When she glanced back at him, he waited for her to tell him she’d changed her mind about coming here and was ready to go back to the dock. He was surprised when she said, “I’m ready to see the changes now.”

He decided to be honest with her. “There weren’t many changes made to the island per se, Bryce, because I tried keeping everything in its natural state. The last thing I wanted to do was disturb the environment.”

She nodded. “What about the bunker?”

His breath seemed to stall with her question. “The bunker?”

“Yes. Does it look the same?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She broke eye contact with him to look away and he wondered what was going on with her. “Why did you ask me to bring you here, Bryce?”

Weeks ago she’d said that she had forgiven him, but there were times he wondered if she truly had. Then last night she’d said they could be friends, yet today, when he, Vashti and she had done a group hug like old times, she’d been the one to break away.

When she’d asked to come here, he thought it was the last place she would want to be...and with him, of all people. She met his gaze and said, “I wanted to come here for closure.”

He raised an eyebrow. “For closure?”

“Yes. More than anything, I need that.”

“And you believe coming here with me, to a place that used to be special to us, will help you find closure?” he asked, trying to understand.

“Yes. It’s hard to explain.”

“Please try,” he said, sincerely wanting to know. He watched her nibble on her bottom lip a minute and could tell she was gathering her thoughts.

“I need to say goodbye to my past with you, Kaegan. I need to close that chapter of my life once and for all. I’ve forgiven you and last night I agreed to allow you back into my life as a friend. A part of me knows that’s all we can ever be. I’ve accepted that fact on several levels but one.”

“And what level is that?”

She dropped her gaze from his for a moment, and then when she looked back at him, she said, “The level that started here on Eagle Bend Inlet.”

* * *

BRYCE DIDN’T EXPECT Kaegan to understand. How could she explain that for years she’d thought he was her soul mate, the one man created for her? Finding out he hadn’t been had been hard. But at least she’d found out. And she’d moved on. Or she’d tried. Seeing him on a constant basis whenever he would come into the café had been a dent in those forward movements. Tying things up with Kaegan in a neat tidy bow was essential to her.

“How will that help you find closure?”

She’d expected the question. “Our situation is different than most, Kaegan. We went from friends to lovers and now we’re trying to be friends again. I wish I could delete from my mind our years as lovers, but I can’t until I make sure they don’t mean anything to me anymore. Coming here will help me do that.”