Page 85 of Finally Loved

“I’m just happy for you.” She turned to Neve. “Nonnie Long. I’ve known this one since she was in diapers.”

Alba’s arms wrapped tighter around Neve as she stiffened slightly, but, after a moment, it felt like nothing. Nonnie was lovely. She was part of Alba’s past. The picture that had, in essence, been painted of her wasn’t based on anything real. And, if Neve only thought of her as someone from Alba’s past, it didn’t matter what lies she’d been told.

She chatted happily, getting to know Nonnie, and her wife, who was clearly the sourdough chef of the couple—she brought Neve and Alba a whole plate of bread samples with various flavored butters—and Neve struggled to figure out why Roxanne had ever lied about them. But, it wasn’t until they stepped away, leaving a clearing through the gathered crowd, that Neve actually caught Roxanne’s eye.

Neve hadn’t been looking for her, but she hadn’t been actively avoiding her either. She had wondered what the moment might be like—awkward, uncomfortable, mildly terrifying perhaps—but it didn’t feel like any of that. It felt like Neve didn’t care. Roxanne felt like someone from a different lifetime, one Neve had no interest revisiting.

Roxanne, however, looked like she’d seen a ghost.

Watching her expression, Neve half expected her to bolt from the party and never return, so, when she started walking over, Neve was a little surprised.

“What are you doing here?” Roxanne asked, her voice rigid and low.

“Celebrating the holiday weekend,” Neve replied instinctively. When it registered fully, she almost laughed at how much it seemed Alba was starting to rub off on her.

Roxanne glared. “Why here?”

“Because it’s my girlfriend’s parents’ place?”

“It’swhat?”

Alba, who had clearly been listening in, even if Roxanne hadn’t noticed her, stepped closer to Neve, wrapping an arm around her. “Lovely to see you, Roxanne,” she said in a voice that suggested it really wasn’t that lovely at all.

Roxanne’s eyes bounced between the two. “You… You’re… You… You two…”

“Yes,” Neve said.

“Bit quick, don’t you think?”

Neve looked up at Alba. “Not really.”

There were a million things Neve could have said about getting to be in a relationship with someone who actually liked her, someone who wasn’t ashamed of a single part of her, but she didn’t need to. She finally knew what it was like, knew that it was possible for her, and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought, least of all Roxanne.

Alba looked pointedly over Roxanne’s shoulder. “Aren’t you here with some guy you don’t mind introducing to your family?”

Neve followed her gaze wondering where Alba had gotten that info from. As Roxanne stared at her in shock, Alba whispered, “Handel,” in Neve’s ear.

Of course. Handel seemed to know everything. Maybe that was the real reason Zainab should be wary of her—the woman knew everything about everyone and wasn’t above a good gossip.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Roxanne said eventually.

“I think it is if you’re bringing us up like that,” Neve pointed out, enjoying the proud way Alba beamed at her.

“It’s different.”

“How?”

“Well, I—” She cleared her throat. “I was the one who…”

“Dumped me?”

Roxanne looked around frantically. “Can you shut up?”

Neve looked at her. She hadn’t said it loud enough for anyone to hear, nor would she. She sighed. “Whatever your problem is, Roxanne, you need to figure that out on your own. I’m not looking to out you, not looking to judge you, but you shouldn’t have messed with my feelings and my life by lying to me. Your family—”

“You don’t know anything about my family.”

“I do,” Alba snapped.

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