Katie’s face turned white when he walked through the door. He could tell she tried to hide her distress with a smile. A fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Something was wrong. First instincts told him to run toward her.

“What’s wrong?” He rushed to her, cupped her face, and looked into her eyes. The once bright blue had dulled to a stormy gray. “Is it your head?” He dropped to his knees, forcing the coffee table back to accommodate his size. He fluffed the pillow beside her. “Lie down and let me take care of you.”

Bowie had all but forgotten about Sage’s presence until she stood up from the couch. “That’s my cue to leave.” She gathered her meal and her bag and was gone before he or Katie said goodbye. He’d never seen Sage move so swiftly. It was like she was escaping.

Katie lifted her hand to his cheek. She always rubbed his scruff. Although she couldn’t care less about his scar, the beard she loved had grown to cover it. “I’m fine.” Her hand fell to the soft fabric of the couch. Katie turned her body so her back leaned against the armrest and pulled her legs close to her chest, securing everything in place with clasped hands.

“You’re not fine. You’re as pale as an egg white.” He shuffled sideways and sat on the cushion Sage had vacated. “What’s hurting you?”

She pulled her upper lip between her teeth. This was always her thinking pose. Not when she was debating between simple stuff like beef or chicken, but the look she got when her mind raced.

“Slow it down, sweetheart, before you chew a hole in that lip of yours.” He reached over and thumbed her upper lip loose. “I have a fondness for your kisses. They would be less appealing if you only had one lip.”

“So you’re saying if I lost something you thought important, you’d love me less?”

He sat back. “Why do I feel like this is a trick question?”

“It’s not. I’m gauging your perspective on what’s important. You seem to like my lips.”

He leaned forward and inhaled her scent, pressing his lips gently against hers. “I like all of you, but these lips …”

He closed his eyes and remembered the night she was on her knees before him. Her lips wrapped around him. The smell of her strawberry shampoo floated through the air and hugged him.

They hadn’t been intimate since her accident. He missed the connection they shared. Despite spending nearly every minute with her since she fainted, he felt a divide between them. It was silly because they were so much more than sex, but somehow when their bodies weren’t interconnected, it felt like their hearts were miles apart.

“You need to eat.” He picked up her sandwich and offered it to her.

“I can’t eat any more.” Shaking hands pushed it away.

He looked down at the grilled cheese that was missing a single bite. “You have to eat more than this.” Her lack of sustenance could cause her shaking hands, but his mind went back to the conversation he’d walked in on.

You have to tell him, Sage had said.

She hugged her tummy and rocked back and forth. “We need to talk.”

The twist in his stomach caused physical pain from his gut to his heart. Those four words were never good. His mind raced for an explanation.

“Tell me what’s wrong. What have I done?”

Her eyes grew wide. “You? Nothing. You’re perfect. It’s me.”

“I’m far from perfect, so what the hell have I done?” The heat of anxiety made Bowie’s neck feel like it was on fire. “Nothing good ever starts with ‘We have to talk’ or ends with ‘It’s me.’” He knew the flame of his fear rose from his neck to color his face.

Is she breaking up with me?

He’d just let go of his past, took a leap forward, and chose the woman he wanted to spend his future with. He was confused.

“Are we breaking up?”

“I don’t want to break up with you. I love you, Bowie, but after what I have to tell you, you may not want my love.”

There wasn’t one thing he could think of that would change his feelings for Katie. “You can’t say anything that will make me love you less.”

She laughed. Not the kind of laugh that happened when a person heard something funny, but the crazy cackle of someone a breath away from losing their mind. He closed the gap between them and pulled her into his arms. She folded her body against his and sobbed into his shirt. The last time he’d heard someone cry that hard was when Bea came to the hospital and found out Brandy was brain dead.

Though Bowie needed to know what Katie had to tell him, something gut-deep told him once she did, everything would change.

“I’m scared of losing you, Bowie.”

“Not possible.”

She pulled away but stayed seated in his lap. “What if you found out something that changes nothing, yet changes everything?”

He tightened his hold on her. His heart raced, and he wondered if she could hear how fast it beat against his ribs.

“I’ve never been good at puzzles. What are you trying to tell me?”

“Remember the chocolate chip muffins I made, and you said they would be better if I added orange essence?”

“I love the orange essence. It makes them special. Like that added ingredient is the secret to their magnificence.”

Though he tried to hold her in his lap, she pushed away and sat beside him. “What I have to tell you may make you think differently about me.”

“Jesus, what is it? You have a police record? A handful of kids hidden in the attic? Just tell me.”

She pulled in a deep breath and let it out between O-shaped lips. “What if I told you I was a plain chocolate muffin years ago?”

“Not possible. You’ve got something special. There’s nothing ordinary or plain about you. Not now, and probably not then.”

“Remember when I said I got sick?” Her hand went to her chest. “It was a rough decade. I spent a ton of time in the hospital. In fact, I was nearing the end of my life, and something happened. I was offered something special, kind of like orange extract, but better.”

The constant furrow between his brows made his eyeballs ache. “I’ve never asked about that scar because I don’t care how you got it. Are you telling me you’re not healthy? You’re sick again?” He couldn’t take losing another woman he loved.

“No,” she whispered. “I’m not sick.”

This had dragged out long enough. “Just tell me whatever it is you think will change my heart. I promise you can’t tell me anything that would change my mind about you.”

“That’s a promise you can’t make.” She threaded her shaking fingers through her hair and tugged. Her palms covered her face before they fell to her lap. “On April twenty-third, eight years ago, you lost something. I gained something.” Her breath quickened. “You lost the love of your life. Because she died, I lived.” She placed her hand pledge of allegiance style over her chest. “I have her heart.”

Bowie sat stone still. “What?”

“I’m telling you the orange essence in me is Brandy’s heart. Sitting in my chest is a piece of the woman you loved and lost.”

The world faded to gray before it came back in full color to tilt him sideways. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but nothing came out until his brain could process the enormity of her confession. “You knew and said nothing.” He stood abruptly, hitting the coffee table sending food in all directions. “You knew how broken I was.” His throat hurt from the raw emotion. “How could you not say something before now?”

A flood of tears ran down her cheeks. “I didn’t know. Not until I brought the flowers to Bea’s grave.” She fisted her already swollen eyes. “I saw the date, and everything made sense. The bakery, her list, it all came together.”

Bowie backed away from her until he ran out of room and hit the wall. “That was days ago. Why didn’t you tell me then?”

She fell into the pillow and curled into a ball. “I ... I tried, but you said to not dwell on the things that can’t be changed. I can’t change whose donor heart I received. Nothing’s changed.”

“Everything’s changed.” He looked around the apartment and back to the woman he’d fallen in love with. Why wouldn’t he still love her? She had the best part of Brandy. “I have to go. I have to think.”

Katie rushed from the couch to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You said you’d love me always.”

Bowie saw the hurt in her eyes. His heart ached for her, and for himself. “You prayed I’d love you anyway. You said that because you knew.” He pulled free of her hold. “I love you, Katie. I still do, but I need time and space to figure it all out.”

She nodded her head and inhaled a shaky breath. “I know ... too weird, huh?”

He stared at her, his eyes landing on her chest. “It’s creepy.” Would he see her as herself, or would he see her as the love he lost? He had to question his feelings for her. Did he fall so hard and fast because he’d already been intimately involved with her heart? Just when he thought he’d moved forward, he was catapulted back to hell. “Give me some time to process.”

She stepped back and lowered her head in what could only be described as defeat. “Time would be wise for both of us.”

He raced down the staircase and went straight to the bar, where he knew there would be plenty of alcohol and advice.

Sage was behind the bar when he took a seat on the center stool. “You knew?” He hated that his voice sounded so accusatory, but she was the one pleading with Katie to tell him.

She shook her head. “No, I found out two minutes before you came in.”

“Found out what?” Cannon came out of the storage room with a full bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand.

Bowie reached for the bottle and twisted off the cap. “Katie has Brandy’s heart.”

Sage lined up a few shot glasses.

Cannon stumbled back and leaned on the back bar. “She what?”

The bell above the bar door rang, and in walked Doc. “Saw you running across the street. Thought you might like to chat.”

Bowie turned to face Doc Parker. “You knew and didn’t say anything to anyone.”

He slid into the stool next to Bowie. With his hands held in the air, he said, “I didn’t know, son. She didn’t know. No one in town knew. So if you’re feeling you’ve been duped, you best tuck that feeling away because no one lied to you or kept anything from you long term.”

Cannon pushed off the counter and came forward, taking the open bottle from Bowie to fill up the shot glasses. “You want one, sweetheart?” he asked Sage.

“No, I think I should go hang out with Katie.” She pulled a bottle of wine from the cooler and turned to Doc. “Can she have a glass?”

“A glass won’t kill her.”

Sage swiped two stemmed glasses from the rack above the bar and walked out, leaving the three men alone.

“So let me get this straight,” Cannon started as he pulled beer chasers for the group. “Katie, the girl you love now, has the heart of the girl you loved before. Am I close?”

Bowie tilted his head back and drank what would be the first of many shots. “Spot on.” He turned to Doc. “Did you know Bea had donated her organs?”

Doc sipped at his whiskey. “Nope. She never said a word except to say Brandy lived among us. I always thought that was a figure of speech. Like she surrounded us in spirit.”

Cannon poured Bowie another shot. “So for real, Katie has a donor heart, and that heart is Brandy’s.” Cannon laughed. “How damn lucky are you to fall in love with the same heart twice?”

“Lucky?” Bowie tossed back the second shot and shivered as the heat of it ribboned through his body. “It’s a freak show.”

“Now, now, young man. I won’t put up with you calling Katie a freak. I always knew that girl was special. Just didn’t know she was extra special.”

“Tell me this. Do I love her because I love her, or is it some cosmic thing? Does my heart know that heart?”

Doc rubbed at his bushy brows, making them point straight to the heavens. “Did you love her yesterday when you didn’t know she had that heart? Did you ever ask her about the scar?”

“Yes, I loved her, and no, I didn’t ask her about the scar, it didn’t matter.”

“But it matters now?” Doc asked.

“It’s different now because I know she has the heart.”

Doc finished his shot and turned the glass over on the table. “She’s the same girl as she was yesterday. Let me ask you this. What if you needed a new engine for your truck, and the one that was available came from your dad’s truck? Once it's fixed, is it your truck or your dad’s truck?”

“It’s my truck.”

“That there heart is Katie’s heart. It stopped being Brandy’s when she died. It’s just a part, son. We’re a sum of all our parts. It’s Katie’s blood that runs through that heart, not Brandy’s. It’s Katie’s brain that keeps it functioning. Somehow, Brandy’s heart found its way into Katie’s chest. You would have never known if Bea hadn’t given her the bakery. What if Katie hadn’t accepted? Is there a little fate happening here? I don’t know. All I know is you’ve got one special woman who loves you enough to tell you. She didn’t have to be honest.”

“You wouldn’t have said anything?”

Doc nodded. “I couldn’t. It’s doctor/patient privilege. But even if I could, I wouldn’t. Katie had to tell you on her own. And she did.”

“Two days later.” A hint of agitation rose in his voice.

Doc picked up the now closed bottle of whiskey and tapped Bowie on the head hard enough so he would feel it, but not hard enough to cause damage.

“She had a head injury, you dolt. Let me hit you a little harder and see how clearly you think. That woman has faced death head-on and won. She’s happy and healthy and in love. How hard do you think it was for her to risk it all by telling you the truth? That’s integrity—another special gift.”

Doc looked at Cannon, then nodded to Bowie. “He’s paying tonight. I dished out enough wisdom to make it worth a shot and a beer.” He picked up his mug and emptied it, the foam sticking to his mustache. “You’re a smart man, Bowie; don’t be stupid tonight.” Doc walked out the door.

“Holy shit.” Cannon let out a long whistle. “What the hell are you going to do?”

Bowie held up his shot glass. “I’m getting drunk.”

“After that?”

“I’m going to tell Katie I’m sorry.”