Finding Home Again. Brenda Jackson

      THAT SAME NIGHT she’d also told Vashti the reason she and Kaegan had broken up. Instead of the sympathy Bryce had expected, Vashti claimed she could see both sides and felt they were letting their stubbornness get in the way of them sitting down and talking through their issues.

      As far as Bryce was concerned, there was nothing to talk about. His lack of trust in her was unforgivable. Had he believed in her and known she could never betray him, none of this would have happened. A part of her wished the hurt he’d caused could somehow eradicate her attraction to him. It didn’t. Whenever she saw him she had to put up with seeing a man who turned feminine heads wherever he went. Including hers.

      Kaegan was part of the Pointe-au-Chien Native American tribe. He was ultrahandsome and the mass of silky black hair that flowed around his shoulders made him look wild, untamed and absolutely gorgeous. She recalled the times she would part his hair down the middle and braid it for him, making him look even more alluring.

      Usually he wore it in a ponytail, but not tonight. Bryce recalled telling him just what seeing all that hair flowing around his face did to her. How hot it made her feel. How so turned-on she would get. That had been years ago, but she, of all people, knew Kaegan never forgot a thing. That made her wonder if he’d worn it down purposely to make her remember.

      Over the years his features had matured. He no longer had the look of the cute boy she’d fallen in love with so many years ago. His eyes appeared to have darkened somewhat but were perfect for his brown skin tone. His high cheekbones had always been his most captivating asset. They still were. Even with that dimple in his chin that couldn’t be ignored. The dimple became even more defined whenever he smiled, which was rare when he saw her. She had a tendency to elicit his frowns.

      She would be the first to admit that a younger Kaegan Chambray had been a heartthrob, but the older version of that heartthrob was now just too breathtaking for words. Whether she liked him or not, she had to give him that. Deciding she’d both scowled at him and lusted after him long enough, she glanced around.

      Two years ago, Kaegan had torn down the house he and his parents had lived in to build this one. She knew the painful memories within the walls of his childhood home. His father had been an alcoholic. Most of the time, he managed to stay sober during the week to run his business. But on the weekends he would drink himself into a stupor.

      It was during those times Kaegan would use the small boat he kept hidden away in the underbrush of the bayou and escape through the swamps to a place he considered his hideaway, a deserted, uninhabitable island called Eagle Bend Inlet. Bryce had feared for his safety, worrying that one of those huge alligators was going to eat him alive.

      She continued to study his home. She’d never been given a grand tour, like a number of others, but she liked the parts she’d seen. It was right on the bayou, on land that had been in the Chambray family for generations. She could imagine waking up here every morning to such a gorgeous view. According to Vashti, due to the risk of hurricanes, Kaegan had built a home that could withstand up to four-hundred-mile-an-hour winds. And the tilt of the foundation, which wasn’t even noticeable, was a deterrence to flooding.

      She thought the place was huge for just one man but he’d always said that one day he would grow up and build a mansion...for them. Well, he had certainly built a monstrosity of a house, but it hadn’t been with her in mind. When he’d returned to town it had been quite obvious he hadn’t wanted her in his life any more than she wanted him in hers.

      “Here you are.”

      She turned to greet Vashti. “Yes, here I am on a Friday night. I could be somewhere else, you know, and would be if I thought for one minute that I wouldn’t hear about it from you tomorrow. One day you’re going to realize that no matter what you think, Vash, all Kaegan and I feel for each other now is contempt. Total dislike.”

      Vashti rolled her eyes. “If you say so. By the way, did you see Ashley? She looks great pregnant. Ray wasn’t messing around. Who comes back from their honeymoon pregnant?”

      Bryce took a sip of her wine knowing Vashti had deliberately changed the subject, but she was fine with her doing so. “A person who comes from their honeymoon pregnant is someone who’d intended to get pregnant. According to Ashley, they spent the entire time trying and it was all about a promise Ray had made her. They’ve been through a lot, and I’m happy for them.”

      A friend of theirs, Ray Sullivan, had married Ashley Ryan six months ago. Last month the couple shared the news they were having twins. A boy and a girl. They’d even selected the names. The boy would be named Devon and the girl Ryan.

      A smile touched Vashti’s lips. “I’m happy for them, as well. I love happy endings.”

      Bryce rolled her eyes. “You also love torturing your two best friends. Why do you put me and Kaegan through this every time he gives a party? I don’t have to be here and we both know that he doesn’t want me here. The only reason he invites me and the only reason I come is because neither of us want to hear you bitch about it.”

      “Hey, it’s not my fault that my two best friends fell in love behind my back.”

      Bryce rolled her eyes again. “That’s what you get for leaving us alone for those six months.”

      “Like I had a choice.”

      Bryce knew at the time her best friend hadn’t had a choice. Vashti had gotten pregnant at sixteen. Her parents had sent her away. While she was gone Bryce and Kaegan had grown closer, and all the love Bryce had secretly felt for Kaegan suddenly blossomed.

      She tried to recall a time when Kaegan hadn’t been a part of Bryce’s and Vashti’s lives and couldn’t. Neither could she recall a time she hadn’t loved him. K-Gee was what everyone called him. The descendants of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe mostly made their home on the west side of the bayou. Kaegan’s family’s ties to the cove and the bayou went back generations, even before the first American settlers. A few of the simpleminded townsfolk of Catalina Cove had never recognized the tribe, except when it was time to pay city taxes.

      Although Kaegan was two years older than her and Vashti, the three of them had hung together while growing up since Kaegan hadn’t officially started school until he was almost nine. Dempsey Chambray felt his only son was more useful working in the family seafood business and for years had claimed Kaegan was being homeschooled. When the Catalina Cove school board discovered otherwise, they presented the Chambrays with a court order that stated Kaegan was to be put in public school immediately.

      Kaegan