Read Online The Holiday Triplets by Jacqueline Diamond - Free Book Online Page B

glamour.”
    â€œYou’re picky about your cheesy glassware?”
    â€œJust the opposite,” she said. “The bigger and more flamboyant, the better.”
    â€œYou’re pretty confident about winning.”
    â€œI have faith in your sister. I mean, she’s related to you. Take it as a compliment.”
    â€œI’m trying,” Mark said.
    They sat contemplating their bet and stealing glances at each other. Sam couldn’t recall the last time she’d relaxed like this with a guy. Male friends occasionally escorted her to charitable functions, and she’d had her share of lovers over the years, but they rarely seemed to find idle moments. Mark, she suspected, was not all that different. Yet here he was, and here she was.
    â€œWhy haven’t you ever married?” she blurted. “Or did you, and I missed it?”
    He pretended to wince. “Is this another of your stump-the-host questions, like whether I want children?”
    â€œIs this another of your evasive answers?”
    â€œI was engaged once,” he said. “How’s that for not being evasive?”
    â€œYou haven’t filled in the details yet,” Samantha pointedout. While she’d assumed he’d had serious girlfriends, the news of a broken engagement surprised her. Mark seemed like the kind of guy who’d choose with care, and then follow through. “When?”
    â€œA few years ago, in Florida.” His shoulders hunched into what she interpreted as a defensive posture.
    â€œWas it that bad?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou’re bracing as if…” She searched for a football analogy. “As if you’re about to be tackled.”
    He lowered his shoulders, regaining control. “My fiancée was a nurse. Smart and fun to be around. And worth spending my life with, or so I believed.”
    â€œWhat went wrong?”
    â€œShe got caught stealing drugs from the hospital. Turned out she’d been addicted to painkillers since a car accident the year before.”
    His jaw tightened. What an ugly situation. While Sam sympathized with anyone struggling to work through pain and addiction, stealing drugs from the hospital where you worked was a serious breach of trust, as well as a crime.
    â€œHow awful. I presume she hadn’t confided in you.”
    He shook his head. “If I’d known anything about it, I could have lost my medical license. I cared about her, but I felt betrayed, too.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œI helped Chelsea get into a rehab program, but while I understand about addiction, I couldn’t forgive the violation of trust. That was the end of our plans together.”
    â€œBeing addicted and violating trust go hand in hand,” Samantha observed sympathetically.
    â€œAs I learned growing up.”
    Her heart went out to him. “Which one of your parents? Not both, surely.”
    â€œDad didn’t abuse substances, but he had affairs. That can be an addiction in its own way. My mother drank herself into liver failure.” He spoke tightly but without hesitation.
    He’d come to terms with his loss, at least at some level, Sam gathered. That didn’t mean he’d released all the anger or the pain.
    â€œDo you blame your dad?”
    He shrugged. “Did he cheat because she drank, or did she drink because he cheated? Maybe both, or maybe they were drawn to each other’s dysfunctions.”
    That brought them to the subject at hand. “What about your sister? When did she develop problems?”
    â€œShe started binge drinking as a teenager. For years, I kept trying to save her, and kept failing.” Sorrow shadowed his eyes. “Finally I had to admit defeat and let her go. Now I’m reluctant to buy into the same cycle of hope and regret all over again.”
    The rough note in his voice touched Sam. “She left scars.”
    â€œShe did.”
    â€œScars can