At that, Chloe gave me a look between utter confusion, disapproval, and blatant expectation.
Except, I didn’t know what she expected of me when it came to Wren.
When I just met her stare, Chloe slowly said, “Well, I mean, because of Aruba...”
My brow furrowed.
Aruba meant a lot of things. It’s where we’d taken our first and second vacations in too many years to count. It’s where Briggs had married Lainey. It’s where I’d married and lost my best friend. But I had no idea what Aruba meant when it came to Wren Pearson.
“What do you mean?” I finally asked. “What happened in Aruba?”
“Hudson . . .”
“Chloe, I have no idea what you’re talking about, so you’re gonna have to spell this out for me,” I said through clenched teeth.
Chloe’s cheeks reddened and her gaze dropped for a moment before hesitantly meeting mine again. “The day after Lainey and Asher’s wedding, when we all got together for brunch?”
I dipped my head in a single nod as I impatiently waited for her to continue. It didn’t matter that I’d been hungover—there was no forgetting that brunch. Not when I’d woken up to Mallory’s impressive slap less than an hour before, only to find out we were married.
“Right after you left, Wren got up to leave, saying not to bother the two of you because she ‘wanted a repeat.’”
My eyebrows shot up as disbelief and rage fought for dominance in my veins.
Worry creased Chloe’s forehead at whatever she saw in my expression, and she hurried to continue. “No one heard from y’all for hours, and then when the two of you came down for dinner together...”
“I ran into her on the elevator,” I explained, my tone harsher than I meant for it to be, since Chloe was just the messenger. “I haven’t—” I stilled when I thought about Mallory’s reaction to me saying Wren’s name earlier, and her assuredness this morning that I’d been sleeping with people recently.
“I would apologize for keeping you from your normal...activities, but we both know it hasn’t changed anything.”
“Who knew this?” I demanded, nearly begged.
Chloe shrugged. “Everyone.”
My head moved in rough jerks because Mallory had left brunch before we’d ever started eating, hadn’t answered the times I’d gone to her room that day, and had already been at the airport by dinner, so I needed to know exactly who she meant. “Who’severyone, Chloe?”
Her big eyes widened even more, trying to convey her meaning with that look alone. “Everyone.”
I dragged one of my hands through my hair, gripping at the longer strands on top as my mind raced and stomach pitched.
“Not that anything happened,” I began, “not thatanythinghas ever happened with Wren, but how did it get back to Monroe?”
“I don’t know that,” she told me sadly, but something in her eyes told me she didn’t believe what I was saying, and it tore at another part of me.
To know that my personality had put such a definitive view in everyone’s minds of who I was made me second guess everything. But I didn’t know how to change who I was, and I didn’t know how to change their thoughts of me when evenThatch and Mallory—my closest friends—were so sure this was who I was.
“Wren’s just as much of a flirt as I am—different ways and reasonings, but still a flirt,” I told Chloe. “Nothing has ever happened between us, but if she wanted people to think something had, I assure you, it had nothing to do with me. She probably did it to irritate Evans.”
At Chloe’s questioning look, I explained, “Briggs has had him watching Wren for a year because Lainey’s worried about her. In that time, Evans has stopped every one of her attempts at bringing home a guy. Wren probably—rightly—thought Evans wouldn’t do anything because it was me and because she saidrepeat. Except, we didn’t do anything. I only saw her during meals and at the wedding.”
I could tell Chloe was now solidly torn between wanting to believe me and not knowing how to. But just as her lips parted, my stare snapped to the side—to where I could feel the furious energy of the woman coming up beside us.
“Excuse me,” I muttered as I stepped away from Chloe to meet Mallory head on.
“Give them to me,” Mallory demanded, her voice soft but no less irate.
“Since you asked,” I began, my hurt and shame mixing with her anger, creating a volatile storm inside me, “I was already on my way to Huntley to talk to Briggs about both your job and mine, because I’ll do anything to make sure you don’t lose this job, even if it means I do.”
Her wrath-filled eyes abruptly widened as she stopped just in front of me. The hand that had been outstretched wavered as she focused on me instead of the keys I was holding out for her to take.
