at her two best friends.
“Surely the two of you aren’t having a problem with our age difference? My God, Raine, your stepfather is closer to your age than your mom’s, and you love him to death. Because, for the first time in your life, she’s happy. Truly happy.”
In colorful leggings that hugged gorgeous legs and a black formfitting shirt that defined hips that were just about perfect, Raine withstood Heather’s intent look without fidgeting. Or answering.
“And you...” She turned to Lianna. “Dexter’s only five years younger than Charles.”
“We fit each other,” Lianna came back without a second’s hesitation. She took a step closer. In black dress pants and a cream-colored silk blouse, she could command any room she entered. “Charles fits your parents, sweetie. Look at him in there. He’s having the time of his life.”
“And you’re in here.” Raine came closer, too. “Trudging through a party you didn’t want and counting the seconds until it’s over. Is that really how you want to spend the rest of your life? Counting the seconds away?”
So she’d been watching the clock. But she’d been counting minutes, not seconds. And only because she’d never been a big partier. She liked to spend time with people in small groups—not coming at her all at once.
“Charles is good with large groups of people,” she explained. “It’s a strength he has that counters my weakness in that area. He covers for me there, and I cover for him in other areas, where my strengths counteract his weaknesses.”
“He has weaknesses?” Lianna’s droll tone wasn’t lost on her.
“Come on, you guys.” Heather looked from one to the other, pleading unabashedly. “You just need to spend more time with him. Get to know him like I do.”
Well, not quite in that way, but...
“Seriously,” Lianna said. “What strength of yours counteracts a weakness of his?”
“He sucks at anything to do with aesthetics. I have a talent for creating beautiful spaces.”
“Your greatest talent is your ability to read people.” Raine’s tone, softer than Lianna’s, was no less compelling. “Does he even know that?”
“He knows what I do for a living.”
“Strangers know what you do for a living, sweetie,” Raine said. “Every time you appear in court, everyone there knows you’re a polygraphist. One trip to your office would tell someone that you administer lie detector tests, are a certified criminologist and also have a degree in psychology. I’m talking about your gifts, not your training. You deserve to be with someone who respects your ability to see inside people and relies on it. Someone who needs you in particular for what you have to offer. Someone who values your specialness.”
Like Cedar had? She felt the familiar sensation of lead falling in her stomach, and she quickly diverted her thoughts before she sank down with it. She’d gotten over all of that.
Was beyond it.
Had moved on.
Her friends were staring at her. Raine had once told her she believed Heather was empathic. Heather’s take was that other people could see what she saw if they just slowed their own thoughts and feelings enough to hear and see those around them.
Which was why she’d failed so miserably where Cedar was concerned. She’d been unable to get beyond her own feelings for him when he was around. She could now. And was ready to prove it.
“Being used isn’t my idea of happiness,” she said, as if any of them needed a reminder.
She’d had her doubts about Cedar, had seen what he was becoming, but she’d let passion cloud her judgment.
“So why did you invite him here tonight?”
No one had said the name aloud. They hadn’t needed to. It was as if the renowned defense attorney was standing there, in the room with them...
“He didn’t show.” So the whys didn’t matter.
“But why did you invite him?” Lianna pressed.
“It’ll be easier if we find a way to be friends. Because if we ever run into each other professionally...”
“That’s weak, Heather.” Lianna again. Sometimes Heather wondered how she’d remained friends with her for so long, but deep in her heart, she knew. Lianna understood her. Well enough to see when she was faltering—and to give her the hard truths when she needed them. Lianna had always been a source of strength.
Just as she’d been one of Lianna’s few sources of unconditional love.
“I heard he’s still in the area,” she said now, in her own defense. He’d sold the house they’d bought together, had paid Heather her share of the proceeds, which she’d used to buy the little bungalow within walking distance of the beach. She’d assumed he’d moved back closer to LA, but when she’d had lunch with a mutual friend from the city the month before, she’d found out differently.
Apparently he’d given up the apartment they’d kept in LA, too, but she assumed he’d bought another one there. Probably twice as nice.
Back when they’d been together, they’d spent some days in the city and some in Santa Raquel every week. Since the breakup, she’d quit staying in the city, choosing to make the hour-plus commute on the days she had to be in court. Or to interview someone who couldn’t come to her Santa Raquel office. She’d figured Cedar had done the opposite—left Santa Raquel, making the commute from LA for as long as he kept his Santa Raquel office. Apparently she’d been wrong on that one.
“Just being in the area doesn’t explain why he’d be on your guest list.” Lianna wasn’t dropping this.
“Because I’m over him.” The words sounded slightly pathetic. Her reasoning was not.
“Again, no reason to party with him.”
Raine’s hand was fidgeting against her thigh. A sign that her college friend was truly upset...and holding back. “What do you think?” Heather asked her.
“I don’t know,” Raine told her. “But I think it’s important that you do. So far, I’m not sure that’s the case.”
“I’m over him.” That was the reason. Period.
“Are you?”
“Of course!”
Raine, of all people, knew that.
“You said yourself that I’m a different person now than I was a year ago.”
Raine nodded. Licked her lips. Another sign of agitation.
Lianna’s gaze was softer than usual as she stood there, watching the two of them. Her silence was more telling in that moment than anything else. She clearly thought that this was bigger than frank talk was going to solve.
“He didn’t show, and I’m
