Page 84 of Charmed By Destiny

“You did everything—literallyeverything—you could to keep Eric safe. You have the scars to prove it. Both inside and out.”

Maribeth squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her head. “Is it wrong that I’m happy he’s dead?”

“No. He was evil.”

“I wish I’d realized that sooner.”

“Mari, none of us knew,” Richard stated firmly. “Not one of us doubted your father. Not even Dad, and he takes pride in acquiring information about everybody. They were best friends forever, but Dad suspected nothing. How were you expected to know?”

“I’ve never called ClarkDad, but he was one to me. I didn’t want to think of him or Rosalind as my parents because that was replacing my biological father. How stupid was I?”

“I hate hearing you beat yourself up over this stuff. Do you think they blame you or think less of you because you don’t call them Mom and Dad? They love you and want you to be comfortable. Names or titles don’t matter. Not to them. Not to me.”

Maribeth rested her head on Richard’s shoulder. “Look at me. You’ve been here five minutes and I’m already bawling. This was supposed to be a fun trip. For us to catch up. I’ve missed so much in the past four months. You have a fucking soulmate.”

“Which I found out while you were in Vegas, so you didn’t miss that.”

“Clark and Rosalind laughed so hard telling me about your date. They had so much fun putting that together for you and Lucas.”

Richard couldn’t hold back his smile. “They were so wonderful. Gabriel even took Lucas to a florist.”

“Eric was probably the most surprised man in that house when Gabriel showed up with a bouquet for him.”

“I think we have to finally agree that my brother is easy.”

Maribeth laughed as Richard intended. “People do all kinds of wild things if they love someone.”

“I guess they do.”

“You guess?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“So, you aren’t in love?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never fallen in love before. I imagined it was this scary thing. Maybe because the wordfallingis so often associated with it. Like I’d stumble into a street, scrape a few knees, and suddenly have to sacrifice my wants and needs to please someone destiny decided I should be with. We’re given no choice in the matter. That upset me. I hate ceding control to anyone or anything. Turns out destiny knows what they are about.”

“No scraped knees?”

“A little carpet burn one night, but that was because I was overzealous and my bed is too high to properly suck Lucas off.”

“Kneel on a couple of pillows next time.”

“You give the best advice.”

Maribeth grinned. “I definitely do.”

“So, if you were being fair and impartial, what kind of advice would you give a woman like you?”

“Let’s give it some context and figure it out,” Maribeth said, standing to resume her efforts to hang Richard’s clothes up.

Knowing that Maribeth preferred to keep herself busy as she thought about weighty matters, he sat and allowed her to draw her own conclusions. He wasn’t there to talk her into anything or persuade her to abandon her plans. What he wanted was for Maribeth to be happy, and only she could figure out how to find that for herself.

“I’m healing,” Maribeth remarked after a full minute of silence. “I’m also at a crossroads. Before everything happened with Eric, I’d already quit my job.”

“You’d lost your initial spark for human resources.”

“Turns out the human resources department isn’t nearly as juicy in a Marwood resort as I imagined. We have human turnover, but Clark and his staff work with the inspirits to facilitate transfers. The inspirits in the office are so competent, I wasn’t tasked with much. Those duties hardly varied, and I was bored. While my best friend chose a field that vitalizes him.”

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