The bittersweet duet, p.1
The Bittersweet Duet, page 1
THE BITTERSWEET DUET
An all-new friends-to-lovers second-chance single dad romance duet from Carla Krae!
When We Were Young and Make You Feel My Love tell the story of Kate and Sam, high school best friends with secret mutual crushes who couldn’t get on the same page until their 20th class reunion—eighteen years after they last saw each other face to face. Bitter sweetness—when finding your true love comes after a bit of heartbreak.
This story is intended for readers 18 and over due to adult language, sexual content, and adult situations.
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
By Carla Krae
Published by Willowick Publishing
Copyright 2023
The right of Carla Krae to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First Edition
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
BITTERSWEET
When finding your true love comes after a bit of heartbreak.
Flavors—like life—need balance. Nearly every cookie or cake recipe includes a pinch of salt. The finest dark chocolate rides the line between bitter and buttery sweetness.
The Bittersweet Duet Series:
When We Were Young
Make You Feel My Love
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
THE BITTERSWEET DUET #1
Kate was my best friend and secret dream girl and I let her go.
Twice.
Yeah, I know, not my finest moments, but they seemed right at the time.
Now, she’s back in town for our twentieth high school reunion and I want to know everything—especially did she miss me? A newly-single dad of little ones, my focus shouldn’t be romance, but Kate was always my weakness.
She makes me feel alive for the first time in months, I’ve missed our closeness from the past, and Mom loves her like a daughter. My kids even like her instantly. I want her no matter how much it complicates our lives.
Kate Carson will finally be mine.
This story is intended for readers 18 and over due to adult language, sexual content, and adult situations.
Chapter One
Sam
I dropped the kids at the babysitter before picking up Mandy for Orientation. For some reason, the initial meet-up was at the Baptist church in the center of town instead of the Civic Center that’d be hosting the rest of the weekend.
The announcement sign welcomed my class.
Twenty years…
I felt the passage of time…yet didn’t. Some memories felt like they happened not that long ago. Time plays tricks on the brain, I guess.
I had a lot of plans when I graduated. I’d accomplished a lot of them, yet still lived in my hometown. Mom was happy to see her grandchildren any time she wanted, but before I met Mandy, the law firm I joined was meant to be a stepping stone to bigger things.
Couldn’t complain much—I made a good salary, had a nice house, and took care of my family. Well, I thought I had until ten weeks ago.
Parking the SUV, I got out first, rounded the hood, and opened her door. Offered my hand to help her step down, like always. I was getting better at not reacting to her touch with disgust. She slung her purse strap over her right shoulder, then wrapped her left hand around my bicep to walk into the fellowship hall.
“Welcome back!” a woman said at the door, and handed me an info packet. “Take a seat anywhere.”
“Smile, Sam,” Mandy whispered. Then waved to someone we knew.
I wasn’t the only alumnus that stayed in town.
My wife’s best skill was networking. She was a clerk at my firm. Once we were dating, she schmoozed on my behalf at company get-togethers and holiday parties. She was excellent at remembering faces and names and inane personal trivia that made people feel important.
AKA, an effective liar.
“A refreshments table. Do you want anything, dear?” she asked, playing the part.
“No, thank you. I’ll find a seat.”
Anything to get a moment to myself.
I sat in a row and stared at the program. There’d be an official welcome here and detailed explanation of the itinerary, then we’d be free to mingle or leave until dinner this evening. A picnic and barbecue included families tomorrow.
Classmates said hello, but not the one I was hoping for.
Mandy found me as the class organizer approached the podium. “Fun to see everyone again?” she asked for those around us.
“Sure.”
Our organizer went over everything in the packet. Blah, blah, blah.
Then pressed play on a boom box with a cassette slot. The music to our school song came out of the speakers as she directed us to stand and sing along.
My right ear buzzed with awareness.
I looked over my shoulder and followed the sound of a clear, cutting soprano that led me to green eyes I’d know anywhere.
Kate Carson.
My mother’s best student and our school’s star.
The first feature of my earliest wet dreams.
My former best friend.
She was beautiful, maybe more so now with the air of confidence that came with being a grown woman. She met my eyes. Smiled at me, and I felt socked in the gut just like I did two decades ago, and every year before that back to age seven.
What might’ve been if I’d had the courage to kiss her in high school?
Ask her out?
What had I missed?
Where did she live now?
Was she still singing?
Had she missed me?
I nodded to her, then turned my gaze forward. It wouldn’t do to give my ex-to-be ammo for questions I didn’t want to address now.
The song soon ended and people started milling about.
I searched for her dark brunette head.
“Let’s get groceries at the farmers’ market before heading home,” Mandy said.
Humming something noncommittal, my mind was still on Kate.
Chapter Two
Kate
Monday
Two Decades Ago
Senior Ditch Day to Disneyland had been a tradition since my high school and The D existed at the same time. While the other grades were taking finals this week, we got to celebrate graduating. I drove to the school for the last time, and paused after turning off the engine.
The shift in life started sinking in. My last time needing to come here.
Wow.
For all intents and purposes, I was no longer a high school student.
No longer a kid, even though I’d been eighteen since April.
End of an era.
A deep breath in and out, then I left the car to sign in with the teacher handing out our park passes.
“Kate!” Sam waved by the buses.
“Hey!” I hugged my best friend, which meant wrapping my arms around his ribs, he was getting so tall. “Write your speech yet, Mr. Valedictorian?”
Also one of the Student Body officers, it’d been Sam’s job to help organize this week.
He grinned, brown eyes twinkling. “Over the weekend. You know me.”
“Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today. But you still had tomorrow.”
My handsome, overachieving, BFF crush.
And we weren’t going to the same college.
But I wasn’t thinking about that today. We had Disneyland!
The park was kind of expensive for Dad to take four of us on a single income, but I’d been lucky enough to get several free passes as a member of local music programs over the years. This was my first time with Sam and the rest of our friends, though.
“Can we go as soon as we get the tickets?” I asked him.
He guided me toward the teacher standing as chaperone, a hand on my back. “I think so. There are some instructions.” My skin tingled under his touch.
“Ah, Miss Carson. Mr. Cord. Sign in here.” Mr. Bellencamp handed me a clipboard, then a paper bracelet. “All students need to wear one of these today. We trust everyone to behave while having fun, but there is a mandatory check-in midday, so please mind the time.”
Debbie, ASB VP, handed out flyers with instructions.
Mr. Bellencamp made notes, then gave us the Disney passes. “Next!”
More students milled around us by the second.
Sam’s head bobbed as he looked for our friends. “There’s Janelle.” He waved.
“Then Eric shouldn’t be far behind.” He and Sam were on the water polo team together.
I was driving our group since I had my own car. Dad bought me something used and reliable when I turned sixteen on the stipulation that I’d pay for gas and my part of the insurance. He never wanted me to have to rely on another kid’s car skills—or sobriety, let alone his worries about me dating. But I’d never gone out with any guy more than once.
None of them gave me butterflies.
Not like Sam.
It was risky to crush on my best friend, but tell my stupid teenage heart that. He was perfect—hot, smart, caring, protective, and good at everything.
I
Too bad I was stuck in the Friend Zone.
We met as little kids when his mom became my piano teacher, but didn’t share a school until junior high and not many classes until high school. Somehow, we got close since, exchanging hopes and dreams. Guess it helped his mom thought of me as a daughter.
I was really going to miss hanging out at the end of summer.
“Kate…”
“Hmm?”
Sam’s brows had bunched together. “We’re ready to go.”
“Right! Car’s this way.”
Having two tall guys flanking me made it easier to get through the crowd. Eric, Janelle, and Melinda stuffed into the back of my Camry.
Sam picked up my purse to sit in the front. He’d done it a thousand times when I drove him home. The county country music station was on my radio. I turned the volume down.
“Hey, I like that song,” Melinda said.
“Oh, God…” Janelle groaned. “Eric, tell me you have an Ace of Base tape on you.”
“Kate’s car, Kate’s music,” Sam said.
“Thank you.” I tossed a smile his way before turning out of the parking lot.
A few stoplights and turns and then we were on the freeway for the short jaunt over to the exit for Disneyland. Katella Avenue had light traffic. My passengers handed over payment for parking, then I cruised toward the lot section where the bus would stop when it arrived.
“It sucks all this front parking is going away,” Melinda said.
“Yeah, but we’re getting a new theme park!” Janelle replied.
Disney California Adventure.
We piled out of the car and stared at the fence and lookout tower.
“If they ever finish construction. It’s a big pile of dirt,” Eric said.
“That I’m sure they’ll charge extra for,” Melinda added. “If I want something that reflects California, I’ll go to Knott’s.”
I had a fondness for Knott’s Berry Farm, too—especially the boysenberry sherbet.
“Guys, can we start the morning without bickering?” Sam said.
And just like that, we headed for the front gate.
Melinda and Eric almost had a thing before he hooked up with Janelle, so I hoped they were past any tension. It’d been months, but you know teenagers.
Sam offered his arm to each of us single ladies and I grinned like a little kid. The three of us skipped ahead until Melinda couldn’t hold her giggles together anymore.
“Sometimes you’re pretty clever, Cord,” I murmured.
The five of us joined the line. Sam draped his arm across my shoulders. It never used to make my breath hitch…and then it did.
Hormones were a funny thing.
Especially when I was Queen of the Friend Zone.
He dipped his head my way. “How jealous are your brother and sister?”
“Their envy would have no limits—if I told them.”
He laughed, warm and manly. “Sneaky, Kate.”
“If I can’t outsmart eight- and twelve-year-olds, they need to rethink giving me that diploma on Wednesday.”
He squeezed the ball of my shoulder. “Aww, you’d bring them along if you could. You’re the best big sister I know.”
When your mom disappears, you have to be. “They’re alright for little kids.”
We finally reached the turnstile and handed over our tickets.
Janelle and Eric started to rush into Main Street.
“Hey, I think I’m going to wait for the bus,” Melinda said.
“Are you sure, Mel?” I asked. Dropping my voice, I added, “We’re not making you feel like a fifth wheel, I hope?”
“Nah, I want to wait for Wes.”
My brows rose. “Wesley from choir Wes? You could’ve taken the bus—”
Her cheeks grew slightly pink. “I didn’t want to back out on our plans, but…”
I grinned. “I wondered if you two would finally do something with all that flirting.”
“Shut up!”
I leaned in to keep our chat confidential. “We’ve all noticed you getting closer this semester. If he makes you happy, don’t be shy about it.”
She tilted her head toward Sam. “I could give you the same advice, missy.”
“We’re just friends,” I repeated for the whatever-eth time.
Her hands lifted in the surrender gesture. “All I’m sayin’…”
I sighed, then turned to where he stood a few feet away. “Mel wants to wait for Wes, so I’m going to keep her company.”
“Fine by me.” He sat on one of the planter benches.
“You can catch up to Eric and J—”
“Kate, they’re not even letting us past Main Street yet. We have time.”
“See? He’ll wait.”
Mel smiled at me and I wanted to rub that expression off her face.
Kim was my closest high school friend until she got weird this year and started trying to compete with me to please her jerk of a dad. Melinda had stepped into the absence and I valued her honesty—except when it came to Sam.
She thought I was silly to not tell him my feelings.
She also thought by the way he treated me that he might share those feelings.
But I was the uncommon long-term-thinking teenager. Sam and I were great, but we were also going to separate colleges soon whether we were friends or dating. We’d either have a summer fling that ended in August or try dating long distance and break up because it was too hard. Both situations would result in wrecked hearts, so staying friends was better.
Why ruin what we had right now?
Why risk what we’d built?
Chapter Three
Sam
If I ended up wandering Disneyland with Kate alone today, I wouldn’t mind.
There was no guarantee of hangout time this summer. We’d both have temp jobs before leaving for college and duty to our parents, and then would be in different cities.
Every summer would require a job, but I knew that since I became old enough for a work permit at fifteen. One was at a feed store, and Kate frequently came in when I was bored out of my mind under the guise of visiting the puppies or kittens advertised for adoption.
Our town started rural, but by our high-school years it was thoroughly suburban and the feed store sold more dog food and garden implements than stuff for horses and cows now.
Mom took advantage of my employee discount for seed packets and fertilizer.
When I worked fast food, I gave Kate freebies. She was a French fry connoisseur.
But this summer, I’d be a lifeguard.
Kate in a bikini…
Nope, can’t go there.
I didn’t need to walk around the Mouse House with a semi.
But damn, I’d thought she was beautiful since eighth grade. Then hotter every year. It killed me to watch her date other guys, but our friendship meant too much to me, and teenagers mess up their relationships every week. If we dated, then had to part for school and lost that connection, it’d tear me up in ways I didn’t want to face, so I kept silent.
Her best friend.
The guy who still took any chance he got to touch her.
The guy who agreed to wait for the buses to arrive so one of her besties wouldn’t be sitting here alone even though this was one of the safest places for miles.
Because it made my girl smile.
Kate was busy chatting with Melinda, so it gave me a moment to study her without her noticing. The simple tank top and denim shorts she wore today did nothing to lessen her beauty. Brown hair like silk down to her waist, green eyes like summer grass in light, pretty skin that looked good with both a tan and the fairness of winter, and full lips I spent way too much time thinking about—and that was just her gorgeous head. She’d blossomed with curves earlier than most girls and yeah, my junior-high eyes noticed, but at eighteen, she moved her body with confidence. Her career goal was Broadway and with those looks and her voice, I had no doubt she’d make it there, and I’d be in the front row of her opening night.
We heard diesel engines approach and come to a stop over in the parking lot. “Thanks, guys.” Melinda hurried away from us to get her hand stamped.
