Shine Not Burn(58)

“So tell me about your fiancé,” she said, thankfully moving past the discussion of my goals.

“Well, his name is Bradley. He’s two years older than me and we’re very compatible.”

She smiled again. “Compatible. That sounds romantic.”

I nudged her good-naturedly. “It is. Seriously. We work in the same office, we’re both lawyers. He’s very driven and goal-oriented. He has the same ideas about success that I do. He wants to have two children, a boy and a girl, just like I do. He went to Yale, and his parents are attorneys too. We’re a perfect match.”

“Do you love him?”

I accidentally dropped the handful of forks I’d just picked up to dry. Her question made me instantly cranky. “Of course I love him.”

“I was just wondering because you didn’t mention that part.”

“I do love him. I do.” It felt like I was trying to convince myself, but that wasn’t necessary. Of course I love Bradley. He and I are a perfect couple.

“What do your friends think of him?” she asked.

I stopped in the middle of gathering the forks back up and turned partway to look at her.

She finished washing out the sink and turned off the water to look at me. “Did I say something wrong? Am I prying too much?” Her face fell. “I’m sorry. Angus tells me all the time I pry too much.”

I put my hand on her arm and squeezed gently. “No, it’s okay. It’s just a sore spot, actually.” I sighed, my vision drifting off to scenes of my friends’ reactions to Bradley’s behavior. “Truth is, none of my friends like him. Even my secretary at work hates him.”

“Why do you think that is?” she asked, putting her rag down and taking the towel from me to finish drying the silverware.

I shrugged, leaning back against the counter. “I guess he can be pushy. I used to really dislike him myself. Two years ago I used to mock him behind his back.” I frowned. “That’s really terrible, isn’t it?”

“How did you go from dislike to love and marriage? Seems like a pretty big leap.”

I really didn’t have a good answer for her. Even hearing the path to loving Bradley in my head made me kind of cringe. After two years of putting everything I had into love, I’d gotten dumped by Luke in a cold and casual way. I’d gone to Las Vegas and had a wild fling with a hot stranger. Then I’d returned home on a mission to get my life back on track. Bradley just seemed to fit the mold so perfectly, and he’d asked me out when I was feeling lonely and lost. The timing was perfect, or so I’d thought at the time. Why hadn’t I examined this more closely before? Had I been so focused on my lifeplan that I’d missed something? “I don’t know. It sounds silly, but I guess … I guess it started when I got back from Las Vegas.”

“Las Vegas?”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t looking at her. I was staring at the floor, lost in the memories. They were coming in clear for some reason, like it had just happened last week. It was the first time in two years this had happened. “My best friend Kelly was marrying a mortician.”

“A mortician?” Maeve chuckled like I was joking.

“Yes, seriously, she was marrying Matty the mortician. So my other best friend, Candice, organized a bachelorette party in Las Vegas. I was dating a guy named Luke at the time and I was really busy with work, so I didn’t want to go, but they guilted me into it. Or Ruby did.”

“Who’s Ruby? Is she another friend?”

“No. Yes. She’s both. She’s my assistant but she’s also like a mother, neighbor, and girlfriend all mixed up into one big ball of fire.”

“She sounds like fun.”

I nodded, warming with the memory of our last few hours together. They were so much better than the last year had been. “Yeah, she is. She is so sassy. But she’s real and she’s honest and she is the best damn legal secretary in the business.”

“Probably very valuable for a busy lawyer,” Maeve suggested.

“Yes, absolutely. She’s not only valuable, she’s also pushy. And she guilted me along with Candice into going to Las Vegas, so I went.”

“Sounds like fun. Girls’ night out in Las Vegas.” She kicked some shoes over in my direction. They looked like moccasins. “Here, put these on. Let’s take a walk.”

I slipped my feet into the comfortably worn leather and followed her out the back door and down the porch stairs, only limping a little now. My ankle felt much better. The air was warm enough that I didn’t need a sweater, but Maeve handed me one that I put over my shoulders.