BREATHE. JUST BREATHE, Kiki told herself. But she was an absolute mess. As she sat waiting at a waterfront café done up in shades of pastel, she actually wondered if she might start hyperventilating. Her heart was beating so hard she was certain the waiter had seen it thumping through her T-shirt when she placed her order. Her voice had trembled slightly, and right now she could feel sweat gathering under her arms.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this nervous. All the times she’d envisioned this meeting, she’d never even considered this aspect of it, and it narrowed her approach options down to one. There was no way she was going to be able to sit here and play it cool with this woman. Her only choice would have to be direct honesty.
Trying to wash away the cotton feeling in her mouth with a sip of water, she glanced at her watch. Four minutes before three o’clock. She’d arrived a few minutes early, and now she wished she hadn’t. It gave her too much time to think, and right now she was thinking that this whole scene was a very bad idea. If Victoria O’Hare turned out to be her mother, things would never be the same for Kiki. Her father had always told her that; why hadn’t she listened? Despite the hole her mother had left in it, she’d always had a good life. Right now she was the happiest she’d ever been, and it wasn’t just because that empty ache had been filled by Dev’s presence. It was because Kiki had learned to see the value in what her mother’s absence had given her, and because she’d started to acknowledge her own unshakable strength. Dev had helped her recognize that, but he hadn’t given it to her.
Kiki was squeezing her lime wedge into her water when the realization hit her like a tidal wave: Dev would never desert her. She knew it in her soul, just as sure as she’d known her father would never follow in her mother’s footsteps. It was what Dev was always telling her, and all she had to do was believe him. She could trust him with everything she had. Victoria’s call had come at the best and worst moment, putting the big admission she’d been ready to lay on him in perspective. It wasn’t the end of the world. Her body’s flaw might have made her think of herself as a failure, but that didn’t mean Dev would. He would tell her they’d find a way to make it work, and they would—it was as simple as that. And she didn’t need a mother who hadn’t wanted to be a part of her life for twenty-four years to complete her. All she needed was who she already had—Dev.
She had to get out of there. Kiki stood up, scraping her chair back loudly, and snatched her handbag up. She dug a ten-dollar note out of her wallet with shaking hands and dropped it on the table. She was hurrying toward the door when a middle-aged man walked toward her with a tentative smile. “Excuse me, are you Katherine Jones?” he asked in a thick Aussie accent.
Kiki stopped in her tracks. “Yes.”
He extended his hand. “Brad Silver from Webber Real Estate. Victoria sends her regrets, but she had to deal with an auction that fell through at the last minute. I’d be happy to answer any of your questions.”
Kiki gave him a lopsided smile. Abandoned again, she thought. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time, but that won’t be necessary.” She dug a business card out of her handbag and held it out to him. “Please pass this along to her.”
And then she left the café, walking through a door that held her past behind her and her boundless, uncertain, beautiful future right over the threshold.