Читать книгу Surprise Partners - GINA WILKINS - Страница 12

“Hey, Shane,” Michael said after Cameron and Alexis had departed, “did you get that new truck you were looking at?”

Kelly groaned. “Yes, he did. And he’s hardly gotten out of it for the past three days.”

Shane grinned expectantly. “You guys want to see it? It’s a real honey.”

Michael, Steve and Scott all jumped at the offer to examine Shane’s new wheels. The women chose to remain inside. Inviting them all to sit down and make themselves comfortable in the den, Kelly poured coffee all around.

“Kelly, have you heard from Amber lately?” Heather asked, settling on the couch beside Judy.

From a wing chair that matched the one in which Lydia sat, Kelly nodded. “She called a couple of weeks ago. She loves living in Austin, and she’s dating a guy she says is really nice. It sounded like it’s getting serious.”

“Oh, good. I hope she’s happy. She deserves to be.”

Kelly glanced toward Lydia, seeming to realize that she was being left out of the conversation about someone she didn’t know. “Amber’s a friend who moved to Austin last spring. She was a part of our group for years, and it still seems odd at times for her not to be here.”

“She made the mistake of getting involved with Cameron,” Heather added. “It was a disaster from the beginning, as everyone who knew them realized, but she wouldn’t listen when we tried to warn her, and she ended up with a broken heart.”

Lydia wondered if Heather was trying to make a point toward her, then told herself again to stop being paranoid.

“Cameron tried to make it work,” Kelly said mildly, sounding as though they’d had this discussion many times before. “He and Amber just didn’t want the same things in life.”

Heather shrugged. “I knew from the start it was a bad match. I have a sixth sense for that sort of thing, you know. I knew the minute I saw Steve fourteen months ago that he was the man for me.”

Judy looked encouragingly at Lydia as if she, too, wanted to make sure Lydia didn’t feel left out. “How long have you and Scott known each other, Lydia?”

Aware of Heather watching her, she answered, “We met last year in the parking lot of our apartment complex.”

“And have you been dating long?”

Again, Lydia worded her answer carefully. “We’ve dined together a few times. And we attended the charity thing last weekend, of course.”

“We’re all very fond of Scott,” Kelly commented with a smile. “My husband has known Scott and Heather since they were fourteen.”

Heather nodded. “Shane and his father had just moved to Dallas. They moved into the apartment complex where we lived with our mother. Shane, Scott and I became such close friends that our parents made arrangements for us to see each other often, even though Shane went to a different school since he grew up here on the ranch. Cameron and Amber were our schoolmates and met Shane through us. The guys met Michael in college.”

“I was brought in when my best friend—Shane’s cousin—and I moved to Dallas a few years ago,” Kelly added. “Brynn and I were in a serious car accident the night we arrived in town. Brynn wasn’t hurt, but I messed my legs up pretty badly, which left me with a limp—and some very special friends among the kind people who took care of me.”

Lydia had noticed the limp although it was slight. She found it interesting that Kelly seemed to think of the accident in positive rather than negative terms. She was, apparently, the type who looked for the silver lining in every dark cloud—a trait Lydia had always admired.

“Michael and I married four months ago,” Judy said proudly. “Now I’m part of the gang, too.”

Lydia couldn’t help smiling. Even though Judy made it sound as though she had been accepted into an exclusive society of some sort, Lydia suspected that they welcomed newcomers because they were so casual and friendly. They’d been very pleasant to Alexis, for example, even as badly as she had behaved in return.

As for herself, everyone had been extremely nice. Heather had actually been the least friendly, Lydia mused with another glance at Scott’s twin. She remembered that Scott had told her Heather never approved of the women he chose to date. Was she threatened by outsiders in her brother’s life? Did she fear losing his affections?