Keeping Kaitlyn: The Gilroy Clan vol. 10

Six years ago, I asked Kaitlyn Barrett to marry me, and she said yes. Three weeks later, I left her to set right the mess that led me to her inthe first place. I promised to come back, and she promised to stay.When I came back for her, two weeks later, she was gone—the onlything left to prove that she’d even been there in the first place were thesigned divorce papers she left behind. Even though I wanted to goafter her with every fiber of my being, I didn’t because Kait had decidedwhat she wanted and it wasn’t me.I signed the papers that said we weren’t married anymore and did mybest to move on—and failed miserably.When I took the security job at Gilroy’s I thought the most I’d have todeal with were a few bored paparazzi trying to get a photo of meroughing up a drunk college bro, or someone recognizing me from my briefstint as a tabloid badboy.Imagine my surprise when I come face-to-face with the woman whovanished on me six years ago without a trace. When she tried to explainwhat she’s doing in Boston, I’ll admit I was too busy trying to get hernaked to pay much attention.When I told her I didn’t care why she was here, that I wanted her to leave,she told me no. That she had friends. A life here that she wasn’t willingto walk away from. Turns out the life she was unwilling to walk away from wasmy life.My friends.So, since neither of us were willing to walk away, we decided to compromise.Divide the space we both occupied, cleanly down the middle—you stay on your side of the Gilroys and I’ll stay on mine. And it worked.Until it didn’t.Suddenly, the walls we’ve build between our lives come crashing downand just when it becomes obvious that avoiding her is the last thingI want to do, the life I helped Kaitlyn run away from, calls her home and theonly question left is, just how far am I willing to go to keep her.