Page 16 of Unleashed

Hadley closes her lunch bag. “Wait. What else are you hiding?”

Rhonda sighs. “Things I’d rather forget.”

Hadley tilts her head. “Where are you from?”

“A lot of places.” When we wait for her to elaborate, she adds, “I lived with my father, an oil executive. He moved us near another corporate office after every divorce.”

Before sipping my Dew, I ask, “And how many times was that?”

“Seven.”

I splutter my drink over my brown paper lunch bag and a little on Hadley’s cooler. “Rod!”

I cough and ask, “Your dad has been married seven times?”

“Eight. I hope he hurries up with this one. I don’t like her. But I don’t like five of the others.”

Wiping off her bag, Hadley says, “Well, I guess you’d like your mother.”

“Wife number three? Not particularly.”

I shake my head, stunned by Rhonda’s secrets. “Christ. My life is boring.”

Rhonda mutters, “I’ll take boring any day.”

I finish my drink as Rhonda shoves the rest of her lunch back into her bag. Hadley’s shocked glance at me makes me widen my eyes. I tell Rhonda, “I think you need a hobby. Like knife sharpening or archery.”

Hadley claps her hands. “Oh! Finn has a friend who teaches archery. He’s cute and single.”

Rhonda gasps and shakes her head like maracas in a cruise ship lounge act. “No, thank you.”

I frown. “Does Wilder have any ugly friends? Besides Tesco?”

Hadley giggles, and I roll my eyes because it’s no secret women cream over damn Ricky Tesco. That cop slut has no brain underneath that mop top, and from before his marriage and since his divorce, is a model case study for the Centers for Disease Control.

Hadley frowns with sympathy at Rhonda. “Are you dating anyone?”

I smash my brown paper bag and sit back in my chair, tilting my head at her. “That’s none of our business.”

“It’s just conversation. We’re friends.”

I interrupt Rhonda before she speaks. “No. You’re looking to set her up. Drop it.”

“I want my friends to be happy. Why is that horrible?”

“Do you grill Tesco like this?”

Hadley shrugs. “Sometimes. He’s not happy.” She glances at me with a knowing look, and I frown back. “Shay is engaged to another man.”

“If they weren’t meant to be, then maybe their paths were never supposed to cross. Now he’s living it up. Who cares?” I grumble.

“He loved her. Now, it’s over.”

“She didn’t care dick squat about him.”

Rhonda says, “He’s trying to numb the pain.”

A smile brightens Hadley’s face. “Maybe he needs to meet the right woman.”

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