Free KISS AND MAKE-UP by Leslie Kelly

going to consider what his heart wanted. It was much too dangerous.
    And much too late.

Chapter 4

    C assandra packed her bags that night, deciding to leave the following morning. It was time to get back to New York, to her real life. This trip had proved to be a complete waste of time. She hadn’t gotten her closure, but there was still a chance to cut her losses. She could have her lawyer send Wyatt a letter, and the papers, and never have to see him again.
    Alone in the hotel room, she muttered and fumed, crying a bit while talking to herself. She opened the minibar and poured herself what was probably a twenty-dollar ounce of alcohol. It didn’t help. Nothing would get Wyatt’s words out of her head.
    So much for Jackie’s assurances that her brother had “loved her more than life.” He obviously hadn’t if he had such a low opinion of her. Not that she knew the content of Wyatt’s letters, nor did she want to. She’d scolded Jackie for invading her brother’s privacy and had absolutely refused to hear any details.
    That didn’t, however, mean she hadn’t been thinking about them—wondering, imagining—ever since Jackie had opened her mouth. She’d even been playing the “what if” game. As in, “what if” he’d sent her those letters, and “what if” she’d had the guts to answer them.
    But it was too late. Because even if he had felt those things once, he didn’t anymore. Whatever his opinion of her had been back then, he sure didn’t think much of her now. His words proved it, and it hurt. She was hurt. Not to mention depressed.
    Mostly, though, she was mad.
    Wyatt was wrong. Wrong. She wasn’t who she was because of whatever her family wanted. She’d worked her ass off to become the woman she was today. If he was mistaking her for the girl she’d once been, well, he hadn’t really been paying attention to who she was now.
    The girl she’d once been… The words bounced around in her brain, as did Wyatt’s assessment of their marriage. Despite her certainty that he was way off-base, she couldn’t help questioning herself, just a tiny bit.
    What if he was at least partially right? What if she had been seeking a lot more than just her parents’ money? What if she’d always cared more about her family’s opinions than she had about her own happiness, or Wyatt’s pride?
    No. Wyatt was wrong. She knew herself, didn’t she? Dammit, she better know herself after all the self-improvement classes, and, okay, therapy, she’d endured over the years.
    Suddenly needing some assurances that she wasn’t the pathetic-sounding, please-love-me girl Wyatt had described, she reached for her phone and dialed her grandmother.
    “Hello dearest,” the perky old voice said immediately upon answering. “How is it going?”
    “I’m ready to come home.”
    A long pause. Then, “He…didn’t react the way you’d hoped to your marital situation?”
    She rolled her eyes. “I never even got around to telling him about that.”
    “I thought that was the purpose of your trip.”
    “I’ll have a lawyer do it.”
    Her grandmother harrumphed softly. “So there’s no chance of a reconciliation?”
    “None.”
    “He won’t even consider playing the loving husband long enough for you to get your cousin and the rest of the family off your back?”
    Cassandra snorted. “No way. I didn’t mention it, nor would I consider asking him to do any such thing.” Feeling moisture well in her eyes, she added, “And he would refuse if I did. He has no respect for me, whatsoever.”
    “Oh, dear. I’m sorry.”
    “This righting-the-past stuff you shoved down my throat is a load of bull.”
    Her grandmother stayed quiet, as if knowing Cassandra needed to vent.
    “Wyatt accused me of always doing only what my family wanted. Making choices only to please them.”
    “Hmm…”
    She waited but the reserved woman didn’t say another word. “Well? What do you think? I thought the problem was I needed closure in my