“‘Mawwiage’!” Meg explained. “‘Mawwiage is what bwings us togethew.’”
“‘And wuv,’” Kate said.
“‘Twu wuv,’” caroled Taylor.
Lauren grinned in appreciation. “Got it. Excellent choice.”
“They’re all nuts.” A young black woman in an orchid-colored dress smiled at Lauren. “Hi. Alisha Douglas.”
“And I’m Allison.” A long-stemmed blonde introduced herself. “Matt’s wife. I married into this madness.”
“Nice to meet you both.” Lauren took a breath. She could do this. She wasn’t in disguise anymore. “Lauren Patterson.”
Alisha’s brows rose. “Yeah? Like that hostage girl.”
“Not ‘like,’” Meg said. “She is.”
“Have a plate,” Tess said to Lauren.
“Thanks.” She began to load up, aware of Alisha’s warm brown eyes watching her across the table.
“I saw you onDr. Phil. You look different.”
Lauren took a breath.Trauma changes you, she’d told Jack.
Or it can show you who you really are.
“It’s the hair.” Lauren added a cookie to her plate. “What do you do, Alisha?”
“Social worker. Child Protective Services.”
“That’s how we met,” Kate explained. “I’m a family lawyer.”
Blond Allison looked around the table. “Wow. It’s like a family intervention meeting.”
“Excuse me?” Lauren asked.
“High school teacher.” Allison pointed to herself and then began going around the table. “Lawyer, social worker, psychologist... We’re like a family crisis team.”
“I don’t actually have my doctorate yet,” Lauren said.
“Don’t need one to be a counselor in North Carolina. Just a license,” Alisha said.
“Are we talking shop?” Meg said. “Because if we are, I need more champagne.”
Allison laughed. “Says the workaholic.”
“I’ll get it,” Kate said.
“You go sit,” Tess said. “You’re the bride.”
“I can help,” Lauren said.
And with her offer, she slipped into the gathering like a fish into a stream. Despite her initial introduction, she found it remarkably easy to be herself with the other women, to be accepted as someone other than Hostage Girl. Plates were emptied. Glasses refilled. Conversation bubbled and flowed. Lauren liked listening to them, enjoyed unwinding in their company.
All accomplished women, in their different ways. Tess, running her inn with ease and authority; Meg, quick and dark, vibrating with energy; coolly pretty schoolteacher Allison; lawyer Kate, with her vibrant hair and shadowed hazel eyes.
But for all their differences, they were bound together. By the child Taylor, threading her way between them. By a hundred tiny words and gestures, a quick hug, a laughing glance, a sly tease.
