this ankle, you might have to carry me, so you need to keep up your strength. Here.” She brandished it toward him again, but he didn’t take it. She needed it more than he did, and if she got hungry enough, maybe he could talk her into eating it.
“If you’re not going to eat, neither am I.” Her lips pressed together in a firm line.
Damn her stubborn streak. He took the package from her with a disgruntled huff but held off tearing into it until she had hers open and had poured a few pieces into her hand.
His bar, too, had been crushed and was more of a granola pack. Luckily, the wrappers had held up even if the contents were battered. “I’m glad you brought these.” He tossed a few bits into his mouth. “I had a big bag of peanut M&M’s to share with you when we got back to the house. Too bad I didn’t put them in my pack.”
“Oooo, not sure I would’ve shared them, anyway.” She rolled her eyes dreamily. “Those are my favorite.”
“I know.” He smiled and gave her a playful wink.
She rolled her eyes again, this time in vexation. “You thought you could seduce me with chocolate?” She turned the bag up and released the last few morsels of oat-and-honey clusters into her mouth.
“Actually, I remembered how you always wanted candy…um, afterward.”
A flash of anger shot from her eyes. “Of all the nerve!” She wadded up the cellophane wrapper and launched it at his head. “You are the most single-minded, self-assured, hopeless egomaniac I’ve ever…ever been stuck in a cave with.” She shook her head. “You honestly thought I was going to sleep with you?”
“Not sure there was going to be much sleeping involved, but I thought we might have sex.”
“Augh!” She crossed her arm tightly across her chest, her back pressed against the wall.
“Oh, c’mon, Kyn. Don’t tell me it didn’t cross your mind. I felt that kiss out there.” He wiggled his finger between them. “We’ve got chemistry. We’ve always had chemistry.”
“Yeah, well, chemistry doesn’t heal broken hearts.” Heat emanated from her words as her voice became louder. “And you didn’t just break mine. You ripped it out of my chest and stomped on it.”
What had started as a little sparring was turning into a full-on argument, but that was okay. He was tired of tiptoeing around this issue—and damn tired of the guilt he’d carried for nine years.
“You don’t think it hurt me?” he rebutted. “It did! But it was the only way, Kyndal. Between you and Dad, I was suffocating! He was pushing and you were pulling…no, you weren’t just pulling, you were clinging…so…damn…tight. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had to get away.” He stopped, aware he’d said too much, but letting the truth out had released a ten-ton weight from his chest.
“I’ve always believed—or at least I’ve always told myself—you broke up with me because of your dad. I was always a nobody to him. Never good enough for his son.” The clipped staccato of her words pushed him over the brink.
“Hell, I wasn’t even good enough for his son.” His angry words hit the close surrounding walls and bounced back at him. “My whole life, all his dreams were pinned on Hank, and that was okay. He pushed me, wanted me to excel, but the major attention went to Hank. And then after Hank died…” His throat constricted at the words. Damn it…damn it…damn it! Not now. He ran his hand down his face. He was exhausted from the stress of the day, nerves stretched to the breaking point. His emotions were too raw for this. But something snapped, and words poured out. “His drive for me doubled. No, it tripled…quadrupled. He and Mom fell apart. I became all he had.”
He paused, but Kyndal didn’t say anything. He fought to gain control of his words. He had to make her understand. “Dad didn’t think you were a nobody, Kyn. You scared him because you were my…my everything.
“Losing you on top of losing Hank was unbearable for a while. But I threw myself into my studies. I took all the time and energy I would’ve spent on you and used it to keep my grades up. And it worked. I kept a high ranking all the way through, which kept Dad satisfied. Every time he talked to me, he’d tell me he was counting on me to come back and practice law with him…that Hank would’ve