She thought so, too. Waking up that morning, she’d questioned why she had decided to come here. The only reason Bryce could come up with was that since she’d agreed to be friends again with Kaegan, she had to keep their relationship just that.

She figured the hardest part would be being around him and doing things they used to do that once had a significant meaning but didn’t any longer. She’d decided not to shun those things but be in control of how she felt about them. Closure meant the ability not to let the things they used to do together control her mind. Some people had their way of moving on and she had hers.

Bryce had to accept that most people recovering from a broken relationship and finding closure didn’t have to encounter their ex on a constant basis like she did. Knowing she didn’t love Kaegan anymore, she was convinced one of the reasons she hadn’t been able to move on was because Catalina Cove was a small town and everybody knew everybody. They frequented the same places and shared the same friends. Avoiding each other had been impossible. Instead of evading those situations when confronted with them, she needed to be strong and meet them head-on.

Vaughn stood beside her on the dock sipping his tea and looking out across the blue waters of the ocean. He was a handsome man and she tried remembering whom he’d dated in high school. He had graduated with her, which meant he was probably thirty-two or pretty close to thirty-three.

“You volunteered today, as well, I see,” she said to him.

He smiled. “Yes. I don’t get out much, and since I had nothing better to do today, I figured I’d come help. Kaegan has gone out of his way to befriend me since moving back home. He didn’t have to do that and I appreciate him for it.”

Bryce had heard that Vaughn didn’t socialize much since moving back. He pretty much kept to himself. Her parents had mentioned that he would drop by their café on occasion for take-out dinners but had never dined in. She’d also heard he was determined to prove his innocence regarding that white-collar crime he’d served time for and had hired a team of private investigators to clear his name.

Vaughn’s parents had been part of Catalina Cove’s old-money elites. When Eugene and Vivian Miller moved to Paris after their son and daughter left for college, instead of selling their home, they’d kept it with the intention of returning back to the cove to visit on occasion. They never did and had since passed away. Vaughn was living in the huge house alone. The house had been one of the original homes built for one of Jean Lafitte’s numerous mistresses, who happened to have been one of Vaughn’s ancestors. Bryce recalled that Vaughn and his younger sister, Zara, had both been pretty likable, unlike their parents, who’d been total snobs.

“Are you going to volunteer to work unloading on the docks or did you volunteer to go out on one of the boats?” he asked her.