My chest contracts like a collapsed soufflé. I have no idea whether Melissa liked Dean’s bride. Will she turn hostile once she knows Dean and I were complete strangers when I stopped his wedding? Does it matter? She’s Dean’s mother; of course it does. “Um, I crashed his wedding.”

Her eyes go wide, and she falls forward. “That was the first day you two met?”

Okay, good. She doesn’t seem upset. Instead, she appears to be amused by the revelation, and I fall a little bit in love with her right then. I sit up in the armchair. “It was.”

“Well done, my dear.” Her expression sobers. “Is he . . . getting over Ella?”

“Honestly, I don’t think there was much to get over. It sounded like they’d convinced themselves a modern-day marriage of convenience made sense. I suspect in hindsight they’re relieved they didn’t go through with it.”

Or Ella is. I’m not so sure about Dean.

After letting out a long sigh, she says, “I did this to him.”

“Did what?” I ask, frowning.

“Made him wary of falling in love,” she says, picking at the nonexistent lint on her sleeves.

“Forgive me, but I doubt that’s true. We’re all informed by our experiences, but how we react to them is partly on us.”

“Then I exposed him to the experiences that led him to be wary of love. Better?”

I’m torn. One the one hand, I’m practically rabid for any additional insight into Dean’s psyche. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t try to dissect Dean’s worldview any more than I already have. Not surprisingly, I cave. “Tell me why you think so.”

“Dean’s grandparents stopped communicating with me shortly after his birth. The why isn’t important. By then, his father had already abandoned us, so after the fallout with my parents, I was completely alone in the world. Twenty-five and alone. With a young child. I tried to find that missing stability in my relationships with men. Still do. But the reality is, my relationships were never healthy, and I ended up turning myself inside out to avoid being alone again.”

She grimaces as she considers her next words. “Dean bore the brunt of that. With age comes clarity, you know. We moved around a lot so I could remain close to whichever latest boyfriend I’d sworn my heart to. Which meant Dean didn’t really have a place he could call home. When a relationship ended, we were usually the ones moving out.”

Now I understand Dean’s dedication to working with clients having problems with their landlords. He relates to their need for security—because he’s been chasing the same thing his whole life.