Patience. I have to have some patience with her. I need my damn control back.
Restraint was something he had very little of at the moment, and his time to help Mara Ross was limited. Eventually she’d hate him. It was inevitable.
As Jared seated himself in his vehicle, he gripped the steering wheel hard and closed his eyes with a tortured groan, the thrum of the rain beating against his windshield almost sounding like a ticking clock.
How long will it take before she finds out the truth?
Jared opened his eyes and started the engine, realizing that he didn’t have the fucking time to sit around moping. It wouldn’t be long before Mara found out that he was the buyer of her beloved home and shop, the bastard ultimately responsible for her losing everything she cared about.
He hadn’t planned on her finding out quite this quickly. Obviously, the damn irresponsible owner had jumped the gun.
As he did a quick U-turn from the curb he was parked on, heading back to his home on the Peninsula, he remembered his thoughts about just destroying whoever was causing her problems. Ironically, if he was going to deal with the situation that way, he’d have no one to kill . . . except himself.
CHAPTER 2
“I’m so sorry, Sarah. I can’t walk down the aisle for your wedding on crutches,” Kristin Moore moaned woefully to the other four women in her living room.
Mara frowned at the cast on her best friend’s leg, the result of a bicycle accident during the rain. She and Kristin, Dr. Sarah Baxter’s office manager, had been best friends since grade school, and her heart ached for the vivacious redhead. Mara knew how much Kristin had been looking forward to being a bridesmaid in Sarah’s wedding. She also knew how restless her friend could be. Keeping Kristin down for even a short time was going to be hell. “I’m sure Sarah understands,” she told Kristin adamantly, shooting a look at Dr. Sarah Baxter from across the room and seeing the pretty blonde nod emphatically.
“Of course I do. It’s not your fault, Kristin. It will be fine. You just need to worry about your injury and healing,” Sarah replied soothingly from her seat on the couch beside her best friend, Emily, Grady Sinclair’s wife. Emily was Sarah’s maid of honor. Randi Tyler, the pretty, dark-haired teacher seated on the floor, was one of the two bridesmaids for Sarah’s wedding.
Mara tried to hide her frown, knowing that Kristin, the second bridesmaid for Sarah, was likely to cut off her own cast and limp up the aisle if she had to. Her flame-haired friend was just that stubborn and unwilling to let anybody down after she’d made a commitment.
Folding her arms in front of her doggedly from her position on a recliner, her casted leg propped up on the leg rest in front of her, Kristin muttered adamantly, “I am not going to ruin Sarah’s wedding by making a spectacle of myself. Nobody wants to see some crazy redhead taking five minutes to struggle down the aisle on crutches.”
“Nobody is going to care,” Randi answered kindly.
“I care,” Kristin replied, annoyed. “It’s Sarah and Dante’s big day.”
Mara watched Kristin’s unyielding expression from her own seat on the carpet. Kristin’s tiny apartment didn’t have much furniture, and seating was limited. She tried not to frown as she saw the obstinate look on her best friend’s face, an expression she’d seen many times over the years. “You can’t have the cast off before the wedding,” Mara told her firmly. The accident had just occurred yesterday, for God’s sake. But Mara knew Kristin was already looking for a way to get rid of the inhibiting plaster mold on her leg. “Not happening.”
“Sarah’s numbers won’t be even. Grady is the best man, and Emily is the maid of honor. Evan is a groomsman with Randi, and I’m supposed to be across from Jared.” Kristin sniffled, tears springing to her eyes from frustration. “Dante can’t cut out his own brother from the wedding. Jared is already here. And he can’t walk up the aisle alone.”
“He most certainly can,” Sarah replied decisively. “You, my friend, need to rest that ankle. Doctor’s orders.” She used her stern doctor’s voice to make her point.
“What about Hope?” Randi asked inquisitively. “Can she do it?”
Sarah shook her head slowly. “Nope. We just found out that she’s pregnant, and Jason is hovering over her like a mother hen because she’s having really bad morning sickness that seems to be carrying over throughout most of the morning hours, and sometimes into the afternoon. She’s miserable. He’s bringing her to the wedding, but she isn’t feeling well right now.”
Mara grimaced as she heard the news that Dante Sinclair’s sister was pregnant and sick. As the sister of the groom, Hope Sinclair-Sutherland would have been the perfect solution to the dilemma.
“Damn!” Kristin exclaimed. “There has to be somebody—”
Mara cringed as Kristin stopped speaking, her best friend’s eyes landing on her with a calculating smile. Oh, God. No.
“Mara can replace me,” Kristin said triumphantly.
“No, Kristin.” Mara’s eyes flew to the other women, who were all looking at her curiously and nodding. “I’ve never been in a wedding, and Sarah and I don’t really know each other that well. I’m sure she’d rather have a friend.” Honestly, they hardly knew each other at all. It wasn’t that Mara didn’t like the brilliant, friendly physician, but she couldn’t exactly call her a friend. She’d thought about using Dr. Baxter as her physician if she ever needed one, since her longtime family physician had retired. But she hadn’t needed a doctor in a while, and she barely knew Sarah. The only reason they were all together at Kristin’s place at the moment was to visit because she was injured. She knew Randi Tyler casually because she volunteered as a tutor at the Youth Center, and Mara taught a class there occasionally on basic crafts during the winter. She knew Emily slightly better because Grady’s wife was in charge of the Youth Center and arranged the classes.