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She hoped this meeting with her friends from college would reveal something—anything they didn’t already know—about the case so maybe Kingsley would move on. And act as if he wanted a future with her. He was too obsessed with the past.
She scanned toward the left where she and her friends usually met. Dee and Marcy were already there and waved her over.
“It’s two for one so we ordered you a pinot,” Dee said as she hopped up to hug her. Marcy did the same and Gabi sat on one of the tall bar stools across from Marcy.
“Sounds perfect. Any word from Lena?” she asked as she took a sip of her wine. There was a fourth glass waiting for their other friend.
“She was stuck without a babysitter. Can you believe she has a kid? The girl who used to get locked out of the sorority house every dang night,” Dee said.
“She’s matured a lot.”
“Having kids will do that to you, or so my mom says,” Marcy said.
“It hasn’t hurt you being around kids,” Dee said. “But you really don’t nanny that much anymore, do you?”
“No,” Gabi said. She hadn’t told her friends about Kingsley or the fact that she was living in at his place.
Lena arrived and regaled them with how fabulous her nine-month-old son was. Apparently he was above the curve on every chart, which made Gabi smile. She could hear the love in her friend’s voice when she spoke about her little boy.
“Now that everyone is here,” Gabi said. “I wanted to ask you about something that happened in college.”
“Is it about how many men I’ve gotten from the tattoo you talked me into and then chickened out of getting yourself?” Dee asked.
“No. But you’re welcome for that,” Gabi said, smiling over at Dee. Dee worked for an interior-design company and had been responsible for the decor in Gabi’s office.
“Then what is it?” Lena asked. “Is this the best wine ever, or is it just that I haven’t been drinking lately?”
“It’s a nice vintage,” Marcy added. Her family had been vintners in California for more than 150 years and now Marcy worked in their marketing department. “Stop interrupting and let Gabi speak. Does it have anything to do with the fact that you are nannying for Kingsley Buchanan?”
“Yes,” she said, looking at Marcy. “How did you know that?”
“I make it a habit to know what my friends are up to,” Marcy said. “But go on.”
“You’re back with Kingsley?” Dee asked.
“It’s complicated,” Gabi said. She should have anticipated that they would know about her working for King.
“Explain it to us,” Lena said. “Because we remember how he broke your heart.”
“I know. You all were my rock back then.”
“We still are,” Dee said, putting her hand on Gabi’s. The other women followed suit.
“Talk,” Marcy said.
“Well, Kingsley asked me what I remembered about the night that Stacia died.”
“Other than the fact that he slept with you and then went to her?”
“He didn’t do that, Dee,” Gabi said. “He wanted to know if I remembered any incidents of girls being slipped date-rape drugs at other parties. That’s the angle they are working for what happened to Stacia.”
“Sorry, Gabi. It just toasts my nuts that you waited so long to sleep with a guy and then—”
“My God punished me?” Gabi said.
Lena laughed and almost choked on her wine. “Out-of-wedlock sex... Has that been a continuing trend with you?”
“No, thank you very much. Do you guys remember anything?” Gabi asked.
“My roommate had something happen about three weeks before...Stacia,” Lena said. “She was at a football party, I think. Joel was there with her and managed to get her home safe. They both thought the drink was intended for someone else.”
Joel had been one of the running backs on the football team, so Gabi made a mental note to mention it to Kingsley when she got back home.
“I can’t remember anything, but to be honest I mainly just hung out with guys back then,” Dee said.
Dee liked to have fun and thought life was all about sampling as much variety as she could. “Fair enough. Neither Hunter nor Kingsley remembers anything at the party after they started doing shots together. It was after he went back from my room.”
“Really? I can’t believe that. Hunter had a big fight with Stacia while you guys were gone, and when she came back, they got into it again.”
