Monica’s lashes brushed her cheeks as she nodded slowly.
Yeah.
Because despite last night, and this morning, that’s exactly what he was. Her estranged husband. Her angry husband.
Her soon-to-be-ex husband.
Of course her mother was worried for her.
He removed his hands from hers, then busied himself getting dressed while she disappeared into the bathroom.
When she came out, she had a full face of light makeup on, and her hair didn’t look like his hands had been buried in it for hours and hours.
“You look great,” he said. An understatement. “Polished and ready to take on the world.”
“Or at least my mother.”
“Feels like the same thing.”
She laughed. “Okay.”
At the door, she zipped on her fancy leather boots, and he helped her into her down vest.
Without asking, he shoved his toque on her head. She shouldn’t have cold ears, not even for fashion reasons.
* * *
The storm was definitely over.There was a good amount of snow on the ground, but the sky was clear, and the weather was much warmer, probably just above freezing.
Maybe in another day or two, the snow would all melt, and it would be back to the near-spring green Monica had first seen when she drove into Pine Harbour.
As they crossed the road, two trucks and an SUV arrived like a caravan, and pulled into the marina parking lot.
Josh swore under his breath.
But the first person to spill out of one of the trucks was Isla, from the bakery, and she seemed to very deliberately give Monica a friendly but not aggressive wave.
Monica waved back, surprising herself.
And Josh. “I was going to apologize for my family, but you’re handling this better than me.”
“I’m more of a morning person,” she pointed out.
“Everyone else gives me shit for not being a morning person.”
She frowned. “Well, they shouldn’t.” She stopped a few feet short of where his family was now collecting, and she lowered her voice. “I’m sorry your sleep-in was interrupted this morning. That was nice for me, too.”
Nice. Ha. She’d been ready to throw caution to the wind on the whole no-condom thing.
It was probably for the best that her mother decided that a dramatic arrival was a good idea.
Josh held up a hand at his brothers. “Introductions later, she has to get to the dock.”
Which sounded appropriately dramatic enough to pull all of them into Bianca Fischer’s welcome party. And since they all knew where they were going, they charged ahead.
And maybe Monica held back, gripping Josh’s hand, because she wasn’t ready to let go.
But the buzz of an approaching plane meant they had to follow.
