That had been happening a lot since they got up here. But she always managed to wait until Shawn was out of earshot. She knew this hyper-emotionalism wasn’t entirely her fault. Part of it was the damn group dynamic that hovered over this retreat like a dense cloud. It was widely known that women acted strange when they all got together like this. They tended to be more excitable and more likely to experience dramatic shifts in mood. Men made snide comments about these phenomena all the time—and that fact never failed to piss her off. Probably because they were right. Hell. By now, they probably were all “cycling” together. Allie, Shawn’s retriever, got up from the rug in front of the door and walked over to stand beside her. When Kate didn’t respond, Allie nudged her arm. “Sorry, girl. I’m okay.” She patted Allie’s broad head and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. The garment was about two sizes too big for her and the rolled cuffs at the ends of the arms flopped over her hands.
