Free Moonlight Masquerade by Jude Deveraux

you were going to arrive.”
    Thank you, Kim, Sophie mouthed. “I, uh, needed a job quickly, and Kim got me one.”
    â€œThat sounds ominous,” Reede said with sympathy in his voice. “Let me guess: boyfriend problems.”
    Since what Carter had done to her, Sophie hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone. In college she and Kim and Jecca had spent a lot of time commiserating with one another about the treachery of men. Since then there’d been no one to talk to. “I . . . ” she said and felt a lump forming in her chest.
    â€œWhat happened?” he asked softly.
    There was so much understanding in his voice that Sophie decided to tell the truth, but she did her best to make it sound light. “It’s an old story. We had a difference of opinion. I thought we were serious, but he said we were just a summer romance. Turns out that the whole time he was engaged to someone else.”
    Reede didn’t laugh. Instead, he said softly, “I know.”
    â€œWhat did Kim tell you about me?” Sophie asked, alarmed.
    â€œNothing. Honest. I meant me. Nearly the same thing was done to me.”
    Sophie tried to remember what Kim had told them about her brother, but it was a long time ago and a lot had happened since then. “Wasn’t there something with you and Jecca? Didn’t she have a crush on you?”
    â€œJecca? Naw. Nothing like that. She was a kid. She grew up rather nicely and I envied Tris, but there was nothing between us. Unless you count that I think she saved my life and almost drowned doing it.”
    â€œNow you have to tell me,” Sophie said as she snuggled down in the bed.
    â€œIt’s late and you probably want to sleep.”
    She’d spent the day scrubbing his dark, dingy apartment and was exhausted, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Maybe hearing someone else’s problems would make What Carter Did to Me stop screaming in her head. “I’d like to hear of someone else’s misery,” she said.
    â€œI know the feeling.” Reede stretched out on the couch, his cell phone to his ear. “Okay, so Once Upon a Time,” he said and began telling about him and Laura. Maybe his need to talk was from his frustration that day at not being able to get anyone to take over for him, or maybe it was because he was sick of keeping everything inside him. He could complain to his male friends about his patient load, but he couldn’t tell them about how he hated being compared to Tristan. Nor could he tell the truth about him and Laura. For one thing, everyone in town was waiting to say “I told you so.” They’d all known he and Laura were incompatible.
    But Sophie hadn’t been there. She wasn’t a patient or even someone who knew him. She was a stranger, it was night—he could see the moon through the window—and he’d had too much wine. When he began to talk, the story flowed out of him. It took a while to tell.
    â€œFrom what I’ve heard you’ve always liked to rescue people,” Sophie said about Laura’s shyness.
    â€œI do, rather,” he said. She was making him feel better.
    â€œKim is such an achiever and that’s what she values in others. Sometimes I was intimidated by her.”
    â€œYeah?” Reede asked. “I’ve sometimes thought thatI liked Laura because she was the polar opposite of my mother and sister. It was relaxing to be around Laura, as she didn’t order me around or give me her opinion on everything.”
    â€œWhat about now?” Sophie asked.
    â€œI think I’ve learned to stand up to them, although that isn’t always good. Mom wanted to send food over and get cleaners for me. I told her I was a grown man and could do it myself. You see how that turned out.”
    â€œNo,” Sophie said. “I meant, what if you had married Laura and stayed in Edilean? You’d be working where you do