Page 26 of Seductive Nights

Grace gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, I can't believe that."

Carley nodded. "Seven years’ worth, actually."

Hanna's mouth continued to drop open. Finally she said, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Margo shook her head. "I've been reluctant to tell anybody. I have a fairly visible business, and I didn't want people to associate it with something seedy and tawdry. And it's embarrassing."

Grace leaned forward. "It shouldn't be embarrassing for you, Margo. You've done nothing wrong."

"I know. But how could something like this go on for seven years and I was so completely oblivious to it."

Hanna, who sat to Margo's right, put her hand over Margo's and squeezed. "I know that feels embarrassing. Believe me, I do know. Someday you and I will have a glass of wine, and I'll tell you all the shady shit my ex, Isaac, did. It's unbelievable, and I didn't know any of it was going on, but I didn't do anything wrong, and I was embarrassed, too. I completely understand why you feel that way, but you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. Nothing."

Carley, who sat on her other side, nudged her lightly. "I told you. You don't have anything to worry about. Actually, you should let the whole town know what that fucker was up to."

Just then, the redhead laughed very loudly so everyone could hear, and the women all turned to look at her as she danced with the strange man that Jace had hoisted on her. That's when Margo noticed the necklace she was wearing. She touched her neck absently as she stared.

Carley said, "What's wrong?"

Margo shook her head slowly. "I think that's my necklace that she's wearing."

The women all turned again and stared at the redhead. When her dance partner twirled her in the sand, it glistened.

"Are you sure?" Carley asked.

"I haven't looked at that necklace in years, to be honest with you. I think Logan bought it for me about five years ago, maybe longer. I can't remember. At the time, there was no occasion for it, and he took me completely by surprise. It looks exactly like mine unless he bought two at the same time, the dirty fucker."

"Hanna let out a groan. My god what men won't do."

Grace shook her head. "I don't know you guys. I'm so glad I have Sid now, but before that, I was sworn off of men myself."

Carley leaned forward. "When we get home, we're going to look for that necklace, and if it's not there, we're gonna devise a plan."

"Yes, I agree with you."

And then Margo and Carley leaned forward conspiratorially to Hanna and Grace. "We had to go to the attorney's office today. Apparently, Logan also left Sierra Stigler, his mistress, ten percent of Price Realty. Hanna gasped again and put her hand over her mouth. "Un-fucking-believable."

"Well..." Margo said, "Actually, it's only ten percent of Logan's fifty percent. Luckily, we were equal partners, and I'm having Grant look that over to even make sure that that's the case. I don't think he can offer shares of the company without a sign-off, which would be both of us, and I did not sign anything, so we're checking into that."

"Oh my god. So is that why she's here?" Grace asked.

"I suppose," Margo responded. "She was at the attorney's office today when we went in, but Grant kept us in separate rooms. I didn't realize she was there until the end when he told Carley and to I to go ahead and leave and he would keep them in the other room until we were out of sight, so I didn't have to come face-to-face with her."

Grace leaned forward. "Does she know who you are?"

Just as she said that, all the women turned toward the woman they believed to be Sierra, who was staring directly at Margo. She said, "I believe so."

At that moment, Jace was nearing as he delivered drinks to various tables. Hanna said, "You know Jace is a really good guy. He helps area veterans. Do you know all of his staff here are veterans? Most of them suffer from PTSD, or I think one of them has a hearing loss. There are a couple of others who have things that happened to them during the service. He helps them out. Sid and Quinn, too. That's why Quinn is remodeling the former army barracks in town here. He's turning them into housing for veterans, and I think Jace's bartender, Mason, is going to be one of the first tenants there, or an owner if he decides to buy a condo."

Margo swallowed. "That's really nice of Quinn to do that, and that's good of Jace to help these men and women out."

She had to admit, he'd surprised her in a couple of ways today. Both were positive. And he was handsome.

15

Jace served drinks to several of the tables outside and noted as he glanced at Margo's table that the drinks were almost empty.

He hustled inside and asked Mason to mix up their drinks. There were three wines and one Sandbar Punch. He waited as Mason filled them up, noting the tables on the inside all had drinks.

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