line asking me to call her as soon as possible about something important.
“How far along were you when you sent this?” I hold up the first letter.
“About fourteen weeks.” Her eyes gloss over with memories I’ll never have. “I sent that to you after I spoke with my parents to let them know.”
Anger bubbles up when another memory of our time together pops up in my brain. Kara Malone grew up pampered and wealthy, and resentment fills me. “Would using some of Mommy and Daddy’s money to hire a private investigator have been too much for your pride?” I lash back.
“Yes, since they disowned me for being pregnant. I didn’t have much starting out as they revoked my trust.” All the air stills between us. Kara immediately looks contrite. “I apologize, that’s not your burden to bear.”
A wave of nausea almost crushes me. “Christ, Kara. All this was happening while you carried our son?” My voice is faint.
She shrugs. “What is there to say, Jennings? I did the best I could. But I resigned myself to the fact I was going to raise Kevin by myself a long while ago. Certainly, I never expected Fate to bring my brother and Jed together. Yes, I raised our child alone, but I didn’t do it to be cruel.”
No. “You’re just a woman who survived.”
“After going through stages of grief, yes. Coming to acceptance was the hardest. And, I’ll be honest, I relived every one of those emotions every time Jed tried to convince me to let him contact you.”
“Why didn’t you?” This might be the hardest thing to accept.
“Because trust doesn’t come easily to me any longer.”
“I can appreciate that,” I murmur. “Would you be willing to tell me more?”
“About what?”
“Anything. Throw me a lifeline, Kara. What was your pregnancy like?”
“Well, once I was well enough to travel—”
I interrupt her. “There were problems?” I ask anxiously. It’s fifteen years too late, but there’s a crater in my chest that’s aching from where my heart’s been ripped out. I rub my hand across it. I never recognized what pain would be involved when it was torn away.
“Nothing more than the average mother deals with, Jennings. I had a god-awful time with morning sickness. But sick or not, I had to leave Alaska.” Her lips curve up slightly before they drop. “I was mortified for my fellow passengers.”
“It was a rough trip?”
“I got home.” She ducks the question. Her hand starts rubbing her wrist back and forth. It’s an endearingly nervous habit I suddenly remember Kara used to have because Jed would joke she’d rub the sapphires from her grandmother’s bracelet into her skin by doing it.
But she’s not wearing it now. “Where’s your grandmother’s bracelet?” I manage to get out around the lump in my throat.
Kara blinks at me in shock, before lowering her head to where she’s chafed her wrist rubbing her shirt back and forth. She pulls down her sleeve before she bites out, “My parents took it back.”
“What do you mean?” My voice is so low that if a hard wind were to come off the water, the question would be lost.
“The day I went to tell them I was pregnant,” she admits.
It might be sacrilegious, but I’m shouting, “Goddamnit!” Turning, I pace a few feet away from Jed’s fresh gravesite. Linking my hands behind my head, crushing the papers, I swear ripely.
After a few moments, I turn to find Kara looking down at Jed’s grave with such despair, it slashes into my chest. She brushes the tips of her fingers under her eyes, not even hiding her love for the men buried there. Even though I didn’t know her brother, and I feel like my head is spinning from the ways I didn’t know my friend, I need to say something to ease her pain.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I choke out hoarsely. Her head swivels my way. “From everything you’ve said and Jed said, your brother sounds like he was a remarkable man.”
“They were both such a part of our every day, I don’t know what that looks like anymore for either me or Kevin.” Kara hesitates before admitting, “Making friends was never easy for me growing up; that was Dean’s gift. He was the bolder of the two of us, more outgoing.” She shakes her head.
“I honestly don’t remember that about you.” Though admittedly, I think to myself, until the night I found the photo, I hadn’t thought about Kara in forever. Now, standing with her facing