Kenzie’s voice wavered. She tried to cover it, but Clarkson heard it anyway.
“Kenzie,” he said gently, “did someone hurt you?”
Aside from her foster mother, no one had ever asked her that before.
The moment he did, something in her chest finally loosened.
She wiped her eyes and forced a small smile. “I’m fine,” she said. “I just figured some things out. About people. About life.”
After a brief pause, she added quietly, “Clarkson… maybe I should’ve gone with you back then.”
Before the Lundbergs found her, she’d grown up in the countryside. Clarkson had been there through all of it.
Calling them childhood sweethearts wouldn’t be wrong.
He’d liked her for as long as he could remember.
Back then, Kenzie was still young. Her world was school and simple routines. Then, at fifteen, she was taken back to the Lundbergs, and just like that, they lost each other.
Later, Colton filled every corner of her heart.
On her wedding day, Clarkson had pushed his way backstage, his eyes red when he looked at her.
“Kenzie,” he asked softly, “are you sure you’ll be happy marrying him?”
She answered honestly.
“I don’t know if I’ll be happy forever. But right now, I love him.”