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“Really?” Kara asks. She smooths out a section of hair and wraps a curling iron around it. “I’m friends with all my exes.”
Of course, Kara generates a new crush monthly. To my way of thinking, they don’t qualify as boyfriends, exactly. She’ll have someone she seems to be dating exclusively, and then a couple of weeks later she’ll be on to someone new. I wish I’d been like her when I was twenty-five. That thought right there punches me in the gut. Twenty-five was fifteen years ago. I mumble something about needing to get work done before closing, but I’m not sure anyone hears me.
“Was she engaged to Sam Duke? The billionaire brother?” Kara’s client asks. She can’t see me because I am in the hallway, and she probably isn’t thinking about how sound carries in an open room with dividers that don’t go all the way to the ceiling.
“They weren’t engaged,” Mrs. Womble answers authoritatively. “But they were close to it. His momma thought for sure. But now, was she talking about Oliver Duke?”
My eyes close as my hand rests on my office doorframe.Dang. It.
“Yeah, they’re close friends,” Kara answers.
“Just friends?” Mrs. Womble asks. I can’t see her, but I’m pretty sure her eyebrows are sitting high above the line of her eyeglass frames right about now.
“Well, you know,” Kara answers, in that way she has when she wants to leave implications to the wind.Jesus, Kara.
The sound of laughter makes its way down the hall. My legs trudge forward. In the office, I can only hear snippets of conversation.
“She missed the boat. A billionaire. Can you imagine?”
“Maybe…”
“He’s so freaking hot.”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying. But really, two brothers, that’s poor taste, if you ask me.”
“If it were me, I’d move on. Put that history behind me.”
I close the office door and shut down my computer. Kara will close down the salon tonight. I pick up my flowered folder and my pocketbook and head out the back.
Half an hour later, Oliver waves me over to our standard table at Old Town Bar.
“Where’s Noah?”
Oliver shrugs. “He bailed. These days, he’s about as reliable as the rain. But Liam is gonna make it.”
As if called to appear, Liam weaves through the crowd looking dapper as ever in a deep purple suit with a paisley tie.
“Where’s Jada?”
“She’s picking up the kids from daycare.” My chin dips at the expected answer. “Have you seen my kids lately? Shonda starts kindergarten next year.”
He pulls out his phone, and I snatch it from him, flipping from photo to photo of an adorable toddler.
“Shonda’s lost her baby fat,” I moan. He chuckles. “But she’s still adorable. So sweet looking. And look at those cheeks on James. I just want to pinch them.”
“He wouldn’t like that at all. Shonda pinches them all the time, and he wails.”
“She’s just loving on her younger brother.”
“If that’s love, I think he could do without.”
Oliver leaves to get us beers from the bar while Liam beams like a proud papa. He nudges my arm.
“You want one, you know you do.” He winks at me.
“If I had a kid, I couldn’t meet up with you guys for beers.”
“Why?”
