I' ll be back in an hour. I promise. Serena Matlock remembered Cole's exact words as she stood at the front window of the Cosmic Bean and watched the silver BMW stop a block down.

It hadn't been an hour. It had been thirteen years. Thirteen years, a baby, a divorce, a college degree and a new business since Cole St. Germaine had said that to her on the night of their high-school graduation. But more than the words she remembered the heartbreak.

He'd filled out over the years, and his dusty-blond hair seemed even thicker than the last time she'd seen him--at the jail when she'd told him goodbye. Her throat closed and she swallowed. Cole St. Germaine was back.

She shut her eyes. Damn you, Cole. Why did you screw everything up? Why did you have to come back?

Serena swung around to face her friend Natalia, who sat in one of the easy chairs a few feet from the cafe window. "Does he think everything will be fine? Does he think no one will remember?" An angry knot formed in Serena's stomach.

Business had slowed since the breakfast group had arrived and left, so she went back to the coffee bar to clean the copper espresso machine.

"Maybe he doesn't care what other people think."

"Well, you're probably right about that. He never cared before, so there's no reason to believe he might now."

Serena ground her teeth and polished the copper even harder. "I don't get why my brother is so willing to bend over backward for someone who never gave a rat about him."

"I thought they were friends."

"We were all friends. But when a friend screws you over, he's not a friend anymore."

Natalia shrugged. "Apparently, you're the only one who feels that way."

"Well, friendship won't fix the leg Ryan almost lost. It won't bring his business back from bankruptcy. Some things can't be fixed."

Like the night Cole said he'd return... the night she was going to tell him about the baby and he'd blown her off to party with his friends... and Ginny Gentry.

Like her brother's injuries... and... her and Cole's baby. The baby she'd given up for adoption. Without ever telling Cole she was pregnant.

"Do you know what happened that Ryan had to file for bankruptcy?" Natalia asked.

"Only what he told me, that the business didn't bring in enough money to pay his mortgage and other bills. And if he doesn't get on the ball and start doing something, he'll be in even worse shape."

"Well, if it's any consolation, a lot of people are having that problem right now."

After pausing to get her breath, Serena said, "Yeah. That's true." Yet, Ryan's financial woes weren't burning a hole in Serena's gut. It was the fact that Ryan could simply pick up his friendship with Cole as if nothing had ever happened.

But Natalia wouldn't understand. Though Serena had told her friend almost everything--that Cole had been the love of her life, the father of her child--she couldn't tell Natalia or anyone what it was like to lose a child. To wonder where that child was, if he was happy, healthy--or if there was something she could've done differently. That burden was hers alone.