Free All He Ever Needed by Shannon Stacey Page A

a part of it.
    She liked Mallory Miller. Over the last two years, they’d grown closer than acquaintances, though most of their interaction was at the diner or as part of a group, usually with Hailey and Katie or at movie night. But if anybody asked, Paige would call her a friend.
    She liked Drew too, though, and their marital problems weren’t really a black-and-white issue. If Drew had cheated—or Mallory, for that matter—it would be easy to take sides. In this particular case, however, Paige wasn’t sure what to say.
    And she still had high hopes Drew and Mal would reconcile and, if that happened, she didn’t want to be the bad guy who’d tried to talk her out of it.
    “What are we talking about?” Katie asked once she’d pulled up a counter seat and Paige had made her a large vanilla Coke.
    “How much men suck,” Mal told her.
    Katie snorted. “I don’t have that much time.”
    Paige still hadn’t figured out what the deal was with Katie. She didn’t date any more than Paige did, but she wasn’t “news.” The pretty blonde had a healthy number of male friends and was generally considered one of the guys . So much so, in fact, Paige had heard some speculation as to whether Katie Davis even liked guys. Paige knew she did, and she also suspected Katie had already given her heart to somebody in particular and the guy hadn’t figured it out yet. Katie, however, would neither confirm nor deny that theory.
    “I think I’m going to move out,” Mallory said, and something in the way she said it made Paige believe she’d just that second reached that conclusion.
    “Make him do the moving,” Katie said.
    “If I move to the city, I won’t have that long commute anymore. And he’s the police chief, so he’ll be staying here. It makes more sense for me to move than him.” Tears began streaming down Mal’s cheeks, and Paige took the coffee mug out of her trembling hands, setting it on the counter. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
    “I still think you should try counseling before you make a decision like that,” Paige said quietly.
    “Yeah, I want to tell a total stranger I’ve been lying to my husband for ten years. And then I can listen to Drew and the therapist tell me I’m a bad person and that everything would be okay if I have a baby.”
    Katie stopped sucking on her straw to shake her head. “I’ve never been, but I’m pretty sure marriage counseling doesn’t work like that.”
    Paige had to agree, but she was trying to extricate herself from the conversation, not dig herself in deeper, so she kept that to herself. Then, thankfully, a few guys who worked for a local construction outfit walked through the door and she had an excuse to leave the counter.
    It was a little depressing, honestly, to join in a men suck party. She didn’t think they sucked, despite her current ban on becoming involved with one herself. Especially in this case, where she didn’t think Drew had done anything wrong. He was understandably upset that his wife had been lying to him since before they’d even married.
    But she’d seen women in Mal’s situation before. One woman in particular. Paige’s mother was the master of burying her own wants and needs to please a man. Donna Sullivan never worried about the future—if she’d eventually grow to hate herself or resent the man, or what would happen if the day came when she couldn’t hide her true self and the man discovered she wasn’t who he’d thought she was. All that mattered was that the man not leave her right then.
    A few more people wandered in as she poured sodas for the construction guys, so she didn’t get a chance to drop back into the conversation before Katie had to get back to the barbershop and Mallory went on with whatever came next in her non-sick day.
    She kept busy until two, when Ava showed up. Ava was almost sixty, though she was fighting a valiant battle against the years with deep-chestnut hair dye and a variety of facial creams