SLOW PLAY (7-Stud Club #4) - Christie Ridgway Page 0,16

a hospital bed believing death was imminent, she knew she wanted to come home…or at least get closer to home.

“I had a wonderful time until I realized I was too far for deliveries of Grandmom’s minestrone, even on a semi-occasional basis. That had to change.”

“So you’re going back to waitressing then?” her mom asked. “You enjoy that as well?”

Footsteps tripping up the stairs made any need for response unnecessary. “Sophie!” she said, as happy to see her friend as she was to avoid answering her mother. “What are you doing here?”

“We haven’t had a chance to properly catch up,” the small blonde said.

“Sit here then.” Rebecca popped up from the bed, allowing the younger woman to have her place. “I’ll see about getting you girls a couple of glasses of wine.”

Sophie clapped in appreciation, then made small talk as well as helpful suggestions as Harper continued cleaning out her closet. Rebecca delivered the wine and clearing clutter was abandoned as Harper joined her old best friend on the bed.

They clinked glasses as Harper’s mom waved and left them alone. “It’s so great to see you again,” Sophie said. “I’ve missed you.”

“Really?” Harper beamed. “I was thinking the same thing. That I missed you. Everyone. Everything.”

“Nothing much changes around here, though. You wanted more than that.”

Did she? Harper wondered. Or had she been desperate not to end up like her mother, always waiting for some man to love her with the dedication that she loved him?

“I’m very sure there’s been many changes,” Harper said, moving on from that thought.

“Not as many as you might assume.” Sophie’s eyebrows wiggled. “You thought Maddox had married Courtney. Thank God we were spared that.”

“She seems quite sweet, despite that memory I have of her shaving off Danielle Brower’s eyebrows at her twelfth birthday sleepover.”

“Oh, she is sweet—now. Just not right for Mad.”

Harper glanced down at her wine. “He was engaged to her though, right?”

“For about ten minutes, around a year after you left.”

Stupid, how that hurt. “I guess he wasn’t devastated by the loss of me.”

“To be honest, at the time I was pretty much wrapped in myself and my terrible, newfound crush on Hart Sawyer.”

“What?” Harper downed a big swallow of wine. “Hart? The boy who used to beg you to make him chocolate chip cookies and then mercilessly questioned any boy you dated?”

“Worse than a brother,” she said, waving a hand. “And one day I realized I had fallen madly in love with him.”

Harper stared. “But you’re not together? All this time and you haven’t made a move on him?”

“No move.” Sophie took her own long swallow from her glass, then stared into it. “The time was never right.”

“Never right? You’re not shy. And you have game, what with two older brothers, you are good with men. Plus being a fabulous cook and so adorable—”

“Thanks, but the time was never right to convince him to see me as something other than a little sister. And then…” She shrugged. “And then he went to his college reunion weekend and came home engaged.”

“Oh.” Poor Sophie. Harper thought back to the farmers market and didn’t recall seeing a woman attached to Hart’s arm. “But they’re no longer with each other?”

“Right.”

Harper brightened. “Then maybe—”

“She died.”

Pain stabbed Harper’s chest and her hand flew up to cover it. “Oh, God.”

Sophie’s tear-filled eyes belied her casual tone. “A brain aneurysm, just weeks before the wedding.”

“Oh, God. Poor Hart.”

“Poor Hart.”

Stricken, Harper put her wine aside to take her friend into her arms. “It’s a terrible thing.”

“Truly terrible,” Sophie said, her voice muffled by Harper’s shoulder. “And I liked her. I even liked her for Hart.”

“Wow.” Harper pushed her a few inches away. “You did?”

“And I was so happy he was happy.” A tear fell down Sophie’s cheek. “Now he’s not happy at all.”

“Oh, Soph.” She brought her friend close again, squeezing. “This has to be so hard for you. And God, for Hart.” Harder than it had been for Harper to imagine Mad married, that was for sure. Even though he’d worked in law enforcement, she’d never considered he might get physically hurt. Again, that stab to the chest.

She might have been thousands of miles away when Mad was hurt, or worse.

“What are we going to do about this, Soph?” she asked, feeling like they both might break.

Then a shout from downstairs had them separating. Their gazes met. “What is it?” Sophie asked, wiping her wet cheeks.

“We better find out.”

They raced down the stairs only to enter the kitchen to find