Page 99 of Lucky Haven

When Bellamy tugs on my hand and asks me to lift her up to see all the cakes, I lose sight of Haven for just a second. But that’s all it takes for her to slip away from the party.

I’m not a dummy. I know she’s distancing herself from my family. From me.

I should have said more when I asked her to dance.

Unease twists in my belly.

“Mom, can you take Bellamy?”

Luna readily takes her granddaughter.

I tap Ridge on the shoulder. “I can’t find Haven. I’m going to check outside, but if you see her come back, don’t let her go anywhere.” Regret burns in my chest. “I owe her an apology.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Haven

As soon as her mother heads back to the New Harvest table, I get the girl’s attention. “Kaitlyn.”

I say her name with enough quiet urgency that she stops and comes over to me.

I hold up the piece of paper. “I think we might have something to talk about.”

The colour drains from her face.

“I’m not mad at you,” I promise her. “I think I understand why you did it. We’re similar, you and me.”

Her mouth tightens mulishly. “We aren’t the same kind of person.”

She might feel differently when she’s twenty-nine.

“Still, I think you should hear me out. Or I’ll have to talk to someone else about the notes you’ve been leaving. Your parents?”

She shakes her head. “Please don’t.”

“You really scared me, you know.”

Her expression turns sullen, and she looks away.

I soften my tone. “Did you want to scare me? Or did you have another goal?”

“I don’t have to answer your questions.” She steps back as a group spills out of the baking tent. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to be seen with you.”

“If you don’t talk to me, I’m going to either your parents or my uncle. Or the police.”

Maybe she didn’t expect that from me. But my steely tone works, because she reluctantly nods. But then her mother calls her name.

“I can’t right now,” she hisses.

I think about the community area where the New Harvest table is. “I’ll follow you and wait at the picnic tables under the trees by the parking lot. There aren’t any lights there. Find a way to come see me. I’ll wait thirty minutes, but if you don’t show up to hear me out, I’m going to Sheriff Lane.”

She doesn’t say for sure that she’ll meet me there, but her face falls, and as she runs toward the New Harvest table, I think I’ve finally gotten through to her that I’m not exactly what she expected.

My heart squeezes with regret and frustration as I see her race off.

And then I see Cash charge out of the baking tent.

I’m right here, I want to say.