12
Milly
Milly knew there was no way she’d get any more work done after that conversation. It felt as if someone had thrown her emotions in a blender.
While she was stewing and trying to handle all the change in her life, none of which had been of her choosing, Richard was living his best life.
And it wasn’t as if she wanted him to be unhappy exactly—although the way she was feeling at the moment she might have wished the occasional bad day on him—but she didn’t see why his happiness should come at her and Zoe’s expense.
Something needed to change.
Grabbing her bag, Milly stalked out of her office.
She resisted the urge to vent her frustration by slamming the door, and instead she walked briskly along the path and even managed to offer a polite greeting to a couple of guests who were passing.
The sun was beating down, but here in the shade of the tall trees the heat was less intense. She heard birdsong and the soft lap of the water against the shore. Normally it calmed her, but today it didn’t seem to be working.
She unlocked the door of the boathouse, yelled “It’s only me,”
and then slammed the door hard.
Tiger leaped up from his favorite position on the rug in a patch of sunlight, his back arched and his fur vertical as he prepared to defend his territory.
Nicole was sitting cross-legged on Milly’s yoga mat in the living room, her hand pressed to her chest and her eyes wide. She was wearing yoga pants and a bright blue tank top.
“You made me jump.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have slammed the door. I might need anger management classes.”
Milly kicked off her shoes and sent them skittering across the floor.
“You?”
Nicole watched her. “You’re the calmest person I know. I’ve never seen you truly angry.”
“Well, take a good look, because you’re seeing it now.”
Milly dropped her keys and bag onto the table. She could feel her heart racing.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Honestly? No, I want to break something.”
She paced across the living room and back again. “But I don’t want to clean up the mess after, so I’m internalizing my fury.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy.”
Nicole stood up in a single graceful movement. “I borrowed your mat. I hope you don’t mind. I always stretch in the mornings or I stiffen up. I should never have insisted on doing my own stunts in that superhero movie. I’ve been paying the price ever since.”
“No problem. I don’t use it anyway. I bought it the week Richard walked out because I was determined to get lean and toned, but every time I saw the mat I thought of Avery and it upset me, so it mostly lives in that spot by the cupboard.”
Just thinking of Avery sent her blood pressure soaring again.
Avery, who was struggling with the fact that Richard had responsibilities.
Avery, who was responsible for upending Milly’s entire life.
No, that wasn’t true. She forced herself to breathe. Richard had done that.
Nicole eyed her and bent down to roll up the mat. “By the look on your face, you should have bought a punching bag.”
Clearly feeling at risk from Milly’s pacing, Tiger sprang from the floor to the sofa.
“He said my whole focus was on duty and responsibility!”
The words exploded out of Milly. “He said that all I think about is boring chores. He said I’ve turned my life into a never-ending to-do list!”
Nicole was still holding the mat. “I assume the he is Richard?”
“Yes. And it’s true I have a to-do list—who doesn’t?—but that’s because there are things that need to be done and he doesn’t do them, so that leaves me! And whenever he does do something, which is so rare I can’t even quote you a time when he did, apparently he is ‘helping’ me.”
Nicole’s eyes widened. “He said that?”
Milly forced herself to breathe. “You’d be angry too?”
“I’d be steaming.”
Milly felt a little better. “I’m sorry. Here I am ranting, and we should be talking about you.”
She felt a stab of guilt. “All morning I’ve been waiting for you to call so that we can carry on the conversation Zoe interrupted last night, and then Richard called me, and now I want to kill him.”
“I want to kill him too. And forget about me—there’s plenty of time to talk about that. First we need to calm you down.”
“I don’t know how. I’ve never been this angry before.”
She felt as if she was boiling inside.
“You need to vent your excess anger somehow. Exercise?”
Nicole tucked the mat away. “You could go for a run?”
“I’m horribly unfit. That would kill me, not calm me.”
Milly rubbed her fingers across her forehead.
“Cook something, then. Chop an innocent vegetable into tiny pieces and fry it in hot oil. That always works for you.”
“That’s true. It does.”
Milly wondered why she hadn’t thought of it herself.
She stalked to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge with such force that all the bottles stacked in the door rattled together. She grabbed leeks and mushrooms, and Nicole leaned against the countertop, keeping a safe distance.
“Tell me about Avery. She’s a yoga teacher?”
“Yes. But not just that.”
Milly grabbed a sharp knife and slit the leeks down the middle in a single decisive move.
Nicole flinched. “Careful! If you slice your finger off, you won’t be able to make rude gestures.”
“Avery has her own studio and a huge social media following.”
She felt a wave of insecurity, which seemed to be happening more frequently.
“You stalk her on social media?”
“No. I’m not a masochist.”
She washed the leeks, and then the mushrooms, splashing water everywhere. “I looked a couple of times at the beginning and it made me feel bad about myself, so I stopped.”
“Why did it make you feel bad?”
“All the usual reasons. She’s twenty-five. Successful. Skinny. Blonde. Your average nightmare. And she runs her own business. And she’s fun, apparently.”
She heard the hurt in her own voice. “A whole lot of fun. Unlike me, who is officially boring and also a martyr, according to Richard.”
She lined up the leeks and chopped them so quickly that Nicole drew breath.
“I’m not sure if this is helping your stress levels, but it’s definitely not helping mine. You know I’m not good with blood.”
“I have excellent knife skills. I may be no fun, but I can chop a leek.”
“Okay.”
Nicole was calm. “Am I allowed to point out that you’re also fun and run your own business?”
“I inherited my business.”
“Which you have successfully grown into an aspirational destination through a mixture of extreme hard work and ingenuity.”
It was true, so why didn’t hearing it said aloud lift her mood?
“Maybe. But holding it all together requires a poise that eludes me.”
She sloshed olive oil into a pan and started to fry the leeks. “In every one of Avery’s social media posts she looks calm and together, as if an anxious thought has never entered her head. The sky behind her is always blue. It has been raining nonstop here for months, but somehow the sun shows up for her. Her life looked so perfect, and mine was—is—such an imperfect mess.”
She pushed the leeks around the pan, waiting for them to soften. “Ignore me. I’m angry, upset and worried about Zoe. Let’s talk about you. I want to talk about you and Justin and the baby.”
“Later,”
Nicole said. “First let’s address the whole social media thing. You do know it’s all fake? That’s the whole point of social media, at least for someone like Avery. She’s trying to persuade the people watching that she has a perfect life and if they subscribe to her app or show up at her classes, then they too can have a life like hers. It’s not about truth, it’s about building an audience. She is showing them a life they can aspire to. It’s no more real than a movie.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m uniquely qualified to know it. Let me show you something.”
Nicole grabbed her phone from the pocket of her yoga pants and started to scroll. “Look. Tell me what you see.”
Wondering what this had to do with Avery, Milly stopped stirring the leeks and took the phone from her friend. She saw a photograph of Nicole posing for photographers on a red carpet. She was wearing a figure-hugging dress that plunged almost to her navel and was slit to the thigh. Jewels sparkled at her throat, and her makeup was immaculate. But what really caught the attention was her famous, full-wattage smile.
“That dress is spectacular. You look happy.”
Milly felt a twinge of envy as she handed the phone back. “As if you really are living your best life.”
“Right. This was taken three weeks ago at a time when I’d never felt more miserable. It took a team of people five hours to get me looking like that, and I wanted to cry the whole time.”
Nicole’s voice was husky. “That photo tells you nothing about what was really going on. And those blue-sky yoga photos? She probably waited for that one blue-sky day and took a whole bunch of them together and changed her outfits. It’s not real, Milly. You should know that.”
“Maybe I do deep down, but being left in such a brutal fashion distorts your vision and hammers your confidence. Not just because I’m not a svelte yoga teacher, although that doesn’t help, but because Richard chose her.”
The conversation with Zoe in the car had been playing on her mind. “He wasn’t seduced or tempted or led astray, he made a choice. And he could have chosen me. He could have chosen Zoe. His family. The life we’d built together. But he chose Avery.”
Tiger padded warily into the kitchen, lured by the smells of cooking.
“You’re saying that as if it’s something you only just realized,”
Nicole said.
“It is. I wasted so much time being angry with Avery, blaming Avery. But she didn’t take anything he didn’t want to give. He made a choice.”
Admitting that hurt. “It’s humiliating.”
“Why? This isn’t about you, Milly. It’s about him. He must have had some sort of midlife crisis. Blew something in his brain.”
Nicole bent down to stroke Tiger, who was rubbing himself against her legs as if he sensed she was the only calm one in the room. “Would you take him back?”
Something in her tone made Milly wonder if there was something more behind that question. Was Nicole thinking of Justin’s wife?
“No. I don’t even like him at the moment. He has changed.”
Nicole glanced up. “What has changed?”
“He’s acting strangely. Recently I’ve seen a side of him I really don’t like.”
Milly turned back to the pan and added the mushrooms. “Not just the fact that he had an affair, but the way he shirks responsibility. He does what suits him, and the rest of us have to fit round him and just be grateful when he shows up. And I hate how that must make Zoe feel. I want him to show her that she is more important to him than anything else.”
“You’re always thinking about Zoe.”
“I don’t want her to be hurt. I would lie down in front of a bus for her.”
Milly turned down the heat and headed back to the fridge. “I’m sure every mother feels the same way.”
The moment the words left her mouth she wanted to pull them back, but it was too late for that.
“Not every mother.”
Nicole scooped up Tiger and held him close. “Zoe is lucky to have you.”
“That was tactless. Forgive me.”
She waited for Tiger to object to being held and wriggle away, but he sat still, tolerating the affection, as if he sensed that Nicole needed the comfort more than he needed to escape.
“Nothing to forgive. It’s the truth. Most mothers would put their child first. Just not mine.”
She hugged Tiger. “But maybe in the end all this will make Zoe tougher. She’ll learn an important lesson. That sometimes the people you love can hurt you and disappoint you. They can make bad choices that you don’t understand. And you will probably still love them anyway. But however they choose to behave, you can choose to be okay.”
Milly mixed together eggs and cream.
“Are we talking about Zoe or you now?”
Nicole laughed. “Definitely Zoe. I’m not okay. I’m as messed up as they come. Look at me, thirty-six years old and still trying to get my mother’s approval. Pathetic, right?”
“Not pathetic.”
She couldn’t imagine where she’d be without her mother’s and grandmother’s support. It was something she took for granted. Something everyone should be able to take for granted. “Has your mother messaged you?”
“What do you think?”
Nicole kissed Tiger on the head, and he wriggled out of her arms, clearly deciding that kissing was more than one independent cat could reasonably be expected to tolerate.
Milly sprinkled flour on the work surface and rolled out a circle of pastry. “As you just said to me, you do know it’s not you?”
“Ah, but in this case it is me. I’m a big disappointment.”
“Because your career has been such a failure.”
Milly flashed her a smile. “You really should have done better. Tried harder.”
Nicole didn’t return the smile. “But what’s it all been for? What was the point of it? The irony is that at the beginning I did it for her, you know? To prove to her that I was good at something. The first big role I landed, I thought, this is it. She’ll be proud of me now. But she wasn’t. So I thought, maybe that isn’t enough. I need bigger roles. I need to win awards and be noticed and then maybe she’ll notice me too. So I did that, and it still wasn’t enough. And then I gave up on approval and just wanted to show her.”
Milly was upset for her friend all over again. All Nicole had wanted was for her mother to act the way any other mother would. She’d wanted to feel valued. She’d wanted to make her mother proud. And no child should have to work at that.
“And you did show her.”
“Yes, and suddenly my career is soaring, people are looking at me with envy, and I’m asking myself what the heck I’m doing. Why I’m doing it, because my mother doesn’t seem to care what I do or what I achieve. I’ve shown her, and she just doesn’t care. Lately I’ve been questioning my life. My choices.”
Milly assembled everything and slid it into the oven. Her own emotions had settled as she’d listened to Nicole. Whatever her difficulties with Richard, she was loved and supported by her family, and she always had been. She didn’t win awards, and few people outside the village knew her name, but she felt valued. And she knew how much that was worth.
“You’re successful, Nicole. Beyond successful.”
“But what is success? Because if you’re not enjoying the life you’re living, if you’re hating almost every moment, then that doesn’t feel like success to me. I’ve come to the conclusion that fame can be dangerous because it distorts reality. And it’s so easy to get sucked into it.”
Nicole paused. “Do you know how it feels to be adored? To have crowds calling your name and people wanting to take a photo with you? Everyone thinking you’re great. It’s intoxicating. You feel validated, important, secure—and I’d never had that before. Maybe if I’d had those things earlier in life, I wouldn’t have been so naive.”
She shrugged. “I’m not blaming anyone. I’m just stating a fact. I once got ninety-eight percent in an English exam and I rushed home to tell her thinking that finally I would have made her proud, and do you know what she said? ‘What went wrong, Nicolette? What happened to that two percent?’”
She remembered that conversation: she’d been there when Nicole’s mother had said those words.
Milly wiped her hands and stepped toward her friend. “Nic—”
“I grew up feeling like a failure. I was desperate for her approval.”
She took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. “Desperate for any evidence that I was worth loving and not a total failure as a human being. When I didn’t get that validation from her, I looked for it elsewhere. To begin with, it was men. Men who paid me attention. My self-esteem was so low I wanted to believe those things they said about me. And then I realized that they weren’t giving, they were using me. Their opinion of me wasn’t any higher than my mother’s. I stopped dating.”
She took a sip of water and Milly nodded.
“I know. I remember that time.”
“But the public—”
Nicole’s eyes filled, and she blinked rapidly. “I was hungry to be loved, and they loved me. And it was easier to bathe in the approval of an amorphous crowd than to try to seek the approval of one person. I felt special. I felt good about myself for the first time ever.”
She took another sip of water. “It’s embarrassing to admit that.”
This felt like the conversations they used to have when they were growing up. They’d never been afraid to bare their feelings.
“Why is it embarrassing?”
“Because it was no more real than those social media posts you were looking at. All the attention I’ve been given in my life—it’s an illusion. Smoke and mirrors. The biggest deception of all.”
Nicole put the glass down. “For a short time I thought what I had with Justin was real. I thought he loved me.”
And the betrayal would have hurt all the more for that. Milly could understand that.
“Are you sure he didn’t?”
Nicole shrugged. “In the end he loved his career and his image more. Did he use me to raise his profile? I don’t know, but that’s what happened. I can’t believe I actually suggested that we both just walk away from it all, buy a plot of land and grow vegetables.”
Milly tried to picture it, and doing so made her smile. “Do you know anything about growing vegetables?”
“No, but I thought it would be fun to learn. Particularly if we were doing it together.”
Together. And that was what this was of course: Nicole’s attempt to create something that resembled a family.
Imagining her excitement and then her devastation wiped the smile from Milly’s face.
“I assume he didn’t grab the chance.”
“No. Probably a good thing, because we both know I wouldn’t have known how to cook the vegetables even if I’d grown them.”
Nicole shrugged. “Anyway, that’s my sorry story. And this is a heavy conversation to have in the middle of the day.”
In the past they would have talked about whatever they wanted to talk about, whenever it felt right to do so. They wouldn’t have cared what time of day it was.
Milly felt a pang of nostalgia. “It’s a heavy conversation for someone who hasn’t had lunch and probably didn’t eat breakfast. And don’t tell me you never eat breakfast, because you’re pregnant now, so things have to change.”
Suddenly she felt protective. “That baby needs you to eat something.”
Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Are you mothering me?”
Someone needs to.
“I’m not mothering you as much as caring for you and encouraging you to care for yourself.”
Milly grabbed salad items from the fridge. “You’re going to have a slice of mushroom and leek tart, with a large salad. You can help make the salad.”
And she intended to take some of the food to Brendan Scott. In case he was hungry. Because it was her job to care for her guests, and he didn’t seem to consider nutrition when he was busy writing.
Not for any other reason.
Nicole looked at her doubtfully. “If cooking is what it takes to be a good mother, I’m doomed.”
“Anyone can make a salad.”
Milly checked the tart and adjusted the oven temperature. “And you’re not doomed. You’re going to be an amazing mother.”
“You don’t know that.”
Nicole rinsed salad leaves. “It’s not as if I had a great role model. I’m scared I’m like my mother. What if I’ve inherited her inability to connect with my child?”
She tipped the leaves into the bowl. “I’m her daughter after all. I have her genes.”
Milly saw the doubt and fear in her friend’s eyes and felt a rush of compassion because she understood where the insecurity came from. “You are not your mother.”
“I know, but—”
Nicole looked at her helplessly. “He told me I’d make a terrible mother, and I can’t help wondering if he’s right. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Who told you that?”
Milly was appalled. “Justin?”
She didn’t know the man, but she was starting to form an impression, and it wasn’t good.
“He said I’m selfish and that my lifestyle just isn’t compatible with having a child.”
The heat inside her, newly calmed, blazed to life again.
Milly grabbed the olive oil and a bottle of vinegar. “It’s not true, Nicole, and you know it.”
“Do I? My schedule has been manic. I’ve taken one job after another.”
“That doesn’t make you selfish. It makes you a successful working woman, and working women have babies all the time. He clearly doesn’t understand how capable you are.”
She mixed a dressing in a jar and shook it vigorously.
It should be possible to ignore the things people said, shouldn’t it? But she knew from her own experience that wasn’t always possible, and it was clear that for Nicole, Justin’s words had sunk into her like a splinter.
“What if he is right?”
Nicole was desperate for reassurance. “What if I do it all wrong? Make mistakes?”
Milly put the jar down. There was plenty she could have said, but Nicole didn’t need platitudes, she needed honesty, and she needed to believe in herself.
“You probably will make mistakes. Everyone does. When it comes to parenthood, we’re all making it up as we go along. But history does not have to repeat itself. You can choose what type of mother you want to be.”
She’d never even thought about it before, but as she did now she could see that in many ways she’d done all the things her own mother had done. Maintained many of the same traditions. Followed her example of offering unconditional love, free of judgment.
And she acknowledged now that her mother’s belief in her had given her a belief in herself. She’d coped with difficult times because it hadn’t occurred to her not to. Her mother had taught her that when you were knocked down, you got back up. Did she sometimes find life hard? Yes, but she still got herself out of bed and did what needed to be done. Just as her mother had.
“I already know what sort of mother I’d like to be.”
Nicole said without hesitation, “I’d like to be exactly like you.”
Emotion hit Milly like a thump in her chest.
All morning she’d been feeling like a failure, and with those few words Nicole made her feel better.
She swallowed. “That’s possibly the best thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“It’s the truth. If I’m half as good a mother as you, I’ll be doing okay. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still scared. I didn’t plan any of this.”
How much of life did any of them really plan? You thought you were in control, and then out of nowhere something happened and you realized that control was an illusion.
“Can I ask you something?”
The food was forgotten as they both focused on the conversation. “When Justin said he didn’t want anything to do with the baby, did that make you reconsider?”
“You mean did it make me consider not keeping my baby? No.”
Nicole rested a protective hand on her lower abdomen. “I decided I’d do it without him. But I’m scared.”
“Of course you are. I think most women feel that way whether they’re alone or with someone. It’s a big change. And a big responsibility. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be great at it. And you will. And I will only ever be a phone call away.”
Nicole looked at her, the turmoil of the past eighteen months present in the room with them. “Do you mean that?”
How had she ever thought she could keep her distance? Whatever happened, the bond between them ran too deep to be easily destroyed.
“I’ll be with you every step of the way. I can lend you the books I used and recommend websites. But in the end you’ll do it your own way.”
To hide the emotion she was feeling, she grabbed cutlery from the drawer. “Take this out to the deck, and I’ll bring the rest.”
She lifted the quiche onto a board, sliced it and plated it.
Then she covered the rest so that the flies wouldn’t descend on it while it was cooling and joined Nicole on the deck.
“This looks delicious,”
Nicole said, and Milly took a sip of water and picked up her fork.
“I wish food didn’t make me feel better about life, but it does. What does that say about me?”
“It says you’re a good cook,”
Nicole said as she savored a mouthful of food. “Honestly, who wouldn’t be comforted by this? It’s ambrosial. Although, if you really don’t want to comfort-eat, let me cook next time. There’s no way you’ll be soothed by anything I put on your plate.”
Milly smiled. “Maybe that’s what we need to do. The Nicole Diet. Then I wouldn’t feel so bad about myself.”
Nicole stabbed at her salad. “Why do you feel bad about yourself?”
“Uh . . . because I’m unfit and flabby, and looking in the mirror depresses me.”
“I think you look great. Do you work out?”
“There are never enough hours in the day.”
She squirmed, because she wasn’t only lying to Nicole, she was lying to herself. “It’s an excuse, I know. But I hate the gym. All those mirrors and skinny people around you, most of them filming themselves on their phones. I’m terrified my flab might go viral.”
“You don’t need a gym to work out. You’re surrounded by hills and trails. You can run and climb.”
“I think you might be overestimating my basic fitness level,”
Milly said. “I don’t run anywhere.”
Nicole put her fork down. “Okay, so it’s time for a review of our current situation. You’re unfit and feeling generally bad about yourself. I’m terrified to leave the house and am also terrified about the future. How are we going to fix this?”
She leaned forward. “Strategy time.”
“You have a strategy that can fix all that?”
She remembered all the times they’d done this when they were young. Boys. Schoolwork. Scary parties. Becoming a movie star. Whatever the goal was, Nicole would come up with a strategy. “You’ve got that look on your face.”
“Which look?”
“The one that scares me because it usually means you’re going to make me do something I don’t want to do.”
Nicole didn’t deny it. “What are you like at five in the morning?”
Milly burst out laughing. “Comatose. Unless I’m lying there fuming about Richard.”
“Not anymore. Starting tomorrow you’re going to be down here at five wearing your running shoes. You are going to start by running for fifteen minutes. You can walk the rest and gradually increase the time. How does that sound?”
It sounded awful.
“I won’t be doing any of that because there is no way I’m getting up at five. Also, I hate to break this to you, but I can’t run for five minutes. I’d be doubled over and panting for breath after three. And anyway, I don’t want to get thin for Richard.”
“You’re not getting thin for Richard. This isn’t about losing weight. This is about getting fitter and stronger because you want to. I guarantee it will change the way you feel about yourself. You will feel healthier and more energetic, and you will start to love the feel of the early morning.”
“Again, no.”
But she knew that once Nicole had an idea about something, it was hard to shift her.
“I’m going to walk into your bedroom tomorrow and haul those covers from you so that you don’t have a choice. It’s tough love.”
Tough love.
An idea came into her head. Nicole wasn’t the only one who could come up with a strategy. “I’ll do it if we do it together.”
Nicole shook her head. “No way. I’ll be staying here at base, making you a delicious cup of coffee for your return. And anyway, someone has to stay with Zoe.”
“No, they don’t. I don’t like leaving her overnight, but she’s fine for twenty minutes in the morning, and we can lock the door.”
She saw the panic in Nicole’s eyes and almost relented, but then she thought about the reality of it. “You can’t shut yourself away forever, Nic. You have a life to live. You deserve to have a life. You can’t let other people stop that.”
“You don’t get it.”
“That’s probably true. I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to not be able to walk down a street without being recognized. To be afraid in your own home. But I do know you’re scared, and I know about being scared. I’ve been scared for most of my life. Scared about people leaving. Scared about Zoe growing up with daddy issues. Scared that I might be on my own for the rest of my life.”
She gave a short laugh. “Which makes no sense because the last thing I want at this point is a man. Ironic, isn’t it? Most days I feel invisible, and you feel far too visible. What a pair we are. But we’re going to do this.”
“I can’t.”
Nicole’s voice was a whisper, and Milly realized that when her friend had called her saying that she needed somewhere to hide, she had meant it literally. She’d worried about how Nicole would be able to keep a low profile, and only now was she seeing that given the choice Nicole wouldn’t set foot outside the boathouse.
And she felt guilty as she remembered how readily she’d dismissed Nicole’s problems as trivial. There was nothing trivial about it. How must it feel to not be able to live life normally? To not be able to drop into a coffee shop when you liked or even arrive at a remote railway station in the middle of the night without wearing a disguise?
She felt grateful for her life. Compared to Nicole’s existence, it was simple and unglamorous, and most of the time it was relentless hard work, but she had a freedom that she took for granted. A freedom she wouldn’t swap for fame and fortune.
“Remember that party we both went to when we were fifteen?”
Milly gently coaxed a wasp away from the food. “I was too scared to go, but you said you’d be right there by my side, and you were, and that’s what I’m going to do for you. We are going to leave this house, and I am going to be right by your side.”
Nicole didn’t smile. “You think you can defend me from an overenthusiastic fan or worse?”
“I don’t think we’ll meet anyone, and if we do, I will say a bright, cheerful Good morning and draw their attention to something on the lake while you power past. You’re pregnant, Nicole. You need to stay healthy, and that includes fresh air and exercise.”
Nicole hesitated. “People want to do me actual harm!”
Sensing a weakening of resolve, Milly lifted her chin.
“They’re going to have to go through me first.”