Maggie laughed. “Hey, if it means more book sales . . .”
“Yeah. Maybe not necessarily a bad thing.” Liddy leaned on the counter. “So how’s it going with Natalie home? I’m sure you’re happy to see her and Daisy.”
“You should probably be sitting down, but since you’re not, I’ll just lay it out there. Natalie and Chris are ‘together.’”
Liddy frowned. “Chris who?”
“Chris Dean.”
Liddy’s jaw dropped slightly. “Emma’s Chris? Rock and roll Chris Dean, international rock star and sex symbol Chris Dean? That Chris?”
Maggie nodded. “That Chris.”
“Well . . . wow. How ’bout that?” Liddy searched her friend’s face for a sign of approval or disapproval, and wasn’t sure what she was seeing. “So how do you and Emma feel about that? And how did you find out?”
“Chris showed up yesterday afternoon at my house, and right away, I knew there was something between him and Nat. Just the way they looked at each other. It was just so pure and so loving. I knew Natalie had feelings for him. It worried me because I had no idea how he felt about her, and I didn’t want her to have her heart broken. But seeing them together, well, it’s obvious. I looked at Grace, and I knew she knew because she didn’t look at all surprised at the way those two hugged each other. I’d invited Emma and Chris for dinner, and Chris made this very sweet announcement about how they were seeing each other exclusively and how they were trying to keep things quiet, so Natalie and Daisy weren’t overrun with gossipy press following them around.”
“Huh. Natalie and Chris.” Liddy thought about that pairing for a moment. She’d never mentioned it, even to her best friends, but she’d always hoped someday Chris and Jessie would have seen each other as something more than friends. But this—Chris and Natalie—was almost as good. Almost, but not quite, though no one would ever need to know. “Well, I can see it. They’re alike in so many ways, and, of course, they’ve known each other for so long. But you haven’t said how you feel about it.”
“I’m happy Natalie has found someone she loves who loves her after the horrible way Jon treated her when he found out she was pregnant with Daisy.” Maggie’s expression grew dark. “Forcing her to make a choice between him and their child.”
“Obviously he didn’t know Nat as well as he thought he did.”
“Obviously,” Maggie agreed. “We’ve both known Chris since he was a baby. We know what a fine and wonderful man he is, and I couldn’t love him more.”
“And yet—” Liddy sensed there was more.
Maggie sighed. “And yet I wonder if his lifestyle is conducive to the sort of life she wants. She’s not a jet-setter. She’s home and family, and I don’t know if Chris is ready to put his life as a big star behind him.”
“I don’t think he’s let it go to his head. Remember when he flew us and Emma down to Charlotte last year to see his concert? I hadn’t been around him in a while, and I was impressed by how much he hadn’t changed.” She grinned and quoted Emma. “He’s a good boy.”
Maggie laughed. “Yes, he’s a good boy. And he’s a good man. I just worry because . . .”
“Because she’s your baby girl and you don’t want to see her hurt by anyone.”
“Not that I think Chris would deliberately hurt her, but still . . .”
“But still, she’s your baby girl.”
Maggie nodded. “Emma’s over the moon, of course. She’d always said if she could pick a wife for Chris, it would be Natalie.”
“Wait, wife? Are we talking marriage?”
“No. Not yet anyway. But you know how Emma wants so badly for him to settle down and move back to Wyndham Beach and have a houseful of kids for her to spoil. I think they both want to take things slowly. Nat’s been burned before, and Chris has never had a long-term, serious relationship, at least as far as Emma knows. It’s plain to see he loves my daughter, and he’s wonderful with Daisy. She adores him, and he clearly loves her. So I guess we’ll have to see where it goes.”
“I had an interesting week, too,” Liddy said, then proceeded to tell Maggie first about Dylan, then about Jim’s declaration of love.
“Wait, what? Jim said he wants to try again? As in, marry you again?”
“He didn’t say that, but yeah. He wants us to get back together.”
“What did you say?” Maggie took a bottle of water from her bag and drank.
“I didn’t really say anything. I was taken completely off guard.”
“How do you feel about him? How did it feel to see him again?”
“It felt strange, to tell you the truth. I don’t know how I feel about him.” Liddy sighed. “There’s so much that happened between us. He left me, and I cannot think about the night he walked out without feeling like I’m going to throw up. It still hurts like hell. But”—she took a deep breath—“I understand a little better how he felt and why he did what he did. I have to acknowledge my own part in that. In the aftermath of Jess’s death, I let him down as much as he let me down. I should have been more mindful of the fact he’d lost his daughter, too, and he was grieving as much as I was, but I didn’t. I have to own that.” Liddy’s shoulders slumped. The admission was painful, and she let it sink in for a moment.
“How’d you leave it with him?”
Liddy shrugged. “Up in the air, I guess. I felt such an overwhelming sorrow, Maggie. Sorry I’d been so blind to what he’d been going through. Sorry we weren’t able to help each other. Sorry we paid with our marriage for not being there for each other.”
“Do you still love him?”
“I think there’s a part of me that will always love the best parts of Jim. But little things keep coming back to me. The things he did all through our marriage that annoyed me back then, I’m finding unacceptable now. Like the way he always talked down to me, as if I couldn’t understand things unless he explained them to me.”
“Mansplaining,” Maggie said.
“In the worst possible way. And I used to hate when we’d go out to dinner and he’d order for me, but I always just let it ride. It didn’t seem like such a big deal to me back then. Now that I’ve been on my own for a while, I find it insulting and demeaning. Like he doesn’t think I know what I want unless he tells me. It’s infuriating. He did it again last night, can you believe it?”
“Did you let him?”
“No, I didn’t let him. I ordered for myself. He seemed surprised, but I bet he doesn’t do that again.”
“Well, good for you. One bad habit broken.”
“I should have spoken up a long time ago.”
“But at least you’re doing it now.”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure now’s too late.”
Tuck returned Liddy’s call just as Maggie was about to leave. She waved goodbye so Liddy could have some privacy.
“I think I know why JoJo was so upset at the shop this morning and why she wanted to leave.” Liddy told him about Daisy sitting on Grace’s lap. “Someone was in her place, and she didn’t like it.”