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“I would do exactly the same.” Piper shrugs, taking a sip of her wine. “Revenge is a dish best-served ice cold.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Hannah laughs.
“She totally would,” Maya says, sharing a look with Piper that smacks of a shared story.
“Anyway,” Hannah says, getting up. “Julia should have just cut her losses and walked away. She should have left them stewing in their own misery and found herself somebody worthy of her. Being happy and living a good life would have been revenge enough.”
“You’re up next. Have you decided on a book yet?” I ask Aspen.
“I was actually thinking. Let’s ditch the books next time and go out. I’m in the mood for some shots and dancing.”
Once a month, Quinn and all the guys in our friend group get together for what they jokingly call “male bonding and getting their balls back” while we girls have our book club here at my shop. It’s not always book club, though. Sometimes, we’d go out to dinner or whatever we felt like. In the beginning, it was just Hannah, Rose, and me, but it didn’t take long for Maya and Piper to join. Aspen is our latest addition. She joined not long after she started dating Ryan, Rose’s brother, and slotted in with us perfectly.
“And you think my brother will be okay with that?”
“Ryan knows he can trust me.”
“It’s not you, he doesn’t trust. It’s everyone else,” Rose says, rolling her eyes.
“I like the way you think. I’m in,” Maya says, Piper echoing her.
“Sounds good.” Leaving them to discuss where they’d like to go, I join Hannah at the door.
“Are you alright?”
She sighs, gesturing across the road. “The Wood Room.”
“Yeah. They sell handcrafted wood products.Uniquehandcrafted pieces,” I add, smiling at how Kallan Reid introduced himself.
Her shoulders sag a bit. “I’m glad it’s not another salon. I’m not feeling up to any competition right now. I hope it does better than Scarlett’s shop did.”
“Even if it were a salon, you’d have nothing to worry about. Your clients all love you. They’d stay loyal to you.”
“You never know,” she mutters, biting her lip. There’s a note of tension in her voice, and for the first time tonight, I really take her in. Her brows are slightly drawn down, and lines bracket her mouth.
“Is everything okay?” I ask again.
“Ask me again next month,” she sighs, pulling me in for a quick hug.
I’ve known Hannah since I was eight, but we only became friends much later. The start of our friendship was a bit rocky. She liked Barbies and playing dress up, and I liked sword fights and climbing trees. One day, she saw me reading a book and asked what it was about. We got to talking and bonded over our love for books. That bond eventually expanded to include boys, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. I was her bridesmaid when she married one of Quinn’s friends, Aidan, and she was my bridesmaid when I married Quinn. We are godparents to their twins, and when Quinn and I have children, they will be their godparents.
“I wish it was a sex shop. I’m tired of driving a town over to get what I need,” Rose says when we join them again.
Aspen laughs as she stands up, gathering the empty glasses and walking to the counter. “There’s this nifty thing called online shopping. You should try it.”
Her lips purse. “I did that once. Just after I moved out. I set my parent’s address for delivery out of habit. We have the same initials, so Mom thought it was for her. Never again,” she says with a slight shudder.
“Did she keep it?”
“Yup. I was looking for a spare charger in her bedside drawer, and there it was. It wasn’t in its packaging anymore.”
“Good for her,” Hannah laughs.
“I’m going to tell Ryan. He’ll freak.”
“Don’t you dare. What’s said in book club stays in book club.” Rose shoots Aspen a glare. “Ryan will find a way to out me to Mom, and she’ll insist on giving it back to me. Can you imagine?”
We all gag a little, and this time there’s nothing slight about her shudder.
