Jenny drove home on autopilot and, except for the time she spent with her parents before they left, when she faked a cheerful veneer so they wouldn’t worry about her, she stayed there for the next week. Unfortunately, she was very well trained in hiding heartbreak from the people closest to her.

She refused to allow in the pain that hovered on the edge of her consciousness as she forced herself through a daily routine that consisted of sleep, enough food to stay alive and more sleep.

She dodged her friends, didn’t go to work at the store and didn’t take the calls from Paul that stopped after the third day. The only Martinez brother she wanted to hear from didn’t call.

Sydney came on the fifth day, marching in the mudroom door and up the stairs, calling out for Jenny on the way up. “Where are you?”

Jenny was on the sofa in the sitting room, still wearing the pajamas she’d changed into after her last shower two days ago. “Here.”

“What the hell is going on?” Syd asked, zeroing in on her on the sofa. “You’re not taking our calls. No one has seen you. What gives?”

“He broke up with me.”

“No… Why?”

Jenny moved her feet so Syd could sit on the other end of the sofa. “Because of his mother and his guilt and his sense of obligation that apparently doesn’t extend to me.”

“I don’t get it. He’s crazy about you. We all saw that. It’s all we’ve talked about since Saturday. Grace is trying to take credit for it. She thinks she introduced you to him at the Tiki. I didn’t tell her otherwise, but you’d be doing us all a favor if you could set her straight at some point.”

Jenny knew her friend was trying to cheer her up with the silly story. However, nothing could cheer her up except an indication from Alex that he’d changed his mind, but she’d given up on that happening a couple of days ago. Her eyes welled with tears, which was funny because she would’ve thought her tear ducts had run dry by now.

“God, I’m so sorry, Jenny. This totally blows.”

“It reminds me far too much of another time in my life. I never thought I’d feel that bad again, but this is…” There were no words for what this was. “I love him so much. I love everything about him. I even love his brother and his mother. I don’t care that she’s sick or that she might need me or he might need me. I don’t care about any of that.”

“And you told him so?”

Jenny nodded. “It didn’t matter.”

Sydney blew out a deep breath. “Well, if that’s the way he wants to be, you’ll have to show him it doesn’t matter.”