“Stop!” Brynn and Ali laughed harder as Brynn pointed an accusatory finger at Jess. “You know what I meant. Stop trying to make this sound worse than it is.”
Jess lifted her hands. “Hey, you’re the one taking baths and dropping keys with a guy you just met.”
“I was not!” Brynn playfully tossed a wadded up napkin at Jess. “I was in the bath when he came to the door and I put a robe on but Lucy, my pug, wanted to play tug of war with my belt. And then later, when I was fully dressed, I dropped a key I was handing him and I reached for it and ended up cupping his…” she put her hand out demonstrating the action even as her fair cheeks turned almost as red as her hair.
Sara’s head fell back as she laughed, a real laugh that she felt spread through her like a cool breeze on a hot day. It felt so good to be this relaxed and enjoying herself. It made her realize the stark contrast of her “real” life compared to this. She hoped that once she moved close to Shelby and Matt, she’d have more nights like this.
“Uh oh. Incoming.” Jess said beneath her breath as she stared blankly just over Sara’s shoulder.
“Be nice.” Ali said without moving her lips as she held a smile firmly in place.
Sara glanced behind her and saw a severely put-together woman heading straight toward them. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a slick ponytail, not a strand out of place. Her makeup was minimal, but flawless and she wore a black tank top paired with white linen drawstring pants…that didn’t have a smudge or stain on them…at a BBQ. In a large grass area. A long silver, single chain necklace hung to her mid-belly and she had a matching Apple Watch on her left wrist.
She looked like she’d walked out of a catalog and also like she didn’t quite fit in with the crowd. It wasn’t like any of the women that Sara had met tonight were carbon copies of each other. This wasn’t a Stepford Wife situation. Far from it.
Jess had black hair that was styled in curls on the top of her head with a red bandana tied around it. Vibrant tattoos on her thighs, arms and back jumped off her olive skin. Her high waisted, dark blue jean shorts and a white button up shirt covered in tiny cherries that was tied at her waist was straight out of a pin-up photo shoot. Bright red lipstick and a perfect cat-eye finished off her model worthy look.
Ali, in contrast, reminded Sara of a quintessential California surfer girl. She wore cutoff jean shorts and a white tank top and flip-flop sandals. Her long blonde hair flowed effortlessly around her shoulders and she had not a stich of makeup on.
Then there was Brynn. Her red locks were just past shoulder length and she wore a flowered sundress with strappy sandals. The petite redhead with bright blue eyes looked like a Disney princess. Literally, she looked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid come to life.
None of the women resembled one another, but they all looked like they belonged together. The woman approaching them seemed to be operating on an entirely different realm. But Sara couldn’t quite put her finger on why.
As soon as she got within earshot, Jess greeted her. “Hello Prissy!”
“Hey, Chrissy.” Brynn sounded genuinely cheerful.
“Hi, Chrissy!” Ali over-punctuated the name. “I’d like you to meet Sara Kellan.”
Chrissydidn’t acknowledge Jess’s greeting, but she smiled at Ali and Brynn before she held her hand out to Sara. “Hello, I’m Christine Caldwell, nice to meet you.”
Sara smiled. It wasn’t that Christine was rude, far from it. It was just that Sara didn’t feel the same warmth that she felt exuding from the rest of the town. Maybe that was what set her apart.
“Hi, Christine.” Sara stood and used the name that she’d introduced herself as. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Christine pointed at the jumpy house where Charlotte and Trevor were jumping with several other children. “Are those your children?”
Oh dear lord.
Those were four words every parent dreaded coming from a woman that looked and carried herself like Christine.
Sara’s back straightened and her shoulders tensed as the guard that she hadn’t even realized she’d ever had, much less dropped since arriving in Whisper Lake, slipped right back into place.
How long had it been there?
Years?
Decades?
“Yes.”
“They’ve been playing with my two youngest, Cassidy and Kimber.”
This woman had children and she didn’t have a wrinkle or a stain. Forget how long she’d known Austin, that was inconceivable.
“And I had to come tell you that I have never—”
Oh boy.