She startled slightly when she saw Zach standing out on the sidewalk next to the outdoor tables, talking to someone else. She turned away quickly.
Nora craned her neck past her. “Isn’t that—”
“Yes. My husband’s business partner.”
“Yeah, but he’salsofamous,” Nora said.
“Zachary Woods.” Soraya’s words sounded reverent.
Both Daisy and Nora looked at her. Soraya shrugged. “We pray for him a lot.”
Nora snorted. “I’m sorry, what do you pray for him for?”
“For his eternal soul. You know, after we discuss what we assume are the details of his personal life.”
“Is that how you excuse gossiping?” Daisy asked.
“Absolutely,” Soraya confirmed.
It was the first time Daisy felt like she could relate to Soraya. Maybe Soraya was a human like the rest of them, with flaws and feelings she had to keep buried deep or risk being rejected.
“That man is so hot,” Nora said. “I think if I look directly at him for too long, I’ll spontaneously combust.”
“I’ve never looked very long, of course.” Soraya sniffed piously, but the corners of her lips turned upward slightly.
“He’s arrogant.” Daisy walked ahead of everyone else as they moved quickly down the sidewalk toward Lady’s Mantle.
“Even better!” said Nora.
That was funny. She wouldn’t have necessarily thought Nora would like that.
Daisy didn’t think Nora’s husband could be called arrogant. Smug, maybe. Or at least that’s how she’d always perceived him. He wasn’t her dentist, but she did see a different dentist in the office, and she’d had glancing contact with Dr. Ben Clarke and his waxed mustache. Where Nora was simply cool, Ben seemed like he cared very much about being cool, to the point where he had convinced himself he was the coolest person in the room. Which was an odd look on a man in his mid-thirties.
Of course, Daisy’s husband in his mid-thirties had decided to cliché his way into a twenty-five-year-old’s bed, so maybe she needed to be less judgmental.
Either way, Zach was arrogant but not smug. She would make a two-column list later regarding the differences between those two things.
“It’s notbetter,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t know him that well. He mainly hangs out with Jonathan.”
“Oh, bummer.” Nora looked performatively glum. “Then we have to hate him.”
“Yes. We do,” Daisy agreed resolutely.
They stood in front of the door, and she could see their reflections in it. Three women framed by the painted floral carving in the wood frame. Three women who looked like they were about to walk into a fire.
But life had felt like that recently. For all of them.
“Well,” said Nora. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Six
Nora
I release the past,
I embrace the road ahead,
I gather sisters for the journey,
