Still, she’d made it, having a baby at nineteen and fallingcompletely in love with her daughter, surviving her breakup with Josh. But she’d never been happier to see her friends settle back into Bright Falls. Astrid, armed with a shiny business administration degree from Berkeley, took over Lindy Westbrook’s very lucrative interior design firm when the older woman retired, while Iris worked as an accountant until she had enough saved to open up Paper Wishes, her paper shop next to Claire’s family’s bookstore on Linden Street in downtown. Iris was hugely talented—she sold her own line of personalized planners and had over fifty thousand Instagram followers—while Astrid had almost single-handedly revitalized half the houses in Bright Falls.
Claire pretty much ran River Wild Books now, the store her grandmother had started back in the 1960s, and was trying her best to bring it into this century. Her mom let her do what she wanted, but what she wanted—putting in a café, hanging local art on the walls, getting some e-commerce going—took money, and lots of it. So far, she’d managed to brighten up the shelves and walls, setting up a little reading area with soft leather couches in the middle of the store, but that was it. Still, it was a start.
Claire slugged back another swallow of wine, which drained the glass. “Nicole Berry.”
She said the name quietly, its sound still causing a slight twist somewhere in the middle of her chest. She’d not only had sex with Nicole, she’d dated her too. For five whole weeks before Claire reached the point where she wanted to introduce her to Ruby, and then Nicole had promptly freaked out. She’d liked Nicole. A lot. Could’ve even loved her if Nicole had given them half a shot.
Iris pulled a face at her. “Nicole.”
“Yes, Nicole,” Claire said, her voice lighter than she felt. “She was hot, right?” And god she was. Silky hair, long legs she used to slide around Claire’s hips in a way that made Claire—
She clenched her thighs together at the memory. God, it had been too long.
“Um, sure, yes, gorgeous,” Iris said gently. She knew how much Nicole leaving her had stung. “And that was two years ago.Two, Claire. You haven’t”—she shook her boobs a little, and there was plenty there to shake—“in two whole years?”
“Oh please, no one has time for sex, Ris” was her brilliant retort.
Iris gave her anoh you poor thingkind of look. “That is absolutely not true, and you know it. I have sex all the time.”
“Youhave a boyfriend.”
“And you have a vibrator.”
She lifted her empty glass in salute. “That I damn well do.”
“And it’s very, very tired.”
Claire laughed but couldn’t deny it. She’d had to charge her vibrator’s battery at least twice in the past month.
Iris clinked their glasses together, and Claire emptied her lungs for the first time all evening. Ever since Josh had shown up back in town two months ago—swearing that he was staying this time, that he was starting a construction business instead of just picking up odd jobs with his friend Holden’s building company he could easily walk away from, that he really wanted to be there for Ruby—she’d been on edge.
And with Astrid spinning like a top out of control lately, her wedding to Spencer looming like a dark cloud on the horizon... well, let’s just say Claire was due a few drinks.
“How’s it going?” Iris asked, reading her mind like always. “With Josh?”
Claire shrugged. “Ruby adores him.”
“And we’ll leave it at that?”
Claire blew out a long breath. Josh was the father of her child, and she’d always love him. But goddammit, if he got Ruby’s hopes up onemore time just to vanish on her again, she’d kill him. Like, literally kill him. Slow and painful. She’d had enough unreliable people in her life, and she didn’t want Ruby growing up with the same ghosts.
She checked her phone. Other than the time and a picture of her daughter’s smiling face, the screen was blank. No texts from Josh. Her vision swam just enough that she knew one more drink would turn her sloppy, and she couldn’t do that in front of Josh. He’d never use it against her—at least she didn’t think—but she was trying to set a good parenting example here.
“I should go,” she said.
“What about your distraction?”
She waved a hand. “It can wait.”
“Astrid isn’t even here yet.”
Claire rubbed her temples, everything in her life coalescing into a headache behind her eyes. “I want to check on Ruby over at Josh’s before she goes to bed.”
“Check on Josh, you mean.”
“Can you blame me?”
Iris shook her head. “And I never will. You know that, right?”
