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“Sounds like things she should have been telling herself.”
While Hadley agreed with Kori, at the time, each word had struck like a fist. “I wish I hadn’t been so surprised by her attack. If I’d been able to stay calm, I might have been able to reason with her. But what she was saying were the same things that had been running through my head. To hear them from my best friend... I was devastated.”
“So you didn’t tell her she was the one who was acting like an idiot?”
“No.” And now they’d arrived at the part of the story Hadley was most ashamed of. “I told her that if Liam only noticed me because of my riding she was out of luck. The way she rode, no wonder he had no idea who she was.”
“Ouch.”
Hadley winced. “Not my finest moment. And for the last ten years I’ve regretted those words.”
“But it sounds like she was asking to have the truth served up to her.”
“Maybe, but she was my best friend. I should have been more understanding. And because of what I said, the next day she pushed too hard and fell badly. So, now you see. If I’d not let my temper get the best of me, Anna never would have tried to prove she was the better rider and wouldn’t have fallen and broken her back.”
“And you haven’t ridden since.”
“No.” It was a small sacrifice to make for being a bad friend. “Until today. And now I’m engaged to the guy who came between Anna and me with tragic results.”
“And I can tell you still aren’t guilt free over moving on. So, as your best friend of seven years, I give you permission to get on with your life and stop beating yourself up over something you said to your friend who was acting like a greedy bitch a decade ago.” Kori lifted her wineglass and held it out to Hadley.
Pushing aside all reluctance, Hadley picked up her glass and gently clinked it with Kori’s. The crystalline note rang in the dining nook, the sound proclaiming an end to living in the past and the beginning of her bright future.
She’d given enough time and energy to her mistakes. She deserved to be happy, and being Liam’s wife, becoming a family with him and Maggie, was the perfect way to spend the rest of her life.
* * *
Liam sat on the couch in the den, using one hand to scroll through the report Nolan’s investigator had sent him regarding Margaret Garner while cradling a snugly swaddled Maggie in his other arm. She’d been fussy and agitated all day, and her appetite had waned. Hadley had noticed Maggie’s temperature was slightly elevated and Liam was glad she was scheduled for a follow-up visit with her pediatrician tomorrow. Maggie continued to show signs of jaundice, and this had both Liam and Hadley concerned.
As a counterpoint to Liam’s agitation over Maggie’s health issues, Waldo lay on the sofa back directly behind Liam’s head, purring. Although he’d grown up believing that cats belonged in barns, keeping the mouse population under control, he’d grown fond of Hadley’s fur ball and had to concede that the feline had a knack for reading moods and providing just the right companionship. Just yesterday Liam had been irritated by a particularly demanding client, and Waldo had spent a hilarious ten minutes playing with one of Hadley’s ponytail holders, cheering him up.
The only member of his family not sitting on the den’s sofa was Hadley. After dinner she’d gone upstairs to call her parents and tell them about the engagement. They’d been on a cruise several days ago when Liam had popped the question and hadn’t been immediately available to receive their daughter’s news. Hadley was concerned that they’d view the engagement as moving too fast, and Liam had suggested that they take Maggie to Houston this weekend so everyone could meet.
With an effort, Liam brought his attention back to the report. Despite only spending four days on the job, the investigator had built a pretty clear picture of Maggie’s mom. Margaret Garner had worked at home as a freelance illustrator and had a pretty limited social life. She’d dated rarely, and her friends had husbands and children who kept them busy. So busy, in fact, that none of them had had a clue that Margaret was pregnant. Nor had there been any contact between her and Kyle after their weeklong affair. The investigator hadn’t been able to determine how the two had met, but after digging into Margaret’s financials, he’d figured out when the fling had happened.
Margaret’s perfectionism and heavy workload explained why she hadn’t gone out much, but a couple of her friends had known Margaret since college and confided that they thought Margaret might have had some depression issues. From what the investigator could determine, she’d never sought medical help for that or gone to see a doctor when she’d discovered she was pregnant.
