“I MIGHT THROW UP,” Mari said as she straightened the silverware on the table for the fifth time in an hour. Everything was ready. She’d planned her Valentine’s Day dinner party down to the last candied mint. And she’d invited a ton of people. From Brody’s CO to potential clients, she even invited her parents from Austin and his dad.
She and Brody were making new memories. And she hoped maybe she could help him with his past disappointments. His dad had said he wasn’t sure he could come, but he would try. He was working in Dallas, which was a pretty short flight.
Half of her hoped the man showed up, the other half hoped he didn’t. She wasn’t sure what she’d say to him. Though she was glad Brody hadn’t minded her meddling.
He slipped his arms around her from behind and pulled her in close. “You’re perfect. Everything looks great. The house is a showplace. They’re all going to be impressed.” He kissed her neck. Oh, how she lived for those touches.
For the past few days Brody had been extrasensitive while helping her. He’d seen her crazy side and survived. She’d bark orders, he’d give her the sexiest of smiles and do whatever she asked. Then at night he’d take her to bed and they’d make love. He told her that he craved her, that she was wreaking havoc on his sanity. That he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
And she felt the same way about him. They weren’t burning out, they were burning hotter.
Meanwhile, she could finally sell the money pit. Be out from under the horrific weight of debt she felt. Except she’d worked so hard on it she had mixed feelings. Seeing it going to someone else would break her heart. This was the house she’d created with Brody.
They’d had so much fun and there were so many wonderful memories. She hoped tonight would show him that they had what it took. She could let him see how happy her parents were and that some lucky relationships did last. She wanted that with Brody. Smiling, she knew she was ready to share her heart, and that Brody was a man worthy of it.
He squeezed her tight. “Everyone who is coming tonight loves you. Don’t be nervous.”
She turned and put her hands on his chest. “I can’t wait for you to meet my mom and dad. They’re disgustingly joyful together. I’m really curious about these surprise guests they’re bringing.”
“I wish I could say I was joyful about you meeting my dad. There’s a good chance the guest he’s bringing is someone he met last night in a bar or restaurant. Don’t let it ruin your night. Just say the word and I’ll ask him to go.”
She kissed him. “It’s okay. Not to worry. He spawned you, so he can’t be all bad.”
“In case I forget to say it later, you’re exceptional. And this spread is exceptional, too.” He pointed at the variety of food on the table. The rest was waiting in the fridge.
“Oh, I almost forgot the roast. I need to get it out of the oven.” She pulled away and hustled into the kitchen. That’s when it dawned on her. There was no smell of meat cooking.
No. No. No.
She yanked open the door and gasped. The raw meat sat in the roasting pan.
She slammed the door shut and turned the oven temperature up to 500 degrees. She’d cook it on high for a bit, and then lower it after about forty-five minutes. If she basted it with broth, it wouldn’t dry out too much. They were doing a buffet since there were so many invited, and the roast was only one of many dishes. Still, it was Brody’s favorite and she wanted it on the menu. This party was for both of them.
“What’s wrong?” Brody asked. Lately, he’d always been there for her. Last minute touch-up painting or shopping, whatever she needed. No man had ever been such a willing partner with her, and she loved it. Loved every second of it.
“Been so distracted running around at the last minute that I forgot to turn on the oven. So dinner may be delayed a bit. Luckily, we have other things to eat. And my parents are always late, so there’s that. They’ll be the excuse to wait on dinner. It’ll be fine,” she said as she tried to convince herself.
“I can order something from one of the local restaurants if you’re worried.”
She laughed. “It’s Valentine’s Day. By the time it would be ready and get here, the roast will be done.” She took a deep breath. “It’s okay. Something always goes wrong.” Of course, that meant her warming times for the rest of the food were also messed up.
“I may have to use the oven at your house to reheat the twice mashed potatoes.”
“Whatever you need,” he said.
“Thank you. For being here,” she said as she made her way around the marble-topped island. “It’s going to be okay, right?”
“Yes.” He brushed a curl from her cheek and kissed her. “Do you think we have time for a quick run upstairs?”
She frowned. “No.”
“It might help with your nerves.”
There was that. “Hmm. Maybe—”
The doorbell rang. “Who could that be?”
“The party doesn’t start for an hour,” Brody said as he glanced behind him. “Did you order anything?”
She shook her head and walked past him. The flowers and baked goods had been delivered earlier in the day.
Peeking through the security peephole Brody had insisted they put in, she frowned. Again.
She opened the door. “Mom, Dad? You guys are early.”
Her mother gave her a nervous smile. “Hi, honey. We wanted to see the house before everyone got here.” Her mom leaned in and kissed her cheek.
“Oh, wonderful.” Her parents were notoriously late to everything. Something was up.
Her dad thrust a giant bouquet of flowers toward her and then kissed her other cheek. “Yes. See the house, and there’s something we need to talk to you about.”
“Okay, well come in. I have someone I want to introduce you to.” She stepped back and noticed a couple behind them. “Hi, you must be Mom and Dad’s friends.” She smiled.
It was unusual that her parents had invited friends, but then this party was for everyone who didn’t have a place to go on Valentine’s Day. It was such a weird holiday and extremely lonely for many people. So Mari had adopted a more-is-merrier attitude.
The elegant woman was familiar, but it took Mari a moment to place her. “Mrs. Sangle?”
“Hello, Mari. Your home is beautiful,” she said as she stepped over the threshold. Mrs. Sangle had lived down the street from her family for as long as she could remember. Her husband had died last year, and Mom and Dad had been looking out for her.
“Thank you. It’s good to see you,” she said.
The man next to Mrs. Sangle held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Joe Heely. I’m a...friend.”
“Nice to meet you.” She gestured for him to come inside. He was tall with thick white hair. He seemed very distinguished.
“I’m so glad you’re all here. This is my friend, Lieutenant Brody Williams.” She knew she was grinning like a silly schoolgirl as she introduced him. “He’s been helping me with the house. I could not have finished it without him.”
They all shook hands, and then there was an awkward silence. “Let’s go into the family room. It’s at the back of the house. It’s larger than these front rooms, so I thought it’d be best for us to hang out there until dinner.”
“Um,” her mother said. “That’s great, honey. Is there a place that your father and I can speak to you privately? Just for a few minutes?”
They glanced at one another nervously. What the heck was going on? She’d never seen them act like this before.
“Sure. Brody, can you take Mr. Heely and Mrs. Sangle back to the kitchen? Get them a drink. And the cold appetizers are on the second shelf, if you could go ahead and set those out.” She handed him the flowers her dad had given her. “And there’s a glass vase in the china cabinet that will work for these. You can just put them on the breakfast bar.”
“Got it,” he said as he gave her a quick smile. “Folks, follow me.”
He led them down the hallway. Her parents stayed behind. “What’s going on?” she said quickly.
“Is there some place with a door?” her mother asked. What an odd request.
“My office?” She motioned for them to follow her. Now she was really nervous. Was one of them ill? Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away. She wouldn’t borrow trouble.
Mari leaned on the edge of the desk and her parents sat on the sofa.
“We’ve been trying to get in touch with you for several months,” her mother said. “But you’ve been so busy we haven’t managed more than a three-or four-minute conversation.”
Mari blew out a breath. They were going to lecture her about being a bad daughter. She deserved it.
“Yeah. Sorry. After the breakup, I just needed some time. You guys always seem to have it so together in the relationship department. It’s tough when I can’t seem to get it right.”
“We’re divorced,” her father blurted.
Mari’s hand slipped off the desk and if she hadn’t been perched on the edge she would have fallen. “What?” she squeaked.
“Last year, actually. Very amicable,” her mother said. She grabbed her father’s hand. “We’re still the best of friends and love each other dearly. But we haven’t been in love for a long time.”
This was some weird nightmare. A. Horrible. Horrible. Nightmare.
Wake up, Mari.
“I can see this is a bit of a shock,” her father said. “We didn’t want to spring it on you tonight, but there was never a good time. And we’ve been with our new partners for a while now, and we wanted them to meet you.”
Her parents were divorced. How did this happen? She’d spent her entire life admiring their deep love. And here they weren’t in love anymore.
She sniffed. “But if you love each other, you make it work,” she said on a whisper. “You always told me that.”
“We had, we still have a wonderful relationship based on trust and friendship. But for the last twenty years or so, neither of us has had the passion for one another that one should in a marriage,” her mother said.
“Passion isn’t what makes a marriage. How many times did you tell me that? When I came to you for advice and you said that a solid foundation isn’t built on passion alone.” Anger boiled deep in her gut. They’d lied to her. All of these years they hadn’t been happy. Her whole life had been a lie.
“It isn’t the main ingredient for a successful relationship,” her dad said, “but it is a necessary one. For happiness, you need to be passionate about that other person.”
Her parents were talking about passion? “Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I refuse to accept this. You two need to work it out. All marriages go through tough times. You told me that, too. You’ve never had a rough patch. Ever. And at the first hint of...maybe one of you is going through some kind of midlife crisis you just give up.” Her voice rose. Never had she been this upset at her parents. Not even when they refused to let her date when she was sixteen. Not even when they refused to let her go to an out-of-state college even though she had a scholarship.
They’d always been protective and loving, sometimes to a fault. And now this. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Mari, watch your language,” her mother said.
“Watch my language! I’m not twelve, Mom. You can’t tell me to watch my language when you guys have been lying to me for this long. And now you’re saying that your marriage was a sham? Really? Which means you’ve been lying for years!”
“Screaming never helps anything,” her mom said. “And our marriage wasn’t a sham. We’ve been talking about this and we didn’t see the sense in hurting you and your sister, or breaking up the family unless we each found someone else. But we didn’t.”
“At least, not until last year. Your mom met Joe at one of her art classes. And Janet and I have been growing closer since her husband died. We decided that before we did something we would regret, we’d go ahead and divorce.”
“Wait, so does Daisy know yet?” Her sister would have called her surely. No way she knew.
Her parents glanced at her. “Well, she was our mediator for the divorce. We asked her not to say anything to you until we had a chance to talk to you in person.”
And they’d chosen tonight.
Oh, my god. My parents brought dates to my party.
“Those people out there? You introduced them to me—tonight? What is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how important this was for me? I can’t believe you’ve done this on the one night when I needed you.”
Mari twisted her hair around her finger. Disaster. “Listen to me. I have very important people coming tonight. Clients I’m trying to impress. You’re not ruining this for me. You will go out there and pretend to be happy. You’ll be the old you. Not these people I don’t understand at all. If you ever loved me, you’ll send those people home that you brought with you. I mean it.”
She stormed out and slammed the door.
The doorbell rang.
Not now. She pasted on her everything-is-perfect face and met Brody at the front door.
“You okay? I heard yelling.” He was so sweet. Tears threatened again. “Mari? Babe, what happened?”
She shook her head. She was going to show him what a wonderful loving relationship her parents had. What a joke. She sniffed and blinked several times. “I will be fine.” After taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “Let’s just get through this.”
She opened the door.
“Mr. and Mrs. Harker, so good to see you.” Mari introduced the couple to Brody. “This is the couple I was telling you about. They want a redesign of their kitchen and dining area.”
Brody shook hands and hung Mrs. Harker’s jacket in the hall closet. The doorbell rang again. The handsome man on the doorstep had to be Brody’s dad. He was an older version of the man she so cared about.
She held out her hand and shook his. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Mari.”
“Ah, so you’re Mari. No wonder my son is so enamored. You’re a looker.”
“Dad,” Brody interrupted. “Stop hitting on my girlfriend.” He put a protective arm around her.
His girlfriend. Nerves fluttered around her belly.
She’d waited weeks for him to mean that. But she wasn’t sure he did now. It might still be an act. His CO was coming up the drive and Brody might have said it in case the other man heard.
After her parents’ admission, she wasn’t sure who she could trust anymore.
You only have to get through the next couple of hours. Hang in there.
“Dad, I’d like you to meet Commander Gray, who runs the base I work on.” He motioned to the CO. The two men exchanged handshakes.
“Mari, you look so pretty, and this house has come a long way from the photos you showed me at my birthday party,” Gray said.
“Thanks. I couldn’t have done any of it without Brody’s help. He’s a man who gets the job done fast.”
The CO nodded. “Yes, he is. One of the best I have on base.”
Mari glanced up to see Brody’s eyebrows draw together. The CO just paid him a compliment, he should have been happy.
“Brody, can—” She’d started to ask him to take them to join the other guests when an alarm suddenly screeched.
They stared at each other for a second before they took off running for the kitchen. Smoke billowed out of the oven.
Brody grabbed the extinguisher from the pantry. “Get back,” he ordered as she tossed him the hot pads she pulled from the nearest drawer. He used one to open the oven door and then sprayed inside.
White foam flew all over the kitchen as the smoke continued to billow. She ran and opened the back door. “Everyone on the patio until the smoke clears,” she said to the guests. “Dad, do me a favor and start a fire in the pit in the backyard to keep people warm. Better a fire out there than in here,” she said, trying to joke about the situation. Mortified didn’t begin to describe the sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.
“Tell me what I can do to help,” Commander Gray asked.
“Get a broom from the closet and use the handle to punch the reset button on the alarm, please,” Mari asked, barely keeping it together. “Mom, I need you to open all the windows.”
People rushed to do what she’d asked. Mari swallowed over the frog in her throat.
“Sorry, folks. Technical difficulties,” Brody said as he pulled the burned roast out of the oven. He started laughing. “I’ve had blackened fish and seafood, but never roast.”
And that was it. The last straw. It just hit her wrong. She couldn’t take it anymore.
“How can you laugh?” Even though she was being foolish, she couldn’t stop. This wasn’t his fault. “I mean, really? Now you have to decide to be a jerk?” For someone who never yelled, she was doing a lot of it tonight. But there was no stopping her tirade. Anger roiled through her body. “Everything is ruined. I wanted one special night. One. This would have been the first time that Valentine’s Day would have actually meant something to me. The first time I was going to share it with you. And then you laugh when you know how important this is to me.”
“Mari, I’m sorry.” Brody moved toward her, his face tense. She was a terrible person. “Tell me what else is wrong.”
For a moment she let his arms wrap around her and she leaned into him. Then she remembered his CO was still standing there. Was it an act? And how would she ever know? Were there no more honest people in the world?
Tonight was a complete and utter failure and it hadn’t even begun.
She couldn’t breathe and it had nothing to do with the smoke that had filled the room. Backing away, she shook her head. “I have to get out of here,” she said. When she turned, her parents stood there with worried looks.
“Leave. Go back to your lives, whoever you’re spending them with. I can’t believe this has happened”
“Mari, wait,” Brody called after her.
She sped through the house and threw open the front door only to slam into a wall of a man.
Chin lifted, she found herself in the arms of Brody’s friend Ben, and he was with Carissa. “Of course it’s you. Because what else could happen to make this nightmare worse than for you to show up right now.”
“What’s that smell?” Carissa asked, making a face.
“Carissa,” Ben said, “it’s obvious Mari’s upset. Are you okay?”
Mari was about to lose it, although she’d done enough damage by being rude. “Please,” she said through gritted teeth. “Enjoy the appetizers. Everyone is out on the patio.”
She hurried past them and started walking down the block.
“Mari!” Brody’s tone was sharp. “Stop. Where are you going?”
In a fraction of a second he’d caught up to her. “I need a minute, okay? I’m sorry I yelled. I know that doesn’t make it right, but I am sorry. You can’t fix what’s wrong right now. If you care about me at all, you’ll leave me alone. You’ll go back in there and make sure people have fun and see the great work we did on the place, okay?”
“I’m sorry about the roast. I shouldn’t have laughed.”
He thought this was because he’d laughed. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. “I’m not mad at you, Brody. I swear. I had some upsetting news from my parents and I’m not dealing with it very well. It just... I don’t know what I believe anymore. Who I trust. I don’t know anything.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “It’s funny, two hours ago I thought I finally had done something right. That’s what I get for being cocky. I had you, the house in good shape. And the party was going to be my chance to show everyone that I finally had it together.
“But I don’t. I never will. I don’t even know if you’re a real boyfriend or still the guy I just have sex with. How sad is that?”
“Mari, you know I care about you.”
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you. I don’t know that. I know we have fantastic sex and we get along, but do you love me? I do love you. But even now, I can’t be sure if you hugged me in there because you cared, or because your boss was watching.”
“Mari! How could you even think that?”
She let the tears flow. “I told you in the beginning I was a mess. Listen, if you care about me, if you ever did or do, please go back in and try and entertain them. Or just send them all home. I don’t care anymore.”
Then she started walking again.
She had no idea where she was going, but she had to get away.
Far, far away.