Page 134 of Tangled up in You

JESSE

Jesse couldn’t hear them clearly but as she approached their bedroom, Mark’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

“I’m just saying we’ve gone through this before. Wealthy tourist, fun fling, and nothing more. It’s the same pattern, especially with the rich ones. Certainly nothing to uproot our lives over.”

Chris started to say something in response but Jesse couldn’t hear it over the sound of blood roaring in her ears. She didn’t even realize she’d turned and hurried toward the guest room to grab her things until her suitcase and computer bag were in her hands. As she quietly made her way to the front door she snatched her purse from where she’d laid it on a chair on her way in and closed the front door quietly behind her.

She threw everything into the back seat and managed to hold her tears at bay until she reached the road. Then she pulled over onto the shoulder so she could sob. It felt like a knife had split her guts open from neck to navel, her heart and dreams spilling out all over.

How could I have been so wrong about them?

She even tried closing her eyes, taking long, slow, deep breaths to ground herself, but her face still flamed, her heart screaming at her for leaving, her brain screaming at her for not leaving sooner?—

I can’t do this.

Still crying, she checked for traffic before pulling onto the road and returning to Gardiner.

MARK

“You’rewrong, Mark,” Chris insisted. “She’s not like that!”

Mark grabbed the basket of folded clothes. “I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m telling you topleasestay grounded in reality, all right? If she walks in here and throws her arms around us and says she’s moving here for good, then I’ll be jumping for joy with you. I know you want to plan. I know it’s how your neurospicy brain copes. I know you want to consider every option and not focus on the ones with outcomes contrary to what we want. But I’mbeggingyou,pleaselet this happen however it’s supposed to.”

“Why are you acting like this?”

“Because I don’t want you to get your heart broken, okay?”

Chris engulfed him in a side hug even as Mark still held the basket. On top were a pair of Jesse’s panties. “I’m an adult, Mark. I think you’re more worried about your heart being broke than mine.”

“You can frame it however you want, but it works out to the same thing.”

Chris kissed him. “I need to clear a few more things off my plate. I want to be ready when she comes back so we can sit and talk. Hopefully we get to meet her parents!”

“Yeah. I’ll finish this.”

Chris headed for the living room while Mark started putting the laundry away, leaving Jesse’s neatly folded in the basket. He walked it to the guest room and neatly laid everything on the bed in piles to free up the basket. Returning to the bathroom, he started cleaning.

I should probably change the sheets.

He smiled.We should probably buy extra sets of sheets.

He stopped what he was doing, stripped the bed and remade it with clean sheets, leaving the dirty ones on the floor by the laundry alcove. Something nagged at him as he resumed cleaning, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“I’ll text her and ask her when she’s coming back, or if we’re meeting her in town, or what,” Chris called.

“Okay.”

He finished cleaning the bathroom several minutes later and headed down the hall, stopping and backing up as his gaze studied the clean laundry on the guest bed.

He turned, walking down the hall, and stood in the doorway.

Shit.

Her luggage had been on the bed when she left. He knew it. He saw it there.

“Hey, Chris?”

“Yeah?”

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