Astrid was floored. She had no idea it had been so dreadful. Was that part of the reason Clay was so closed off? “How could a woman do that? And leave behind her child?”
Miranda shook her head in disbelief. “I have no idea. I mean, I’m sure my brother is not easy to be married to, but he was devoted to her and he would do anything for Delia. I don’t know what else she could have possibly wanted from him.”
Astrid felt as though her heart was being tugged from her chest to her throat. The thought of what Clay had been through was so sad. “That’s so awful. I feel terrible for him.”
“Me too,” Tara added. “Every time I hear that story, it sounds more and more unbelievable.”
“Oh, it happened,” Miranda said. “I was there for the aftermath and trust me, it was not pretty.”
“Hence the fear of wedding gowns,” Tara said.
“Precisely.” Miranda returned her attention to the rack of dresses. “Let’s get back to a topic that’s a bit more fun. Like finding you the perfect gown.”
A few more minutes of browsing and they decided on three options, then Astrid went into the fitting room to try them on. The first two were instantly rejected by Tara and Miranda. One was deemed too drab and the other too ill-fitting. With less than a week until they left for the ceremony, there was no time for major alterations. Astrid tried on the final option, an off-the-shoulder navy blue gown with a fitted bodice and full skirt. It was absolutely gorgeous and struck the perfect balance between professional and sexy.
“I think this is the one.” Astrid zipped open the curtain and emerged from the fitting room.
Tara and Miranda looked at Astrid, then at each other. “Yes. That’s it,” they said in unison.
“It’s perfect,” Miranda added. “My brother is a lucky guy to have you as his date that night.”
“It’s not a date,” Astrid quickly followed.
Miranda cleared her throat. “Right. Of course.”
Astrid took one more look at herself in the full-length mirror. When she swished the skirt, she realized there was a high slit hidden in the folds. “Do you think this is okay?” she asked, kicking it open.
“With your legs?” Tara asked. “Yes.”
Astrid smiled and shook her head, then retreated into the dressing room, relieved this much was decided. She didn’t want to think about it anymore. She changed back into her regular clothes and asked Cherise to ring up the dress. Then she took a seat with Tara and Miranda.
“I wanted to ask you both about something. Johnathon’s brother, Andrew, has a development firm up in Seattle, right?”
“He does,” Miranda answered. “Why?”
Astrid pressed her lips together, wondering if she was pulling at seemingly random threads. “Tara, do you remember Sandy? She was already working at Sterling when I started.”
“Of course I do,” Tara answered. “She was on staff when I started as well. In fact, Grant gave her the job of being my assistant on my first day. She’d been working with Johnathon and knew about his interest in the Seaport project. She was able to help us deal with the city.”
“And then she disappeared. At the most inconvenient time as I remember.”
Tara downed the last of her champagne and got up to pour herself another glass. “It was a total nightmare. She vanished on the Friday before the presentation. Grant and I spent all weekend trying to fix the mistake Clay made.”
Astrid was still putting all of this together, but she was certainly suspicious that something wasn’t quite right. “That’s what always bothered me. The idea that Clay would miss a detail like the site orientation. I’ve worked with him for nearly two months now and he simply doesn’t make errors like that.”
“Anyone can mess up,” Miranda said. “Even my brother, the control freak.”
Astrid sighed. “Okay, well, here’s the thing. I ran into Sandy the other day at the bakery across from the Sterling offices.”
Tara’s eyes grew impossibly large. “You did? Did you talk to her?”
“Of course I did. I wasn’t going to leave without trying to find out what happened. She said that she’d been moonlighting while at Sterling. Then something about her other boss pulling her away. Something about owing him a favor. When I asked what the other company did, she said it was a development firm in Seattle.” To Astrid’s great surprise, the theory that had been tumbling around in her head didn’t sound nearly as half-baked now that she’d had the guts to say it out loud. “That got me thinking about Andrew. He’s in Seattle. He has a real estate development firm. He and Johnathon had been estranged for years. Andrew didn’t even come to Johnathon’s funeral.”
“Right,” Tara interjected. “And Grant and I ran into him in San Diego two weeks later, which seemed really odd to me. He could come to town for a baseball game, but he couldn’t show up to pay his respects?”
Miranda shook her head. “I don’t know where you two are going with this, but remember that Andrew reached out to me when he was here right after you and Grant saw him? He came over to the house. We had a very nice conversation. He was contrite and apologetic. He felt bad that he hadn’t come to the funeral.”
“So you don’t think he’s capable of interfering with Sterling?” Astrid asked.
“I think it’s cute that you want to explain away my brother’s mistake, but I really don’t see how Andrew could possibly do anything like that,” Miranda said. “What would Andrew get out of it, anyway? Silently tampering with a job? It seems like if he was trying to get even with Johnathon, he would have done something considerably more public. Now that Johnathon is gone, it seems even more unlikely.”
“Maybe,” Astrid said, gnawing on her finger. “You’re probably right.”
“How did you leave things with Sandy?” Tara asked.
“I told her that if she needed a job,
