Page 26 of Playing Along

Nora nods. Her smile is gone, replaced by an anxious frown.

I lead her up the steps of the building, glancing at my watch to check the time. We’ve only got a minute before the building opens, but thankfully there’s nobody else gathered outside waiting for the doors to be opened.

“Reynolds!” The familiar voice of Lucy Stafford makes my body freeze in panic. I rotate slowly and see that at some point while we were walking from my car to the building, Lucy and Emily arrived on the scene.

“Lucy, Emily,” I greet them with an over-the-top jovial voice designed to hide the fact that inside I’m a swirling mess of worry. “Saw you guys behind us, but then you kept going so I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“Oh, yeah. I was navigating and I forgot to pay attention,” Emily says, pulling a whoops face. “So then we missed our turn.”

“I would’ve followed you if I’d known you were headed here too,” Lucy says with a laugh. “What are you doing here anyway?” Her gaze slides questioningly over to Nora, but I cut in before she can ask who she is.

“Me? What are you guys doing here on a Thursday morning?” I shove my hands in my pockets to hide the fact that the adrenaline coursing through my body is making them shake. It doesn’t seem like they know anything about their husbands finding a dead body on my ex-girlfriend’s front lawn–because surely they would have mentioned something like that by now–but I can’t be sure. And that possibility is responsible for the fight or flight response my body is having to their presence.

“We both have tickets to pay,” Lucy replies, settling her hands over the tiny bump of her abdomen.

“You got another parking ticket?” I ask Lucy, praying my voice sounds normal.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Excuse me,” she says primly, “but don’t you think more stores should have expectant mother parking? Is it my fault if I have to improvise when places don’t?”

“Lucy, you parked on the store’s sidewalk,” Emily says with a laugh.

“I only had to grab one thing!” Lucy cries. “I was going to be in and out in no time! Anyway, you’re one to talk, Miss ‘Oh, Reed, please, please, please ask them to waive my speeding ticket again. I promise it will be the last time!’”

“That’s a ridiculously long last name,” Emily replies with a poke to her friend’s arm. She sighs. “Too bad he said no this time.”

“Maybe he wants your license to get suspended again so he has to drive you everywhere,” Lucy says thoughtfully. “You know, since the two of you are trying to have a baby.”

“How are those two things related?” Emily asks. “We’re an adult married couple; it’s not like we’re going to make a baby in the backseat of the car.”

“Emily!” Lucy tsks. “I meant because he wants to keep you safe. No offense, but speeding is dangerous.”

“I’m a very careful driver,” Emily replies. “All of my speeding takes place on empty backroads.”

“You do know you can pay your tickets online, don’t you?” I interject, still hoping to get them out of here. And also to not hear any more baby making talk from my best friends’ wives.

“We could pay the tickets online, yes,” Lucy agrees, turning back to us.

“If we knew where they were,” Emily finishes. “But Lucy lost hers, and I stuck mine to the dashboard of Reed’s car yesterday thinking he might take pity on me and try and get it voided.”

“But instead he didn’t even notice it there until he rolled down his window and it flew out,” Lucy supplies with a laugh.

“So here we are to pay our fines in person,” Emily concludes.

“And then we’re going to breakfast with Becca and Mel,” Lucy adds. “Magically all of us have the morning off.” She turns her gaze expectantly our way. “So what are you doing here?” she asks again. “And who’s this?” She gestures to Nora, looking more than a little curious.

“Oh, her,” I say stupidly. “She’s my friend.”

All three women shoot me weird looks. Probably because it was weird that I didn’t say her name. I don’t want to say her name, though. If I say her name then Lucy and Emily will exclaim in surprise about finally meeting the famous Nora, and then probably exchange a meaningful look, and then Nora will know that three years after our breakup she’s still being talked about enough by me that my friends’ wives–who’ve never met her–know who she is.

Although they’re going to find out who she is eventually considering we’re getting married. Not to mention she’s involved in their husbands’ most recent murder investigation. Yeah, that’s going to come out too. I’m pretty shocked that they don’t already seem to know.

Then again, it was the middle of the night when their husbands got called to the scene. Knowing Stafford, he wouldn’t have wanted to wake his pregnant wife, especially since she had such a rough first trimester and is only now starting to feel better. I’m not sure why Montgomery wouldn’t have told Emily, though. He tells her everything. Last week he called her just to tell her what he had for lunch.

“Don’t be so coy, babe,” Nora says, sidling up to me and wrapping her arm through mine. “I’m not just his friend, I’m his fiancée.” She gives them both a big smile, as if it is perfectly normal and expected that I have a fiancée neither of them know about. “We’re headed inside to get married.”

There's half a second of silence then both women explode with questions.

“Wait, what?” Lucy cries. “You’re getting married...today?”

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