Love & Marry Read Online Free PDF Page B

yourself away from men.”
    “I went through a period of depression, too and lots of questioning, blaming myself and wondering what I did wrong that I couldn’t hold on to him. Sometimes I still wonder.”
    He opened his mouth to speak but closed it and shook his head.
    “Go ahead, Dr. Love,” Marry said. “Say what you were going to say.”
    “Some guys are just jerks,” he said.
    She dropped her fork. “Uhm…gee. I’m glad I didn’t pay for that advice.”
    Allen pushed aside his empty plate and leaned against the table. “Okay, I’m assuming that he didn’t just pick this woman up in the airport, correct?”
    “He’d known her for a long time. She was an old girlfriend,” Marry said.
    “So he was a coward as well as a jerk,” Allen said. “This Charlie guy was probably having doubts about your relationship a long time before he texted you on the night before your wedding. He should have been a decent man and told you the truth when he first realized that he still had a thing for his ex-girlfriend.”
    “Maybe he tried to tell me, and I wasn’t listening. I was busy planning the wedding, and I did a lot of traveling for my job…”
    “Hey, Marry.”
    Her head snapped up, and she stared at him. Why had he taken that tone with her ?
    “Hmm, I didn’t seem to have any trouble getting your attention just then,” he said. “Charlie could have found a way to talk to you if he’d been man enough to face you.”
    “Charlie never liked confrontation,” she said.
    He leaned back in his chair. “I wrote a paper on that once. Remind me to let you read it.” He paused while the waiter took their plates. “I have no doubt that you would have given him the devil,” he said.
    “What makes you say that?”
    He pointed to her head. “Red hair,” he said. “Fiery temperament.”
    “That’s an old wives’ tale,” she said. But true , she acknowledged to herself if not to him.
    He grinned as if he’d read her mind. “Confrontation is sometimes necessary—especially when you’ve made the kind of mistake Charlie made. You have to face the music and take your lumps, or take the coward’s way out as he did.”
    “It did make me a stronger person. I would have never started my business if Charlie hadn’t left me, and in hindsight we had a lot of differences that might have made us incompatible. I’m better off without him.”
    He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “And there you have it,” he said. “Making the best out of the hand we’re dealt—not letting it cripple us or make us afraid of…life.”
    It might have been the potent drink in front of her or the atmosphere of the restaurant, but Marry felt warm and relaxed from head to toe. It had been ages since she’d felt that way.
    “So how do you propose that we get our revenge on my mom and your uncle?” she asked.
    He raised his glass. “By having the best time that we can have and not telling them a single thing about it.”
    She clinked her glass to his. “Agreed. I like the way you think.”
     
    * * *
     
    Marry awoke on Friday morning feeling regret that her vacation was almost over. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was past nine. She and Allen had stayed out late the night before at a dance club. She enjoyed the music, but she’d finally given him proof that she couldn’t dance.
    She started the coffee brewing and walked over to the balcony. The hotel staff was setting up beyond the pool area for what appeared to be a wedding. The flowers and arch facing the ocean gave it away. She remembered how a week earlier she had rolled her eyes at the resort slogan, Encontrar el verdadero amor en La Luna Resort. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who had found love at La Luna.
    Marry still couldn’t quite believe it. A man that she’d only known for a week had swept into her life and stolen her heart right out from under her in such a different and unexpected way. With Charlie, her relationship had begun with crazy,