Текст книги "Take Me Home for Christmas"

Автор книги: Brenda Novak

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

23

“I thought you were asleep,” he said.

Sophia froze on the steps, where she’d started to climb out. “No.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“For a while,” she admitted. “I’m sorry. I should’ve said something, but I didn’t want to upset Eve, didn’t want to ruin your night.”

He glanced around, as he had before. “Where were you?”

She gestured at the dark area under the deck. “I tried to make it back to the guesthouse unseen, but...there didn’t seem to be a good opportunity. I’m sorry,” she said again.

He seemed taken aback, as if he was embarrassed by what he and Eve had said—or should’ve been more careful when he saw the cover missing—but ultimately shrugged as if there was nothing he could do about it now.

“No worries.” He waved her back into the water, turned on the jets and climbed in himself. “It’s just...late. And the past few nights have been rough. Why aren’t you sleeping?”

She slid around to the other side, putting as much distance between them as possible. “I napped for a little while. And then—” she shrugged “—I woke up and couldn’t seem to relax. I thought this might help.”

“Probably feels funny, being in a strange place, but you’ll get used to it.” He studied her through the steam. “How did Alexa do at school today?”

He acted like he really cared. “It seemed to go pretty well.”

“No trouble with Connie?”

“Nothing more than a verbal threat.”

“That girl had better not act on it.” Leaning back, he gazed at the stars overhead. “How does Lex feel about moving here?”

“Seems okay with it. She knows we’re lucky to have a comfortable place to live. She’s grateful to you.”

“She’s a good kid.”

Sophia smiled. In a way, it felt like she and her daughter were getting to know each other, really know each other, for the first time—and Sophia liked what she saw. “She is.”

He shook his hair off his face. “I looked but I didn’t see a receipt for the extra groceries and other stuff you bought today—the flowers and candles.”

“That was my treat. I don’t expect you to repay me.”

“You wanted Eve and me to have flowers and candles?”

“I know it’s not much. I just hoped to make your dinner extra nice. You’ve both been so generous to me.”

He didn’t say anything but his eyes never left her face.

“What?” she said, growing uncomfortable. Being out here alone with Ted like this, in the dark, made her have thoughts she shouldn’t be having—especially after Eve’s kindness in not telling Ted about her alcoholism. She wouldn’t do anything that might undermine Eve’s happiness, wouldn’t reveal the longing she felt now, and had felt for years.

“It was nice,” he said. “Eve liked it.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m glad.” She wondered if he’d liked it, too. He didn’t say, but she got the impression that he had.

When she found herself glancing at his bare shoulders, wishing things could be different, she stood up. “I’ll let you have some time to yourself.”

“Sophia?”

She looked at him as she passed.

“You seem to have changed a great deal.”

“Well, it would have to be for the better, right? There was only one way to go.” She laughed as if she wasn’t quite serious, but she knew that he—and half of Whiskey Creek—would probably agree with that statement.

She stepped out and got her towel, but even then he didn’t let her leave. “How’s your mother?”

It’d been ages since anyone had asked about Elaine. Her mother had been gone from Whiskey Creek for so many years that the hole her absence had initially created in the community had filled in long ago. At least that seemed to be true for everyone else. Sophia found it ironic, considering that the town had once revolved around her parents.

“She was okay the last time I checked,” she said. “I don’t speak to her very often.”

“Because...”

She wanted to blame Skip. He’d been so nasty whenever she planned to visit the hospital. “I don’t see the point!” he’d growl, and he’d usually refuse to go with her. But she knew the real reason she avoided contact ran much deeper.

“She doesn’t know me anymore,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she’d told him about her mother. That wasn’t something she normally talked about. It had just...popped out, as if she couldn’t keep something so painful inside anymore. But she regretted it the second the words left her lips and she saw the sympathy on his face. She didn’t want him to think she was trying to make excuses for herself or manipulate his emotions. So she hurried to get behind closed doors where she couldn’t say anything else. And where she’d no longer be tempted to tell him how much she’d always loved him.

* * *

Cheyenne and Dylan were at coffee the next morning. So were Riley, Callie, Levi, Kyle and Eve. Once again, Ted had thought about skipping the weekly ritual. He was falling so far behind on his book. He figured that provided the perfect excuse to avoid the ribbing he was going to get for helping Sophia after being so opinionated about her. But then Eve called to see if he’d pick her up, and he knew that with Sophia living in his guesthouse, he needed to do all he could to be available to Eve and help his girlfriend feel secure.

When they walked into Black Gold together, they weren’t holding hands or doing anything else to announce that they were a couple—and yet Cheyenne’s smile stretched so wide Ted could tell she knew. That meant Dylan did, too—and the others would inevitably find out. He wasn’t ready for the added pressure. He and Eve would be the first official couple inside the group after all the years they’d been friends and that would generate more attention than he felt comfortable with. Especially now, when he had so much going on inside his head. But he couldn’t expect to keep the relationship a secret for very long. They were both too close to their friends.

At least it would put any suspicions that he had plans to get back with Sophia to rest.

Noah was the first to start in. “Hey, Ted. I hear that Sophia got a job.”

Everyone sitting at the table laughed and glanced at each other.

“I heard that, too.” Kyle joined the fun. “Apparently she wasn’t quite so mean in high school that you couldn’t forgive her. So...tell me, what was all that talk about?”

“Shut up,” Ted grumbled. “It’s not as if any of you were stepping up to help.”

“You were the one with the job,” Noah said. “We’re heading into the winter, which is my slowest time. I would’ve had to let someone go in order to hire her, and that didn’t seem fair.”

Ted spread his hands. “I felt sorry for her, okay? No big deal.”

“What was it he said last week?” Riley asked. “‘Actions have consequences’?”

Thank God no one seemed to know he’d let her move in with him, too....

Eve slipped her arm through his. “Come on, guys. Go easy. No matter what he says, Ted has a heart the size of Texas. That shouldn’t come as any surprise.”

Ted didn’t want Eve sticking up for him. It made the change in their relationship too obvious—obvious enough that Kyle suddenly took note of the possessive way she was touching him. “What do you know about his heart?” he asked.

Eve let go of him and tried to shrug it off. “We’ve been friends for years.”

“Are you still friends?” Riley asked, searching their faces.

Ted couldn’t deny the truth. That would imply that he was embarrassed about their involvement. So when Eve seemed uncertain about how to respond, he came out with it. “We’re seeing each other.”

Adelaide’s mouth dropped open. “Seeing each other as in...dating?”

“Isn’t that what seeing each other is?” he asked.

“I wasn’t sure, since you’ve been friends for so long and see each other all the time.” Addy hadn’t been part of the original group, hadn’t even been around after high school. Noah had included her when she returned a year ago.

“Since when?” Callie asked.

“Halloween,” Cheyenne chipped in with a knowing laugh.

“Whoa, apparently some people had more fun in the hot tub than others,” Riley teased.

Eve blushed. “Do you have to make it so embarrassing? It’s enough of a transition already.”

Noah rubbed his chin. “You hired Sophia but you’re dating Eve. Interesting reversal.”

Ted sent him a look that told him to stuff it. “We’ll skip the editorials, if you don’t mind.” Eager to get away from the group until the shock wore off, he turned to Eve. “Can I get you something? You want a yogurt?”

“Oh, my gosh!” Cheyenne cried. “How weird that Ted’s going to be buying Eve’s yogurt from now on!”

Kyle was the only one who didn’t seem to think this development was funny. He hadn’t said a word since the “big reveal”—and he got up and followed Ted to the line of people waiting to order at the register. “Hey, man, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” He kept a smile on his face, for the sake of the others, but his eyes were serious.

Ted couldn’t admit the truth, couldn’t show any uncertainty. That wouldn’t be fair to Eve. “Of course.”

Putting his back to the group’s table, Kyle tried again. “You remember how it went when Callie and I—”

“I remember,” he broke in to save him from having to spell it out.

“You have to think long and hard before getting that intimate with one of these girls.”

“I have thought about it.”

Kyle gave him a skeptical look as they moved forward in line.

“What?” Ted snapped, irritated by the fact that Kyle was forcing him to examine his motives and decisions.

“It’s just...so fast. One day you’re friends, like always. And now you’re lovers?”

“These things happen. You should know.”

“Exactly. So...where’s the heat between you two?”

“Maybe it’s not that kind of relationship.”

When the person ahead of them in line seemed to be listening, Kyle lowered his voice. “But it’s supposed to be now, isn’t it?”

“Eve and I don’t base everything on sexual attraction. Not everything,” he repeated when he realized that made it sound as if he didn’t want to make love to her.

“Listen...”

The guy ahead of them ordered, giving them more space but less time than they probably needed to finish this conversation.

“I lost the one girl I was dying to have,” Kyle went on.

Ted was surprised to hear him confess that, for him, there’d been no one who could compare to Olivia.

“It hasn’t been the same with anyone since,” he continued. “My marriage failed for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost it was because I didn’t love Noelle to begin with. We should never have gotten together. The year I spent with her, and the year I spent recovering from the divorce, which is when I slept with Callie, were the two worst years of my life. Some days it’s still hard dealing with the aftermath. Besides all the emotional bullshit, I have to pay Noelle a hefty amount of spousal maintenance each month. That means there’s no way to cut her out of my life entirely.”

Not only that, but he had to watch his stepbrother with the woman he really wanted—although Brandon and Olivia hadn’t shown up today.

“Anyway,” Kyle went on, “I don’t want you or Eve to go through anything like I did.”

The earnest emotion in his plea scared Ted. He’d been so decisive, so sure he could remain committed to Eve. But when he made love with her—like last night before they got into the Jacuzzi—it just wasn’t as satisfying as he wanted it to be. He’d actually felt a little...hollow afterward.

Was he letting her down by trying to force this? Were they better off taking a step back and admitting that they felt pretty much the same way they’d always felt toward each other? Or were his emotions the only ones that weren’t changing?

She seemed so happy. He didn’t want to wreck that, didn’t want to hurt her. He’d already promised himself he wouldn’t. Besides, he wasn’t sure he’d given it long enough to make a final decision. They used to tease Noah for his inability to commit. Ted had never messed around as much as Noah had, but he suspected he was the one with a commitment problem—and that came as a shock.

“Why did you decide to make a move on Eve?” Kyle asked.

It had seemed safe. Smart. But was that only because she wasn’t Sophia? He had to admit he hadn’t been thinking clearly on Halloween night, even though he’d assured himself that he was. Alcohol had a way of doing that to a person.

“Can I help you?”

The barista was ready to take their order, so Ted couldn’t answer Kyle’s question. There was no time. And he was grateful for that. He couldn’t imagine what might come out of his mouth now that he felt so torn. He didn’t want to say he’d been drinking. That would only convince Kyle that he had indeed made a huge mistake.

But something in his eyes must have revealed his uncertainty because Kyle took one look at him, shook his head and cursed.

* * *

Eve was busy that night. And she was going to be gone for the next week. It was her grandmother’s eightieth birthday, so she was flying to Montana with her parents for a family reunion and party. That gave Ted some breathing room. He was relieved to have it, needed the time to write. But it wasn’t as if he could slip into isolation like he used to. Although Sophia was supposed to be off on the weekends—that was what he’d originally intended when he’d advertised for a housekeeper—she was so grateful for the free rent and so determined to do all she could to repay him that she insisted on cooking for him regardless of the day. And it was tough to complain about that when she made such delicious meals, which were always right when he wanted them.

There were other benefits to having her around, as well. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen the house quite so clean. And if he listened carefully, he could hear laughter, which somehow made him smile. It was Alexa, who spent her time with her mother whenever she was out of school. He liked Sophia’s daughter, he realized, despite her paternity.

It was Saturday night and the two of them were in the kitchen. Sophia was instructing her daughter on how to tell if a turkey potpie was done when he walked into the room.

“Can I get you something?” Sophia asked.

Alexa shot him a smile, and he returned it. “I’m beat,” he said. “It’s time for a glass of wine.”

The smile disappeared from Alexa’s face as her gaze shifted to her mother.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.

Sophia answered. “No, of course not. What kind would you like?”

“A nice Chablis.” He sat at the table to talk to Alexa while Sophia went into the cellar, but Alexa seemed distracted. She kept turning around, looking for her mother.

He waved to attract her attention. “Everything okay?”

“Fine,” she said. “Where’s your corkscrew? I’ll get it out so you can open the bottle.”

He was fairly confident that Sophia could handle that, but he directed her to the right drawer and she got it for him. Then, as soon as Sophia emerged, Alexa took charge of the bottle and brought it over. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” He popped the cork while Sophia brought him a glass. “Would you like some?” he asked her, raising the bottle.

It seemed as if she didn’t even want to look at it. “No, thanks,” she said and busied herself with finishing up their meal.

“How are things going with Connie, Babette and the others?” he asked Alexa as he sipped his wine.

“Okay. I don’t talk to them anymore.”

“They’re not giving you any trouble?”

“Sometimes they make fun of me when they see me, but...it’s okay.”

When Sophia removed the potpie from the oven, Ted could tell it had been made from scratch. It looked as good as the ones from Just Like Mom’s. “That smells fantastic,” he said.

Sophia glanced up at the appreciation in his voice. “I hope it tastes as good as it smells.”

She hadn’t gone wrong yet.

She put it on top of the stove. “I set a place for you in the dining room, but—” she gestured at the table where he was sitting “—if you’d rather eat in here, I can move your plate.”

He remembered stipulating that they eat separately. Although that seemed silly now—to be on the same property and eating the same meal but purposely splitting up—he didn’t ask them to join him. He needed to keep some separation between them, didn’t want their relationship to drift in the wrong direction just because they were starting to feel comfortable with each other.

“The dining room is fine,” he said, so she served him there. She even put out one of the candles she’d bought for his romantic dinner with Eve. The dancing flame added a nice touch in the gathering twilight. But as he sat in the silence of his big house, eating alone, he could see her crossing the backyard with her daughter. Both of them had their hands stuffed into pot holders and were carrying dishes as they walked and talked, and somehow the camaraderie he sensed between them made him feel left out.

Maybe that was why he decided to go over a little later to see if they wanted to come and watch a movie. Or maybe it was because Sophia wouldn’t let him order cable for the guesthouse. She said she needed to save her money for other things, which was true. But with such limited funds, and no TV, he couldn’t imagine what they’d do on a Saturday night. They wouldn’t continue to unpack; they’d been doing that for days—and Alexa deserved to have some fun. Everything she used to have, including her friends, was gone.

So he convinced himself that by picking up ice cream and other treats and heading over to Redbox to rent a movie, he was just trying to do a nice deed for a kid who’d had a rough go of it lately.

But he knew in his heart that she wasn’t the only one he was hoping to please.

24

Ted had never expected Sophia to turn him down. He figured a woman in her situation would be desperate enough to accept almost any invitation—just to get out of the house, if for no other reason. What fun had she had since her husband jumped off that damn yacht?

He couldn’t believe she’d had any. But if not for Alexa, begging her to agree, Sophia would’ve sent him away. As it was, she came but kept to herself.

“Thanks for inviting us over.” Alexa was almost enthusiastic enough to compensate for her mother. Almost, but not quite. Although she seemed to have none of the qualms Sophia did about sitting next to him, Sophia tried to coax her off the couch. Did she think Alexa might be crowding him? Or getting on his nerves? Or...worse?

He couldn’t figure it out, so when Alexa asked him to pause the movie so she could go to the bathroom, he waited until she was out of the room and asked Sophia. “Why do you keep telling her she can’t sit on the couch? Is it because I’m on the couch, too?”

“There are other chairs.”

“But a couch is meant for more than one person, so what’s the big deal? It’s not... I would never do anything to hurt her. You know that, right? You don’t think I’d ever act inappropriately with your daughter....”

“God, no!” she said, dismissing his concern. “It’s just...her father really let her down.”

Ted didn’t immediately see the connection. “What’s that got to do with me?”

“Quite a bit. She likes you—a lot. I don’t want her to latch on to another man who—whom she’ll lose contact with when we move.”

“You’re trying to make sure she and I don’t become friends even though you’ll be living here for months?”

“We might not be here that long.”

“It’ll take time to save up the money you need to relocate.”

“I just feel bad. I know Eve doesn’t want us here, and that could change our situation. Why set my daughter up to be disappointed?”

Sophia had a point. Eve was a wonderful person, but she felt threatened, and he couldn’t expect her to put up with that for long. Still, there was a part of him that believed he should have the right to befriend anyone he wanted to, especially a child who was lonely and needed him.

Unsure of how it would sound if he said that, he hesitated. Then Alexa came back, so he let it go and started the movie.

“Where’s your girlfriend tonight?” Alexa asked during a slow part of the show.

Blinking, he drew himself out of his thoughts. “Eve?”

“Do you have more than one girlfriend?” she teased.

He pretended he’d needed clarification because he’d been engrossed in the movie, but even after sleeping with Eve, it was difficult to think of her as his girlfriend. “She’s out of town.”

“I bet you miss her.”

When he made a noise he hoped would pass for agreement, Alexa spoke in a conspiratorial manner. “Too bad you don’t still like my mom.”

“Lex!” Sophia nearly gasped her daughter’s name. “Eve wouldn’t be happy to hear you say that, would she?”

Chastened, she shook her head.

“That’s in the past,” Sophia said firmly.

But she’d finally told her daughter. Ted wondered why.

Lex turned back to him. “So...are you going to marry her?”

Sophia jumped in again. “Come on, honey, don’t ask such personal questions. That’s none of our business.”

Feeling pensive for no particular reason, Ted shrugged it off. “No worries. I’d answer, but...our relationship is relatively new. No one can say what will happen.” Especially since even thinking about marrying Eve felt odd. Shouldn’t he be missing her? Shouldn’t he be craving the touch and feel of her?

Maybe that wasn’t happening because he’d just seen her this morning. There hadn’t been enough time to miss her....

Or maybe he was expecting too much from love. Chances were good that you didn’t experience the same heady rush at thirty-four as you did at seventeen. Emotions often grew more subdued as a person aged.

But, God, he wasn’t old yet. He kept coming to the same conclusion: something was missing. He just hoped, with enough effort, that would change.

“Sorry,” Lex said. “Didn’t mean to be rude.”

He smiled. “It’s not a problem.” It would’ve been even less of a problem if those questions had come from anyone other than Sophia’s daughter. And if this evening in front of the TV was turning out to be as placid and relaxing as he’d intended. But he and Sophia were never meant to be friends. He was coming to the conclusion that, with her, it had to be all or nothing. There was so much tension between them he could hardly keep his knee from jiggling with nervous energy.

Fortunately, that tension eased as the minutes ticked away. At least for Sophia. She fell asleep about halfway through.

Alexa started to wake her, to tell her she was missing the movie, but Ted shook his head. “Let her sleep. She can watch it tomorrow if she’s really interested,” he said, but by the end of the movie they were all asleep. When Ted woke up, the TV was looping the intro music, and he had no idea how long it had been playing.

He got up and turned off the TV. Then he considered what he should do with his guests. He could throw a blanket over them, but he was sure they’d sleep much better in their own beds. So he opened the back door of his house and the front door of the guesthouse before carrying Alexa over. She didn’t wake up, even as he placed her carefully on the downstairs bed. Then he came back for Sophia.

“I zonked out? I’m sorry,” Sophia muttered, but she was so groggy that she didn’t fight him when he lifted her into his arms.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” She didn’t weigh much more than her daughter, so it wasn’t hard to carry her. But he hadn’t bargained on the ten steps leading to the second story of the guesthouse, which he’d have to climb to get her to her room.

He was exhausted by the time they were halfway up, and that was when she began to rouse in earnest.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Where are we? Wait, I can walk. I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“Relax.” He tightened his grip so her wriggling wouldn’t send them both crashing down the stairs. “We’re almost there.”

“Put me down! I’m too heavy.”

“And you’re getting heavier by the minute,” he joked. “But now that I’ve started this, you have to let me finish or it’ll wound my male pride.”

Surprisingly, she stopped fighting and laughed like she used to laugh when they were younger. She also made his job easier by slipping her arms around his neck, which helped him keep his balance.

“I may not be the athlete Noah is, but I can carry a girl to bed,” he muttered. He didn’t realize how bad that sounded until it was out of his mouth, but she pretended not to notice the double entendre. At least she didn’t comment on it.

“This is so gallant of you,” she teased. “Not many employers would be so kind.”

“It’ll be gallant if I get you there in one piece. I doubt it’ll be seen that way if we both break our necks.”

“I have absolute faith in you.”

She sounded genuine when she said that, which he found oddly gratifying. But he was staggering so badly by the time they reached the top that they were both laughing.

“It’s harder to carry someone up a flight of stairs than I thought it would be.”

“And that’s a long flight of stairs—not to mention that you had to cross the lawn first.”

“I’ll have to get more serious about my weight-lifting.” He nudged her bedroom door open with his shoulder. “But we made it. Here you are, my lady.”

He put her down on the bed, but before he could withdraw, her arms tightened around his neck.

For a moment, it felt like the warmest embrace—as if they’d never meant to be parted for all these years.

He almost allowed it, almost responded to the passion he sensed in her—which scared him. No way did he want to be the kind of man who would cheat. He knew how low he’d feel afterward.

His muscles tensed, but before he could break her hold, her mouth found his ear and she whispered, “I’m sorry, Ted. I’m so sorry.”

The entreaty in her voice left no doubt that she wasn’t making a move on him as he’d first thought. She was apologizing for the past. The fact that she immediately released him confirmed it. She didn’t even look at him again. She rolled over and buried herself in the blankets as if she couldn’t bear to look.

Ted wasn’t sure how to react. The way she’d clung to him had nearly taken his legs out from under him—had flooded his system with so much testosterone he couldn’t think straight.

He forgave her, didn’t he? Of course he did. Or he wouldn’t be helping her. But it wasn’t what he wanted to say that held him fast; it was what he wanted to do. The desire to feel her under him once again—to claim her mouth and her body as he had many times before—was so powerful he felt himself go hard in an instant.

But what about Eve?

“Damn it!” He tore down the stairs before temptation could get him in such a chokehold he no longer cared about his integrity.

* * *

Ted seemed eager to avoid her after that. Although it made Sophia sad to find the friendship that had started between them suddenly gone, she was also relieved. It wasn’t easy to maintain a friendship when she wanted more. Maybe she could’ve done it with someone else, but not Ted, and their new boundaries helped keep her hopes and thoughts in check. She hadn’t been trying to steal him from Eve when she’d clung to him long enough to apologize. She’d just wanted him to finally understand that she was sincerely sorry. Now that she’d said her piece, he could go on with his life, and she could, too—hopefully without the regret that had eaten at her for so long.

“Do you think Ted’s mad at us?” Alexa asked Sophia one morning while they were having breakfast. Fortunately, she was doing better in school. Connie seemed to have lost interest in fighting with her, Royce was walking her to class almost every day, and the other kids didn’t want to take her on when she had Royce’s support. But this proved she was disappointed that Ted no longer paid her much attention.

Sophia added some brown sugar to her oatmeal. “No. He’s busy trying to get his book done.”

“He’s always busy. I wish he had more time.”

“I do, too,” Sophia said, but she was just playing along. Deep down she believed they couldn’t be hurt if they were careful not to get too close to him. They had to remember that they were merely putting in time in Whiskey Creek. They wouldn’t be staying much longer, especially now that she was beginning to work through the worst of her financial problems. Thanks to Skip’s many debts, she would have to file for bankruptcy as soon as she could afford it, but she was doing a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” on the house so it would be out of her hands soon. The Ferraris were already gone. She and Alexa had driven by one day after school to check on the house and found that someone had broken the side door on the garage and taken both cars. Sophia hoped it was the repo company and not someone else, but that was out of her hands, too.

She still had her Mercedes—but she was pretty sure that was only because the repossession people couldn’t find it. The lienholder had been calling her more and more frequently, so she knew they were stepping up their search. No doubt someone in town would eventually point the repo man in the right direction, and then she’d no longer have transportation.

Knowing she was living on borrowed time, she held her breath every day she came out of the house to take Alexa to school, fearing this would be the morning her vehicle would be gone, but so far, so good.

Besides that one nagging worry, she was beginning to feel as if she was pulling her life together—and it was Ted who’d made that possible. What he’d done for her, and was still doing, made her love him even more. But she knew that if she was really thinking of him and not herself, she’d stay out of his personal life as much as possible.

So she cooked and cleaned and ran Ted’s errands with very little oversight or direction for the next two and a half weeks. During that time, he didn’t ask her to do any clerical work. Maybe Eve was taking care of it for him. Sophia didn’t know because she hadn’t heard a word from Eve other than the few polite exchanges that occurred if they happened to bump into each other. Sophia hated that their friendship had stalled, but she couldn’t blame that on Eve. Sophia hadn’t called her, either. She couldn’t bring herself to pretend they weren’t in love with the same man.

Cheyenne had checked in a few times, which was nice. But Cheyenne was Eve and Ted’s friend, and Sophia knew they wouldn’t appreciate her joining the group, so she kept their conversations cordial but distant.

As the days passed, Ted and Eve seemed to be getting closer and closer. Eve came over quite often in the evenings. Occasionally Sophia would see her passing by a window, or she’d go out to run an errand and find Eve’s car parked next to her own. Sometimes Ted went over to Eve’s place instead; at least that was where Sophia assumed he went when he left at night.