TysonI walked into the restaurant, my eyes scanning the seated diners as I looked for the face of my old friend. I was assuming I would be able to recognize him, but maybe not. Mae hadn’t recognized me right away. I would have known it was her from a hundred feet away.“Are you looking for someone?” a young woman asked.I smiled. “Kendell.”She checked her tablet and then looked at me again. “Right this way.”I followed her to a table on the far side of the room. Patrick looked up from his phone and smiled as he got to his feet. “Tyson,” he said and shook my hand before pulling me in for a bearhug.“Damn, you haven’t aged a bit,” I told him.He chuckled. “You’re full of shit.”“Can I get you something to drink?” the hostess asked.“A Coke please.”She smiled and drifted away. I noticed Patrick watching her and shook my head. Some things never did change. He caught me looking and grinned. “She’s cute,” he reasoned.I shrugged. “I suppose.”“So, how have you been? I have to say I was s

MaeI was freaking out. I was a nervous wreck. I considered keeping Hayden home from school out of fear the police would pick her up when she least expected it. I chose not to tell her about our mother’s phone call. There was no reason to stress her out. Patrick sounded convincing and I was trusting him to do whatever it was he did to make it better.It wasn’t until two hours ago he told me he was meeting Tyson for lunch. That only added to my anxiety. I wasn’t sure how much Tyson was going to tell my big, way overprotective brother. I was a little pissed Tyson didn’t mention the lunch date but that was a matter to deal with later. For now, I was pacing a hole in my throw rug.I thought about texting Patrick to see how it was going. Then I thought about texting Tyson. I reminded myself we weren’t in the dark ages. My brother didn’t get to sell me for a goat. I was a woman perfectly capable of deciding who I wanted to date whether they were his friend or not.Just when I thought I woul

TysonI checked the time. I was running a few minutes late for my meeting. Alec was already gone. Things had happened fast and he flew out yesterday for an emergency meeting with his new employer. I felt like I had been tossed in the deep end of the pool and was struggling to get myself to a position where I could just tread water.The morning had been filled with phone calls and a meeting with my lawyer and accountant. It was all on me now. I was trying to juggle the financial side of the business as well as secure first dibs on a couple of digs that looked very promising. I was struggling to be everywhere at once and failing miserably.“Janet?” I said the name of the woman I was supposed to be meeting at the museum.A woman with short black hair cut in a sleek bob and wearing far too much makeup smiled at me from her spot on the couch in the seating area. She was wearing a chic business suit with a skirt that was tight and short. I had a feeling she was the kind of woman who used he

MaeI only felt a little guilty about my performance yesterday. I wasn’t one to make a spectacle of myself but the man had provoked me. He made me crazy. He pissed me off and hurt me at the same time. I was a wounded animal lashing out.It had taken me two days just to get my head around what happened, and when I finally let it all sink in, my hurt turned into red-hot anger. I knew what I was doing when I unleashed my wrath on him in public. I knew it would cut him like he had cut me. The man was a closed book and led a life of mystery. No one knew him. Few people even knew he was the owner. I wanted to shine a bright light on who he was. I wanted the world to see the quiet, reserved man was really a snake in the grass.In hindsight, my behavior might have been a teensy-weensy bit over the top. I wasn’t going to regret it. I had plenty of other regrets to worry about. A moment of anger in a public setting was really the least of my regrets. My regrets extended far deeper.Like falling

TysonI walked into the diner that had been a fixture in my life back in the days when the most I had to worry about was whether or not I passed my calculus test. It had been a long time since I had been in the place. To be honest, I purposely avoided the diner where I used to spend a lot of my time with Patrick. And Mae. I purposely faded away from their lives and that meant cutting off all ties to my past life with them.Until now. It was stupid and I knew I was probably asking for another public display of anger, but I wanted to see her. Even if it meant her claws were out and she wanted to rip me to shreds. I preferred her anger over her isolation. I tried to call. I tried to text. She made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with me.I sat down in a booth and ordered coffee and a slice of apple pie a la mode. It was an old man’s treat but it was my comfort food. I needed comfort. There was a newspaper folded and stuck behind the napkin dispenser on the table. Feeling very old