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and then she followed Missy and Jack inside.
     

 
    CHAPTER TEN
     
    They’d made grilled chicken, roasted corn on the cob, and potato salad—the quintessential New England summer meal. Jack reached into the fridge for another hard cider, and Caroline accepted it with a nod, joining them at the picnic table in the backyard and trying to smile.
     
    It felt incredibly fake to be there, and she'd felt a tug under her belly button—an almost magnetic pull—towards the direction that Mason had taken. Letting him face this down alone seemed incredibly wrong. She’d set him on this path; abandoning him to face the dragon alone seemed as much a problem as being the princess waiting in the tower. Gross, either way.
     
    She didn’t know how much Jack had told Missy. From what she knew of their marriage, and what she knew about Jack, he’d probably told her the basic outline, but downplayed the danger. Which was just another reason to feel guilty.
     
    “So, Caroline,” Missy gave her a wide smile that Caroline forced herself to return. “Jack tells me that he made a bargain with you to do a favor for you?”
     
    Caroline felt heat wash through her cheeks, and she tried not to spontaneously combust. She wasn’t sure she’d felt this awkward or goofy since high school, when she’d forced herself to ask a guy to prom and he’d laughed at her in front of the entire lunchroom. “Yes,” she made herself say.
     
    The look on Missy’s face was an odd mix of trying not to laugh and—trying not to be disappointed? “I just want you to know that I’m not expecting anything. I consider it a joke between friends, unless you choose to take us up on it. If you do, well, then that’s just fine.” She reached out, hesitated, and then laid her hand over Caroline’s. “I’m sorry he brought it up that way. It was extremely rude of him.” Her eyes stayed focused on Caroline’s, but her words were entirely for Jack, and it gave Caroline space to giggle.
     
    Jack was utterly unbothered as he cut into his chicken. “I’m not complaining, either way,” he said. “For the record. I’m just glad that everyone’s here, and safe.”
     
    After dinner, Jack conscripted Missy to help make brownies, and Caroline took a shower. Her brain was spinning a mile a minute. The sex with Mason earlier had been wonderful, but right now, her skin was crawling with the urge to be touched, the need to touch someone and garner reassurance.
     
    She’d never felt this way before, and she both liked it, and didn’t. It was easier, being on her own, just her and Gloria. So much easier. Relying on people got people hurt. Falling for people, and then not having then in your life hurt. Everything fucking hurt.
     
    She scrubbed her skin like she could scrub the feelings out from under her fingernails, but nothing changed.
     
    She liked the way Missy looked at her. Polite, respectful—and interested. Even Mason hadn’t looked at her like that, not until she’d made herself interesting. Missy saw something in her. That was intoxicating, all on its own.
     
    There was a tap on the bathroom door. Caroline wiped off her cheeks--not that anyone would be able to see her through the frosted glass--and called out. “Yeah, come in.”
     
    “Just me,” Missy called out, and Caroline could see her through the glass, as distorted as Caroline’s frame probably appeared to her. She looked at her through the fun-house glass and tried to understand her body’s reaction.
     
    Missy was tall, narrow, with a runner’s frame and lanky muscle. Everything about her was sharp, from her features to her elbows and her knees. Missy and Jack hadn’t had kids, but whether that was choice or fate she didn’t know, and hadn’t ever asked. “I brought you some clothes to change into. Lounge pants, a tank top. Should fit fine.” Caroline saw her set the clothing down on the sink.
     
    “Thanks,” she said.
     
    “I freaked you out, didn’t I? I shouldn’t