Chapter One
Becky
Becky Morgan tilted her head at the sound of the muffled beep. She quickly scoured the top of her desk in search of her cell phone. Littered across the flat surface were invoices, folders, order confirmations. The boutique had been busy, but at least her desk was out of sight in the back office.
“Where are you?” she muttered as she shuffled the clutter around.
Once she located her phone, Becky glanced at the text on the screen and scowled.
Two words. “Help me.”
She dialed and brought it to her ear. One ring. Two. And then, “Hello?”
Becky spoke into the receiver in a controlled voice. “I’m not sure where you are, but you need to leave right away. Don’t even hesitate. This is an emergency.”
The voice on the other end let out a stuttered gasp. “Oh my god, are you okay? No, of course, I’ll be right there.”
Becky disconnected the call as her business partner entered the office they shared. Tonya still looked polished even at the end of the day—not a hair out of place in her highlighted chin-length bob. The linen dress she wore was as crisp and clean as it had been that morning.
Becky knew she looked like she had spent the day running sprints through an obstacle course. Self-consciously, she tucked the hem of her blouse back into the waistband of her skirt.
“Is the front door still open?” Becky asked.
Tonya grabbed her purse from the bottom desk of her drawer. “Yeah, I was just getting ready to lock up.”
“Jules should be here any minute. She’s on the other side of The Village at Riley’s. I had to give her the emergency call.”
“Another bad blind date?” Tonya asked as she peered into her purse and pulled out a set of keys.
“I guess.”
“How that gorgeous girl doesn’t have a man is something I’ll never understand.”
Becky nodded. “I know. Everyone insists on setting her up, but I don’t think she’s over Tim.”
“Didn’t she break up with him?”
“She did.”
Tonya cocked her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure Jules does either.” Becky knew her friend had a hard time letting anyone in. She wanted someone to love her, but she also kept her heart fiercely guarded.
“I guess he just wasn’t the right guy for her.” Tonya shrugged. “Hey, maybe next weekend we can make plans for dinner, bring the husbands. Ask Bryan if that works for him. By then, I’m sure Scott will be ready for a night out.”
“I’m sure Bryan would love that. I feel like we’ve been laying pretty low lately with everything that’s going on.”
Their social life would soon be different. How could it not be?
Tonya and Scott didn’t have any kids. Becky had been shocked to find out they weren’t planning to have any, but also a little relieved. Her biggest fear was that Tonya would come in one day and announce she was pregnant. Not that she wouldn’t have been outwardly happy for her and Scott. But watching her waddle around the store— damn, that would be painful.
The front doorbell jangled, indicating someone entering the store.
“Sounds like the escape strategy was successful.” Tonya’s gaze fixated on Becky’s desk.
Becky caught her eye. “Don’t worry. I’ll tidy up before I head out of here tonight. By the time I leave, my desk will look nice and neat like yours.”
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it.”
Having them both there at closing was unusual. When they first decided to buy the boutique together, they spent endless hours to get it up and running. All that hard work had paid off. After a couple of years, they’d been able to afford to hire additional help, and sometimes they were able to get home to their husbands in time for dinner.
Becky heard the two women greet each other by the front door, and as she looked up, Jules staggered in her expensive high heels into the office.
She plopped down in the chair at Becky’s desk. “I’m done dating. It’s just too hard.” She leaned her head back, her tousled auburn hair spilling over the back of the chair.
Becky winced. “No good? Well, it’s his loss. You look beautiful.” Her best friend wasn’t just pretty. Flawless golden skin. Hourglass figure. A dazzling smile that owned more real estate on her face than would seem aesthetically pleasing on anyone else. She was stunning. Only Becky knew the insecurity that lived right beneath the picture-perfect surface.
“Please. He spent the first hour talking about his girlfriend. Well, he says it’s his ex-girlfriend, but the way he went on and on about her, I find that hard to believe. I need to stop letting people set me up. These blind dates are killing me.” She glanced up at Becky with a half-hearted smile. “Thanks for rescuing me.”
“Anytime.” Becky reached around Jules to collect her papers and folders into a neat pile. Even the picture frame on her desk was askew. She straightened it.
Jules pointed at the photo of Becky and her husband. “I remember that night. I swear you two have some weird Pictionary ESP.”
Game night at Becky and Bryan’s house was a competitive matter. Their friends always insisted they needed to play on separate teams to make it fair. They never would. Becky knew all Bryan’s quirks, his addiction to anything Star Wars, the way he could read her mind.
Even when Jules wasn’t working, her photographer’s eye couldn’t resist the urge to capture a moment as she had when she took that photo. As Becky studied the picture, there wasn’t even a hint she and Bryan were in a room full of people.
She wasn’t conventionally beautiful by society’s standards, probably defined more by words like “cute” or “adorable” which seemed reserved for people of her small stature. She had a heart-shaped face with full cheeks, a somewhat pointy chin, and a deep dimple in her right cheek that appeared out of nowhere when she was feeling pure joy. Her husband loved that dimple and did his best to bring it out as often as possible.
Jules shook her head as she stared at the picture. “See, why can’t I find a guy who looks at me like that? You got yourself quite a catch, my friend.”
Becky didn’t mention that Tim had looked at her like that. “Trust me. I pinch myself every day that I have Bryan.”
Fate had brought her Bryan. She believed that. A flat tire during the last fleeting days of college and her knight in shining armor had approached, his blond hair glowing in the sunlight like he was heaven-sent. And maybe he was.
Becky pulled Tonya’s desk chair next to Jules and sat down across from her. “The right guy is out there for you too. We’ll find him.”