Chapter 26
“We’re staging a takeover.”
“A takeover?” she repeated as she looked uncertainly between her friends. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Store’s closed,” Jenna announced, flipping the sign hanging on the door. “And we brought wine.”
Laurie brandished not one, but two bottles.
A smile twitched Zoe’s mouth at their kindness, but already, out of instinct, she was shaking her head. “I’ve got to get back—”
“Nope,” Maggie informed her cheerfully. “Zach is hanging out with your parents now. He brought pizza and he’s promised to play chess and Scrabble.”
“And he sucks at both,” Jenna told her, “so your parents will love beating him.”
“And they don’t need their meds till seven,” Laurie reminded her, “so you’re good for two hours.”
Zoe let out a trembling laugh. Her friends had really thought of everything. Her friends. It felt good to think that way, especially now. “And what’s brought all this on?” she asked.
“Dan’s ex showing up,” Annie said succinctly. “What’s her name? Lindsay? What was up with her? I never trust anyone who looks like a Barbie.”
“She’s definitely had work done,” Jenna agreed sagely. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but she does seem a little plastic. Not Dan’s type at all, frankly.” She glanced at Zoe, who shrugged.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I was Dan’s type, either. And after seeing Lindsay,” she felt compelled to confess, “I’m not sure I am.”
“Nonsense,” Maggie said robustly. “You guys are great together. And, let’s be honest, he did not look thrilled to see her.”
“I know,” Zoe agreed unhappily. “I mean, I’m not worried,” she added, and the ensuing silence, with Maggie so clearly looking skeptical but too kind to say as much, was humbling.
“Okay, I am worried,” she admitted. “But I don’t even know what I’m worried about.
I don’t think they’re going to get back together or anything.
” Unfortunately, that confident statement came out like a question.
She was worried they might get back together, at least a little, but what really made her anxious was the possibility that something might happen to blow everything she and Dan had just started building apart.
Their relationship was so new, so fragile.
It wouldn’t take much to wreck it, Zoe feared, and this most recent development was a doozy.
“Wine,” Laurie announced, and opened the first bottle. “Zoe, do you have cups?”
“Just the ones for smoothies and milkshakes.” Which were thirty-two ounces and could hold a lot of wine.
“That’ll do the job,” Laurie said cheerfully, and started pouring. With very full cups of wine, they decamped to the biggest table in the back of the store.
“You’ve done such an amazing job with this place, Zoe,” Maggie told her warmly as she looked around. “I love the newspaper theme, and your artwork is amazing.”
“Thanks.” Zoe looked around, caught between pride and fear. This store felt like the only stable thing in her life right now.
“So, do you actually know why Dan’s ex-wife might have just dropped in… from Dubai, right?” Annie asked bluntly.
Zoe shook her head as she took a sip of wine.
“No, and I don’t think Dan knows either.
I think it’s really shaken him.” More even than she would have expected.
He’d seemed like a shadow of himself last night, and she hadn’t understood it.
Yes, having Lindsay arrive was inconvenient, certainly, as well as surprising.
Unsettling, too. But to Dan, it had seemed like a lot more than that.
Like something else was going on… and she had no idea what it was.
He hadn’t wanted to tell her, and that worried her, too.
She feared their relationship, new as it was, was going to be tested in a way neither of them was ready for.
“Well, it has to be hard,” Laurie said, “to have her suddenly swoop in. Though Sophie seemed thrilled.”
“Yes… I think Sophie gets pretty bowled over by her mom, which is understandable,” Zoe agreed. “And I guess that’s hard for Dan.” She thought about how he’d told her that Sophie had chosen Lindsay over him a year ago. Was he worried that might happen again?
“And what about you guys?” Maggie asked gently. “How is everything there?”
“Well, considering we’ve been dating for about three minutes,” Zoe replied on a shaky laugh, “I have no idea.”
“Has he been in touch today?” Jenna asked, and mutely, miserably, Zoe shook her head. She’d been really hoping to have at least a text from him, something to say he was okay. They were okay. The silence really had thrown her.
“Hmm.” Jenna frowned. “I haven’t seen either of them around town.”
“His car wasn’t in the driveway this morning,” Zoe admitted, a confession.
“And Lindsay is staying at the Litchfield Inn,” she added.
“So maybe they’re all hanging out there.
” A prospect which filled her with both jealousy and dread.
Maybe Dan would have a wonderful day with Sophie and Lindsay, his true family, and realize that his time in Starr’s Fall was nothing more than a blip and he needed to get back to his real life.
She took a gulp of wine. Was she really worried about that? It was hard to put a name to the formless anxiety swirling around in her stomach.
“I doubt they’re hanging out,” Maggie said. “Zoe, I really don’t think you need to feel threatened in any way. I have been able to tell for weeks now that Dan absolutely adores you.”
“I don’t feel threatened,” Zoe said, although that wasn’t entirely true.
She did feel a little threatened. But the main thing she felt, Zoe knew, was the nameless dread that had been swirling in her stomach, sometimes more, sometimes less, since she was a little girl.
The dread that bad things, the worst thing, would happen, because in her life it pretty much almost always had. Why not now? Why not this?
“I’m just scared,” she admitted quietly.
This whole vulnerability thing was getting easier, but not by much.
“Scared something bad is going to happen, and I’ll need to brace myself, because that’s how a lot of my life has gone.
And,” she added, her voice wobbling all over the place, “I hate feeling so scared all the time. I hate feeling like I’m just waiting for the next bad thing to happen, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
” Her fingers clenched around her plastic cup as she blinked hard to keep back the tears.
“Oh, Zoe.” Maggie put her arms around her, and then Laurie came in too, and then Annie and Jenna, their arms all clumsily wrapped around each other as everyone tried not to spill their plastic cups of wine.
They were having a group hug, which Zoe had always considered a pretty cringeworthy concept, until she was in the middle of one.
Then it felt pretty darned nice. And she was glad as well as grateful that, despite this drama with Dan’s ex-wife, she had friends who rallied around her with wine and hugs and good advice. All this time in Starr’s Fall, and she’d never been as alone as she’d thought she was. As she’d felt.
“So, what you need to do,” Jenna told her as everyone eased back, discreetly wiping their eyes, “is fight for your man. Don’t just wait for the bad thing to happen. Get out there and make it something good, instead.”
“And how would I do that?” Zoe asked on another shaky sigh. “Dan clearly needs space to deal with his ex-wife. Having me marching in there acting all possessive just because I feel threatened doesn’t feel like a good strategy, if I’m honest.”
“Did I say you should do that?” Jenna demanded, eyebrows raised. “There are a lot of different ways of doing battle.”
“Okay.” Zoe let out a bemused laugh. She wasn’t really sure what Jenna was talking about, but she did know she would rather do something than sit around and wait for the axe to fall. “So give me an example.”
“I think Dan needs to feel supported,” Maggie chimed in gently.
“Like you’re with him, and you have his back.
I saw, like you did, how shaken he was by Lindsay showing up last night.
They clearly have some hard history that’s affecting him now, and I think what he needs is you not being affected or threatened by it but being calm and in his corner.
” She smiled, her face full of sympathy.
“Sometimes fighting is just staying still.”
“Okay.” As Zoe absorbed what Maggie had said, she realized how true she felt it was. Dan didn’t need her to come out swinging, but he needed her to be there, for him. At least she hoped he did. “That’s something I could do,” she told her friends. She just had to figure out how.
* * *
An hour and a half later, Zoe was heading home, slightly tipsy and definitely hopeful. She was so grateful for her friends—friends she hadn’t realized she’d had—rallying around her, holding her up. Being there for her… just as she was going to be there for Dan.
As she passed his house, she saw that his car wasn’t back in the driveway and despite all her determined resolutions, her stomach clenched with anxiety. He was still out? It had been ten hours. What on earth could he have been doing all that time?
Her stomach clenched again as she imagined Dan, Lindsay, and Sophie in a hazy montage of happy family moments—strolling around Litchfield, walking to the waterfall, getting ice cream not at her store, but at the fancy dairy near Bantam Lake.
No. She couldn’t think like that. She wasn’t going to, Zoe decided as she let herself into the house.
“Hey, honey,” her dad called. He sounded breathless, but Zoe told herself not to mind, because he also sounded happy.
“Your dad just got his second seven-letter word,” Zach told her with his lazy, good-looking-guy smile. “He’s crushing me.”
“It’s good for your ego,” Zoe teased. “Deflate it a little bit.”
Zach rolled his eyes, and she smiled, leaning against the doorway as she took in the sight of her parents being happy and energized, at least for them. Her mom met her gaze, her smile tinged with concern.
“How was your day, sweetheart? Have you heard from Dan?”
Zoe shook her head. “No, but I might pop over there this evening, see how things are. Now, the important question is… is there any pizza left?”
“Two slices for you,” Zach told her. “And you can thank me, because I didn’t do my usual black olive and pineapple combo.”
“Thank God,” Zoe murmured as she headed into the kitchen. She scanned Emma’s notes—Dad in good spirits, Mom a little tired—and felt that constant knot of anxiety in her stomach loosen, just a little bit. Having friends helped, she realized. She really wasn’t doing this alone… and neither was Dan.
Determinedly she took her phone out of her pocket and swiped the screen before she started to type a text.
I just wanted you to know I’ve been thinking about you, and I’m here for you whatever might be going on.
She was just about to press send when a text pinged in for her. It was from Dan, and just three words.
Can we talk?