Treasured (Masters and Mercenaries #22.5) - Lexi Blake Page 0,1
a plated meal, and it would likely be super fancy.
She wasn’t a super-fancy girl.
Nina gave her another hug and walked off, always the gracious hostess.
“Hey, how you doing?” a familiar voice said.
She turned and didn’t have to smile because she and Michael didn’t pretend. They’d always been good friends, and even after the breakup she still cared about this man. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“Being at my twin’s anniversary party? Yes. I would have sworn JT would never get married,” Michael said with a shake of his head.
He could be obtuse at times. Or rather not very self-aware. “I’m talking about me being here.”
Michael frowned as though he’d never even had the thought. “I wouldn’t want you to stay away. Nina and JT are your friends. At least I hope they still are.”
She sighed. “Of course. It’s just weird that we still work in the same office and run in the same circles. And I heard you took my mom to lunch two weeks ago.”
“No, I didn’t. We happened to be at Mario’s at the same time, and we were both alone,” Michael corrected. “The place was crowded, like it always is, and it made sense to share a table. I like your mom.”
She’d heard all about how nice Michael was and how her mom wished it could have worked out. And shouldn’t she try again? After all, Michael wasn’t seeing anyone. “She likes you, too.”
“If it helps, my mom talks about you all the time.” Michael took a drag off his beer. “I’m constantly being reminded that my brother’s kids are growing up without cousins, and you could have solved that problem. She firmly believes I could be happy right now if I hadn’t screwed things up.”
He hadn’t screwed anything up. “Should I talk to her?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all. And I promise the next time I see your mom I will be a bastard and make her thrilled we broke it off.”
Maybe she needed to stop worrying about how other people might view their situation. “Don’t. I’m glad you had lunch with her. My brothers are all busy, and I’ve been on assignment. She’s lonely. She’s been missing my dad lately, and I think having someone to talk to made her feel good. And you think you catch hell from your mother about your single status? Try being the only daughter with three brothers who married young and started their own football teams. You would think my mother would be happy with eight grandchildren, but I swear until I pop one out she won’t feel like she’s done her job.”
“I sometimes wonder how she keeps up with all the names,” Michael mused.
“Years of teaching high school.” That was her mom’s secret. She’d had to learn roughly a hundred names every year.
“Well, I’m glad I only have to deal with JT’s two.” Michael frowned suddenly. “Speaking of. I should stop Jasper from climbing up that banister. They’re going to kill me.”
Michael ran off to save his toddler nephew from himself, and Tessa looked around the beautifully decorated room. It was filled with people from JT and Nina’s lives. Tessa recognized a few people from the office. Ian and Charlotte Taggart were talking to Ava Malone. A couple of guys from Tessa’s unit seemed to be working security.
She made the rounds, saying hello to the people she knew and awkwardly explaining to some of them that she was no longer engaged to Michael. It was a lot, and dinner was still thirty minutes off. She found herself making her way to the bathroom to take a break from all the small talk.
She would eat dinner, stay for the toast, and then get home as fast as she could because there was a bath and a book waiting for her. Like there was every single night.
It was a good thing, though. She’d decided to take some me time after the breakup. Some work-on-herself time. No dating. No hook-ups. Just time to reflect on where she was in life.
Tessa stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was thirty-four and took bullets for other people for a living. And even that was getting a little boring. She hadn’t actually been shot at in a long time. Her last assignment had been watching over the queen of Loa Mali and her two daughters. There had been sun and sand, and an odd amount of science talk she hadn’t been able to completely follow. Those girls were smart.