“Well, you know my history. If you want to talk about it, I’m around. I love your mom, but even I can see she’s sort of given up.”

Beth’s parents were far worse than Lily’s ever could have been. For her, it had been neglect, but mainly benign. The Murphy parents were a living nightmare.

“Nancy has been sniffing around.”

Beth made a sour face. “You need another drink for that, and then you and I are going to talk about Nathan.”

Lily put her hands over her face, but laughed anyway.

“What? What are you embarrassing her over? You have to share so we can snicker too.” Cassie leaned in, smiling.

“Nathan and Lily used to be together back in college.”

“Seven years ago. It was nearly seven years ago.” Her face blazed.

“Ha. Clearly you’ve forgotten all about it since you know exactly how long ago it was.” Beth handed her another drink. “And you need to try those little popover things there.” She pointed to another plate.

“What’d he do?” Cassie asked. “What?” She looked around, laughing. “You all might know but I don’t. I wager most of you don’t know and want to know, but you’re all just too chicken to ask. I’m a Northerner so I get to be rude. Polly told me that last week and I’m clutching it close as an excuse now. Don’t be jealous. I’ll share.”

Lily winked. “I surely do like you, Cassie Chase.”

“Okay, hang on. Let’s top off everyone’s drinks and bring out the rest of the food before we go into the story.” Maggie went to grab some more plates of food, Olivia moving to join her.

“It’s not even a big deal. We were both young. He’s moved on. I moved on.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “He’s been agitated since Monday. Don’t tell me he’s moved on.”

“I heard he was engaged. Sounds like it to me. And to Stephanie Prater?” She hated Steffie. She’d been a stupid, shallow girl in school, and Lily had no doubt was still stupid and shallow. Just the idea that Nathan considered her worth marrying and Lily not even worth explaining to made her want to punch something.

Tate laughed. “To a grown woman who made people call her Steffie. She showed up to his house with wedding invitations made!”

“Sad she has self-esteem issues.”

“You are such a good addition to this group.” Olivia put her feet up and sipped her virgin drink. “Marc and Nathan are a lot alike. All those pretty men with ladies falling over their feet to get to them, and they get lazy. You take work I bet. And I mean that as a compliment.”

“Well I certainly require that any man I date who says he loves me doesn’t go kissing up on other women.”

“He did not!” Anne’s eyes widened. Anne was another one of Nathan’s sisters and also part owner of Tate’s salon. “He’s always been so closed mouthed about it. I guess I know why now.”

“He did. But we were on a break so whatever. He never found it very important to try to explain and that is that. Period. I’m either worth it, or I’m not.”

“I didn’t know he never tried to explain and I sure never knew he cheated.” Anne frowned. “I need to thump him.”

“Please don’t. Really.” Why it was important to her that his family not be angry with him, she didn’t know, but it was. “We were on a break, but we’d promised to not see anyone else while we worked things out. He apparently found his answers and acted on them before talking to me. We were young. I was twenty-one years old! I didn’t know anything about anything, but I do know despite his flaws when it comes to women, Nathan is a good person. Please don’t be mad. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Beth patted her knee. “Don’t worry. We all still love him. I find it interesting you’re concerned over how we think about Nathan. Are you going to protect his virtue? ’Cause that’s a big job.”

Tate snorted. “And he saw the light with Steffie and broke things off. She’s crazy too. Oh girl, she shows up all over town and scares him.”

Ha! Good.

“Yes, I smirk a little too. Still, he’s not the same selfish boy he was when you two were together before.” It seemed a nice punishment that Tate would smirk over something Nathan did.

Lily put her hand up. “Enough talk about Nathan Murphy. He moved on. I moved on. It was a silly romance years ago. Loving someone more than they love you is a sucky thing. But I’m over it.”

They let the topic pass and moved on to other things. Gossip was pretty much the same as it had been when she lived there before. But when she got home later that night and had checked in on Chris, she realized it’d been the right choice to go. The right choice to start building a life here in Petal, for the long haul.

Her condo in Macon was up for sale. She just had to hope that despite the economy she could move it soon enough. Then she’d have a good down payment for her own place in town. It’d go some way in convincing Chris she had no plans to leave. And it’d give her a sense that she was putting down roots.

She was approaching thirty and it was time to settle in for real.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Lily followed Beth through the crowd toward the table of women near the dance floor.

“You don’t let anyone talk you into anything. You have a strong will, Lily Travis. You wanted to come here to kick up your heels and dance. Takes the edge off a crappy week.” Beth grabbed her hand and tugged her along. Murphys never seemed to move slowly—except for the one.