“Well, I’ll hope to see you soon for the purchase of your own garden.”
“When I’m ready, you’ll definitely hear from me.”
Mrs. Russell flashed her another beaming smile and headed for her car.
She would have to remember to take a thank you gift into the real estate office. Maybe a bottle of wine or some flowers, possibly chocolates. It would have to wait until she took a trip into town to see what was available.
Mazey returned Mrs. Russell’s wave before the woman hopped into her car and drove down the street. A street filled with neat, well cared for houses, with gardens and manicured lawns, and the occasional child’s bike or ball. There was even the echo of children playing somewhere in the distance.
So different from the apartment buildings in the area she had spent the last few years living.
Taking a deep breath, Mazey gripped the keys in her hand tighter as if she could squash the memories that kept bombarding her and headed for the front door of her new home.
The one she’d rented sight unseen except for the pictures Mrs. Russell had sent via email. Mazey hadn’t had time to come up and see anything firsthand and had left the search up to her agent.
She’d barely made the decision to move out of LA when the job at Mercy-Life had all but fallen in her lap. She had submitted her resume as quickly as she could, and she was sure it had helped to have a referral from within the company.
Mazey had met Alyssa Drummond when they had been partnered at a training course years ago. They’d stayed in touch, and while they weren’t best friends or even talk-every-month friends, Alyssa had been happy to put in a good word at Mercy-Life for Mazey when she’d contacted her friend to ask about the company.
Alyssa’s recommendation, combined with Mazey’s experience, meant within twenty-four hours of applying, she’d received an offer for the job.
After that call, Mazey couldn’t move fast enough. She’d accepted the position immediately, then gone straight into work and handed in her resignation. With that done, she’d begun the task of packing up her apartment and unwinding the life she’d lived for the previous six years.
That had been two weeks and two days ago.
This time next week, she would start her new job as a flight nurse. It would be a change from her head of trauma nursing position at the busy Anaheim Memorial Hospital Emergency Department. But she was ready for the change, for the challenge her new role would deliver. She couldn’t wait to get started.
What she was most looking forward to, was her new life.
A new start where nobody looked at her with pity or anger or disgust.
It was the anger and disgust that affected her the deepest. She’d had no idea Stuart—her fiancé—was married with children. The shame of being the other woman, even though it hadn’t been her fault, had hung around her neck like a lead weight. The minute she’d left the hospital where she’d discovered his deception, that weight had lifted off her.
Those first few steps relieved the constriction in her chest, and after weeks of emotional upheaval, she felt like she could breathe again, felt in control.
She hadn’t realized the extent to which she had allowed Stuart to dictate her actions until the whole thing had blown up in her face. He had told her where to work, where to live, what to do in her spare time—and she had let him.
No more.
From now on, no one would tell her where or how she should live her own life.
She wouldn’t let any man influence her choices ever again.
She’d learned a valuable lesson when she’d been confronted with Stuart’s wife and children.
Her life hadn’t been anything like she’d wanted despite it seeming so.
The man of her dreams had been an illusion.
The life they had planned was a fantasy he had no intention of fulfilling.
The family she’d always craved was further from her grasp than ever before and after Stuart’s betrayal, Mazey didn’t know if she would ever have the courage to look for it again.
2
Rylan stared at the house in front of him and wondered what the fuck he’d been thinking.
The two-story, six-bedroom, three and a half bath was far too much house for one man.
