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“Then why wait until I was inside with Fen? And do me the honor of not lying.”

The question hangs between us, and she has no good answer.

“You’re right. I hid that part of it.” She walks toward me and climbs out of the pool, splashing water everywhere and dousing the hardscape in a deluge from her shorts. “I should have told you about his text right away, and I knew it. I’m sorry. But I swear, it’s not what you think, and I was coming to talk to you the second I hung up.”

I run a hand through my hair in an attempt to control my frustration. It doesn’t help. “What did he want? Really?”

“To warn us. Someone approached him and offered to help break us up by providing damaging information about you. Information that would hurt your reputation and mine because I’m a Fritz. He seems to know everything, Loomis. Everything as if he was on the street when I fell, and you helped me. As if he were following you. The guy says he has video. He must have something on me too because he asked Alden if he wanted to hurt me or not.” She steps closer to me, her emerald green eyes beseeching me. “Alden played along and then texted so he could warn me.”

“How noble of him,” I deadpan, though some of the edge has left my voice. “And how do you know his call isn’t playing you now? He looks like the hero, and I look like the ruiner of worlds and reputations.” Always. No matter what, I can’t shake the past. It’s forever stained on my portrait.

“It wasn’t like that. He asked if what you and I have is real, and I told him yes. He was being a friend,” she urges softly. “That’s all. He asked if I was happy with you, and I told him that I am. I told him that I love you.”

I look past her toward the Gulf of Mexico as I fight my self-preservation instinct that’s telling me to grab Fen and run. She hid calling him from me, and it’s turning my stomach over and filling it with lead. I have to remind myself that this is Keegan. I have to force myself to remember last night and this morning in the hotel with her and the weeks before that.

She reaches for my hand and practically sags with relief when I don’t pull away.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have told you immediately. I don’t even know why I didn’t. I thought he wanted to talk about the same old bullshit he had been, and I didn’t want a fight when there didn’t need to be one. It was dumb. I was stupid to do that. I should have told you from the start, and we should have calledhim together. I didn’t mean to betray your trust, and I won’t hide anything like that from you again. I promise.”

I squeeze her fingers, absorbing the sincerity in her voice, and turn back to her. “Yes, you should have told me from the start, and yes, we should have called him together.” Would I have wanted to do that or would I have told him to fuck off and end it there without finding all of this out? I don’t know. I believe her. I don’t think she wants him back. Still…

“I don’t do… I can’t handle secrets and dishonesty, Keegan. I fucking can’t.”

“I know.” She steps into me. “I’m sorry. It was wrong.” She wraps her arms around me, soaking my clothes, but I don’t care. “I’m sorry. I love you. I’d never want to hurt you.”

I blow out a breath and hug her back. Being with her is different, and it will require leaps of faith as it tests me. I have to learn to fight my old instincts and trust her if we’re going to do this. IfI’mgoing to do this.

“I love you too.” I kiss the top of her head, relaxing into her. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

Her chin meets my sternum, and she gazes up at me, staring straight into my eyes. “I always will. Always. And I’ll never go behind your back like that again.”

I hold her tighter against me, ironically feeling more secure with her after this than I did before. It tested me, and it tested us, and it shows that what we have is real.

“Do you know who it might be? Do you know who’d want to hurt you?”

I stiffen. “You mean other than a mad fan, Fen’s mum, my dad, or a myriad of others?”

“Point taken. Vander needs to know about this. Alden mentioned that he checked into the guy’s phone, and it was a burner. But the stuff he said to Alden lines up with the photos of us from that night outside the café. It wasn’t press, Loomis.This person has been following you and is likely who leaked everything. Alden said he’s contacting him tomorrow, and he’ll let us know after that happens.”

I run my fingers through her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “Love, I don’t mean to question your ex, but are you sure you can trust him? Are you sure this isn’t a setup?”

Because why wouldn’t it be? Why would he want to help me when I took his girl? He’s been relentlessly trying to win her back and now he’s the good-guy hero trying to help not only her but me? I don’t buy it.

“I trust him,” she tells me, and I hope she’s right, but I’ll still speak to Vander privately about it. That bloke trusts fewer people than I do. I should have known this sort of thing would happen. Everything was too good. Too quiet.

“Let’s go get you changed. I want to call Vander.”

Keegan nods and slips away, all business, and I watch her walk ahead of me on the shell-strewn path, her red hair catching fire in the late afternoon sun. And I wait a minute.

Her head turns over her shoulder, and she finds me. “You coming?” Her hand extends toward me, and that’s it. That was what I was waiting for.

I set off, and when I reach her, I slide my arm around her waist, savoring the curve of her hip beneath my palm. This thing between us wasn’t supposed to be real, but now I don’t know how to live without it.

When I heard her on the phone with Alden… when I thought she was betraying me with him… I knew I loved her, but this isn’t simply being in love. She is woven into the very fabric of me. Severing her would be like severing a piece of myself. It’s too late now. I love her more than I love myself, one of the things I swore I’d never do with anyone.

I’m going to miss it here. The island, the cottage. Even the bloody roosters.

“I need to change before we call Vander,” Keegan says as we climb the steps to the wide porch. “I’m soaked.”