Page 20 of Their Forever Daddy

Leave it to Noelle not to mince words. “Because she might be a bitch, but she’s still one of ours. And until we know who he is or what he wants with Jesse, nobody knows anything. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.” There was only a hint of sarcasm in Noelle’s voice, which was honestly rather impressive for the snarky brunette.

“Good.” Edie opened the bag and took out the styrofoam container holding her sandwich and fries, then headed back toward the front door. “You can let the other girls know.”

“Wait! Where are you going?”

At the door, she paused to grin at Noelle over her shoulder. “To see just how far our mystery man is willing to go to get what he wants.”

Chapter 8

Jesse

* * *

How the hell was Edie able to hide so well in a town this size?

Annoyed at yet another dead end thanks to Noelle Grady’s very clipped “It’s not my job to keep track of Edie”, Jesse stepped back out onto Main Street and blew out a frustrated breath.

Well. She’d searched everywhere she knew to search, asked everyone she knew to ask—which had taken up a good chunk of the day, thanks to the seemingly endless small talk her return required—and she was out of options. She should just go back up to the house and wait for Edie there.

But just as she’d made up her mind to head back to Edie’s, her gaze landed on a sign for one of the storefronts across the street. Yoga. Interesting.

When did Lost River get a yoga studio?

Intrigued, and excited by the possibility of stretching and meditating her way out of being so freaking annoyed with Edie’s disappearing act, she took off across the street and yanked open the door.

Cheerful, colorful paintings greeted her, women of all shapes and sizes twisted into various yoga poses. Everything about the space was warm and inviting, including the woman who barely glanced up from where she was stacking yoga blocks on the opposite side of the room with an apologetic smile.

“I’m afraid you just missed the class,” she called. “But there’s another this evening if you’d like to come back.”

The deep red hair. The sweet smile. The curves for days. “Ginny?”

Ginny jerked her head up, her mouth falling open in surprise as Jesse pushed her sunglasses up into her hair, revealing her face. “Jesse? What are you doing here?”

Jesse was already halfway across the room but stopped short at Ginny’s tone. They’d never been particularly close, but they’d only been a year apart in school and when your graduating classes didn’t even tip into three figures, everyone tended to know everyone. So while she hadn’t been expecting an exuberant welcome, she also hadn’t prepared herself for the ice coating Ginny’s voice.

“Ah, I was in town and saw the sign for your studio and I was hoping to catch a class. Then I saw it was you and…” She trailed off with a weak smile. “How’ve you been?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m closed for the day.”

“You just said there would be a class later today.”

A smile that wasn’t really a smile lifted the corners of Ginny’s lips, making her look so much like Mrs. Morgan it was eerie. “I must have been mistaken.”

“Is this because of Edie?” She didn’t remember Ginny and Edie being friends, but as she’d already come to realize, as much as Lost River looked the same on the surface as it had when she’d left, plenty had changed.

“Whatever happened between you and Edie is between you and Edie,” Ginny said, her clipped tones once again reminding Jesse forcibly of Ginny’s mother. “It’s none of my business.”

For the first time in her life, Jesse wished she was one of those celebrities who could treat people like shit and not feel an ounce of guilt over it. How satisfying it would be to lash out at someone and rid herself of the painful swell of emotions in her chest.

But she wasn’t, and never had been that kind of person, so she simply took a step back and nodded.

“I see.” She started to turn, but couldn’t make herself leave. Even if she wasn’t an A-list asshole, she wasn’t a doormat, either. “You know, you say it’s none of your business, but it’s clear you’ve already made up your mind that I’m the villain here. And that’s fine, honestly, I can take it. If Edie needs everyone to see me as the bad guy so she can heal, then so be it. But just remember there’s two sides to every story and not one fucking person so far has bothered to ask for mine.”

Turning on her heel, she swept out of the studio, pulling on what little ‘snobby actress’ attitude she had to hold her head high until she made it out to her car.

She managed to drive out to the edge of town to an old abandoned warehouse before the tears started. Parking her car, she dropped her forehead to the steering wheel and wept as she wondered if coming back to Lost River had just been one colossal fucking mistake.

---