Elle smirked. “Didn’t you already do that the first time?”
She flicked a dismissive hand in the air. “No. I was only learning that first time. If I’d been more on my game then, I would’ve never let you marry Henry in the first place.”
Elle leaned back in the chaise and stretched out her legs, the condensation from her glass dripping onto her slacks. “Yet, you’re letting Nina marry him.”
Her mom peered over with a knowing look. “I love Nina. She is my youngest and my dreamer, a romantic at heart—which is hard for practical people like you and me to understand. But the downside is that she has always been insecure. She needs someone like Henry to fill in those gaps for her. She wants someone to take care of her. And despite his past bad behavior, I think he actually loves her.”
Elle snorted. “Henry loves himself.”
“Yes, that’s true, too. But he’s sweet with her. And I at least know he’s not cheating.”
Her attention flicked back to her mother. “How would you know that?”
Cassandra gave an unapologetic shrug. “I had a private detective follow him for the last year. He’s been faithful. And he’ll support her. So I’m not going to stop them, despite the unpleasantness he brought into our family.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” Elle asked, unable to hide the vinegar in her tone. The complete destruction of her marriage, the life she thought she would have, and her relationship with her sister was simply unpleasantness? Good to know.
Her mom reached out and patted her hand. “Don’t begrudge your sister her version of happiness. I know how it happened has hurt you and it was wrong, but in the end, she saved you from a miserable life.”
Elle frowned.
“Henry made you weak. He made you question yourself. He wanted someone to need him and you didn’t, so he tried to break you down and create that neediness. You would never have gotten to where you are now if you had stayed with him. You’d be some broken version or yourself or you’d become me—working all the hours you have to avoid dealing with your gallivanting husband and then stressing yourself so much about it, you give yourself cancer after he’s gone.”
The words echoed around her head, almost too much to take in, but the last sentence registered just fine. “You didn’t give yourself cancer, Mom. And Nina told me you blamed our riff for that.”
Her mom lifted her gaze to the heavens and shook her head. “Oh, Nina. That girl should’ve been a lawyer. She bends the truth just enough to make it believable.” She looked back to Elle. “I told her to mend things with you or I wasn’t paying for the wedding.”
Elle’s lips parted. “You what?”
“This has gone on too long. Back when it happened, I didn’t want our family to be the center of gossip. After what you’d been through, I wanted to save you that kind of humiliation. I’d been there before. It’s why we left Napa.”
Elle blinked. “What?”
“You girls were too young to know, but one of your father’s indiscretions landed me in the center of nasty gossip. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Somehow the wife always gets blamed. So when things happened with your marriage, I tried to make it seem to everyone like your marriage was already done before things started up with Nina and Henry. But by protecting you, I also protected her. No more.” She sipped her drink, clearly annoyed at the memory. “She made the mistake. She needed to fix it. I’ve got bigger things to worry about right now than you two sniping at each other. I don’t have much family left. I need my daughters around me for what I’m about to face. Both of you.”
Elle nodded, a pang of guilt moving through her. “I’m sorry, Mom. You know I’ll be here for whatever you need. Nina and I will make it work.”
“I have faith that you can do more than that. Your sister betrayed you. That will never be undone, but I think you can both move forward. You won, after all. Who do you think is going to end up on the better end of things? She’s got to spend her whole life with Henry.” She gave Elle a conspiratorial smile. “You get to spend yours with that good-looking man who almost made you swoon like a schoolgirl with just a kiss.”
Elle straightened in the chair. “I—”
“Honestly, Ellie, I never thought I’d see the day when you looked at a guy like he hung the moon and stars just for you. I almost didn’t recognize you. It was like some other woman had appeared in my garden.” She reached out and squeezed Elle’s arm. “I’m happy for you, sweetheart. Women like us often end up with marriages that are practical instead of magical. But I think you and that new man of yours may have found some fairy dust.”
The words landed on Elle like winter rain, sending a chill into her bones that sank deep. She forced a smile to her lips. “I don’t believe in magic, Mom, but I am lucky to have found him.”
Chapter 18
Lane pulled a tie from his suitcase, looped it around his neck, and listened to the shower water run as Elle got ready for the rehearsal dinner. The scent of her shampoo—fresh mangoes—drifted from beneath the door and invaded his brain like a sensual fog, making him picture things he shouldn’t and forget how to tie his tie. He cursed under his breath, pushing away thoughts of fruit-scented bubbles sliding over naked skin, and started his knot again.
This was his own damn fault. He should’ve never said those things to Elle in the garden and kissed her earlier this afternoon. He’d done it to convince her mother, to play the part he’d promised to play, but the whole thing had come too easily. He’d looked down at Elle’s face, had seen the strength and beauty there, the determination to survive this gauntlet of a weekend, and the words had just tumbled out.
He’d feigned relationships and affection more times than he cared to count. He’d sold those words and smiles and kisses. Had sold more than that. But this afternoon, he hadn’t had to pull from some script. He’d spoken the truth. No, they weren’t engaged. But Elle was brilliant, talented, and tough. Elle didn’t need a man. But in that moment, he’d wished like hell that she needed him.
His words had brought tears to her eyes and that had punched him right in the sternum. Elle could put on a front like a champ, but in that moment, that show of emotion was real. Elle wouldn’t fake cry. She would find that silly and weak. He’d hit some nerve, had gotten a glimpse of something tender and vulnerable beneath all those honed steel layers.
When he’d wiped away her tears, he’d felt this surge of protectiveness that he’d never experienced before. Not the brutish, I-want-to-beat-up-your ex urge that he’d felt when they’d met Henry—though that was there, too—but more this aching desire to be the one she came to without armor, the one she could trust not to wound her. The one she’d trust with those tears.
From what he could tell, Elle had never had that soft place to fall. She had to have her guard up with everyone. Even her mother, who seemed to genuinely care for Elle, believed Elle was meant to be alone. The untouchable queen in her castle of ice, meant to share her brain and talent with the world but nothing else. Elle seemed to buy into that fate, too. And who could blame her? The one guy she’d given her trust to had treated that gift like it was some throwaway trinket at the bottom of a cereal box. And her family hadn’t rallied behind her when he’d crushed that trust.