don’t want to fall again.”
A couple of men stepped forward at the same time, ready to help.
Lars’s cryptic comment on the plane, that Delphi could perhaps handle his mother, came to mind. Delphi, in that instant, totally got it. She smiled at the men and shook her head, declining their unspoken offer. She said to Jane, “No. You and I are doing just fine. Work as hard at getting up this time as you just worked at going back down.”
That earned her a baleful look, which quickly shifted to long-suffering as Delphi kept her arm firmly in place. “Okay. I’ll try again.”
They both stood on the second try, although Jane wobbled once she’d regained her feet and reached out and grabbed one of the men’s arms. “Thank you.”
Jane’s thanks were directed at the man, not Delphi. However, that didn’t surprise Delphi in the least. She’d thwarted Jane and held her to a line. She was fairly certain that didn’t happen very often with Dr. Reinhardt.
In her brief scanning of the room for Nelson, Delphi had noticed the set, hard look on Lars’s face—definitely an expression she hadn’t seen before. Now she noted that none of Jane’s family—Liam, Lars, Dirk or Bull—moved to help her, but instead simply stood by watching. For that matter, Merrilee and Tansy were doing the same. Hmm.
Delphi rechecked Jane’s vitals after she was escorted to one of the chairs and seated. The mother of the groom seemed fine.
Once again, everyone turned to focus on the newlyweds’ tossing of the bouquet and garter and subsequent exit, but the energy had shifted. Tansy and Liam’s departure felt fairly anticlimatic following Jane’s fainting spell.
Lars materialized by her side. He was still wearing that hard look. “I’m surprised it took that long. I was holding my breath all through the wedding. But it kind of makes sense that she waited that long.”
By unspoken consent, she and Lars stepped to the side, away from the others. “Are you saying that fainting spell was deliberate?”
She’d suspected as much given that Jane had ostensibly taken quite a fall but had no bumps or bruising. It had been a little too staged.
He crossed his arms over his chest, radiating annoyance. “One hundred percent.”
“Okay....” Delphi was a bit at a loss as to what to say. She was in uncharted territory here.
“Did she break anything? Was there a knot on her head where it hit? Of course not, because she didn’t really faint. She’s been pulling that stunt since we were kids. Mom just can’t stand it when she’s not the center of attention, so she ‘faints’ and lo and behold, everyone suddenly focuses on her.”
“That’s—”
He cut her off before she could say she’d come to the same conclusion. “Narcissitic? Self-involved? Yes and yes. And the best thing to do is simply ignore it or at the most, downplay it. She plays to an audience, which is why lecturing in front of a captive audience as a professor works so well for her.”
It seemed a little harsh but it also held a ring of truth. Jane Reinhardt’s pupils hadn’t indicated even temporary unconsciousness. “Which is why none of you stepped forward to help?” It was part observation, part question, but it was devoid of censure.
“Exactly. We might look unfeeling to everyone but it escalates if any of us react.”
The best way to defuse drama for the sake of drama was to ignore it. “I get it.”
“You do, don’t you?”
“What’s not to get?”
“This one chick...girl...I mean, woman, told me I just didn’t understand my mom and I should be more sympathetic. She thought I was a jerk.”
All the unfair, unwarranted accusations and all the lies that had been believed about her came rushing back at her. “Some people want to offer an opinion when it really doesn’t have anything to do with them.”
Narrowing his eyes, he subjected her to a questioning look. “True, but rather cryptic.”
She suddenly craved the privacy of her room. “It was fun. I’m going to head back now.”
“I’ll walk you back.”
“There’s no need.”
“I want to.”
“Maybe I don’t want you to.”
“Suck it up, Blondie. My reputation would be shot to hell and back if I let my date wander back escort-less.”
It hovered on the tip of her tongue that his reputation wasn’t her business or her responsibility, but arguing with Lars was proving useless. He just charmingly ran roughshod over you or argued a point that was really convoluted but seemed to make perfect sense while it was coming out of his sexy