Page 24 of The Best of Friends

Elizabeth smiled. “I’m determined. There’s a difference.” She set down her tea and reached for a pad of paper on the small table next to her. “I’m going to host a brunch in the next few weeks. Invite the right people. Friends, associates. We’re going to tell everyone this is about welcoming David home, but I also want to use this as a chance to let him meet some nice girls. I’ll need your help with this.”

“Of course,” Jayne said automatically. Just how she wanted to spend her day—finding a nice girl for David.

Elizabeth spent the next half hour going over details until Jayne was finally able to excuse herself.

Once she was home, she collapsed on the sofa and wondered how she’d gotten into such a mess. She hadn’t set out to become Elizabeth’s lapdog. The situation had just sort of evolved. And the truth was, while Elizabeth could be a giant pain in the ass, she’d also been the one to take Jayne in when her mother had died.

Jayne had been in her senior year of high school, with no money, no family, just an aching emptiness and total terror. She remembered standing by her mother’s side, staring down at her body, willing her to open her eyes again and say that everything would be all right. One of the nurses, she couldn’t remember which, had led her into the hallway. Jayne had stood there shaking, too frightened and sad to cry.

Panicked thoughts had chased each other, one more desperate than the last. What would happen to her now? Where would she go? Foster care was the obvious solution, and that thought was nearly as horrifying as the death of her mother. She’d been cold down to her bones—cold in a way that had nothing to do with temperature.

Then she’d heard a familiar clicking sound. Expensive shoes on the hospital floor. Elizabeth had walked toward her, looking elegant and completely out of place in the medical setting. She’d put her arm around Jayne and led her to the closest waiting area.

“You’ll come home with us,” Elizabeth said. “Your things are being moved this afternoon. Rebecca needs your steadying influence, and you need a place to stay. It will work out for the best. We’re practically family as it is.”

Jayne had listened without responding. She’d been so afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Of speaking the words that would cause Elizabeth to change her mind. She’d been beyond grateful, but she had known better than to try to express it. Instead, she’d vowed to show Elizabeth by her actions.

Practically family.When the alternative was having nothing at all, practically family seemed like more than enough.

Despite the time that had passed, nothing had changed, she thought sadly. She was still on the fringes, her nose pressed against the window of the Wordens’ world, looking in. Never quite belonging.

The phone rang. She grabbed it.

“Hello?”

“May I please speak to Jayne?”

“This is she.”

“Hi, Jayne. My name is Paula Nichelson. I got your name and number from a mutual friend, Andie Raven. You used to work with her?”

Jayne sat up straighter. “I remember Andie.” She’d left the breast center a couple of years ago when she’d gotten pregnant with her third child.

“Great. I’m a human resources director in Dallas. We’re opening a new breast center here. Construction is well under way, and while we have a lot of staffing in place, we have a few key positions we’re looking to fill. I’d like to talk to you about that.”

Jayne heard the words but didn’t quite understand what she was saying. “I have a job.”

Paula laughed. “I’m hoping to offer you a better one. We’re going to be a state-of-the-art facility. We have public and private funding, the best and newest equipment, and a mandate to make a difference. We’re the reason you got into nursing.”

Jayne smiled. “You’re not, but I understand the sentiment.”

“We’re very interested in speaking with you. Let me tell you all we can offer. I’m hoping you’ll be intrigued enough to want to come visit, at the very least.”

Dallas. Jayne had never thought about leaving Los Angeles, let alone moving to Texas. She didn’t know very much about that part of the country, beyond that the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders were there, and that the area had big thunderstorms.

While she loved her job, it wasn’t her world. Not completely. There was always a pull toward something else. The Wordens, she thought ruefully. Not that the family was especially good for her.

Moving that far away would mean being completely on her own. As she considered the possibility, she felt a little uncomfortable but also excited. Yes, she would have to start over and make new friends, but she would no longer be Elizabeth’s unpaid assistant. She wouldn’t have to deal with the sense of never being good enough. And she wouldn’t watch David fall in love and marry someone else.

She would always have Rebecca, she told herself. Which was both good and bad.

Moving would mean starting over, and maybe, just maybe, that was the best thing she could do.

“Tell me more about the facility,” she said.

Rebecca wandered through the Century City Bloomingdale’s, trying to work up a little interest in a handbag or scarf. She’d already wasted an hour trying on shoes she had no intention of buying. She was pissed and sad and upset and couldn’t seem to shake her mood.

In her head, she knew she was being stupid. Of course Jayne had other friends. Rebecca had left ten years ago. While she and Jayne stayed in touch through phone calls and e-mails, and they saw each other a couple of times a year, it wasn’t the same as being able to go to lunch or get drinks on a regular basis. She had friends in Italy.

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