Page 39 of Seductive Nights

Carley woke and stumbled down the hall.

Margo smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Carley said. "Do you need more coffee?"

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind refilling, I would appreciate that."

Carley took her cup and slogged to the kitchen.

None of them had been morning people, her and her three sisters. They got that from their mom. She hadn't been a morning person either. She used to tell them when they were little, "Please just let me have one cup of coffee before we have to start talking about anything and making decisions."

At the time, Margo thought it was incredibly rude. Now she totally understood it.

Carley came back out, handed her a cup of coffee, and then sat in the opposite corner of the sofa and tucked her feet up under her just like Margo did.

She watched her sister and smiled.

Carley sipped her coffee, and Margo decided to honor their mother and her sister and not say anything until Carley was ready. She stared out at her flowers, which she could see from this corner of the sofa. It's why she always sat there. The birds flew around; bees were buzzing. It was peaceful right now.

"How was your date last night?" Carley finally asked.

"It was good. Really good."

"That's nice. Where'd you go?"

"We went to the Crab Shack in Spring Harbor."

"Oh, I've heard about that place. I think Grace mentioned something about it."

Margo smiled. "It was nice. For Jace, it was half date, half business."

"What does that mean?" Margo chuckled and told Carley about the decor and Jace's plans for the Sandbar.

"Oh well, you're the perfect person to help out with that. You're very good at decorating."

" Thank you, Carley. What did you do last night?"

"I read part of a book and then fell asleep. When I woke up, I tried to read some more but fell asleep again, so I just decided to go to bed. I guess all of us have been light on sleep the last few weeks."

"Yeah, how are you feeling about your breakup with Don and everything?"

"I'm actually fine. I was so tired of the fighting. So tired of the bickering. And he got to the point where everything I did, he found fault with. I got really tired of that. Actually, I was stressed by it. If I tried to cook, he would point out faults. If I cleaned something, he would point out how I didn't do it the way he thought it should be done. After a while, it got to the point where I was afraid to do anything because I felt like I was going to be criticized. And then I got criticized for not doing anything."

Margo shook her head. "I'm sorry, Carley."

Carley shrugged. "It's okay. I mean it's not okay, but it's okay. I'm fine. I have felt so much better being here and out of that environment. I can't even explain to someone how just removing yourself from that is so stress-relieving and freeing. I thank you, Margo, for letting me stay here."

Margo reached forward and patted Carley's leg. "It's okay, honey, you're always welcome here. And I guess we needed each other, right?"

"Right. That's right. So now what's going on today?"

Margo took a breath. "Well I woke this morning to texts from Sierra telling me how she wanted to work at the real estate office and how Logan promised to open a Miami office and have her work there with him. So I blocked her."

Carley covered her mouth with her hand. Swallowed the coffee in her mouth and then looked at Margo. She laughed and then grinned. "Good for you. I'm glad you did that. That stupid bitch. Who does she think she is, anyway?"

"Yeah, I don't know. Jace told me that he thinks she's a gold digger. I don't know what Logan did to make her think that he had enough money to be a sugar daddy. I suppose he gave her the necklace. And obviously, they flew places. They went here and there, but it's not like we're multi-millionaires. We have money. I have money, actually." She froze, her brows bunched together. "You know what? I have money. I need to clear this with Grant Park, but it seems like Logan didn't give anything away to Sierra except ten percent10% of the real estate company. Actually, five percent5%, but he didn't give her any money. It's all mine. Even the trust. I need to talk to Grant. I don't think we fully went through everything with the will when I was there." She stared at her sister. "Carley, I have money!"

Carley grinned at her sister. "I'm glad you do. You deserve it, Margo. You're the one who's been working hard for it."

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