Chapter Twelve #3
“Harlow, Stella,” Zahra called. “You have about ten seconds to get out here, or we’re sending the dogs after you. Shabina has dessert ready. Dessert. Shabina’s dessert. I’m not missing out on that because you’re discussing how hot Sam is.”
Harlow burst out laughing. “We’d better make a run for it. She really will send all the dogs this way.”
They both started a sprint down the hall. “It was the dessert,” Stella said. “Nothing else would ever get that woman out of her favorite chair, even to threaten us.”
Harlow found herself laughing as they hurried into the great room. She was so thankful for her friends. “Good grief, Zahra, the dogs?”
Zahra raised an elegant eyebrow. “It’s Shabina’s dessert. You can hardly blame me.” She turned toward Guadalupe. “That’s all it would take for world peace. Tell all the world leaders if they settled down and stopped posturing, we’d send them Shabina’s desserts.”
“I will admit I always skip dessert,” Guadalupe said. “It isn’t easy keeping weight off when I don’t do a lot of exercise.”
“Wait,” Vienna said, turning to face the realtor. “You climb, don’t you?”
“Well…no. I don’t like heights. And I don’t run.”
“At last, a woman with sense,” Zahra stated.
She waved her hand to encompass all of her friends.
“Women with no sense right there. They all run, backpack, hike, boulder, trad climb, jump off cliffs in weird contraptions, bicycle—you name it, they do it. In other words, not a single one of them has a lick of sense. And they all have personal trainers who kick their butts.”
Stella cleared her throat. “Zahra, you do all of those things.”
“Under protest. It isn’t like I want to do a single one of those things. I’m forced to do them to keep all of you safe. And the personal trainer is afraid of me, so I don’t have to do a quarter of what the rest of you do.” There was immense satisfaction in her voice.
“He isn’t afraid of you,” Stella protested. “He’s fallen like every other man who has come before him. He can’t possibly make you do anything you don’t want to do, and he knows it, so he allows you to do what you want, hoping you’ll look kindly at him.”
Zahra heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Dessert sounds better to me than going on a date.”
Vienna nudged her with her hip as she reached around her to grab a dessert plate. “You don’t want to expend the energy to go on a date.”
“That is true,” Zahra admitted. “I’m devoting all my spare time to Misty. She doesn’t like to be alone, and I have to make certain she settles in.”
Raine did an inelegant little snort-laugh. “How old is that puppy? I think she has settled in quite nicely. You spoil her, Zahra, you run three times a day with that dog.”
Zahra stuck her nose in the air. “Guadalupe, don’t listen to a word they say.” She handed the realtor a dessert plate. “Do you have a dog?”
“No, but I can see if I eat with you girls like this very often, I’ll have to get one to take it running. The food is delicious, and it’s difficult not to keep going back.”
“Shabina always sends us home with a care package,” Zahra assured. “That’s the only reason I’m not eating myself into oblivion.”
“Zahra doesn’t ever put on weight,” Harlow complained. “She’s always the perfect size, regardless of how much she eats.”
“Raine’s like that too,” Stella said. “You can’t know how often I want to strangle the two of them for their ability to eat anything without the consequences the rest of the women in the world have.”
“It’s an art,” Zahra explained, and then laughed, spoiling her perfect deadpan expression. “Okay, I can’t even pull that one off. I do love my Misty girl, and if she needed to run ten times a day, I would do it. Far easier than getting ready for a date.”
“You don’t want to put up with a man,” Raine stated.
“Well…there’s that too. I like having my own way in all things. It makes it so much easier.” She followed Guadalupe back to the chairs across from Raine. “How about you? Married? Divorced? Widowed?” She flashed a conspiratorial grin.
“As a matter of fact,” Guadalupe said, “I am widowed, and my husband died in a fire.”
Zahra looked stricken. “Oh my God, Guadalupe, I was joking with you. I didn’t mean to pry. I’m so sorry. I feel terrible. Please accept my apologies.”
“No worries. He wasn’t a good man by any means, and it certainly wasn’t a loss to the world when he died.
” There was no bitterness in her voice, just a statement of fact.
She looked around the room, taking in their expressions.
“He was extremely abusive, and I wasn’t in a position to leave him.
” She gave a little shrug. “It sounds to me as if Harlow had it much worse with her father.”
“You can’t do that,” Shabina said. “Honestly, Guadalupe, one abuse isn’t worse or better than another. It’s still abuse. It still causes trauma. What you went through and survived to get to this point, a successful, amazing woman standing on her own, is an incredible accomplishment.”
Harlow nodded. “She’s right, Guadalupe. I would never have known you went through all that. You’re so stable and kind. You’re one of the nicest women I know.”
“I’m sure Harlow didn’t mean to include us in the ‘nicest women’ part,” Zahra said, her tone droll. “But you’re right up there with us,” she added in assurance.
“None of us are that nice,” Raine said. “Well, maybe Harlow.”
Harlow scowled at her. “I am not going to be the nice one. Sheesh. Raine is nice.”
Laughter burst from the other women in the room, all but Guadalupe, who nodded in agreement. She looked around at the other women and then shook her head. “What do you know about Raine that I don’t?”
Guadalupe seemed to be very comfortable with the women, no matter the subject.
She fit. Harlow found herself really studying the realtor.
She was smooth. Likable. Every expression was perfect for whatever the rest of the room was feeling.
The realization came to Harlow—Guadalupe was exactly the way Harlow had been growing up.
The way she most likely was now. She was an actress.
A superb one. She could read a room and act accordingly.
Guadalupe was exactly the same. She was acting.
Those sweet expressions, even her inviting laughter—it was all an illusion.
The realtor was such a good actress that it was impossible not to believe her, and yet, now that Harlow had become aware of Guadalupe’s true abilities, she questioned everything she knew about the woman.
“Raine’s a human weapon,” Stella said. “And she’s pretty accurate with weaponry as well.”
Raine lifted an eyebrow. “ ‘Pretty accurate’? That’s insulting.”
The women laughed, and Zahra began moaning, orgasmic moaning, signaling she’d taken a bite of Shabina’s dessert. That caused another round of laughter.
Guadalupe shook her head, laughing right along with them. “I had no idea you girls were so hilarious.”
Harlow did her best to stay in the moment and not speculate on whether Guadalupe was the woman her father had gotten pregnant and then sent away.
More and more, Harlow believed she was that young girl.
A part of her wanted to beg Guadalupe to tell her what had happened with her brother.
Had he died in childbirth? Had the cartel insisted she get rid of him?
Had he been sold off for adoption? Was he alive?
Did she have a sibling somewhere in the world who might want to know he had someone as well?
“It’s Shabina’s food,” Vienna pointed out. “It makes us all giddy.” She waved her fork in the air. “And then we remember we’re going to have to run for miles to counter the calories.”
Zahra let out another dramatic groan. “Even I would make the sacrifice of running in order to eat this,” she admitted. “Shabina, you outdid yourself.”