SLOW PLAY (7-Stud Club #4) - Christie Ridgway Page 0,12

name had only been called once, she could slip into the truck and screech out of the parking lot, but not when she’d been thrice named.

Upon being thrice named, you could not hide. It was a rule.

But she didn’t move her feet, just remained where she was, close to the truck and its magnet logo, the design based on a drawing she’d done herself at age four. A green line represented a hill and on top of it perched a yellow bird, its blue beak open in song. Sunnybird Farm.

Making sure her face was molded into a happy expression, she wiggled her fingers as the other woman came closer. “Well, hi there, Courtney.”

Courtney, Maddox Kelly’s wife.

“How are you?” she said, her voice filled with seventh-grade glee.

Harper stole a glance behind her, in case one of Courtney’s seventh-grade posse was there, ready to pants her. There was nothing to see but another pickup and an empty Big Grab chip bag, scooting along with the breeze. Breathing a little easier, she met Courtney’s brown eyes, big and dumb, like a cow’s.

Oh, she was so terrible.

“I’m fine, Courtney,” she said, like a grown-up. “How about yourself?”

“I heard you were in town,” the other woman went on, as if delighted by the idea.

“Really?” Really? Had Mad gone home Friday night, kissed his little wife on her rosebud lips and then said, Hey, darling, you’ll never guess who I ran into today.

A dull burn spread across the back of her neck, thinking of Mad talking about her with the little woman. And she looked…messy.

Courtney, of course, looked put together, in a vaguely nautical top and a pair of bright white cropped pants with matching white sneakers. Nobody’s supposed to wear white after Labor Day, was Harper’s catty thought, but of course that was some out-of-date fashion rule and one that especially didn’t apply in California.

“I heard you’ve been living in Nevada,” Courtney said now, head tilting this way and that, as if she was trying to figure out why anyone would want to live away from Sawyer Beach.

It was a thought that had never crossed Harper’s mind.

“That’s right,” she said, trying to keep her expression as lively as the other woman’s. “And before that I was in Asia, South America, and Europe.”

“A wanderer,” the strawberry blonde said, her hand over her heart. “It makes me feel like such a…such a…homebody.”

“Different strokes.” Harper shrugged, hoping she still had on her smile.

Then Courtney started talking again, never taking a breath, it seemed, which made Harper remember Elementary School Courtney, an annoying chatterbox, but who was preferable to Middle School Courtney who was a wanna-be mean girl.

To be honest, by high school Courtney was just a normal girl with a normal group of friends—though they were the kind who always volunteered for the Homecoming Committee. Once Harper heard from her mom that Courtney had become Mad’s fiancée, however, she’d taken on—in Harper’s mind—all the qualities of a nemesis.

It was undignified, unfair, and, unfortunately, true.

As she let Courtney’s chat wash over her, she found herself imagining what her life with her husband Mad might be like.

Then Harper found herself imagining Mad as a husband.

Coming in the door after a day at work.

The after-work kiss.

The pre-dinner drinks followed by the pre-dinner kiss.

The dinner, the kisses while doing dishes.

The kisses good night.

Before bed.

No, she couldn’t think of Mad in bed.

Then she was thinking of Mad in bed and that burn on the back of neck flushed down the rest of her body, followed by a sharp chaser of guilt because she was lusting after some other woman’s husband.

“And this is Stuart and Sela,” Courtney was saying, pushing forward two small figures that until now Harper had managed to totally ignore. “They’re three…and twins!”

Courtney and Mad’s children. Three-year-old twins.

Adorable twins.

With an awkward wave, she greeted their adorable perfection and then she was talking, making some excuse to jump into her truck and drive away. Putting distance between herself and Mad’s perky wife and perfect children. Harper could be on the road in no time.

Arrive in time for a late dinner in Vegas.

Yay.

Mad took a break from a morning of errand running to grab a coffee at Harry’s, the most popular spot for quick food and drink in downtown Sawyer Beach. Sophie Daggett was usually the on-duty barista, a job that allowed her to take online business classes as well as cater on the side. Today, the line to purchase a Sophie-creation snaked nearly to the door. He crossed his arms over his