One Hot Christmas (Mercy Island Series Book 2) by Jacquie Underdown

Author:Jacquie Underdown [Underdown, Jacquie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Tennessee woke later than she would have liked, but between organising and participating in Twelve Dates of Christmas, not to mention the one-too-many glasses of wine last night, by the time she hit her pillow, she could have slept for a thousand years.

On her way to her ensuite to shower, she grabbed her smartphone from her dresser and checked her emails, missed calls and messages. There was no downtime when bookings were coming through for the after-Christmas period, or future guests wanted questions answered, and suppliers were trying to finalise orders before the holiday closures.

The number of messages this morning was beyond her normal level, though. And they were all from friends who lived in Melbourne. Her stomach squirmed and that slight ache behind her eyes.

BINDI: Oh. My. God. Have you seen the news?

MELISSA: He’s at it again.

MARCUS: I’m here for you if you need a chat.

RACHEL: He has no respect.

She shook her head, confusion clouding her thoughts. What were they on about? The next message had a link attached. With a racing heart, she opened the news article.

The headline read: JOHNATHON POWERS, 40, MARRIES 22-YEAR-OLD JOSIE JESSOP IN SECRET CEREMONY.

She gasped and fell back onto her bed. Not even two months after their divorce, Johnathon had already remarried the girl who played Tennessee’s little sister on House of Secrets. A surge of nausea overcame her, and she raced to the toilet, heaving above it, but nothing came up.

After a long moment, she stood up, gulping in deep breaths.

Blistering betrayal had her blood fiery. Yes, they were divorced, and he had had every right to move on, but it still stung like a sharp-toothed bite.

What more could she expect? Johnathon had never valued their marriage—why would he suddenly change once they had separated?

She pressed her hands to her hot cheeks. Her neck was flushed. Sickly mortification. Since discovering all those long months ago that she was the last one to know about Johnathon’s string of affairs, embarrassment had almost become a permanent emotion.

That’s why she ran away—she couldn’t face it. That’s why she tried so hard for anonymity here because it was difficult to hold her head high once people learnt that she had remained married to a man who treated their relationship as a sham by continuously cheating on her.

He had murdered her confidence. Destroyed how she saw herself. Altered her entire perception of the world. Now when she thought about love or marriage or even a kiss under the moonlight by the beach, instead of excitement and joyous anticipation, she was filled with fear. He had conditioned her to be wary, untrusting, resistant.

In this last year, she had made a lot of progress. But with his news, all that dark emotion was storming through her veins again. She was shaking.

Pull yourself together, Ten. You’ve got a house full of people relying on you.

Blessed distraction. Her singles needed her to be positive and fun. So, she swallowed down the pain, drew a deep breath, shook out her hands and got on with it.

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