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She sat there, speechless. He knocked all the thoughts out of her head, stole the words right out of her mouth. There was no way Lucas just said—but he had, hadn’t he?
“What did you say?”
“I wanted more breakfast. It was delicious.”
“No,” she said, waving her hand. Her food was always delicious. “Before that.”
“That I’m against it?”
“Lucas!”
He chuckled. Sometimes Maria made it way too easy. “Oh, you mean when I said it’s your house and I’ll support you in whatever you want to do with it?”
Maria let out an excited shriek before she climbed out of her chair and launched herself at her brother. Chanting “thank you” over and over again, she gave him a big hug before scampering back towards the stove.
“Gimme a sec, okay? More bacon and eggs coming right up.”
“For the record, I’m still against it,” Lucas told her, trying to sound stern. She knew he didn’t mean it. The dimple in his cheek as he grinned gave him away.
In between cracking eggs, Maria blew him a kiss.
“Love you, too, Luc.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
2
Four Years Ago
Maria took the turn onto Main Street, gritting her teeth as she rode her brake. It wasn’t very often that she took her new car out for a ride—usually, Lucas was more than willing to drive, or Maria chose to walk for the exercise—so, when she did, she went as slowly as possible.
Her brother promised that it would become comfortable with time and Maria was just stubborn enough to keep on trying. It was easier when she snuck out of Hamlet, going to the local arts and crafts shop about an hour away, but it made her nervous when she was driving around town. Almost like her neighbors were watching her curiously through the slats in their blinds, ready to page Lucas the first time she ran a red light.
If Lucas knew about her jaunts in and out of Hamlet, he never said. Maria never felt the need to enlighten him about them, either. As far as he thought, she was given the coupe in case she needed to get around town.
Like right now.
Maria rolled her head on her neck, trying to relax. So what if someone judged her for driving slower than Mrs. Birmingham? Lucas wasn’t around. No one would be able to snitch on her until he came back to Hamlet.
His absence was exactly why she was out on the road instead of overseeing the contractors this morning. For once, she was going to have a chat with Caitlin without Lucas breathing down their necks.
Maria didn’t know what she could do to help but she wanted to try. She could at least check in with Caitlin and make sure she was doing okay. Because, Lord knows, their four-year-old marriage definitely wasn’t.
Lucas spent long hours at his new office building on the mountainside of Hamlet and, more and more recently, he was visiting the budding bed and breakfast instead of going straight home to his wife. Some nights he didn’t even leave, choosing to stay over in his old bedroom.
It was one of the rooms she refused to renovate or change. Just like the kitchen and her childhood bedroom, she wanted to keep some part of the De Angelis home separate from her business. It might be the same building, yes, but she wouldn’t let herself forget that this was where she was born and raised. Lucas, too. Amid all the disarray of constant construction, it was nice to have something familiar to cling to.
Maria’s bedroom was on the first floor, on the west end of the house. Her brother’s room was directly above her, only upstairs. Though the space separated them, she could sometimes hear Caitlin’s heated shrieks and Lucas’s much quieter replies as they argued over their radios. His wife wanted him home. Lucas liked to throw in her face that he already was.
Those nights, Maria placed her pillow over the back of her head and tried to drown out their fights.
Then there were his trips. It seemed to her that Lucas was using any excuse to speed his Mustang out of Hamlet now that his residency was over and he started his local practice. Remembering the last time Caitlin actually confronted him at Maria’s house, she decided she didn’t blame him.
And that was the last time, too. Far from driving over to drag her husband home, Caitlin refused to return to the De Angelis house at all. Not since the night Lucas calmly threatened to buzz Cait’s own deputies and have them arrest her for making such a scene.
What was it he called it? That’s right: domestic disturbance.
Her temper was legendary, her possessiveness frightening. Lucas learned long ago how to manage Caitlin. As much as his threat infuriated her, it did calm her down and shut her up. But Caitlin was also spiteful. If Maria wanted to see her sister-in-law, she had to go to her house—or to the station house.
