Until Then (Cape Harbor #2) - Heidi McLaughlin Page 0,111

eyes and imagined Graham lying next to her. Surely this would help her fall asleep.

Except her thoughts drifted to Theo, which didn’t make sense to her. By all accounts, she should be heartbroken over Theo. She wasn’t. She was relieved and felt as if she had dodged a bullet, and she was angry. Brooklyn told her the anger would turn to loss and hatred, and at any given moment, Rennie could break down and cry because she missed Theo. Rennie refused to believe her. There was no way a strong, independent woman like herself would cry over the loss of someone who lied and cheated. But she had, and Graham had been there to hold her.

Questions lingered in the back of her mind as to why Theo would do something so deplorable to his wife and her. To tell someone you loved them, to buy them gifts, to take them on work trips, only to live a lie with them made no sense to her. What did Theo expect to happen? Was he going to break up with Rennie? His wife? Was he ever going to come clean to either of them or just lead a double life? What would he have done if Rennie had agreed to move to Spokane? To get those answers, she’d have to communicate with him, and she had no desire to do so, but in order to move on and close this chapter in her life, she would need closure.

And then there was Graham. Her Graham Cracker. The only boy turned man who ever treated her as his equal. To know Graham was to love him. But she never told him how she truly felt, and he had chosen another. That was on her and was something she planned to rectify in the coming months. Sure, in college, she didn’t want to be in a committed relationship but thought they would end up together. When he told her he started dating someone, she expected it to last a week—a month at best. That was how long girls stayed around, because they all thought Rennie was a threat to their relationship. When Monica didn’t leave, Rennie knew her chance with Graham had gone by the wayside, and it was her fault. In high school, college, and now, Graham Chamberlain was a catch.

And she had finally caught him.

As she lay in bed, she thought about what she would say to Theo when she inevitably saw him. His appearance in her office or at her front door wouldn’t be a matter of if, but when. He had gone to the inn and made a spectacle of himself, demanding to see her. Even if she had holed up at the inn, Bowie would’ve never let Theo in. Bowie protected Rennie at all costs because it was what Brooklyn would want. Same with Graham, which was why she called him in the first place. She knew he would drop everything for her and do whatever he could to keep her safe and happy, and he had.

Rennie dreaded what the morning would bring. Thanks to her utter stupidity of throwing her phone in the bay, she had no idea what she was walking into at work. She left for vacation early and avoided every call and email. She had needed time to think and feared that if her phone was within reach, she’d look to see what Theo had to say or listen to his voice mails. Graham had been right. She should’ve just blocked his number.

Rennie had a mediation meeting in the morning with Mrs. Soto and her lazy ex-husband, which Rennie suspected was not going to go very well for the ex with Rennie’s frame of mind. She also needed to touch base with Walter in regard to the snoop job she gave him. She wanted to work with Jefferson and find a quick resolution to whatever Donna had up her sleeve regarding Graham. The case was more than personal now, and she needed to make sure it was handled as professionally as possible.

She rolled over, taking the sweatshirt with her, and finally felt a calm wash over her. Graham was there, with her. Her eyes shot open, and she sat straight up in bed. They were an hour from each other—on nights he closed early, he could drive down to her. In her mind, this made perfect sense, and they wouldn’t have to wait until the weekends to see each other. Rennie flopped back onto her pillow