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CHAPTERFOUR
Mindy swirled her glass of wine, careful not to let the pale liquid spill over the rim as she plopped down onto the couch next to Lacy. Shelley was on her other side, while Valerie Mitchell, Sarah, and Colette all sat cross legged on the floor at varying points along the coffee table. Valerie laughed softly as Gus snuggled up on her lap, and then all of the women looked at Mindy with obvious curiosity.
“So,” Sarah prompted, her eyes widening pointedly. “What happened when you went to the meeting? You were so vague on our group chat.”
“Derek said you were phenomenal.” Lacy beamed at her, and Mindy blushed. “He said you really let that new guy have it.”
Mindy took a sip of her wine, letting the delicious wine warm her a bit and give her courage before she spoke. She’d practiced her speech to her friends all day, wondering how she would convey to them everything that had happened without having to get into too much of her past with Noah. But now that she was in front of them, all the words she’d so tirelessly crafted flew from her mind.
“Well, I just asked him if he thought about how much the additional traffic was going to actually hurt the town, and then I spoke mostly to everyone else,” she said with a dismissive shrug, but Colette narrowed her eyes.
“From what I heard, you really went in on him.” Colette took a sip of her own wine. “Louise was at the meeting too, and when I saw her at Frosty’s Shack later, she told me that the guy looked like he was going to have a heart attack.”
“Rudolph said you barely let him get a word in,” Shelley quipped, her voice filled with approval.
“Well, I had a lot to say, and I wanted to get it all out. I just didn’t want Noah to charm everyone in the room and win them over before they thought everything through,” Mindy explained, an image of her ex-boyfriend flashing through her mind. “It’s something he’s always been good at. He might be a bit stiff and formal sometimes, but he’s got a way of winning people over when he wants to.”
“Wait.” Sarah frowned. “What do you mean ‘it’s something he’s always been good at’? Do you know him?”
Mindy hadn’t realized how loaded with meaning those words apparently were, and she winced internally as all five pairs of eyes landed on her. Knowing that there was no way out of fessing up to the truth, she took two more long sips of wine, emptying her glass before leveling her gaze back at her friends.
“Yeah, I do know him. He’s my ex-boyfriend,” she admitted, chewing on her lower lip.
“Oh, wow. Like, ‘dated for one semester in college and you barely remember him’ boyfriend?” Shelley prompted.
“Or ‘fell madly in love until the two of you broke each other’s hearts and now no one else you date will ever compare’ kind of boyfriend?” Valerie added as she scratched Gus behind the ear.
Mindy was suddenly very sad that she’d finished off the rest of her wine. She pulled a face as she admitted, “The second one.”
Small gasps sounded throughout the room, and Colette leaned forward, setting her wine glass down on the coffee table.
“Tell us everything,” she demanded, plopping her elbows up beside her wine glass and resting her chin in her hands.
Mindy’s other friends all chimed in with a chorus of agreement, enthusiastically settling in as they turned toward Mindy and waited for her to continue. She took a deep breath, giving herself a moment to organize her thoughts before she started speaking.
Although she had gotten to be good friends with all of the women in the room, she’d never talked much about her prior relationship with Noah. Not that there was anything particularly scandalous about it, but it just wasn’t something she often felt like discussing. It had been her first and only real heartbreak, and it was something that she had tried to leave in the past, for the most part.
But even though it felt like poking at a wound that had never quite healed, she felt safe sharing these kinds of things with her tight group of friends. After all, if she couldn’t trust them with this stuff, then who could she trust?
“We met eight years ago,” she said with a sigh, the images of those first happy days bringing a faint smile to her lips. “And it was an almost instant attraction. We were inseparable for the first year, moving in with each other not long after that. We lived together for three years, and we even talked about getting married.”
She swallowed, a sudden rush of memories making a lump form in her throat. But she pushed past it.
“I thought we were going to get married eventually,” Mindy explained slowly, working to control the emotions as they coursed through her. “But then things started to fall apart. Neither of us made enough time for each other, and we grew apart. So instead of getting engaged, we broke up instead.”
Small inhales filled the room, and as Mindy looked around at her friends, she saw that they were all wearing matching expressions of sympathy and sadness.
“Oh, Min,” Lacy breathed, setting a reassuring hand on Mindy’s knee. “I’m so sorry. That sounds really tough.”
“It was,” Mindy admitted, pushing through the discomfort bubbling in her chest.
Along with the discomfort, she also felt a nearly overwhelming sense of gratitude as she looked at the women around her. They were incredible, and each one of them was looking at her with support and love brimming in their gazes. They also seemed to sense that Mindy wasn’t ready to provide any additional details, so they didn’t press her for more.
After a moment, Valerie cleared her throat.
“Well,” she said with a conspiratorial grin. “Maybe the way you grilled him today at the meeting convinced everyone that his plan is going to be bad for our town, and he’ll run away with his tail between his legs.”
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Colette chimed in, brushing her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “You know that Louise and Maisie are close, right?”
