Marshall was furious when he left Gerald's office. His father had tried, for a final time, to control his life when he'd drawn up his will. He might dance on his father's grave, but it would be to his own tune, thank you very much. The Adams history was long, complicated, and mostly ugly. Marshall had no intention of continuing its blood. He pulled into a local bar he'd never patronized before for a well-deserved drink to cool his temper.
He recognized the woman who emerged from the office. Like him, she ran on the beach in the mornings. He'd never approached her, though she was certainly worth approaching. Given his views on marriage, none had a chance of a future with him and he wasn't willing to give false hopes. He wasn't quite a monk, but the woman had to be the aggressor. It was the only way he wouldn't feel guilty when he left her.
By the time he left the bar, he'd agreed to a contest with her, the loser to buy the other dinner. It wasn't exactly a date and he hadn't done the approaching. She had by asking him what he wanted to drink. Even so, he had a feeling he shouldn't have agreed.
Especially since he would find out soon enough that he'd just met the woman his father had chosen for his wife.
Cait liked Marshall. She'd liked Nicholas too. At least until she found out about the will and the history she and Marshall shared. Her knowledge came slowly, a bit at a time. When Marshall finally admitted to the sin of omission he'd been carrying, she'd had enough. Oh, she was still willing to proceed, but only one her terms.
It worked until it backfired.
Marshall didn't know what went wrong, only that something had. After Cait spoke to her father, a man she hadn't seen since he abandoned her when she was six years old, she refused to talk to him. She was ending it just when he thought he could do this. He loved Cait and was determined to defeat his genes and be a faithful husband. He thought he'd done everything right once coming clean.
Believing it over, he did something he'd never done before and ran away.
Until Mark found him in his living room. After all, it takes a true friend to make you see yourself clearly.
