Laura wasn’t sure, but it seemed like Shayla had started to say something else. Like she should know what it was Shayla had almost said.
Then Bill returned and Tony asked him about Montana and his job as a bush pilot, and Laura forgot what she was going to ask.
Sully drove down Wednesday to take her to the gun range again. She’d passed the background check and was able to take possession of the 9mm.
He made her use it to practice. Practice included learning how to draw it, unloaded, from the holsters and the purse.
“I really recommend you carry in a holster, not in a purse. You want it on you at all times.”
She nodded, not liking the idea but accepting it as a fact of life now.
After he was happy with her being able to draw it, he made her load and shoot it by herself.
Her aim was moderately better than it had been the last time. Sully’s praise warmed her as he ran the target back to swap it out with a fresh one.
“Good job. Do it again.” He smiled as he ran the target out.
“How do I know I can use this if I need to?”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “You know what he did to you the last time.”
She nodded.
“Next time, he’ll finish the job. You either shoot him, or he’ll kill you. If you need to pull that gun, you don’t hesitate, and you don’t second-guess yourself. You pull it to shoot it. And you shoot it to save your life. And you figure that out by listening to your gut and staying vigilant.”
“For how long?”
His hard expression softened. “Until either they catch the guy or he tries again. Think about it this way. If he does try again, if you don’t kill him, he’s liable to kill someone else later. So you shoot to kill. You don’t shoot to wound, or shoot to warn. You shoot to kill. Understand me?”
“Yes, sir.” She clamped her lips together as he smiled. “What?”
He shook his head, but he looked amused. “Nothing.”
“I don’t know why I said that.”
His smile broadened. “It’s okay, sweetie. Go ahead and shoot again.”
Thursday morning, Laura nervously fidgeted with her phone while Bill drove them to Sarasota to meet with her friends. Shayla had texted her a picture taken a few months earlier of all of them together during one of their girls’ days.
It felt like a whole school of fish darting around in her stomach instead of butterflies.
This is going to be fine. At least, that’s what Rob told her several times the night before when she worried.
She had Bill with her. She’d be seeing Shayla again.
It still didn’t quell her nerves.
“It’ll be okay, sis,” he said.
“What if they don’t like me?”
He let out a snort. “They’re your friends. Of course they’re going to love you. They already love you. Stop that.”
“Sorry.”
“Oh my god, Laur, stop that, too.”
“Sor—” She clamped her lips shut on the word.
He glanced over at her and the wry look on his face made her smile.
“I’m that bad, huh?” she asked.
He reached across the seat and patted her leg. “You’re just…different. You’re coping the only way you can until you get your memories back.”
“If.”
“When,” he firmly insisted.
Bill sat at an adjoining table during breakfast, close enough to keep an eye on them, but giving Laura privacy with her friends. They took up a large corner booth, and Shayla and Leah had sandwiched her between them.
Clarisse wasn’t able to make it down that morning because the baby kept her awake half the night. But Tilly and Loren had joined them and were just as warm and welcoming as Leah and Shayla had been.
And yet…
There was still that underlying current running below everything, like she was missing some key thing that tied everything together. Something that might even give her an avalanche of answers if she could just figure it out.
She also knew on an instinctive level that it wasn’t a bad thing. It just…
Was.
Like they constantly censored themselves around her.
When a stray thought crossed her brain, she spit it out, hoping it would trigger something. “Tilly, I know you’re married to Landry, but who’s Cris?”
She didn’t imagine that all of the women paused, everyone looking to Shayla.
Shayla seemed to silently bounce the volley squarely back into Tilly’s lap.
Laura had also noticed that while Leah, Shayla, and Loren all wore beautiful necklaces, Tilly wore a simple gold chain with a plain fluorite crystal pendant.
Tilly took a deep breath. “Rob didn’t tell you about Cris?”
“I’ve heard his name mentioned before.” She frowned. “I think. I’m not sure now. So much is muddied up, I don’t know what is a memory or what I’ve heard.”
“Well, it’s complicated,” Tilly said. “Landry, Cris, and I are poly.”
As one, the other women’s heads swiveled to watch Laura.
She would have found it amusing had Tilly’s answer not confused her so much. “What? What does that mean?”
The other women looked to Tilly.
“Well, it means that I have a relationship with Landry and a relationship with Cris and they have a relationship with each other.” She took a sip of her iced tea and watched Laura’s reaction while the heads once again swiveled to focus on her.
I should know this. Something in her fractured memory pounded on a hidden door somewhere deep inside her brain and demanded release, but she couldn’t locate it.
“And they’re okay with it?” Laura asked.
Another swiveling of the heads back to Tilly.
Tilly kindly smiled. “Yeah. They were together before I met them. I got two for the price of one. And I wouldn’t trade either of the big lugs for anything.”
Laura sat back in her seat and considered things for a moment. The memories she thought she’d had when at the house with Bill returned to the forefront of her mind. “Landry and Cris came to help us work on the house, didn’t they?”
“Yep.”
She thought about it some more, then looked around. “So who’s Mac?”
This time, everyone focused on Shayla. Shayla apparently realized no one was going to do the dirty work for her. She cleared her throat before smiling at Laura. “Mac is Clarisse and Sully’s third. Sully and Mac were together before they met Clarisse.”
Laura blinked. “Is this common?”
“Among our group it is,” Tilly lightly snarked as she picked up her glass of water and took a sip.
Laura had a thought. “Am I and Rob…?” She couldn’t finish it.
Shayla shook her head. “No. Rob doesn’t share well with others. Neither do Tony or Ross.”
Laura didn’t miss what, or rather who, she’d left out. She looked at Leah.
Leah apparently knew it was her turn on the hot seat. “Kaden,” she softly said, “my husband, was best friends with Seth. Since they were babies. When he found out about his cancer, he went to Seth and…” She shrugged. “I got to live my dream for a little while,” she sadly said.
Suddenly, Laura didn’t want to be talking about this anymore. Not if it made her friend look so sad. “I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath and desperately wanted to change the subject. “So who wants to tell me what I’d planned for my wedding?”
After brunch the plan was to get their nails done, but Laura begged out. Her ribs were aching as she toughed out yet another day without the prescription pain pills, and her energy level had tanked.
She also wanted time alone to digest the poly relationship stuff. Was that the big secret Rob and everyone else had hidden from her so carefully? That they’d been worried she’d react badly?