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“What do you think?” Jenna Stevens asked,doing her best to sound confident. When faced with something scary, like a bigdog or a really bad decision, it was important not to show fear.

“I love it,” her mother said. “Truly, it’s amazing.” Bethsqueezed her daughter’s shoulders. “I’m so proud of you, honey.”

Proud? Proud was good. Proud implied an accomplishment. Theonly problem was Jenna couldn’t claim one. She’d acted on impulse.

As a rule, she could respect a good impulse purchase. Therewere times when life sucked and a woman needed to buy a pair of shoes or a skirtor even a lipstick she didn’t need just to prove she could. To show the worldshe wasn’t defeated.

Only Jenna hadn’t bought any of those things, mostly becauseshe wasn’t much of a shopper. But she’d sure stepped out of her comfort zonerecently. Had she done it with a too-expensive handbag? If only. Instead she’dimpulsively signed a three-year lease on retail space in a town where she hadn’tlived in nearly ten years. As if she knew anything about retail. Oh, sure, sheshopped on occasion, but that wasn’t exactly the same as running a business.Just like being a chef didn’t mean she knew squat about running a kitchenstore.

“Breathe,” her mother told her. “You have to breathe.”

Apparently she’d shattered the illusion of courage byhyperventilating.

“Maybe not,” Jenna murmured. “If I stop breathing and go intointensive care, the management company might let me out of my lease. There hasto be a clause about a near-death experience, don’t you think?”

“Is there?”

Jenna turned from staring at the front of her new business andpressed her head into her mother’s shoulder. Something of a trick consideringBeth was a good six inches shorter and Jenna was wearing heels.

“I didn’t read the lease,” she admitted, her voice slightlymuffled.

She braced herself for the chiding. She’d been raised to readeverything before signing it. Even a greetingcard. She deserved to be yelled at.

Her mother sighed and patted her back. “We won’t tell yourfather.”

“Thank you.”

Jenna straightened. They stood in the parking lot in front ofthe space she’d rented. Right now it was just an empty storefront, but in a fewshort weeks, it would be her new business.

“Fifty percent of all new businesses fail,” Jennawhispered.

Her mother laughed. “That’s my little ray of sunshine. Come on.I’ll buy you a latte. We’ll sit, we’ll talk, we’ll plan ways to have yoursoon-to-be ex-husband tortured. I’m sure your father knows a guy.”

Despite the fear and the panic swirling in her stomach, thesense of impending doom and a life that bordered on pathetic, Jenna smiled.“Mom, Dad’s a banker. Men who run banks don’t know guys.”

“Your father is very resourceful.”

He was also a physically fit, active man who enjoyed plenty ofoutdoor activities. If Marshall Stevens wanted something physical to happen toJenna’s ex, he would do it himself.

“I’m just so angry at Aaron,” Beth said, leading the way to herSUV. “That cheating, lying you-know-what.”

The “you-know-what” was, of course, a stand-in for bastard. Orpossibly sonofabitch. Either way, Beth didn’t believe in swearing.

She was a traditional kind of woman. She put on makeup beforeleaving the house, always brought a casserole in a covered dish when there was adeath in someone’s family and never, ever had a cocktail before five. All thingsJenna loved about her.

She knew people who thought traditions were stupid and a wasteof time, but for Jenna, they were the warm, comforting glue that held her familytogether. She could count on her parents to be what they’d always been. Today,that was more important than ever.

They got into her mother’s SUV, a late-model gas guzzler, anddrove toward the closest Starbucks.

“I’ll never forgive him,” Beth announced. “I suppose I couldaccept it if he decided that your relationship wasn’t working. Not everymarriage lasts. It’s the cheating that makes him a weasel. I swear, if my daddywas still alive, he would go after Aaron with a shotgun and I wouldn’t stophim.”

Some days Jenna wouldn’t have stopped him, either. But heranger at her ex wasn’t about the other women, although the thought of themdidn’t make her happy. What made her lie awake at night, questioning herself andevery decision she’d ever made, was the other ways Aaron had hurt her.

The cheating simply gave her an easy excuse to say why themarriage had failed.

They pulled into the Starbucks parking lot. Her mother turnedto her. “You get anything you want. Venti, syrup, whipped cream.” Beth wrinkledher nose. “I won’t even mention how resentful I am that you’re as skinny as astring bean and I’m stuck with thighs that hate me. That’s how much I loveyou.”

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