Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,43
do her best. Smokey eye makeup, check. Hair done, check. Perfume sprayed in a few key locations, check. Nine minutes later, she pulled on her winter coat and locked her door behind her. The dress she’d splurged on, ankle-length and black velvet, was shot through with green along the arms and waist. It fit her curves perfectly, even though it didn’t show a ton of skin. She added a silver chain and matching earrings that dangled to her shoulders. High-heeled black boots and a winter-white scarf and gloves completed the outfit. She’d never been to an animal shelter fundraiser, but she hoped she wouldn’t look entirely out of place.
The look in Dash’s eyes when he jumped out of his truck to help her into the passenger side told her she’d chosen right. “Hi,” he said. “You look great.”
“Thanks. So do you.” He wore a long leather jacket and what looked like a suit and tie underneath. Dark blue, which matched his eyes.
I wonder if his ex-wife picked that out for him.
She told herself to stop thinking such things, but she couldn’t help it; she hadn’t stopped since Eva Hadley’s revelation yesterday. Married? Seriously? She knew it was Dash’s personal business. Yet they’d shared not one but two dinners. She’d had fireside drinks with him in his living room. She supposed a previous marriage was a little much to explain to someone he’d just met a few weeks earlier. But still.
“One step up from gym attire, huh?” he asked as he climbed inside.
She smiled. “I’d say two or three steps up.”
Silence filled the truck as he drove down Main Street and headed over Sunrise Mountain. Snow crunched under the tires, and the skeletal branches of the trees that gave Whispering Pines its name surrounded them on all sides. They crested the mountain and began the long descent into Silver Valley. In the distance, Sienna could see the glimmer of lights, a pale blanket spread over the dark land.
“You’re quiet tonight,” he said. “Everything okay?”
She looked straight ahead and wondered if she should ask. Would she cross a line if she did? “I didn’t know you’d been married.”
From the corner of her eye, she could see his hands tighten on the steering wheel. “Who told you?”
“Eva Hadley.”
He nodded slowly. The truck skidded on a slick patch of snow, and for a moment neither of them spoke. Then Dash corrected, and they straightened out again.
A marriage. A whole life out in California. Tattoos that sketched the history of that life across his skin. Sitting next to Dash, Sienna felt like a naive little girl who hadn’t done much of anything. She’d never left town. She’d never broken the law or gotten in trouble at school. Her brother called her Miss Goody Goody, and maybe that name fit her.
What on earth was she doing here with someone so completely different?
“It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” Dash said as they descended the mountain. “I was young and stupid and thought I knew everything.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her name was Edie. Al Halloran introduced us.” He paused. “Here’s from around here, and we hooked up after I’d been living out there a few years. You know him?”
“Doc Halloran’s son? I think so.”
“He had a big group of friends out in L.A.—if you can call ’em friends. He knew a lot of people, put it that way. I went to a party, Edie showed up with some friends and that was it.”
“What was she like?” Sienna had a hard time picturing Dash as the marrying type. He seemed so determined to play it cool, to play the field. Someone pretty special must have knocked his socks off.
“Long blonde hair. Good body. Like everyone else living in L.A.” They came to a stoplight with a long line of traffic. “But we had some decent conversations at the beginning. She wasn’t from around there either. She grew up in the Midwest and was trying to make it as an actress.” He glanced at Sienna. “And yes, most of the women out there are. But she was different from the rest. And I was twenty-three. Young and stupid, like I said.
“We started hanging out, and one thing led to another. I was lonely, the lease was up on her apartment, so we drove to Vegas one weekend and got hitched.” He rolled his neck from side to side.
“How long were you with her?” It sounded like a whirlwind affair, here and gone