“Yeah, she is good for me.” He looked down at his hands, flexing them and she noticed then the scars on his knuckles, the thin white slashes standing out against his tanned skin. “She’s the best thing for me there is.”
They were both quiet on the way home and she didn’t speak again until he pulled into the driveway of her townhouse. Trent had driven them to the airport last time and she’d left her car at home. It felt weird to think of driving herself around town after taking cabs and being driven places for so long but she was actually looking forward to it. She wanted to get on with the business of picking up her life.
Because being where she was now, this hollowed out shell of herself, was the worst thing she’d ever experienced.
Tank had already exited the truck and carried her bags up to the porch. She opened the door with her key and he carried them inside. She stood in her living room feeling oddly out of place. Then she turned and noticed that her small dining table was set for dinner.
“How … what?”
A second later, her friend Ridley Alexander came out of her kitchen carrying a small bowl. She placed it on the table. When she turned and saw Mara standing in the doorway, she let out a soft cry of surprise and moved to hug her. Mara sank into the embrace, stunned by how much she needed it.
“Ridley, what are you doing here?”
Her friend gestured around the house. “You’ve been gone so long that the girls and I thought we’d come spruce things up before your arrival.”
Kaylee appeared in the doorway. “Hi, Mara. I just finished with dinner. Mrs. Alexander helped me make enough food to last you for a while.”
At the sound of her name, Julia Alexander came bustling out of the kitchen. She walked over to Mara with her arms outstretched. Her dark hair was pinned up into her usual style that made Mara think of the screen sirens in her favorite old movies.
“Welcome home, honey. I heard you’ve been put through the wringer these past few days. But you don’t have to worry about a thing now. Come on in and put your feet up.”
Penny appeared from the hallway leading to the bedrooms. She had a blue kerchief tied around her head and was holding a spray bottle and a sponge. When she saw Mara, she grinned. “Bathroom is clean. No more dust bunnies.”
“Penny! You’re here too?”
Her future sister-in-law gave her a strange look. “Of course I’m here. You didn’t think I wanted to stay home with your sourpuss of a brother, did you? He’s so grumpy that you ordered him to stay away. I didn’t even tell him where I was going because he would have decided to come along, anyway. You need time to relax and settle in before he comes at you with a bunch of questions.”
Mara nodded, not surprised at all that Penny knew her brother so well. “I do. I can’t believe you all did this for me. I don’t know what to say.”
Julia took her carry-on bag off her shoulder and ushered her forward. “No need to say anything, honey. We’re your family. And family takes care of its own.”
Mara sat down on the couch in her nice clean living room and inhaled the mouth-watering smells of whatever fabulous things Kaylee and Mrs. Alexander had whipped up for her. So overwhelmed by the show of friendship and generosity, she opened her mouth to thank them all.
And just burst into tears.
* * * * *
BACK AT THE penthouse, Trent stood in the center of Mara’s closet looking at the empty drawers and shelves. It looked like she’d packed by taking her arm and sweeping everything off each shelf one at a time. There were belts and jewelry littering the floor. The shoes hadn’t been touched and neither had the rest of the formal evening gowns she’d purchased when she’d gone shopping with his sister.
She’d only taken the things she’d had before she’d come here. Considering how much Mara loved pretty things, especially shoes, he understood what a sacrifice that must have been. It also sent him a message that he’d been trying to ignore until now. She wasn’t coming back. Mara had gone home and she hadn’t wanted to take anything that tied her to him.
It was over.
Up front, he paced the room. His instinct was to have the jet readied so he could fly back to New Haven. He could wait for Mara at her house. She’d have to come back there eventually. He had a beat down coming from Matt and he was ready to take it. He’d let Mara rage at him. She could yell at him, scream at him, call him names, and kick him while he was down. He didn’t even care. He’d volunteer for her anger because at least her anger was part of her. Instead of what he had now.
This nothingness.
Frustrated, he kicked the side table over. The wood splintered and cracked as it fell. The destructive sounds just spurred him on so he kicked it again. Then he picked up one of the small sculptures the designer had placed artfully on the other side table and threw that against the wall, too. The sound of it fracturing and then dropping to the ground in pieces spurred him on.
There was nothing else for him to throw in the living room so he stalked back to the bedroom again. When he saw the dents in his closet door from when he’d tried to ram it open, his anger deflated. This kind of violent emotion wasn’t something he was used to and expressing it didn’t even help, it just drove everyone away.
Driving people away was something he was good at. Or at least something he understood. He’d spent years trying to keep people out until one beautiful, vibrant, loving girl had made her way into his heart and showed him how to feel again.
And now she was gone.
He collapsed on the bed, his shoulders hunched forward as he let it wash over him. She was gone.
Gone. Gone. Gone.