Page 42 of A Second Chance

“Right? How is she doing?” Gwen nodded toward where Rebecca and Weasel were standing next to Ellen and Roger. Rebecca spoke rapidly while gesturing around the room.

“Her mom’s a nightmare, and has been for years. Rebecca used to live here when she was a kid until her parents got divorced. Then her mom took her to Chicago. She moved back when her dad got sick, but her mom never wanted her to stay here. Says she’s wasting her talents and life here.”

Gwen inhaled and blinked back the tears that formed. “So,notgood, then.”

“No,” Hannah turned up her drink.

The bartender appeared and Gwen pointed at Hannah’s drink. “One of those, please.” She turned and noticed that Jason, Dan, Justin, Ben, Brandon, and Eli had all congregated together. Autumn slid into the seat next to Gwen.

“Hey Jack, I’ll have what they’re having,” she said to the bartender. He nodded and grabbed another shaker, filled it with ice, and started pouring.

Gwen turned to Hannah. “So, I was thinking, do you know of any single women we can invite out for Eli? Poor guy’s all alone out here in a sea of couples.”

“So, you and Jason are a couple now?” Autumn asked.

Hannah snorted in laughter. “Pretty obvious.” She was scrolling through her phone.

“It was supposed to be our first date tonight, but we ended up here.”

“First date? That was the Harvest Festival.”

“I don’t consider being dumped off like a stray dog a first date. This is one where he’s asked me out.” The bartender slid the pink drinks onto the bar in front of them. “Thanks for that, by the way,” she said wryly.

“You slept together,” Autumn said, dropping the lime slice in the drink and took a sip.

“How do you know that?” Hannah asked.

“He’s living with Brandon and didn’t come home that night.”

Gwen sighed. She’d never had a cosmopolitan, so she mimicked what Autumn did, dropped the lime in and tested the drink—strong, but tasty.

“Face it, not many secrets around here,” Hannah said. “So how was it?”

“Yeah,” Autumn chimed in, “how was it?”

“You want me to tell you about having sex with your brother?”

Autumn paused, drink almost to her mouth and wrinkled her nose in a disgusted expression. She took a long drink.

Hannah laughed. “You can tell me, he’s notmybrother.”

“I’ll just have to pretend it’s not him you’re talking about. Did you at least have a good time?”

“I’m not talking about sleeping with him.” Gwen smiled, “Yeah, we had a good time. He’s very sweet. He’s brought me coffee every morning this week, while he’s been working on a job there. And left a flower on my worktable…” she drifted off in the memory.

“Aww,” Autumn and Hannah said in unison.

“It’s all new, so let’s not jump the gun.”

“How about Megan Harper for Eli?” Hannah asked.

“That’s Ben’s cousin,” Autumn said.

“The new painter at Llewellyn’s is Ben’s cousin?” Gwen asked.

Sixteen

They’d picked the table of little fancy finger food clean and had discussed cars, hunting, Weasel’s predicament, and the weather. In particular, Ben’s grandma Harper had predicted a harsher than normal winter, and she was never wrong. A new woman entered the barn and headed straight to the group at the bar. Jason recognized her from the gallery. Eli’s radar went off and he tried to act like he didn’t see the pretty lady walk in, but they all knew better.

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