"You okay?" I asked.
"Uh-huh, sure," she said, sounding sarcastic even while she fought to calm her breathing. "My mom invited my ex-husband to an intervention at a nudist resort, so they can set me straight. But sure, everything's peachy."
I grasped her shoulders and turned her to face me, though her gaze stayed trained on the house. "Look at me, Mara. Come on, look at me."
She rotated her wide eyes toward me.
"Take slow, deep breaths," I told her. "That's right. Keep breathing. Take it easy and keep looking at me. You don't need to panic because I'm here with you, and I won't leave you alone with anybody unless you tell me it's okay. Got it?"
Mara nodded, clamping her teeth over her lips. She kept taking deep breaths and exhaling them gradually, and the panic on her face relaxed into something more like mild anxiety mixed with a hint of annoyance. I was pretty sure she wasn't annoyed with me. Her ex-husband and her mom seemed like the most likely targets.
"Thank you, Ollie," Mara said once she'd calmed down. "You're better than Xanax."
I chuckled. "That's the strangest compliment I've ever gotten, but coming from you, it's also the nicest one." I thought about what she'd said and asked, "Do you take Xanax? Or Prozac? Anything like that?"
"Never took Prozac, or any antidepressant. But my mom insisted I get a prescription for Xanax." She squared her shoulders and stood up straighter. "I haven't taken one since I came here. Not even after the dining hall incident that first day."
"Good." I pecked a quick kiss on her lips. "I'm proud of you, Mara. Your parents showed up, and you didn't freak out. You stood up to your mom. Now your ex is here, and I know you can handle that too."
The start of tears glistened in her eyes. "You're the first person who ever really believed in me."
"Oh, I think your parents believe in you. Your dad for sure. But I think even your mom does, deep down, and maybe she'll tell you that sometime and explain why she told you all that shit about being proper."
"Maybe." She lifted her chin and cleared her throat. "Right now, I have to face my ex."
"I'll be right here with you, all the way."
She touched my cheek. "I know, Ollie, and that means more to me than you could possibly know."
I took her hand in mine and turned toward the trailhead. "Ready?"
She nodded.
We marched out of the woods and walked into the house via the back door, stepping into the kitchen.
Five people swiveled their gazes toward us.
Eve and Val smiled.
Peter Severins smiled too.
Sheryl glanced at her daughter but quickly averted her gaze, hugging herself.
The fifth person---Mara's ex, I assumed---glared at me for a couple seconds, then he rushed up to Mara. He pulled her into a hug and, like I wasn't standing right there next to her still holding her hand, he planted a big old kiss on her.
A long kiss. Like, loooong long.
I gritted my teeth and tried to be the understanding boyfriend, but honestly, how long would she let him keep doing that? The creep had treated her like dirt. She couldn't want him back. So why was she standing there while he kissed her?
Oh no, he couldn't have done what I thought he just did. He could not have shoved his tongue into her mouth.
Yeah, the asswipe had.
I was pretty sure I growled. My free hand clenched into a fist, and I had an almost overpowering urge to slug this creep.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, he pulled his mouth away from hers. Giving Mara the smarmiest smile I'd ever seen, he said, "I was so worried about you, baby. Glad to see you're okay."
She gaped at him. Not moving. Not speaking. Her cheeks had turned pink.
I still held her hand even while my other one stayed balled into a tight fist.
Her ex glared at me again but quickly pulled on a cloak of civility, smiling politely and offering me his hand. "I'm Nico Marshall, Mara's husband. You must be one of her new friends."
Did this asshole really think I wanted to shake his hand? He couldn't be that stupid.
Mara was still standing beside me gaping at her ex. Was that stunned look because she couldn't believe he'd had the gall to show up here? Or was that a stunned "I want to get back with my douchebag ex-husband" expression?
"It was nice of you to take my Mara for a walk," Nico said. "She's always been afraid of the woods. You must be a great wilderness counselor."
Wilderness counselor? What the fuck was that? Maybe they had those in the big city, where people thought "wilderness" meant a patch of grass with a scraggly bush on it.
"Mara doesn't need counseling," I said. "There's nothing wrong with her."
The prick patted my shoulder. "You don't know her the way I do."
Okay, so he was as stupid as I'd thought. Only a moron would say that to me when I was holding his ex-wife's hand.
A breath blustered out of Mara, like she'd been holding it in and finally let it all out. Her stunned expression evaporated, blown away by her big sigh.
"Nico," she snapped. Once he looked at her, she rolled her shoulders back and said, "I do not need or want you here. Go home."
Okay, not an "I want my asswipe ex back" expression after all. I tried to keep my mouth from forming a smirk, but it happened anyway. Who cared what Nico thought? I had Mara, he didn't, and he could go jump into a volcano for all I cared.
"I can't leave," Nico said, "until we talk about what's going on with you. A nudie resort? That's the craziest mess you've ever gotten yourself into, and I've seen you do a lot of crazy things."
She puckered her lips, and I swore a little bit of steam erupted from her nostrils.
"Listen up, Nico," she said. "You don't know me at all,
