“Well?” Maggie asked, refilling everyone’s mugs.

Taryn, Lexi, Faith, and Mary sat at her kitchen table. Their children, the ones too young to be in school yet, played happily in the next room.

“Oh, Maggie,” Lexi said, emotion filling her eyes, “you wouldn’t believe what we found. Love letters my parents wrote to each other. Family keepsakes from both Ireland and Greece, including a family Bible with an ancestry tree, passed down from generation to generation. My mother’s wedding dress!” She shook her head. “I had no idea those things were still up there. I thought Patricia got rid of them ages ago.”

“Well, that’s something. Did you figure out Kayla’s ulterior motive yet?”

“Remind me who Kayla is again?” Mary requested, taking a sip of her coffee.

“That’s right,” Taryn said, looking across the table. “You weren’t around for all the evil step drama. Patricia was Lexi’s father’s second wife, and Kayla is her daughter. It’s a long, sordid story, but in a nutshell, Kayla is a jealous, spiteful, man-stealing, lying whore-bitch who made Lexi’s life hell.”

Maggie’s lips quirked. “Why don’t you tell us how you really feel, Taryn?”

“I’m serious. It’s because of Kayla and her mother that Lexi had to go live with her aunts in Georgia.” Taryn waved her hands in the air as she spoke, something she did when she was feeling particularly strongly about something. “And when Lex returned for her father’s funeral, they tried to scam her out of her inheritance. But that’s not even the worst of it. Kayla couldn’t handle the fact that Ian loved Lexi and not her, so she lied and told Lex she was pregnant with Ian’s baby and pushed Lex into a tree so hard she almost bled to death right there on the county fairgrounds.”

Lexi winced while Faith and Mary gasped.

Maggie, who had heard the stories several times, simply frowned. “Kayla worked at the pub at one time, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, she did.” Taryn nodded. “She tried to sink her claws into Jake first and got pissed when he told her she was nothing more than a bartender with benefits. She screwed him over on Homecoming weekend, which is how I ended up tending at the pub.”

“Wait,” Faith said, her brows drawing together, “Kayla was involved with Jake and Ian? How did that work?”

“It was a no-strings arrangement of convenience.”

Faith’s frown deepened, no doubt remembering her own past. “For them, or for her?”

“They were all consenting adults. Jake and Ian were very upfront about everything. Kayla knew the score, but she was hoping it would turn into something more. When it didn’t, she wasn’t happy.”

Lexi shifted uncomfortably. “It was all a long time ago, Taryn.”

“People don’t change, Lex.”

“Don’t they?” asked Maggie, her green eyes swirling in contemplation. “The Jake and Ian I know are devoted husbands and fathers, caring men with good hearts. It’s hard to reconcile that image with what you’re describing. Oh, I know our guys weren’t choirboys back then, but I bet their perceptions have changed now that they have daughters of their own.”

“Damn right they have,” Taryn agreed.

“All I’m saying is, maybe Kayla has grown up, too.”

Taryn looked skeptical. “I see where you’re coming from, Mags, but as you pointed out, our guys have us and our kids now. As far as I know, Kayla is still living the single life.”

“Has she asked you for anything, Lexi?” Mary questioned. “Suggested mending bridges, perhaps?”

“No, nothing. She left the key to the house at the pub and told Jake I should return it to Pine Ridge Realty. I haven’t spoken to her in almost ten years. She hasn’t tried to contact me directly, or spoken to anyone else that I know of.”

Taryn laid her hand on top of Lexi’s. “Oh, Lex. I know that look. You’re thinking of calling her, aren’t you?”

“Guilty,” she said on an exhale. “Just to thank her, you know? She didn’t have to let me know about those things. And about everything else, well, I forgave her a long time ago. Carrying that kind of grudge around eats at your soul.”

“She’s right,” Maggie agreed. “I’ve forgiven Spencer.”

“Who?” asked Faith.

“Spencer Dumas,” Maggie clarified.

“Wait. Are you talking about the CEO of Dumas Industries?” Mary asked. “I met him at a charity ball Aidan and I went to last year. He had a beautiful woman on each arm.”

“That’s the one,” Maggie said on a sigh.

“Maggie was engaged to him at one time,” Taryn supplied helpfully. “But he couldn’t keep it in his pants, so she called it off. Then he tried to scam her out of her land.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“It’s all in the past,” Maggie said, waving her hand, “and everything worked out, didn’t it? Besides, I really think that, to Spencer, it wasn’t ever personal. It was just business. I forgave him a long time ago.”

“You are both better women than me,” Taryn said, then turned back to Lexi. “What does Ian say about Kayla’s sudden selfless beneficence?”

“The same thing you do,” Lexi said, her mouth twisting into a frown. “He doesn’t trust her, either. He doesn’t think she’s capable of doing anything nice without expecting something in return. I just don’t know what to think. I want to believe we’re past all that. Anyway, I have to get back to the Goddess. Thanks for this, ladies. I don’t know what I’d do without you to talk things through.”

“That’s what sisters are for,” Maggie said.

Lexi couldn’t have agreed more, which was exactly why she was going to follow her heart and contact Kayla anyway.