“Same idea,” her cousin said with a wink. She leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Go, Mal. Love you.”
Mal nodded, unable to say anything else, went to the counter to pick up her phone, and left the building. She’d only gone about four feet when she heard her name again, this time from Jenna. She turned and saw the beautiful bride coming toward her with a brilliant smile.
“Mal, are you leaving?” Jenna asked, looking concerned.
Mal forced a smile. “Headache,” she said sadly. “I was gonna try to get some sleep before my flight tomorrow.”
Jenna smiled and shook her head. “Silly, you can’t leave without saying goodbye to me.” She hugged Mal tightly. “It means so much to me that you came. It wouldn’t have been the same without you. When we get back, can I come see you?”
“Of course,” Mal choked out. “You can come see the pictures in person.”
Jenna pulled back. “No, silly, I want to see you. Let’s do lunch. Is that okay?”
Mal looked at her cousin for a long moment, considering everything that had changed for her in the last few weeks because of this woman. She’d found her family again, remembered what she had lost, and discovered what her life had been missing that she’d never realized: love.
Maybe this trip wasn’t a total loss after all.
“Yeah,” she squeaked, letting her emotions show. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
Jenna grinned, hugged her again, and returned to the reception.
Mal shoved her phone into her handbag, never turning it on, and headed for the carts. Her tears flowed freely, her ribs aching with the need to cry loudly into a pillow, and her fingers twitched sporadically into claws. She needed to get away from this place, from the memories, from him… from the entire fantasy she had been living for the past week.
The ridiculous notion that she belonged here.
Or with him.
A kid in a golf cart offered to drive her back to her house, and she let him, unable to keep from watching the lake, where fireworks honoring the bride and groom were being shot off from the tour boat.
How could everything change in an instant? How could Hunter claim to love her and then go back to the woman who’d refused him before?
Easy, she reminded herself. She was his type. Hadn’t Grace said they dated off and on? It wasn’t hard to go back to someone you once loved so much you were ready to marry them, particularly if you’d never stopped loving them.
Poor, gullible Mallory Hudson, thinking Prince Charming actually liked the servant girl.
She had the cart driver wait for her while she dashed into the house and grabbed everything that belonged to her. She wouldn’t put it past Hunter to try to find her, play his part one more time, and she wouldn’t fall into that trap again. Well, she probably would, but then she’d hate herself later and spend too many days on her couch with Fritos and Häagen-Dazs.
Suitcase in hand, she glanced around the tiny cottage once more, a jolt of regret and nostalgia hitting her gut like a ton of bricks. None of it was real. Not this cottage, not this place—nothing. She sniffed back a fresh wave of tears, went back to her buddy in the golf cart, and had him drive her down to the cabin where Taryn and Dan were staying.
She let herself in and set the suitcase in the corner, kicking off her shoes. The house was quiet and dark, which was perfect. She sat down on the couch, hiccupping sobs making their way out of her at last.
A few minutes later, the sliding glass door opened, and a giggling Taryn and Dan entered, both in swimsuits, and kissing each other with far too much familiarity to be drunk. They caught sight of her after a moment and stopped dead, the only sound the water dripping off their hair and bodies.
“Hey,” Mal said simply, her voice raw and filled with tears.
“Hiya, boss,” Dan answered with false innocence.
“Hey, boss,” Taryn replied glumly.
Mal swallowed and gestured between them. “What’s, uh, what’s this?”
Her assistants looked at each other, and Dan shrugged. “Well, after you set us up in your office back in December, we sort of–”
“This has been going on from the beginning?” Mal interrupted, her head spinning with the mess of it all.
They looked uneasy, and both scratched the back of their heads in synchrony. “We weren’t sure if you had a fraternization policy,” Dan admitted.
“Dan’s really a lot better than he looks,” Taryn admitted with a wrinkle of her nose.