Alone.
Dealing with the aftermath of her fiancé’s departure.
“You shouldn’t be by yourself right now,” Mason said gruffly. “You should call your mom. Have her come.”
“Absolutely not.” A scoff escaped her mouth that was hardly ladylike. “I love her, but her overprotective ways would only make me feel worse.”
“Still treating you like a fragile princess, huh?” he said with a wry smile.
During their marriage he’d found nothing funny about the stifling relationship she’d had with her parents. But back then Reese had been oblivious.
She stared out the window overlooking the garden, her gaze distant, unfocused. “My mother has always been a bit...overbearing.”
Mason bit back the urge to agree, proud he was able to keep his mouth shut.
“They were constantly worried about me while I was married to you, and positively petrified for me at the end.” She smoothed a hand down her cheek. “But I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them after our divorce,” she went on softly.
She ticked her eyes back to Mason. “It’s been Dylan’s steady influence that has helped me deal more productively with their smothering behavior. So much so that they now actually view me as a grown-up who’s capable of making her own choices.” Her eyes crinkled in doubt. “But I suspect my mother’s going to freak when she learns Dylan called the wedding off.”
Sure his opinions wouldn’t go over so well, Mason let out an evasive “huh” and rubbed his jaw. Family was definitely in order here, but her father was about as cuddly and comforting as a porcupine. But Mason did remember she had a half brother somewhere.
“Parker?” he said.
Damn, he was grateful the long-term memory was intact.
Reese shook her head. “We’re getting along better now, but I don’t want to bother him with this. He’s busy at work and newly smitten with Amber.”
“Amber the seamstress?” He hiked his eyebrows, hoping to annoy Reese. “She’s pretty.”
She drolly rolled her eyes, and Mason suppressed the grin.
“How about one of your college roommates?” he went on. “What did you call yourselves?”
A trace of a smile appeared on her mouth. “Our neighbors dubbed us the Awesome Foursome.”
“Right,” he went on. “Marnie, Gina and that brainy Aussie chick—”
“Cassie,” she said.
“Surely one of them is available.”
“They won’t be here for another three days or so.”
His eyebrows hitched higher. “They’re all coming?” he said. “I thought your little girlie gang busted up before we got married.”
“Gina and Marnie haven’t spoken since, but I’ve kept in touch with them all.” She gave a small shrug. “I was hoping to use my wedding day as a way to bring us back together again.”
He stared at the defeated look on her face. He wanted to tell her he was sorry and get the hell out of town. She smelled like crème brûlée, she looked like an angel in white, though his body remembered just how unangelic she could be. And all the good memories were beginning to rush their way past the towering wall of bad. The only thing that kept him going was remembering the fury in her face the day she’d hurled his dog tags at his chest. Oh, and the resentment that simmered in her eyes with every glance.
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