Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  “I like you, Mason,” she said. “We’ve had a great time. But I want Sapphire Hills. I want my candy shop.”

  “I’ll buy you a fucking candy shop,” he said, his temper finally breaking through. “I won’t let that keep us apart.”

  She swallowed. He was angry. He’d told her himself that he only got emotional when he was really passionate. She was the only woman who could do that to him.

  “I want it more than anything.” She was shocked she could say that without choking. She really was good at sales.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” he said with a scowl. “You love me. I know you do.”

  And things always had to make sense to Mason Riley. She almost smiled in spite of the pain.

  “We just met. We’re attracted but it’s not…” she almost choked again but pushed to finish, “…it’s not normal to fall in love that easily.”

  Complete silence met her words. No one but Phoebe knew Adrianne knew the story of what had happened between Hailey and Mason. Adrianne would have never said something like that to anyone else with that past. Normal Mason was not. He was so much better. But he wanted to be normal. She knew that.

  “You’re probably right,” Mason finally said. “I don’t know much about being normal.”

  She was barely holding it together as it was and hearing him say that was her second-to-last straw.

  He reached into his pocket and withdrew a checkbook. Adrianne’s gut cramped and she hugged her arms over her stomach to keep from throwing up. But she stayed quiet. This was making everything okay for everyone else. She could do this. It was almost over.

  Mason’s pen moved over a blank check. The sound of him tearing it from the rest of the book was thunderous in the silent foyer. When he took a step toward her, she flinched. He held it out. It was for the requested hundred thousand dollars.

  “Trust me,” he said coolly. “You were worth every penny.”

  She couldn’t look past the top button on his shirt. She also wouldn’t reach for it. If she let go of herself she was going to fall apart.

  After five seconds ticked by, he handed it to Hailey instead. Adrianne gratefully turned her attention to her boss.

  “I’ll have my lawyer look into the land situation,” Mason said. “Who should he contact when we get a deal ready?”

  “Me,” Hailey said softly.

  “No.” Mason’s answer was quick. “I don’t want this to be personal at all. Lawyer to lawyer.”

  Hailey nodded. “Okay, we’ll have Mike Little handle it,” she said, naming a Sapphire Falls attorney who had served on the city council in the past.

  Adrianne wasn’t sure if Mason nodded or sighed or frowned, but she felt his eyes on her before he stepped around her.

  Lauren didn’t even flinch as he reached out and grasped her upper arm. She seemed resigned as he started for the door with her in tow.

  “Excuse us. I need to confer with my partner.”

  Lauren gave Adrianne an apologetic shrug and went with Mason.

  The screen door slamming was like a gunshot and Adrianne tried to pull a deep breath in and couldn’t. She felt like her ribs were shrinking, crushing her heart and lungs.

  “WHAT THE HELL just happened in there?” Mason demanded of his best friend—who he was less shocked to see than he probably should have been.

  “Adrianne broke up with you,” Lauren said, meeting his gaze steadily.

  He let go of her before he squeezed her arm too hard. “Is it a coincidence that you’re here and all of a sudden she breaks up with me?”

  “Not really.” Lauren crossed her arms and risked looking belligerent. “I told her about Haiti.”

  Of course she had.

  “And I believe I warned you about not making me come here,” she added.

  “What did you tell her?”

  He could only imagine. Lauren got passionate about their work, but never as much as she did about the project in Haiti. They’d been there twice already, for two weeks each time. And while it wasn’t an easy place to visit, it was also a hard place to leave. There was so much need there, and the idea that they could do something about some of it had hit them both hard, but Lauren had, for some reason, really gotten fired up.

  “I told her the truth,” Lauren said firmly. “I told her about the project and everything you’ve worked on and what it’s like there and what they need. She wants you to go. Very much.”

  He believed that. Adrianne believed in him, in what he did. But there was something not right. Something didn’t fit. “I want her, Lauren. I don’t want to be without her.”

  “I offered to let her come with us,” Lauren said. She met his eyes and he knew she wasn’t lying. “I offered to call Ben about her background check and passport. But she said no.”

  He tried to process that. “No to what exactly?”

  “Going with you. Being with you.” Lauren paused and then said quietly, “She said no to you, Mason.”

  “But I…” He really didn’t know what he’d meant to say. Adrianne had said no to him.

  “She wants you to go,” Lauren said gently. “She wants you to make things right in DC and then go to work in Haiti.”

  “Does she know how long I’ll be gone?”

  Lauren nodded. “I told her everything.”

  Something still didn’t feel right. She loved him, he knew it. She’d said it wasn’t normal to fall that fast but…

  That was what didn’t fit, he realized a moment later. Adrianne would never say something like that to him. She didn’t believe he was abnormal or strange. So she’d said that specifically for a reason.

  And then it occurred to him that she knew the story. The story of his public humiliation at Hailey’s hands.

  Maybe Hailey had told her the story. Or maybe not. There were at least thirty people in town who had personally witnessed the whole thing. Including Phoebe and Matt, come to think of it. Hailey had used the words not normal too. Or had implied them. Hell, he couldn’t even really remember any more and he didn’t care.

  But it seemed that Adrianne thought he cared enough about the past that a repeat performance would be enough to push him away for good.

  She really wanted him to leave badly. He’d seen how she was shaking, how hard that was on her. She loved him—he knew it, even if it had only been three days—and there had to be a damned good reason for her to be willing to hurt him like that.

  “Fine,” he finally said. “She wants me to go? Fine. I’ll go. I’ll do this thing. But this isn’t over.”

  “Yeah,” Lauren said. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  “YOU DON’T LOOK so good,” Hailey said with concern.

  “I need you to take me to the hospital,” Adrianne managed.

  “I’m coming too.”

  Adrianne looked up to find Lauren had come back in.

  “Is he gone?” Adrianne asked.

  Lauren nodded. “He went to get his things and is flying out tonight.”

  Adrianne felt like bawling but her chest wouldn’t expand even enough for that. “Is he…okay?”

  “He’s hurt. He’s confused. But he’s going.” Lauren looked tired as she said it.

  Adrianne respected that. Mason was her friend. Seeing him hurt, going through this, had to be hard on her too. Even though they both knew it was for the best.

  “He said this isn’t over between you,” Lauren told her.

  Adrianne shook her head. “He can say whatever he wants. Once he’s back in Chicago and back to work he’ll snap out of
it. He knows what he’s doing there is more important than golfing and corn in Sapphire Falls.”

  Lauren didn’t answer.

  On the drive to the hospital, Adrianne prayed for quiet. Her head was pounding and she almost wished she could just pass out to get away from the pain.

  But the silence lasted only until they were on the highway. Which in Sapphire Falls only took four minutes.

  “What the hell what that?” Hailey demanded.

  “I got the money and the land. Now shut up,” Adrianne said from the back seat. She rested her head against the window and shut her eyes.

  Not that Hailey listened. “But you said you wanted Sapphire Hills more than Mason. That’s crap. Obviously. Everyone knows it.”

  “Yeah, well, Mason’s the only one who has to buy it,” Adrianne said. “Now shut up.”

  “Mason’s a genius, Ad. No way did he buy it.”

  “He paid us and left, so who cares?” she snapped. “Now shut up.”

  Hailey stopped talking to her. She turned her conversation to Lauren.

  “Everything was fine until you showed up. What’s going on?”

  “Hey, I happen to have a pretty high IQ too,” Lauren informed her. “No way am I getting into the middle of this.”

  Adrianne’s cell rang. Was it Mason? Her heart rate picked up again, but then she used her IQ and realized that there was no way it was Mason. He was never going to speak to her again.

  As it should be. As she wanted it to be.

  Besides, it was Phoebe’s ringtone. She seriously considered not answering, knowing she could not explain this event to even her best friend without crying. Finally though, she picked up. “I’m on my way to the hospital, I’ll call you later,” she said before Phoebe could speak.

  “I know. Hailey texted me. Want me to come?”

  “God, yes.” And Adrianne promptly burst into tears.

  An hour later, she was fine. Or as fine as she was ever going to be again.

  Mason was still gone, her heart still hurt, but her blood pressure was down to the normal range and her headache was mild. Dr. Carthan told her she was fine. Four times. He also told her that he was startled to see her this worked up. He’d often praised her for how well she managed her stress and the diligence with which she followed her health plan.

  She burst into tears again at that.

  Her heart was in trouble, hurt, was broken in spite of the fact that for two years she’d followed every bit of advice she’d been given, read or researched.

  All thanks to Mason Riley.

  “Do they make medication that will help me forget the past twelve hours?” she said.

  “Yes, it’s called alcohol,” Dr. Carthan said.

  “But I can’t drink.”

  He sighed and put her chart down. “Yes, you can. In moderation. You can also eat potato chips and sky dive and enjoy your life, Adrianne.”

  “I’m trying to be careful,” she said grumpily. Didn’t he realize that it had been a sacrifice to pass up wine and chips for the past two years?

  “There’s a fine line between being careful and being miserable with these things,” he said. “And I think maybe you’ve stepped over it.”

  She frowned at him. “And to think that staying near you has been a consideration of mine.”

  “Staying near me for what?”

  “For you to take care of me and my heart.”

  “Oh, sure.” He nodded. “It’s important to stay near a doctor who can so effectively take care of a perfectly healthy heart. It’s not like every physician in the universe can do that.”

  He gave her a wink, gave Phoebe a grin, nodded to Hailey and Lauren—both of whom leaned a bit to watch him leave the room.

  Adrianne looked from one woman to the next. Her best friend, her boss and Mason’s best friend. All women she happened to like at least a little. All women who had headed straight for the hospital with her without question.

  “Nothing to say?” she asked them.

  “I’d like to go on record as agreeing with him,” Phoebe said. “And simply add that you could get hit by a bus tomorrow and all the sacrifice and deprivation wouldn’t matter then anyway.”

  Adrianne’s eyes widened. “I hope that’s not supposed to be a pep talk.”

  Phoebe shrugged. “It was short notice.”

  “I would have to agree with her,” Hailey said. “Life’s short. There are just some things you can’t go without.”

  Adrianne tried not to show how interested she was in that answer. Did they think she should go after Mason? Was Hailey saying that her being with Mason was more important than Sapphire Hills? What about DC and Haiti?

  “I think it’s obvious what needs to happen now,” Hailey said.

  “Absolutely,” Lauren agreed.

  “Oh? What’s that?” Adrianne asked, trying to seem nonchalant. Surely she could still catch him at the airport. There was no way he’d had time to cancel his move yet.

  “We need to get you drunk,” Phoebe said.

  “Definitely,” Hailey agreed. “To hell with moderation for tonight.”

  “YOU KNOW,” Lauren said as they settled into the limo that would take them from the White House to the hotel. “I’m thinking a policy that states we don’t call anyone we work with a prick might be in order.”

  Mason scowled at the back of the driver’s head. “I agreed to do the interview with Newsweek. I agreed to talk at the press conference. But I’m not babysitting a bunch of reporters in Haiti. And he was being a prick about it.”

  So he was the vice president. That didn’t mean he got to tell Mason what he did with his project and team.

  Except that it did of course when he was making the project happen.

  “Yeah, well, he wasn’t the only prick in there,” Lauren muttered.

  Mason scrubbed a hand over his face. He was exhausted. He was beyond frustrated. He couldn’t do anything right.

  “You look like crap,” Lauren finally said.

  He knew that. “Then I look better than I feel.”

  “What did you have for breakfast?”

  “Coffee.”

  “What did you have for dinner last night?”

  “Coffee.”

  He had no appetite and all he felt like doing was sleeping so coffee seemed a logical choice.

  Lauren made a frustrated sound. “I came to get you in Sapphire Falls because I needed you. And you’re fucking this all up. Maybe I should have left you there.”

  “Yeah, maybe you should have left me there,” Mason snapped. But his gut cramped as he said it. He hadn’t left Sapphire Falls because of anything Lauren had said or done.

  “Mason, I…” Lauren trailed off. Then she turned to face him fully and tucked a foot underneath her. “You need to snap out of this.”

  “Just like that? Forget all about the only woman I’ve ever loved?”

  “Well…I told you so.”

  “What are you talking about?” He wasn’t sure he had the energy for this. He barely had the energy to stay sitting upright.

  Lauren sighed. “Adrianne. I really didn’t think she was until I met her. Then I thought she definitely could be. Now I’m pretty sure she’s not.”

  Mason frowned at her. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Adrianne isn’t good enough for you.”

  He closed his eyes. “I can’t do this, Lauren.”

  “No, Mason, I have to tell you this because you’ve got to get your ass in gear.” Lauren touched his arm.

  H
e rolled his head to look at her, forcing his eyes open.

  “Adrianne did want you to leave Sapphire Falls.”

  “Yeah, she made that pretty clear,” he said dryly. He’d been trying everything he could to not think of her and focus. He had work to do. When it was over, he was going to allow himself to really wallow. And throw things. And get completely inebriated. But right now he was trying to concentrate. Which Lauren should be helping him with instead of…this.

  “She wanted you to leave for your sake,” Lauren said. “She believes in you and knows you need to be in Haiti. But she was adamant about not coming with you.”

  “I remember,” he said darkly.

  “But you don’t understand why.”

  “And you do?”

  “Yes.” Lauren met his gaze. “She’s afraid to fly. Terrified, in fact.”

  Mason felt her words jolt through him. There was a real reason Adrianne wouldn’t go with him? Other than not wanting to—not wanting him enough? But why wouldn’t she tell him that?

  In the next moment, he shook his head. “She traveled—flew—all the time for her job in Chicago before she went to Sapphire Falls.”

  “Yes, before Sapphire Falls,” Lauren said, watching him. “Her last flight was the reason she left her job and moved to a smaller town with a slower pace.”

  “What happened?” Mason asked, feeling his heart rate kick up. There was something here. Something big, he could feel it.

  “The last time she flew she…” Lauren seemed to hesitate on the next words. Finally, she said, “She had a heart attack, Mason.”

  He stared at her. He knew about the heart attack. He was still having trouble truly accepting it and now…it had happened on a plane?

  Lauren continued. “I looked it up after I found out. It’s rare in a woman her age, but she was doing everything wrong—sleeping pills, too much stress, smoking, all of that. She’s changed her life now, but it scared the shit out of her. Which is legitimate, I guess.”

  Mason let the words roll around in his head. On a plane? Good God, she could have died.

  He closed his eyes and let the new knowledge sink in.