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“Kenna?”
My smile froze.
He looked the same. The high-end suit. The perfectly coiffed hair. The Rolex peeking out from the white pressed sleeve. The same utter confidence that oozed from his pores. I’d once fallen all over myself for this man.
Now I felt nothing.
“Justin.”
His gaze darted around the room before coming back to mine. He shut the door behind him. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.”
I spread my hands. “It was a last-minute decision.”
“So, you’re leaving, then?”
“That’s typically what one does when one gets served with divorce papers. I just came back to get my personal things.”
Justin stepped closer, the spice of his cologne floating across the airspace between us. I was wrong. I did feel something. Pity. A faint sadness that things hadn’t worked out. Relief that he no longer held any power over my feelings.
He held my gaze, looking uncertain. Funny, I could no longer read his expression. Only five months apart and already so much had changed.
“I, uh, I’m glad you’re here.”
My eyebrows nearly flew into my hairline. “Glad?”
His smile no longer made my heart flutter. “I was a fool to cheat on you, Kenna.” My mouth gaped open. “I just missed who we used to be when we were in college.”
My jaw snapped shut. A flicker of anger reminded me of why he and I would never have worked out in the long run. Even if he hadn’t cheated on me. He wanted the same girl who’d fawned all over him.
“People grow, Justin. People change. At least they’re supposed to. You tried to keep me small.” I huffed out a humorless laugh. “I should thank you for what you did. You set me free and I’m finally living my life on my own terms.”
He lost the smile but I felt his gaze darting from my head to toe. “You look different. Pretty. Happy. Tan.”
That last one came out with such shock behind the word, we both laughed. “Who knew I could even tan?” I stepped closer and put my hand on his arm. “I wish you and Ashley well.”
He cringed. “We’re actually not together any longer.”
I rolled my lips in to keep from laughing. All that damage and for what? To already be alone? The pity I felt for him grew. “Then I just wish you well.”
I walked to the door, dragging both suitcases behind me. Only when I got the door open did Justin call my name.
I turned around to see him standing alone in the mess of my boxes. “I’m glad you’re happy. You deserve that.”
My smile held hard-won confidence. “Yeah, I do deserve that.”
And then I left my ex-husband, my condo, and my old self behind.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dec
Chaos.
That was what my days and nights turned into after the story broke in the newspaper the morning after the maiden voyage of the Boozer Cruiser. Then social media got ahold of it and suddenly my name was trending again after ten years of blessed silence. I had a moment of panic when reporters showed up just outside my driveway, shouting questions when I appeared at the front window of my house to see what was happening.
Thankfully, I’d had Pops stay with me so I could monitor him for a concussion after his accident. There was using him as a crutch and there was basic caring, a distinction I was glad he agreed with without a fight. At least with him here I knew he wasn’t similarly being hounded by the press. My house became a fortress, a barrier I kept in place and didn’t cross. Pops, however, didn’t feel the same way. I watched him sneak out of my house every night after I went to bed, crossing the property lines along the beachside to get to Mona. Considering there didn’t need to be two heartbroken Boggan men in this house, I didn’t try to stop him.
Harley had been in constant communication with me, but on day three, the sound of the loud horn on his truck had me sneaking back to the front window to spy him with his head out the window of his truck, yelling at the reporters.
