Page 69 of You Weren't Mine Then

If she needed proof of how fast and how bad small-town gossip could get, Anne got plenty of it over the next few days. At first, she thought she was imagining Mrs. Vahler looking at her funny when she asked for pumpkin bread the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. But then two other women just mumbled a response to her ‘How are you today?’ when they were usually keen to chat.

A text from Bella was another proof. “I’m assuming shit hit the fan over the weekend? People at work are talking. Apparently, Avery told one of the secretaries, who’s got a mouth on her the size of the Grand Canyon and, from there, it started rolling. One thing I heard was that Finn cheated on her with you while they were married. When it reached me, I said that it was impossible because you lived in Ohio. But don’t try confusing these folks with facts. They say his travels to swim meets was a cover.”

Her stomach plummeted. From the depth it had reached, Anne called her.

“Who’s they?” she asked when Bella picked up.

“The general they of gossiping.”

“You know that none of this is true, Bella.”

“I know. But you should do something about it and, most of all, prepare yourself for some attitude. ”

And attitude there was. Though Anne knew people liked her, it still didn’t stop some from looking at her like they were searching for evidence in her features, and a few sounded like they had just swallowed a frog.

She wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with it, but they had two decorated cake cancellations; one after she had begun working on it, so she finished it and put it as a surprise outside one of the doors in her food rounds that day.

“Anne, dear, check the order log,” Connie Latimer said, passing from the bakeshop into the back. Bert and Connie used a book and pencil to take orders, as they had done twenty years ago. “There was a cancellation for later this week, but it’s actually good. We need to plan this year’s Christmas orders,” Connie continued, and Anne knew she was doing her best to keep it positive.

“Who canceled?” she asked. She didn’t mind cancellations, because for every cancellation, there were usually two new orders, but not that week.

“Lucile Hays, that cow,” Connie muttered. “She’d let her husband choke on her brick cake on his seventieth birthday rather than spend a dollar.”

Anne laughed. Lucile was Eric Hays’ mother. Eric the douche who nicknamed her Plain Jane. She splurged on her son but, apparently, not on her husband. Anne guessed that Lucile was just delivering a message—she wouldn’t buy from them now that it was rumored that Anne had been having an affair with her cousin’s husband.

Hope Hays, Eric’s ex, who didn’t exactly get along with her ex-mother-in-law, came in one afternoon. Teaching at the same school as Avery, she was bound to hear about it.

“People just enjoy regurgitating these things. They did that with Jordan, too. Believed the rumors, spread them, added their own flavor.” Just two months back, a story from Jordan’s days as a political advisor blew up nationwide, and the Riviera View gossipers had a field week with it. “No one who knows both you and Avery believes a word of it, you know,” she said, standing next to her at the bread basket display.

“Thanks, Hope. Congratulations, by the way,” Anne said. “I heard about you and Jordan but didn’t get to see you.”

Hope’s smile widened. “Thanks. But you know, I’m not Avery’s favorite person these days either, with me and Jordan being together. Not that I was her favorite before,” she scoffed.

It was true, then. Avery had been after Jordan Delaney, Libby’s future brother-in-law.

“Does it affect you at work?” Anne asked.

“Once I showed her I’m not taking any bullshit from her, she doesn’t give me any. But I keep my eyes open, especially since we have employee assessments coming up. Maybe you should talk to her.”

“I tried calling her. She doesn’t pick up my calls. I get that. I never meant to hurt her or her parents. That’s why I …” She was going to say that was why she had kept her distance from Finn all this time, but no one was supposed to know that this thing between them wasn’t new.

No one seemed to know, except one person—Roni Richards, Hope and Libby’s friend, the one who had seen her and Finn at Life’s A Beach all those years ago.

She came in with two of her children, which immediately stood out because she didn’t normally come in unless she needed pastries to stage a house as part of her interior design business. Holding her youngest’s hand, ready to leave with the box of brownies that she had bought them, she seemed to hesitate.

“Hope had a great idea. I don’t know if she got to talk to you about it or not, but would you like to join us for a girls’ night? We’ve been wanting to ask you for a while now. We get together every Monday evening, on the shittiest day of the week.” She chuckled. “We eat things I don’t usually allow myself to eat”—she raised the brownie box—“and laugh, and talk, and … Why don’t you join us?”

It was strange coming from Roni. She had the least connection to her. Hope, she considered a sort of friend. Libby was … well, Libby was Libby. But Roni?

She thought of Bella’s upcoming move. She’d lose her only friend. “Thanks, Roni. I’ll think about it. It could be nice.”

“Fuck nice,” Roni whispered so that her kids wouldn’t hear. “We’re telling things as they are there. We’ll tell you what we think of your cousin.” She raised her brows and grinned. “You know it’s not our first brush with her, given that she’s Hope’s semi-manager, had tried to force-date Jordan, and is supposedly educating our children. And, in return, you’ll tell us the whole story.” Roni’s cheeky yet sympathetic smirk cued Anne that she was hinting at that past encounter.

Roni looked like one of those women who had a big mouth and a bigger heart. She could have opened that mouth after Finn’s wedding and told everyone that she had seen the groom and the bride’s cousin at Life’s A Beach, but she never had, or it would have become common knowledge.

“I just might.” She smiled back at Roni.

When Anne called Libby to verify the food rounds list for December, there was a pause right after they had finished going over it. She was used to awkward silences with Libby, but this one was more loaded than usual, and when Libby drew a breath, Anne knew what she was going to say.

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