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She scoffs. “That I was clingy. That I was desperate. That the extent of my life goals were to get married to whatever sucker asked first.”
Discomfort tugs low in my stomach. I was halfway across the country by the time those rumors reached me, and when I heard them, I said nothing. I told myself I didn’t have to say anything—I was out of Kingsette in every way. But the truth was, I was relieved that they’d moved on from talking about my mistakes and failures. “Natalie, I—”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I swivel around to see Hope standing beside me, her hands clenched by her sides. Her expression is fierce, that temper I first caught sight of on the roof-deck on full display.
“Will would have stopped the rumors, if he’d heard them.” There’s not an ounce of doubt in her eyes.
The look undoes me. No one has stood up for me, or been on my side, no questions asked, like that, in a long time.
“That’s what I believed too.” Natalie blows out a breath. Her gaze sweeps the bar, and her eyes widen as she registers the circle of voyeurs around us. She returns an unflinching gaze to me. “I didn’t come here to make a scene. I just wanted to tell you you’re an asshole.”
She turns to Hope. “I’d be careful if I were you. He has a way of promising one thing and then doing the exact opposite.”
Natalie disappears into the crowd. For a single, fragile moment, Hope and I just stare at each other. An entirely new set of words prickles along my tongue. I take a deep breath, inhaling it deep into my lungs.
“Sooo ...,” Hope says breaking the awkward silence, “that was a blast from the past.”
I breathe a laugh. “Understatement of the century.”
“You okay?”
I nod. “So ... do you moonlight as a bodyguard ... or?” I force lightness into my voice. “You were like a ferocious little pit bull back there.”
She laughs. “I hope you mean that as a compliment. Pit bulls are misunderstood animals. My neighbor had one when Tessa and I were growing up. He was the sweetest, smartest dog. He used to sit outside, watching us play, and he’d growl at anyone who came too close. Our own personal guard dog.”
“What happened to him?”
“Older kids trying to provoke the dog to prove that he was vicious. My neighbor moved before anything really happened.”
“I remember that scandal. The dog was Fido or Fifo or ...”
Her next laugh fills the space between my ribs with something warm. “It was Coco, but close. How do you remember that scandal? As far as scandals go, it was minor.”
“I had a front-row seat to Kingsette scandals.” I brace myself for the next part of my confession. “My mom was close with Annette Martina. They grew up together.”
“Oh,” she says, the word a blend of understanding and sympathy. “So, you knew everything happening in town?”
“Well, my mother did. But the walls were thin.”
“Aah.” She taps her full lower lip with her pointer finger. Her top lip puckers. “So you knew all about my mother?”
I hang my head. “I remember when your dad left. It couldn’t have been easy.”
Snatches of old gossip find purchase in my thoughts. My mom, Annette, and Delilah in the kitchen, discussing Hope’s mom’s alleged affair with Peter Wilkens, a man ten years her junior. Judging her, as if she were the one who’d cheated and blown up a marriage. No one talked about Hope’s dad, how he’d left his family high and dry two years earlierto take up scuba diving with his secretary. “It was awful how people treated her. Like she was a pariah.”
“When my family broke down, I think it made them realize their families could break down too. It was easier to blame my mom rather than face the ugly truth about their own lives.” She shrugs.
“I get that. It wasn’t too different for my mom. No one blamed her, but they started to treat her like she had a disease, like she was ...” My eyes widen, and now would be a good time for the earth to swallow me whole.
Hope’s laugh feels like an absolution. “Don’t worry. You didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already experience. But I didn’t know your mom had it tough like that. Too bad we didn’t figure that out years ago. Our moms could have been friends.”
“It’s not too late.”
“Oh, it is. My mom moved out of town years ago. She has very strong opinions about small-town life. If Noah and Brandon didn’t love this town so much, she would have found a way to force us to move.”
“Now I know where you get that fierceness from.”
