Oh. That sounded almost logical. Cash blew out a quiet breath, relaxed a bit. “Good for you, Steph. That’s a big step.”

She nodded. “You don’t know how big. But Darcy, she’s my therapist, said if I’m going to move forward, I have to deal with the hurts of the past.” She eyeballed him, moved closer. “You were a big part of that hurt, Cash, but so was I and I’m so sorry about that.”

One thing about Stephanie: she knew how to play the passive-aggressive game. You did this, but I did it, too. Or, I’m to blame but you’re no less to blame. It was all such BS and he thanked God Tess wasn’t like that because that was a perpetual headache waiting to happen. Still, her apparent sincerity had him curious. People changed; wasn’t he proof of that? “I’m glad you’re getting help and I’m damn sorry for my part in it.”

The smile she offered brought out both dimples. “Can we sit?”

“Sure.” He waited for her to ease into one of the rockers before he took a seat next to her. “I see Mimi’s got you drinking iced tea.” Cash gestured to the pitcher of tea on the table next to her. “I thought you were a black coffee kind of girl.” The second the comment slipped from his lips, he realized his mistake. Stephanie’s eyes lit up and her cheeks turned pink. Bad idea to mention anything related to past knowledge or intimacies they’d shared, even if it was as innocent as favorite beverage choices.

“Like I said, I’m not the same girl.” She lifted her glass of iced tea, saluted him. “And I really am sorry for the way I acted when you dumped me. Broken dishes? Knife gouges in your mattress? Dish soap squirted on your carpet?” She sighed her disgust. “That is so wrong.”

“I didn’t dump you, Steph.” He dragged a hand over his face, slid her a look. “It just wasn’t going to work between us and I think I saw it before you did.”

Stephanie narrowed her gaze on his left hand, homed in on his ring finger. “You dumped me, Cash. Of course, you tried to be kind about it, but I wouldn’t listen.” She shook her head, sighed. “I was a real psycho about it. I’m surprised you didn’t get a restraining order.”

Yeah, he’d thought about that after the tire incident, but other than several hang-ups on his cell phone over the next few weeks, he hadn’t heard from her again. One of his buddies said she moved out west, and he hadn’t wanted to risk his luck and ask for details. Fast forward ten years and here she was, in his hometown, apologizing for the way she’d gone crazy on him after they split. He couldn’t tell her they were never really “together,” that the only woman he’d ever really been with in the true sense was Tess. “It’s over, Steph, and you didn’t need to come all this way to say you’re sorry.” He shrugged, slid her a smile to make her relax just in case she hadn’t let go of all the “crazy” she’d carried around, and said, “Where’d you end up anyway?”