Moving his lips to the ear farthest from Kinlee, he whispered, “Do you have any idea how much you’ve embarrassed not only your parents but me as well? I won’t be as harsh as your parents, Kamryn. You have a day to change your mind. And if you know what’s good for you, you will,” he said, his tone conveying his warning.

Releasing me so quick that I stumbled back a step from the force of trying to get away from him, he turned and walked away. Slamming the door shut behind him, I locked the deadbolt and turned to throw my arms around Kinlee.

“How the hell did they find you?”

“Olivia,” I cried. “It has to be her. She’s the only one who knew besides you.”

“That stupid fuc—”

A hard sob was wrenched from my chest, and Kinlee tightened her grip on me. “Brody . . .”

“It’s okay,” she crooned softly.

“What do I do, Lee?”

“I thought you’d told him. Why didn’t you?”

Pulling back, I wiped away new tears and shook my head. “I didn’t want anyone to know, I wanted to forget about them. I told you that night because I hated that I’d been lying to you and keeping things from you. With Brody, he never asked other than the first or second time we saw each other. It was easy to forget about them.”

“Did you think he would judge you differently? I just don’t understand why you thought you had to hide this from him.”

I shrugged helplessly as I thought about it. “I don’t know. In a way, I guess I’m afraid everyone will judge me differently. I’ve always been treated a certain way because of who I am—well, was. I didn’t want that. I wanted normal; I wanted a new start. And as you can see”—I gestured toward the crews still outside—“this happens as the result of someone figuring out who I am.”

“Anyone can see you’re not like them—well . . .”

“Kinlee, he looked like I’d crushed him.”

“He’ll understand, he’s just upset right now. Go get him, Kam.”

My eyes drifted to the back of my store, and she waved me away.

“I’ll tell them, and they’ll understand too. Just go get my brother-in-law back. You brought him back to us, I can’t have him leaving us again now.”

“I’ll call you to let you know.”

Unlocking the door, I ran past the news crews and hopped into my car, praying like hell that I would find him. I drove quickly through the streets on the way back to my condo. The entire time my body stayed tense as I worried about Brody’s reaction and thought about the different possible outcomes of what had just happened. I called his cell a second time, but like the first time, it went straight to voice mail. Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to believe that Brody and I couldn’t work through this too . . . after everything we’d already been through . . . there was no way this would be the thing to break us.

After looking at my condo, Jace and Kinlee’s, and his parents’ house, and not finding him, I finally drove back to my bakery, exhausted and defeated.

Grace and Andy didn’t ask if I’d found him. I think they knew based simply on the fact that I was already back and probably looked like hell. After asking me to stop trying to hide my accent and whether I preferred Kamryn or KC, they handed me a few cupcakes, turned the music up loud, and pointed me toward our “Mondays suck” wall to let out my anger before we went back to baking like it was a normal day.

Every time the door chimed I ran out, hoping it would be Brody. And every few minutes I called his phone, hoping it would finally be turned on again. Every time my hope was crushed I felt like I was that much closer to losing him.

I gasped and almost dropped the cream puffs I was holding when the chime went off again. Putting the tray on a counter, I burst through the swinging doors, only to have anger quickly flood my veins.

“Leave. Now!”

Charles smirked and took long steps to the counter. “I decided a day was too much time for you to think and get more of your insane ideas in your head.”

“Do you not understand? I want you to leave. I don’t want to see you again. How is that so hard to get?”

His smirk was turning into more of a sneer. “Oh, no, doll. I got it. What you’re not understanding is that you’re making the wrong decision, and I’m trying to make all of this go away for you right now. Your parents and mine will forgive you, I’ll forgive you, and we’ll all move on the way we were supposed to. You leaving messed up more than you could imagine.”

“Like the fact that you couldn’t merge the stables? I don’t care about the stables, Charles! I’ve never cared! I don’t want to be seen as property to be sold off to a family. This is what I care about,” I said as I waved my arms at my bakery. “Falling in love with someone who wants to be with me. Just. Me. That’s what I want.”

“You think I didn’t love you, Kamryn? You think I don’t still love you? You think your disappearance didn’t kill me?”

“No! I don’t! I think you’ve always seen me as an opportunity—”

“Bullshit!” he yelled, slamming his fist down on the counter. “If this is what you want, Kamryn, I’ll give you it. I’ll build you a goddamn bakery. You want your hair to stay this way? When you’re my wife, your mom won’t be able to say shit. Do what you want, I don’t care. Just let me take you back to Lexington. You and I both know I will be able to take care of you better than anyone. Your parents’ status, babe . . . we’ll top that. We’ll fucking rule the racing world,” he whispered, his eyes brightening. “You and me.”

“Oh, my God! Do you not see? That’s all you want! You want me to help you ‘rule.’ I told you, you see me as an opportunity.”

“Right now I see you as a spoiled girl who pulled some ridiculous stunt because she wanted attention. Now I’m giving you the attention you wanted, baby, and you’re done playing this game.” Grabbing a box out of his pocket, he opened it and put it on the counter. “I’ve held on to this for far too long, Kamryn. You will put that ring on. You will be leaving this shop with me tonight. And we will be going back to Kentucky together.”

I glanced at the diamond that had to have cost as much as my bakery, and swallowed back bile as I looked up at Charles and saw the man walking into the bakery from over his shoulder.

“We’re going to finally get married, I’ll give you another bakery in Kentucky, and then we’re merging the stables.”

“Brody,” I whispered as my eyes filled with tears.

Charles turned and hissed a curse. “Oh, Christ. Do you mind?”

Brody didn’t move, and he didn’t respond for a long moment as tears steadily fell down my cheeks. His eyes just stayed glued on the box sitting on the counter, with the ring fully displayed.

“I said . . .” Charles began when Brody’s deep voice whispered, “You are engaged.”

I shook my head, even though he wasn’t looking at me as his mocking tone pierced my chest.

“We’ve gone through all this . . . all this shit, and I almost lost you because I was married. And you’ve been engaged the entire goddamn time?!” He looked up at me, and his face was twisted in anger, but his eyes couldn’t hide the deep ache he was trying so hard to mask.

“So now your boyfriend’s married?” Charles asked. “This just keeps getting better.”

“I’m not,” I choked out, ignoring Charles. “I left before he ever asked, I swear to you, Brody.”

He laughed hard once and threw an arm out between Charles and me. “How am I supposed to believe you? I knew you wanted to forget where you were from, but I thought—God, I don’t even know what I thought anymore. But I knew you would tell me when the time was right. I just had no fucking clue that you were Kamryn fucking Cunningham. That you were some privileged girl who wanted to see what normal people lived like. That you were this princess”—he sneered the word—“who I’d grown up constantly hearing about from Liv. Her parents’ goal in life was to be your family. Olivia’s dream was to be you! They are the way they are because of your family, Kamryn, don’t you get that? My wife was a nightmare because of you!”

A sob tore from my chest, and I had to grab the counter so I wouldn’t fall to the floor. The entire time my head was shaking back and forth. His words were killing me. I was nothing like Olivia, and I’d had no part in making her the way she was. Part of me knew Brody was just hurt, but it didn’t change the way each word he said felt like another punch to the chest.

“I was never enough for Olivia. I was never enough for her parents. But it didn’t matter, because I didn’t love her.” His anger quickly faded, and grief replaced his hardened features. “I can’t go from one Olivia to the next, Kamryn. I can’t handle not being enough for you. When you realize you’re done playing this game and you’re done with me and want to go back to your old life, I won’t be able to handle that.”

“I won’t!” I cried out. “I won’t! I know you’re hurt, and you have every right to be. I should have told you from the beginning, I know that. But I’m nothing like her, and you know it. This”—I gestured to my bakery—“us, our condo . . . all of it is me. I left because I was suffocating with those people, Brody!”

Brody shook his head and laughed sadly. “I can’t give you anything like he can.” He gestured to Charles. “That ring? That is who you are, and I can’t give that to you.”

“At least he understands,” Charles mumbled.

“I don’t. Want. The fucking. Ring!” I screamed. Grabbing the box, I snapped it closed and threw it at Charles’s chest. “I don’t need some massive diamond. Give me a band and I’ll be happy. Jesus Christ, Brody, just give me your last name and I’ll be happy,” I cried. “I don’t need or want any of what Charles or my parents have to offer.”