“You think?” She wrinkled her nose. “But we can’t.”

He frowned. “We can’t?”

“Not right now.” She took a breath, trying to calm herself, trying not to lay everything she’d been wanting to say to him out in one big run-on sentence. I love you and you’re amazing and I’m sorry and you were stupid and I was stupid and we’re both so stupid and tell me you love me back and hey, I love that T-shirt. She bit back the verbal flood before it poured out. “The new owner is going to be here soon. The store is sold. I’m supposed to show him around.”

“Ah,” he said.

“Are you back for the holidays?”

He nodded. “I am.”

She filed away that information. He was here visiting. It didn’t mean he was here to discuss their relationship—or lack thereof. “I’m glad.”

He stepped a little closer, his gaze tracking over her, reading her. “Yeah?”

“Did you miss the thousand messages? I was ready to hire a private detective to find you in Mexico. Of course I’m glad.”

He stopped an arm’s length from her and tucked his hands in his back pockets, making his silly T-shirt stretch across his chest. “What did you want to tell me, KC? If it’s about the money, I’m not taking it back, so you can save yourself that argument.”

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you gave in to your dad. I would never have asked you to do that.”

“I know.” He shrugged, as though giving someone two hundred grand was no big thing. “But that money was doing no one any good sitting there. What does it matter if I tell him what he wants to hear? He gets to feel like the big man, like he won? Okay. Fine. He wins. That doesn’t make the truth not the truth. He knows what he does. He knows I know. This way, I get to visit my mom without her getting in a fight with him, and I get to put the money to the best use possible. That money was meant for the victims. Now one will make her dream come true with it.”

Kincaid wanted to reach out and hug him, touch him, but she kept her hands at her sides. “Ash, you could use that money. You have dreams, too.”

He smiled. “I do. But I’m good. I got a bigger advance than I was expecting for my new series. I have what I need to get what I want.”

“A beach house in Mexico?” she guessed.

He laughed. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

She glanced toward the clock on the wall. The new owner would be here any minute. She needed time with Ash, but part of her was afraid if she let him walk out, he’d slip away again. She pushed past her nerves and met his eyes. “I found your letters.”

His brow wrinkled. “What?”

“The letters you wrote to me. The ones I thought were from Graham.”