“I don’t see why not. He told Jared that he loves it here. Your parents certainly love him. The question is, do you love him?” Mara asked her quietly.
“Julian makes me crazy,” Kristin shared. “One minute I want to throttle him, and the next he’ll do something so outrageously sweet that I want to throw myself in his arms and beg him to kiss me or have sex with me right that moment, wherever we are. He’s a terrible cook, but he does everything else so well that I don’t give a damn. He’s obnoxious, but underneath all of his crap, he’s a really decent, considerate man. He’s probably the most complicated and confusing guy I’ve ever known. He never forgets the little things, and he always tells me I’m beautiful and special even though I’m . . . not.” By the time she was done explaining, Kristin was breathless, her heart racing as she considered Mara’s question.
“You are beautiful and special. You just don’t see it. You didn’t happen to mention whether you’re in love with him,” Mara prodded.
Kristin shook her head. “Probably because I don’t want to say it out loud. If I do, I’m screwed. But yeah, I think I might be falling in love with him. That’s a disaster, Mara. You know it is.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and Kristin had to blink them back. Her wedding reception wasn’t the place to be bawling her face off.
Mara put her arm around her lightly. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. It’s pretty damn obvious that Julian feels the same way. Even when he’s all the way across the room, he’s checking to see that you’re okay, that you’re still safe. He reminds me of Jared. Sinclair men are protective as hell when it comes to the women they care about, but they also encourage us in everything we do. Well, almost everything.”
As Mara stepped back so Kristin could accept the drink a waiter handed her, Kristin asked her curiously, “What doesn’t Jared support?” Jared Sinclair would literally walk through fire for his wife. Kristin had seen it time and time again in their relationship.
Mara grinned. “Since Micah joined the family here, all of the Sinclair women want to learn to skydive. Tessa has done it. She’s tandem jumped with Micah, and now she wants to qualify to go solo. Eventually, we all want to go. Micah already said he’d take us. We’ve gotten some kickback on that. None of our husbands are thrilled about the idea of us jumping out of an airplane, even if Micah is in control. But Tessa swears it’s one of the most incredible things she’s ever experienced. Now we all want to try it.”
“Oh man, that would be awesome,” Kristin agreed readily.
“Yep. But try convincing Julian you’d be safe. He’d freak.”
“He does some pretty crazy things. And he doesn’t control my life.”
Mara chuckled. “Neither does Jared. But when I see that terrified look on his face, I have a hard time pushing the issue.”
“Why?”
“Because I love him,” Mara readily replied. “Because I have the same fears. I hurt when he hurts, and just like him, I’d be totally destroyed if anything happened to cause him to get injured . . . or worse.”
Kristin saw her friend shudder, and she knew the “or worse” really meant getting dead. “Then when you come to an impasse, who has to give?”
Mara shrugged. “We work it out. Our love is stronger than fear.”
Kristin had to admit, she was envious of the relationship her best friend had with her husband. She’d never seen two people more in love. In fact, all of the Sinclairs had the same types of relationships with their spouses. Different personalities, but so much in love that nothing ever stood between them anymore. It seemed like the longer they were together, the stronger they were as couples.
“Julian is all wrong for me,” Kristin told Mara desperately as she stirred her mixed drink with a straw. “We’re completely different.”
“You’re rationalizing,” Mara cautioned. “Besides, I don’t think you’re that different where it really counts. And the superficial things don’t mean anything. So he’s rich and you’re not. So he likes chocolate ice cream and you happen to like vanilla—”
“We both like exactly the same flavor,” Kristin interrupted. “But you’re forgetting that he’s a famous superstar, and I’m a medical assistant.”