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to do with her allure. Maybe Masonwas thinking the same thing. Either way, I don’t think he wanted to consider that he and Todd were alike any more than I wanted to believe Jaimee was like me.
    Mason and Jaimee had been married a long time, and it seemed that there was bound to be emotional residue. I just didn’t want to be in the middle of it. I tried to pull away, but Mason held on tightly to me.
    Jaimee threw Mason an exasperated glance before she continued. “If you must know, we broke up. Well, actually, I broke up with him.”
    This was starting to get more and more uncomfortable. “I just came to drop off the biscuits, really,” I said, managing to pull free this time.
    “Please stay,” Mason said with a smile. “I’ll make cappuccinos.” Jaimee seemed impatient with our little moment and started talking again.
    “I’m pretty sure Todd was cheating on me,” Jaimee said. The comment had the desired effect, as all three of us turned our attention to her.
    “You tend to overreact sometimes,” Mason said. “I’m sure you can work things out.”
    Jaimee made a face. “I should have figured you would say that. I don’t overreact. I don’t know why you keep saying that. He went somewhere Thursday night. He said it was business, but he wasn’t dressed for a lesson. Besides, he’s been cancelling students, saying he doesn’t have the time. I know because I answered his cell phone a few times and these people started yapping at me—he’s such a great teacher, their game is going to suffer if they don’t have their weekly session, blah, blah, blah. When I brought it up to him, he got mad at me for answering his phone. Then he said he had invested in some kind of business and had a partner and that was why he wasn’t doing so many lessons anymore. He wouldn’t give me anymore details than that. The final blow was when I suggested staying at his place while the work was being done at my place. He said no, so I said go.”
    “What about a hotel?” Mason said. “I’ll even make the reservation.” He was already pulling out his cell phone.
    “No,” she said vehemently. “I can’t be in some public place. I need to hide out.”
    Brooklyn held on to her mother’s arm sympathetically.
    Jaimee seemed to sag. “I was dropped from
The Housewives of Mulholland Drive
. The producer said there wasn’t enough drama in my life to keep the audience interested. Once they heard I broke up with Todd, I was just an overdressed woman remodeling her house.”
    I couldn’t see Mason’s face, but I had a feeling he was rolling his eyes. I was sure he was about to talk Jaimee into going to some spa in the desert to hide out, but Brooklyn stepped in.
    “Dad, you should let her stay here. This house is huge. She can stay in the room next to mine, and you’ll never have to see each other.”
    “She’s right,” Jaimee said brightly. “It’ll be like we’re girlfriends. You won’t even know I’m here.” Mason might have stood his ground with his ex-wife, but once his daughter got involved, he gave up. I wasn’t happy with his decision, but I understood, though I had to press my lips together to keep from asking, if Jaimee was going to be so invisible, how was she going to help take care of him? As if that was ever really an option, anyway.
    When we were just friends, before we got together, Mason and I had a fun sort of relationship. Casual, with no baggage. But all of that had changed, and if we were going to belong to each other, as we’d put it, it meant accepting everything that came along with the other person, including an ex-wife and a hostile daughter.
    “All right, then,” Mason said, putting his hands up in capitulation. Jaimee had a triumphant smile as she made a move to pick up her suitcase, but Brooklyn grabbed it first, and the two of them walked away down the hall.
    “That was not supposed to happen,” Mason said, shaking his head at the receding figure of his ex-wife. “I thought I