“That’s sweet of you.”
Sasha appeared behind him, a towering giant filling up the entire doorway. “You know what would be sweet of you? Coming back in here to help me instead of once again flirting with the pretty lady.”
“He’s not—”
“I’m coming,” Aaron said at the same time.
“Thank you,” Sasha said. “And yes, he’s flirting with you. Has been all day.”
Bonnie needed to get out of there. She was supposed to be watching her dad to make sure nothing happened to him, not chatting it up with Aaron and Sasha.
“Why does Sasha keep complaining about you two flirting?” her dad asked when she got out into the living room.
“How did you—”
“Voices carry in an empty house, my dear,” her dad explained. “Is there something going on that I need to know about?”
“Between me and Aaron?” she whispered, because if voices carried, she did not want Aaron or Sasha to hear this conversation. “There’s nothing going on. We were talking about whether or not he was going to make any money off this place.”
“And how pretty you look in pink.”
Could he really hear that up in the attic? Her face burned. “Stop talking, please.”
“I like him, but until you work out things with Lauren, I wouldn’t suggest getting too friendly with our friend in there.” Her dad nodded toward the hallway.
“I am not getting too friendly with anyone. And I will not be working anything out with Lauren.” Not that she had much of a choice, since it was highly unlikely that Lauren would ever admit she was wrong and try to make amends for all the terrible things she had done.
“It’s really sad that the two of you would walk away from so many years of friendship. Your mother would have been very disappointed.”
That was a low blow. Bringing up her mother was unfair. He wasn’t wrong about what her mother would think about all this, though. Of course, she would have confronted Lauren a long time ago. There was no way her mom would have allowed no contact between Bonnie and Lauren to go on for this long.
Her dad winced and touched the bandage on his forehead.
She moved closer and placed a hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just have a bit of a headache.”
“See? Concussion. You should be taking it easy. I think that you can call asbestos removers from home.”
“I’m not going home,” he said, stepping away. “We’ve got lots of wallpaper to remove today and lots of work to do on that master bedroom.”
He wasn’t going to budge. It didn’t sound like peeling off wallpaper could be too dangerous. Both she and her dad needed groceries, and since she had to drive to another town to buy them, she had things to do.
“Promise me you’ll be careful and I’ll go buy us some groceries,” she said, giving up.
He pulled his car keys from his pocket since they had driven over together and tossed them to her. “I’ll be fine. Go, be free. Shop till you drop.”
Bonnie shouted goodbye to Aaron and Sasha. When she opened the front door, the last person she ever imagined being on the other side stood there with a scowl on her face.
“Lauren.” Bonnie couldn’t manage anything else. She was so shocked, she had to wonder if she was seeing things.
“You have to be kidding me,” Lauren sneered. “I knew this was a mistake.” She started to back away.
“I’m leaving,” Bonnie said, wishing she would have left about five minutes ago. “If you’re here to see Aaron, you won’t have to worry about me.”
Lauren shifted her oversize designer purse in front of her like it could act as some sort of shield to protect her from getting too close to the person she hated the most in the world. “I don’t know why I came here.”
Bonnie wanted to say the same thing. She was so taken aback by Lauren’s presence that she didn’t notice her father had come up behind her until he made his presence known.
“Aaron! Your sister is here!” he shouted, making Bonnie nearly jump out of her shoes. “Hello, Miss Lauren. Would you like to come in?”
Bonnie couldn’t believe her dad could speak so civilly to someone who basically was the reason he was fired from the job he’d had all of his adult life. He was way too nice.
Lauren seemed equally surprised that he was being congenial. She pushed her chestnut hair back over her shoulder. “If she’s leaving, I’ll come in.”
Now that the shock had worn off, there were a million things Bonnie wanted to say. None of them would go over well, however, so she bit her tongue. Instead, she stepped onto the porch with Lauren.
“I’ll be back later to get you, Dad.”
Lauren moved aside so Bonnie could step off the porch. Never in her life had she looked into eyes that were so cold. To think almost two months ago, the two of them had had weekly dinners together and giggled over glasses of wine. They’d made plans to take a girls-only weekend trip this summer. There were no doubts they would keep each other’s secrets, and they had discussed the possibility of their future children being best friends.
How quickly things could change. Bonnie’s anger had been so strong the last few days, but today, she realized how depressing it was that this friendship was over. Sadness was the only thing Bonnie felt as she got in the car and drove away.
“LAUREN.” AARON COULDN’T believe she was actually standing inside his house. Had his mom worked a miracle so quickly?
“I need to talk to you.” She glanced at David. “Alone, if possible.”
“I’ll let you two catch up, but I want you to know that I’ve been praying the good Lord heals your heart, Lauren. Hatefulness is an ugly disease I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” David said before retreating back to the living room.
Lauren folded her arms across
