“That’s bullshit. As if you were prepared for it? Any guy with balls would have stuck with you. He was your husband, for God’s sake.”
Maeve shrugged. “It’s funny. I thought I was okay with all of it up till recently. I kept telling myself how lucky I was to be alive. Nothing else should matter, right?”
“You’re still human, Maeve. You have a right to be angry.”
“And I was, believe me. My family pulled me through it all. Gram especially. That woman’s a rock. But then when Gram died, that just pushed me over the edge. You remember how I was at the funeral.”
Lacey did remember. It was the first funeral she had crashed, but seeing Maeve grieve made her almost forget why she was there. Almost.
Maeve gave her a squeeze on the hand. “Then when you gave me the idea of moving in here rather than selling, everything just clicked. I needed a clean break from my life in Baltimore. I needed to be someplace where I wasn’t surrounded by bad memories. This is where I always came when I needed a piece of calm. Serenity. And I know it sounds stupid, but I really feel like there’s a part of Gram still here. Like anytime I feel a little weak, she’s right there, holding me up.”
Lacey settled her back against the wall and felt the warmth of the house surround them both. “It probably sounds even stranger, but I’ve felt that too here. And I never even knew her.”
“She didn’t hold me up tonight, though.”
Lacey wrapped her arm around her. “Yeah, well, maybe she kicked my lazy butt out of bed so I’d find you here crying.”
Laughing, Maeve let out an exaggerated curse. “Damn her! That sounds just like something she’d do.”
“You don’t have to go through this alone. You’ve been there for me in so many ways, and for Bess and that baby. You shouldn’t feel all alone in this.”
Maeve’s eyes widened. “You can’t tell Bess. I don’t want her feeling she has to hold back her joys or worries or anything. Promise me you won’t say anything to her—or to anyone.”
Lacey pursed her lips together. She could see the logic in keeping this from Bess right now. But Maeve needed to draw strength from her friends. “I guess it’s not my story to tell, Maeve. But I hope one day you’ll reconsider.”
A silence hung between them.
The first beams of dawn peeked through the window and sparkled in the chandelier’s crystals. Lacey gazed at the room again, seeing it in a different light. “This must have been hard all these months. With Bess pregnant, I mean.”
Maeve smiled a little. “You have no idea. But really, this is the closest I’ll come to having a baby myself, you know? I want to spoil that little girl a bit.”
That was obvious, Lacey thought. “It sure is a pretty room, Maeve.”
“You think so, too?”
Lacey nodded, squeezing her arm around her friend’s shoulders. “And you’re the most generous person I’ve ever known.”
Maeve waved her hand carelessly and wiped another tear. “Yeah, yeah. A hard-boiled marshmallow, that’s what Gram used to call me. Just don’t tell anyone else that. I have a reputation to uphold.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A terrifying tingling sensation blazed a path from Lacey’s stomach, up to her heart, and then out to her fingertips at the feel of the ball gown tightening around her torso. She tried to inhale. “It’s too tight, Maeve.”
Maeve squinted as she struggled with the tiny hook-and-eye closures. “It’s not too tight. It’s strapless. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. If it were any looser, it would fall right off you. Not that Mick would complain about that.”
“Yeah, but it would probably happen right as I was introduced to some Four-Star Admiral, with my luck.”
“And the old guy would go to bed with a smile on his face. Turn around.” Maeve took Lacey by the shoulders and turned her to face the mirror.
Lacey couldn’t help it. She hid her mouth behind her hand and suppressed a girlish giggle. “Why do I feel like I’m playing dress-up? It doesn’t even look like me.”
“That’s because you’re not wearing black.” Bess laughed, stretched out on Maeve’s bed. It hadn’t taken long for the color to return to her cheeks after her hospital scare, thanks to the beautiful surprise baby’s room that awaited her. Now under strict bed rest orders from her doctor, she reclined in Maeve’s room so that she could be a part of Lacey’s excitement.
Maeve smoothed out a layer of silk on the bottom portion of the dress. “I have to say, I’m impressed with your choice. Never would have thought you’d choose green. Black is so understated and red is so overused.” She tilted her head thoughtfully, the designer in her taking over. “And blue would be so trite at a Navy ball, I’d imagine. But when you told me you picked green, I worried you’d look like a leprechaun. This malachite is just divine, though.”