As wonderful as Mike and Alice Bailey were, they’d been somewhat too eager to see Brynne married, settled, and producing grandchildren. Alice, not surprisingly, had been the one most invested in the dream.

Clippings had begun to arrive in the mail—Brynne’s mom had never gotten the hang of email—images of bridal gowns, exquisite floral displays, glamorous venues ranging from mountaintops to European castles, towering cakes fit for a Windsor wedding.

Brynne had barely registered those pictures at first, but she’d stuffed them into a drawer instead of tossing them. They’d accumulated, over the weeks and months, and they’d become harder to ignore.

Then Heather, Clay’s ex, a trust fund baby, had suddenly married her personal trainer, temporarily transferred full custody of their children to Clay and dropped the kids off at the apartment to set out on a six-week world tour with her new husband.

Brynne had been thrilled to have Davey and Maddie around full-time; in those six weeks, she’d played mom and delighted in every aspect of the role. She’d taken them to school, picked them up afterward, brought them to the gallery, where they remained until quitting time.

Clay was pleased with the situation, too—he was an excellent father and sorely missed his children when they weren’t around—but, although Brynne hadn’t realized it then, something inside him had shifted when Heather remarried.

It was a subtle change, but it turned out to be momentous.

Upon her return from the whirlwind honeymoon, Heather greeted her son and daughter with tears and hugs, but, as she confided to Clay and Brynne, she and her bridegroom needed “us time.” Time to get used to being married.

Would Clay mind keeping the children just a little while longer? She would see them regularly, of course, but she just wasn’t ready to be both a wife and mother just yet.

Again.

Clay had agreed, though he insisted on a new custody agreement, and Heather had gone along with the plan.

The kids, who adored their father, had been delighted, and Brynne had been, too.

Clay, too, had been glad to keep the kids, but he’d seemed oddly embittered all of a sudden regarding Heather’s new marriage. He’d scoffed when Davey and Maddie came home after a brief visit with their mother and showed him pictures of the places they’d visited and the things they’d done together, as a family.

He’d begun to refer to the new husband—”Geoffrey with a G”—as a gym monkey and a mope, the latter being cop slang for a loser.

And it wasn’t like Clay to be so petty.

Slowly, so slowly that Brynne hardly noticed, things began to go wrong between her and Clay. He was often short with her, and he began to work longer and longer hours.