin was going to help it either.

But now, seeing him standing on the bottom step of her front porch, she was reminded of exactly who had brought the long buried misery to her doorstep all these years later. So if he was here to talk, she was pretty sure she couldn’t emotionally handle any more conversations with him.

“I’m sorry,” Gage said, his tone reflecting what sounded like remorse.

Sorry? His timing sucked.

“I bet,” Kylie retorted snidely. It was a little late to apologize in her opinion.

“Kylie, I really am sorry –”

Kylie was pretty sure he could stand there all day and say the words, and she still wouldn’t feel a thing for this man. The outer layer of ice that had formed around her heart and her soul was ten inches thick at this point. As far as she was concerned, he could go to –

Wait. Actually, she did have one question...

“Why’d you do it?”

The question had burned on the tip of her tongue ever since she climbed into Beau Bennett’s kickass truck and listened to Florida Georgia Line stomp out a cool country beat on the way home.

“Do what?”

Lord, please grant me patience. Please don’t let me lose it right here on this man.

“Seriously, Gage? You show up at my house, telling me you want to talk and you ask me that?” Kylie stared up at him, anger and frustration flowing like a raging river threatening to spill over its banks.

She wasn’t sure she’d felt this much resentment for one person in all of her life. Not even Travis after he walked out with the flimsiest of breakup excuses she’d ever had the pleasure of receiving. At least he hadn’t been dishonest about it. She might not have liked that he did walk away, but he had the decency to tell her, rather than blindsiding her the way Gage had.

Propping himself on the railing that outlined her porch, Gage sat at an angle, his hands resting on one leg as he stared out at the yard, or maybe something beyond that only he could see, Kylie wasn’t sure.

She wasn’t going to prompt him to talk. If he had something to say, she was sure he would say it. Glancing down at her toes she figured he had about three minutes tops and then she was going back in the house and calling it a night. She didn’t care if it was – Kylie thumbed her phone to remove the screen saver – three o’clock in the afternoon.

“I like you,” he said, his voice almost too low to hear.

Wow . Was he kidding?

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Kylie didn’t know what else to say to that. She wasn’t even sure how to interpret that statement.

They’d known each other for two months before he brought her peaceful little world crashing in on her, and honestly, she had thought they were getting along nicely. They’d gone to dinner a few times, shared some laughs, and even a few kisses that had turned her knees into Play-Doh. But none of that mattered much when the person you trusted throws a curveball at you… And aims straight for your face.

When the silence got to be too much, Kylie picked up her iced tea and her nail polish and stood to go inside. She didn’t have the restraint to sit out here and wait for him to talk. As far as she was concerned, Gage couldn’t say anything to right the wrong as it was. There was no reason to listen to him try.

“Well, I’ve got things to do, so you’re welcome to go try to sell sorry somewhere else,” Kylie said through clenched teeth as she moved to the door.

Just before she reached the knob on the screen door, Gage’s strong fingers wrapped around her arm and damn it all to hell, the heat in his touch was like an electric current plugged directly into her vein. On instinct, she jerked away from him and whirled around until they were face to face, spilling tea down the front of her shirt in the process, but she ignored it.

With as much of a glare as she could muster, Kylie met Gage’s knowing brown eyes.

“I shouldn’t have done it, Kylie. I know that now. I wish I had known it then.”

“You can honestly stand there and tell me that you had no idea that what you were doing was wrong on so many levels? I’m not even sure you are who you say you are. Hell, maybe your name isn’t really Gage Matthews.”

“It’s actually Jason.”

Kylie jerked, her attention focused directly on his face. “You lied to me about your name?”

“My full name is Jason Gage Matthews. I go by Gage.”

“Is your birthday June twenty fourth?” Kylie had no idea why she asked that, but she knew she’d eventually catch him in another lie.

“Yes. Born in nineteen eighty.”

Kylie stared up at him, letting the memories of their conversations flood her. Based on the stories he told, he was a police officer and had gone to the academy fresh out of high school. His parents died when he was a teenager.

“How did your parents die?” she questioned him and the instant the faint sadness clouded his eyes, she regretted the question.

“They died in a car crash,” he said, his voice low and full of pain. “I was fourteen years old. They were coming back from one of my dad’s business trips in Houston. He fell asleep behind the wheel.”

Kylie felt like a complete and total jerk. That’s the same story he’d told her the first time, and just like then, her heart broke for the little boy who lost his parents so tragically.

“My grandparents took me in, raised me until I graduated from high school. I went to the police academy as soon as they’d let me in. I’ve been undercover for the last few years, working on various task forces. Would you like me to give you a phone number so you can verify that?” Gage grabbed the back of his neck with both hands and turned away from her, pacing several feet away and then back.

Kylie forced herself to keep her composure. She had every right to question him. He’d obviously had ulterior motives when he showed up at her doorstep. She didn’t trust him. She had no reason to.

“You lied about who you were and why you were here, Gage.”

“Not true.”

When he took a step closer, she took one step back. Her butt hit the screen door, and she realized she had nowhere to go. This wasn’t going to go well, she could feel it. Even as angry as she was, the pained look in his eyes still managed to steal an ounce of her resistance. “No?” It was the only word she could come up with.

“No. I hired you to renovate my house.”

“Is that right? So you’re telling me that it was just a coincidence that we both happen to know Travis Walker?” The cold chill of the tea against her skin wasn’t doing a damn thing to lessen the sweltering heat of anger forming on her insides. Heat infused her face as the anger bubbled hotter, threatening to overflow and cause a scorching stain on the wood at her feet.