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5
Chapter Five
Two Weeks Later
“How are you doing, Mary?”
Mary looked up to see the tall, stocky man in the doorway. She managed to find it in herself to smile at him.
“I’m good, Dad. You don’t need to keep worrying about me.”
“But I do. You’ve been despondent for the last few weeks.” Jake Atkinson regarded his daughter thoughtfully. “And it is the day of the wedding.”
“I haven’t forgotten, Dad.” Mary gestured at her phone, which was laid face down on the table. “I’ve turned my phone off so I won’t have to deal with them today.”
“I don’t know why you don’t just block them completely.”
“You think I haven’t done that? They somehow manage to get through.” Mary cupped her hands around her mug, looking out over the scenery before her. “I’m still upset that they managed to get me out to Mountain Ridge when I told them plenty of times that I didn’t want to go.”
“And I’m still regretting not being there to help you out when you needed me.”
“You got me out of there in the end, Dad. And I have enjoyed my time here, away from it all.”
Jake snorted.
“You must think I’m an idiot if you think I’m going to believe that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I know you’re glad to be away from your mom and sister, but you’re not happy.”
Mary thought about protesting, but she knew her dad would sniff out the lie. If she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t as happy as she should be. And it wasn’t about the fact today was the day she was meant to be getting married to Cody.
She missed Max. A lot. Mary had not expected the pain of missing Max to hurt this much. After all, they barely knew each other. He had been great to her, and looked after her when she needed a friend, but while she knew his body intimately, she didn’t really know the man himself.
At the time, Mary hadn’t really cared. This was just meant to be a night of fun between the two of them, hot sex, and a place to spend the night away from whatever plans her mother and sister had going. And the sex had been hot, explosive.
And intense.
Which was why Mary had sneaked away while Max was sleeping. She couldn’t handle the intensity of the intimacy between them. Max had made her body hum, and Mary felt alive for the first time in a while. She felt loved by someone.
The moment the word ‘love’ entered her thoughts, though, Mary found herself panicking. That couldn’t enter into it. This was just sex with a gorgeous younger man, nothing more.
So why did Mary feel like it was more?
“Mary, talk to me.” Jake came across the deck and settled in the chair beside his daughter, running his hand through his thick white hair. “You’ve been out of sorts since we left Mountain Ridge. You normally tell me everything, so why not now?”
Mary couldn’t look at her dad as she stared at the treetops below. The cabin her father had in the mountains had a beautiful view, looking out over the valley below. Normally, it was very calming. It wasn’t at the moment.
What was he going to say about this? Was he going to call her an idiot for catching feelings for someone who shouldn’t be compatible with her?
“Mary?”
Mary swallowed.
“I met someone at Mountain Ridge, Dad. Well, not exactly met in that sense. He was just…he was really kind, and he listened to me when I needed someone to talk to.”
“I suspected as much.”
