It Must Have Been Love

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." ~ Steve Jobs

SLADE HAD ONLY BEEN driving for ten minutes when his blurry gaze left him no choice but to pull over. God. He closed his eyes, but it was no use. He couldn't get her out of his mind. Couldn't forget the way she had looked at him, the way she had cried in silence as he turned his back on her.

Pain slammed into him, and a massive shudder wracked his body.

I'm sorry, baby.

A short distance away from where Slade was slumped over his truck's steering wheel, a certain redhead was walking down the same street, listening and humming along to Roxette's , when she suddenly halted in her tracks.

She squinted, thinking the truck seemed familiar, and she moved forward to take a closer look at its license plate.

REDWOOD

Her eyes widened in recognition. Slade Wyndham was the only one with a personalized plate in the entire town, and she remembered the priest from England ribbing the cafe owner about it, saying with mock alarm that the other man must cure himself of his vanity before it was too late for salvation.

Coming up to the driver's side, Anah knocked gently on the window. "Mr. Wyndham? Are you alright?" A moment later, she heard the door unlock, and Anah stepped back as the cafe owner came out.

"Hey." Slade's voice came out a little gruff. "Sorry I worried you—-" He glanced around to see if she had anyone with her and frowned when he found none. "Don't you have anyone with you?"

"It's fine," she said with a smile. "My parents' place is in the next block."

"I see."

After a moment's hesitation, she asked worriedly, "Are you really alright?" His eyes were noticeably red-rimmed, and he looked a far cry from his usual wickedly charming self. "I'm afraid you don't look that good."

Slade only grunted, and since people like the cafe owner (and Ethan) only clamped up for one reason...

"Did you have a fight with your girlfriend, Mr. Wyndham?"

"Kady isn't—-" He stopped speaking and scowled, realizing that the nineteen-year-old had practically tricked him into mentioning Kady's name. "How do you even know about her?" he questioned irritably.

"Secret net worths of its residents aside," Anah said lightly, "Hartland is just like any other small town..."

Slade shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "Well, the rumors got it wrong." Seeing Anah's visibly dismayed expression, he felt obliged to make sure the blame fell squarely on him, and he heard himself say flatly, "I led her on. It made her want more, and I couldn't give—-" He stopped speaking when the girl started vehemently shaking her head.

"That's a load of crock," Anah burst out. "I saw you two once, at the movie theater, and it was so obvious how much in love—-"

"You saw what you wanted to see," Slade said grimly.

"Or it's the other way around, and you couldn't see what's right in front of your nose all along." Also like Ethan, she couldn't help thinking, but that was another story entirely.

The whole argument should be pissing him off, but instead it only made Slade feel weary. What was the fucking point talking about this when it was all over?

Anah's heart wrenched at the look of devastation on the billionaire's face. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wyndham," she said in a small voice. "I know none of this is my business, but I just think it's such a waste—-"

"She didn't love me, Anah," Slade repeated tonelessly. "And I didn't love her."

And he actually believed that , she realized, stunned.

"Anyway...it's getting late. Let me walk you back."

"Okay." She saw that he was surprised at how quickly she took him up on his offer, but that was because her mind was already busy hatching up a plan for Operation: HEA.

As the billionaire fell into step beside her, she asked right away, "What did you fight or break up about?"

Slade groaned. So that was why she had let him walk her back to her parents' place.

"Just give me a try," she said cajolingly.

"We barely knew each other," he said shortly, hoping that would be the end of it.

But as things typically were with the opposite sex, it was not, and follow-up questions were inevitable.

"I fell in love with Ethan at first sight," she pointed out, "and none of you seem to question my feelings."

His jaw clenched. Anah's words made him think of his tomboyish, basketball-obsessed sister, and how Lace had fallen for a man who hadn't even owned a single pair of sports shoes prior to meeting her.

She had been nineteen then, probably even more sheltered than Anah was, and definitely a lot less experienced in matters of the heart.

And yet...

When Slade had found out about his sister's relationship with Silver March (Farica's future brother-in-law if his business partner had her way), he hadn't questioned it at all—-

The same way he had never questioned how right it had seemed to him, in the rare instances that he saw Anah and the youngest Blackwood together.

Anah held her breath when Slade turned to her, thinking that he would tell her she was right, and that he would go after his beloved Kady, and Operation: HEA would be a success.

But instead, the man proved as stubborn as his gender was infamous for, saying curtly, "Things are different between Kady and me."

Oh, for the love of St. Dwynwen!

"Why is it different?" she challenged.

" You know the truth about us," he spelled out coldly. "She does not."

Oh my God, that was all?

"You're talking about the fact that all of you are billionaires?" she exclaimed incredulously. "That's it? You think just because she doesn't know about how much money you have in your bank account, it's automatically proof she doesn't love you?" she scorned. "Shouldn't you be happy that she says she's in love with you despite—- "

"Quit twisting my words," Slade snapped. "You know it's more than that—-"

"But it isn't," Anah insisted fiercely. "So you're a billionaire. Is that really the most important thing about you, Mr. Wyndham? Is that what truly defines you?"

His teeth gnashed at the way the girl was shaking her head at him, almost as if she had suddenly become his wise fucking mentor and Slade, her too-old, dumb, and denser mentee.

"You know what the problem here is, Mr. Wyndham?"

"The unwarranted role reversal?"

But she went on as if his words were the very opposite of wisdom. "It's the fact that you've read too many books on finance and coffee but not enough romance ."

"For fuck's sake—-"

"Let me just ask you two questions," Anah offered calmly, "and if answering them doesn't make you realize it was love between the two of you, I'll happily order humble pie at your cafe for the entire week."

Slade wanted to tell her this whole fucking thing was stupid and pointless, but considering how much of a notorious cheapskate Anah was, the billionaire knew she wasn't just saying those words for nothing.

"If you could make up the rules that would determine what true love was, what would be the one non-negotiable thing you'd demand from all couples?"

Time.

You had to know each other for a long time.

But he remembered how Ethan and Guilia had been dating for a decade, and he realized that time wasn't enough.

So what was left?

He kept waiting for thoughts of Kady to come into his mind, but instead he found himself thinking of someone else.

Penny .

Slade inhaled sharply, but the memories kept coming.

Penny crying...hurting...begging...

Every memory of her was a burden, and even the good times they shared left a bitter taste on his tongue.

And that was when he heard himself say, "They have to make each other happy. Even with all the ups and downs, just the sight of the other person would be enough. You wouldn't even have to say you weren't alright, wouldn't have to teach the other person how to make you smile—-"

A hazy image started forming in his mind.

"Just being there is enough."

And he remembered Kady hugging him at the university parking lot, just hugging him.

Anah tried not to cry as she saw the truth slowly dawn on the billionaire's face. "I think you already know what my next question is," she said shakily, "but I'll ask it anyway."

Slade's handsome gaze was ashen now.

"The person who's all those things...you've met her already, haven't you?"