Page 59 of Deserving Maisy
“Between her and her brother, who’s a real dick if you ask me.”
“He is,” Stone agreed. “I don’t suppose you took a break from hacking into my life long enough to look into Jason and figure out why the fuck he pickedmeto kidnap and lied his ass off to my face?”
“I’m working on that. All I’m saying is,” she said in a less-biting tone than before, “your wife is both stronger than you could ever imagine, and far more vulnerable than you realize.”
“That makes no sense,” Stone said, wanting to be done with this conversation.
Ry shrugged. Then she took a deep breath and looked away briefly, toward their group of friends. “I’m sorry. I’m being a bitch. You haven’t done anything wrong, and I’m taking my frustrations out on you. You have every right to be angry. About what happened to you, and with Maisy.”
Stone was surprised at her abrupt change of demeanor. “Thank you.”
Ry nodded at him.
“Excuse me?”
Both Stone and Ry turned to Maisy at the quiet interjection.
“You have my phone?” she asked Ry.
“No, I’m sorry.” The other woman’s tone was soothing, calm, friendly.
“I had to ditch them before we got to the airport,” Stone told her.
“But I was able to recover all your pictures,” Ry quickly added.
“Oh…good.”
“You were a cute kid,” Ry told her. “That one picture of you between your parents in front of that boat is adorable.”
Maisy smiled and had a faraway look in her eyes. “Yeah, we went whale watching. Jason didn’t want to go and stayed with a friend. But we had the best time.”
Ry patted her hand. “I have some stuff I need to do, but if you need anything, you find me and I’ll get it for you. I’m in cabin number ten, it’s the one with the green door, west of the one you’ll be in. Okay?”
“Okay,” Maisy said absently.
Ry looked at Stone once more, and the soft look on her face was replaced by a stern one. “Easy,” she said, before squeezing Maisy’s shoulder and standing. She didn’t get ten feet off the porch before Stone saw Tiny breaking off from the group still standing outside the lodge chatting and head after her.
“You got your memory back.”
Stone turned to look back at Maisy. She was still sitting on the bench, was still clutching her hands in her lap, but she was looking right at him. He shifted until he was sitting in the seat next to Maisy that Ry had just vacated, and nodded. “Yeah.”
Maisy looked around for a moment before saying, “This place fits you.”
“It does,” Stone agreed. All of a sudden, he wasn’t sure what to say to the woman next to him. He’d spent the last few weeks by her side and they never had a problem finding something to talk about. But now she felt like a stranger, and it sucked.
“I’m sorry I?—”
“No,” Stone interrupted. “Not now.”
Maisy frowned.
“We’ll have our talk, but not when you’re still a little out of it from that Valium. I want you clearheaded and with no excuses for not telling me every damn thing I need to know.”
Maisy pressed her lips together, but she nodded. “Why’d you bring me with you if your memory has returned?” she asked after a moment.
“How else was I going to get answers if I didn’t?” Stone said. If he hadn’t been looking into her eyes at that very moment, he would’ve missed the flash of hurt that leakedout before she was able to control her emotions. Their relationship was a sham. Fake. Why would she be upset that he had no other reason to want her here?
“Right,” she said with a nod.
