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“Are you okay, Waverley?” Poppy asked, resting her hand on Waverley’s arm.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, trying to smile and pretend nothing odd had just happened inside.
The women looked at each other briefly then back to her. This time Avery spoke. “It’s okay if you want to talk about it. We would understand.”
Something from their knowing glances and Avery’s tone told Waverley that they were more aware of the situation than she’d thought.
And the fact they knew this and still offered their friendship was enough to break the dam of tears she’d been holding back.
Chapter 15
“How long have you all known?” Waverley asked as she looked around the table as they waited for their food at a cafe a couple blocks away from the boutique.
Poppy started. “I knew you looked familiar, but it wasn’t until I was in Denver and saw something on the local news that I knew why.”
“I kind of recognized you right away at dinner the other night,” Avery said apologetically. “But I could see why you wouldn’t want to go around telling everyone about it, so I kept it to myself. Until…” She looked over to Poppy.
“I called her later that night to see how dinner went and I asked her.”
“And I only know,” Meg interjected, “because they told me before we met so I didn’t put my foot in my mouth and say something boneheaded.”
Waverley nodded. “Then you probably know as much as I do about the situation. I was the definition of clueless. About the embezzlement, the fraud, the insider trading, the affair. And I especially didn’t know he was going to flee town, taking everything we had in our accounts with him.”
“I’m sorry for everything that jerk put you through, Waverley,” Meg said a little tearfully.
Poppy nodded. “Me, too. And if it helps, I know a little about what you’re feeling. I almost married a guy who’d been sleeping around on me. But even then, I didn’t have to deal with the news of that spread across the internet, the tabloids, and the evening news like you.
Someone had cheated on Poppy? It didn’t seem possible. Poppy was the epitome of the girl-next-door with her unassuming charm and sweetness.
“Well, no guy has ever cheated on me,” Meg said, “but I do know what it’s like to have someone you love reject you.”
Someone she loved? Had she really loved Spencer? She’d actually given that a lot of thought recently and come to one conclusion. No. She hadn’t been in love with him even though he was everything she was supposed to have wanted.
He’d been handsome, charming, smart, and ambitious and with the exact pedigree and background to earn her father’s favor. Everything she should want and that she’d convinced herself was enough.
But she hadn’t really loved him.
A sad, pathetic fact that she couldn’t reveal to these women. It was hard enough to admit it to herself. Instead, she nodded and sympathized with Meg and Poppy and took a sip of her iced water as the server brought them their food—a club sandwich with fries for her, a burger and fries for Meg, a grilled salmon and side salad for Avery, and some kind of couscous barley cucumber salad and chicken dish for Poppy.
For the next half hour, the women gave Waverley a little glance into their own histories, almost as if they wanted to put her at ease and see they all had skeletons in their closet. She blinked back tears as Avery summarized her life raising her younger sister both before and after her alcoholic mother’s death. She sympathized with Poppy, who explained she’d gotten engaged to her high school crush, who turned out to be a cheating snake. And she laughed as Meg recounted coming to Blue Haven from Michigan six years ago to get away from her overbearing mom and the bitterly cold winters to accept a position refurbishing antiques for Landon’s shop. A position she performed so well at that Landon had made her his business partner.
“And which brother was Landon again?” Waverley asked.
“The tall one with eyes that are like a light crystalline blue,” Meg said.
Waverley saw Poppy and Avery exchange a quick secretive glance at the woman’s description, a description that told a lot about how the woman felt about her business partner.
“What?” Meg asked. “She asked the difference. That’s the difference.”
“You’re right,” Poppy said. “What about you? How is it working for Reynolds?”
Oh. That was a loaded question. She bit into a fry and shrugged, hoping to appear nonchalant. “Good. The work is interesting enough.”
“How did you come to work for him anyway?” Meg asked and took a bite of her burger.
“I came to Blue Haven to hire him to find Spencer.” That earned a shocked silence. “When I saw he needed help and I needed a job, I convinced him to hire me.”
“Are you guys having any luck finding him?” Poppy asked, her eyes wide.
