Page 34 of An Unfinished Memory

“She’s a good friend.” Aggie was my first real friend, and I didn’t meet her until after I started dating Wilder, well into my midtwenties. I had been afraid I would lose her, but the divorce had brought us closer.

“You are, too, or she wouldn’t be married to the love of her life and deliriously happy.”

“That was the Fireball. Aggie and I were helpless bystanders.” At least Aggie had the excuse of the alcohol when she’d reignited things with her ex. I’d been stone-cold sober when I’d decided to divorce Wilder. Maybe if I’d been drinking, my decision would be easier to regret. Aggie also hadn’t had to worry about whether we’d have a falling out if she started seeing her ex again.

“Can I admit to being glad she has a baby so you two don’t go out and make plans to lure in any other exes?”

The warmth cuddled around my heart cozied up harder. “Ansen could drive us home if we did.”

A faint growl made it over the line. He hated even joking about the possibility of me finding someone else.

I poked the bear harder. “Besides, it’d be me and Vienne out this time, and I won’t risk helping her get back at her ex in case she ends up with him again.”

“Do you and Vienne go out together often?”

Why was he asking so innocently? Afraid Vienne would help me find the one I moved on from him with? What should be possible was more impossible than I feared. “Last night, actually. We hit the Fireball, and I offered you a bullshit job. Haven’t you checked your email?”

He chuckled. “You’d have to do something different than what you and Aggie did to Ansen. I’d be too suspicious.”

“I don’t know. The job offer wasn’t technically bullshit, and I could use more hands at the clinic. I just hired a front desk clerk, but she can only work part-time and was aghast when I told her we all pitched in to clean.”

“So if I get an email for a janitorial position at an up-and-coming veterinary clinic, I should be suspicious?”

“Maybe. Unless you’re busy with Carla?” I winced. Why did I go there? We weren’t supposed to be talking like this. Did “limited small talk” have to be included in our guidelines?

He made a choking noise. “What brought that up?”

I shrugged, more for myself than him since he couldn’t see. “You never said you told her no. Only that you hadn’t takenher up on her offer.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

“Nope. You’re leaving the door open.”

“You really thinking telling her no will get her to back off?”

“Have you tried?”Don’t you want to try?

We were muddying our divorce. We were no longer together, and I didn’t have a say on who he slept with. He’d said this arrangement was for as long as we didn’t want to date others. What happened when he called me to say he’d had enough? He’d met someone? Or he thought he’d try being Carla’s third husband?

“Sutton,” he said, sounding resigned. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” I frowned at my meatloaf. I’d have to heat it up again. When I got out of the cringy conversation I’d started.

“I’m not fucking Carla, okay?”

“Sure.”

“You and I made a deal, and I’m honoring it.”

A deal. His words both made me feel better and tore at my heart. A version ofDeal or No Dealwhere Wilder and I were the only contestants. “I don’t like that woman.”

“I know.”

“She told me—” I locked my lower lip between my teeth. I hadn’t told Aggie about my run-in with Carla either. Not this one. I had plenty. Everyone in Buffalo Gully had their history with Carla. The nature of small towns were those people—the ones you had to tolerate. But Carla had a sixth sense about where to target. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“She told our dispatcher, Brenda, she was such an inspiration because ‘as we all know, older people haveslower reaction times.’ And then she went on to laugh about how computers weren’t even a thing when Brenda was born, and now the county’s safety is in her hands and a bunch of electronic equipment.”

“Ouch. How’d Brenda take it?”

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