Izzy’s laughter carries. “Come on in. Let me introduce you to my friend.”
Entering the living room beside Izzy is a gorgeous woman, tall and slender with straight blond hair cut short to around mid-ear, a curtain of bangs over her forehead. Her blue eyes are a bitwild as she looks around the room, but she seems to calm a bit after her visual sweep.
“Adley, this is Bec. Bec, Adley.”
Bec approaches from around the sectional, her hand out to shake mine. She’s wearing a very expensive designer dress, black with an asymmetrical skirt and long sleeves, that looks poured on. I recognize the style and fabric from, well, my own closet. Her heels are way taller than anything I’d dare wear, and stilettos to boot, a shade of light pink that matches her manicured nails on the hand I shake.
“It’s very nice to meet you. I’m sorry to barge in like this, really. I just don’t have anywhere else to go.” She looks at Izzy. “I didn’t want to disturb Violet.”
Izzy’s head shakes comically quick. “No, no. No disturbing the very pregnant lady, please. Sit, I’ll bring wine and we’ll talk.”
Bec carefully perches on the other wing of the sectional, and we wait in awkward silence until Izzy returns, bringing not only a filled glass for Bec, but the rest of the bottle.
Bec brings the glass to her lips and downs the entire thing in an impressive three gulps, then pours herself another full glass.
Huh. They must do this often.
“Okay, spill. My guys and Adley’s are downstairs. Likely for a while.” Izzy sips her wine and raises an eyebrow at Bec, who shoots me an apologetic look.
“I’m hijacking your time.”
My head shakes automatically. “No, please. What’s going on?”
She lets out the longest sigh I think I’ve ever heard in my whole life.
“Men.”
“Here-here!” Izzy raises her glass and sips again.
And I’m… confused. “Someone needs to catch me up.”
After another gulp of wine, probably for fortitude, Bec leans forward. “Here’s the situation. I moved here a couple of yearsago from L.A., where I had a very lucrative freelance job as a literary editor.”
“Violet was one of her friends-slash-clients,” Izzy supplies.
“For some gods-awful reason, I decided to move here. I blame Izzy.”
“I make the perfect scapegoat.”
“One holiday here with her pack and their and Violet’s families, and I was totally done for. Brain turned to mush.” She looks at me with great dramatic flair. “I bought a B&B.”
I return her gaze with mock horror. “No. Not a B&B!”
“I know, right? What the fuck was I thinking?” Another sip. “Figured I could run the place, hire help, and still do some freelance work on the side. And that was the plan. Untiltheyshowed up.”
“To be fair, she met them at my holiday party,” Izzy interjects, gesturing at her friend with her wine glass.
“Yes. As I said, that party turned my brain to mush.”
“Who are we talking about here?”
“A couple of dogs with a bone,” Bec says at the same time Izzy says, “Her mates.”
Ohhh… This is the friend Izzy and Violet mentioned who was “stubborn.”
I bite down on the inside of my lips to keep from laughing. I don’t think Bec would take kindly to my reaction.
“It’s infuriating,” she goes on. “Neither of them lived here when Izzy held that party. I didn’t expect them to both uproot their lives and relocate after meeting me.”
