“I’ve heard a lot about you,” I reply.

I’m not a jealous person. But I can’t help but hold a slight bit of curiosity about her. I know she had been seeing their friend, Quinn, but still. Mark is a hundred times better catch—at least in my opinion.

She laughs. “Believe nothing you’ve heard. Especially if it’s from him.” She lets go of me and walks over to Mark. She punches him in the arm playfully then they hug. “It’s good to see you, Twilight.”

“Quinn here?” He asks with an edge to him.

“No.”

“Fucking Asshole.”

“Let’s not ruin today with talk of the douchebag.” Ashton smiles before turning to Catherine. “It’s not every day I get to see my Biffle get married.”

“Biffle?”

“Best friend for life,” Catherine explains. “Ashton has her own language. It’s ever growing with her made up words.”

“Whatever!” she says with her hand up as she saunters away.

I’ll need to drink to keep up with this group. It’s funny how Mark is so integral to so many people. He fulfills a different role for each of them. For Natalie, he’s her support in some ways, only more brotherly. With Catherine, he’s more playful and again brotherly, but more annoying. With Jackson, he’s his rock. He stands beside him, will fight for him, and he has this seriousness around him. Then, when he’s with me, there’s a side no one else gets to witness—something just between us. Then again, he sees something within me that I’ve never shared.

Catherine giggles. “Come on, we’re having wine and hors d’oeuvres over in the picnic area.”

Mark takes my hand and we follow her over. When we arrive, Jackson immediately stands, kisses my cheek, and hugs Mark. When he sits down, Catherine perches herself on his lap. God, they’re so in love.

Ashton makes a choking sound when they start to kiss. “You two need to just get this over with so we can all stomach food.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Mark laughs. “She’s not kidding. You’d figure by now it would’ve worn off.”

Jackson regards Catherine and then brushes her hair back. “It’ll never wear off. When it’s right, it’s forever.”

I’m not sure whether to laugh or swoon.

Mark grabs his drink and guzzles it. We spend the evening this way, drinking wine and eating until the sun sets. The lights from the fountain set off a glow. The night is so beautiful, it makes me wonder how I would feel if I were the bride.

“Okay, people.” Catherine slaps her legs and stands. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.” She gazes at Jackson as he pulls her in his arms. “A day I feel like we’ve waited forever to get here.”

Jackson holds her close. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there.”

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Tomorrow you’ll be Mrs. Cole.”

My heart swells. This is what true love looks like. It reminds me of my parents. My father used to say the sweetest things to my mother. If they were fighting, my dad would just tell her some beautiful line and she was putty in his hands. They loved each other with every part of their being, and I see that in Jackson and Catherine.

“Awww,” Mark says sarcastically. “You’re going to be Mrs. Muffin.”

She glares at him. “You’re such a tool.”

Mark shrugs. “I’ve been told that a time or two. But it’s better than being the nickname for a pussy.”

“Ignore him, baby.” Jackson cups Catherine’s face. The adoring way they look at each other sends shivers down my spine. “Tomorrow we’ll be married. You’re already mine, and I’m already yours, but tomorrow . . . I’ll show the world.”

“Hallmark has nothing on you two. Maybe you should debate a career change to gynecology since you apparently like being a vagina.” Mark busts out laughing, and Ashton slaps the back of his head.

Does he do this with everyone? “Mark,” I say, to diffuse another bickering match and the fact he ruined such a beautiful moment. “Let’s head back to the room. You have to be nice tomorrow, and I’m sure that requires sleep.”

“Again with needing me in bed.”

“Let’s go, Romeo.”

We’re both a little drunk from the wine. I slip into Mark’s T-shirt and climb under the covers. His arms open, and I nestle in. I’ve never been a spooning type girl, but something about letting him hold me is appealing. We fit together, in so many ways.

“Tell me about the last mission,” he says against my neck.

“What about it?”

“Why did they take it away from you?” I tense, and being that his arms are around me, he has to notice. “Sometimes, after we came home from a mission . . . our group would talk it out. Things we did wrong, things we did right, the things we wanted to do differently. It was a time to kind of see things from everyone’s eyes. Jackson would view something in a way I didn’t and vice versa. It can help.”

I understand his logic, but that’s what a debrief is—in a way. “I’ve already gone over this.”

“No, you had to give details. You had to talk about the way it went down, not paint a picture. There’s a difference. Paint me the entire scene. How you felt, what you saw, where you went.”

Mark throws his leg over mine, traps me, and then shifts so he’s on top.

“Hi?”

“We’re not having sex.”

“Well, that’s a disappointment.”

He laughs. “Tell me. Let me see it through your eyes.”

I don’t want to do this, but maybe he’s right. There’s a chance Mark can pick up on something I missed or help me to see it through his eyes. At this point, it’s worth a shot. We’re not any closer to finding either of our targets.

If I thought the grounds were beautiful yesterday, today was like seeing it through new eyes. I spent the morning with Catherine and Ashton. We had a small breakfast and talked a little about how they grew up together.

Around midafternoon, Ashton and Catherine’s other friend, Gretchen, from New Jersey arrived.

Ashton and Gretchen kept both me and Natalie a part of everything. All these women are so different from the ones I’ve known. They’re sweet, considerate, and truly—nice.

Natalie and I decide to sneak off for some wine while the girls are getting their hair done. “I never had a chance to really talk to you,” she says with nerves clear in her voice. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

“I do. I mean . . . I did. Aaron has answered a lot of them. Liam has helped fill in the gaps of what he thinks happened. It’s a really weird place for me when it comes to all of this.” Natalie pushes her blonde hair behind her ear. “I mean, on one hand I should hate you. You kept my husband at the time as a hostage. On the other hand, if that hadn’t happened I’d be living a very different life.”

I know what she means. It’s the guilt of almost being happy that it ended the way it did. Had Aaron come home, she wouldn’t be married to Liam. She may have never known all the secrets that Aaron kept. It’s a really hard place to be.