Page 106 of The Body in the Backyard

“Damn it,” Riley muttered. Fishing her phone free, she opened the tracker app and saw Nick was still at the jewelry store in Lemoyne, which should have closed almost an hour ago.

Riley: Everything okay? You didn’t get involved with some kind of robbery, did you?

“Are you all right?” Wander asked her.

“Fine. I just hope Nick and Gabe are?—”

“I lost sight of her,” Blossom announced, returning with a fork stuck in the open container of korma.

Riley’s phone buzzed.

Nick: Long story. All good. I’m totally heroic. Call you when I can.

That was definitely not ano.

Brow furrowed, Wander held up her phone so Riley could see the screen.

Gabriel: We have just thwarted an armed robbery. Nick is taking us for ice cream after the police finish questioning us.

“Well, at least it sounds like they’re all alive,” Riley said. “Come on. Let’s go find Laurel.”

They had just made it under the balloon arch when a woman in leather pants and one of those short haircuts only someone with great cheekbones could pull off clapped her hands. “Ladies, thank you so much for joining us tonight. The GGS Support Group has meant so much to so many over the years, and I’m delighted but also saddened to see so many new faces. Please, have a seat, and we’ll get started.”

She gestured at a long dining table. Riley spotted Laurel taking a seat near the head and motored off in that direction. Laurel sat between two women who were both beautiful and on the youngish side. In fact, everyone at the table was gorgeous.

The organizer gestured for Riley to take the chair across from Laurel. Riley sat and watched her mother and sister take places toward the opposite end of the table.

“Thank you for joining us,” the organizer said, standing at the head. “I’m Kiki.”

“Hi, Kiki,” the women around the table echoed.

“Five years ago, I had my GGS experience. Like so many of you, I felt so alone. But now, looking at all your faces, I know that together, none of us are alone,” Kiki continued.

Riley was wondering if she was going to have to sit through the entire meeting for this mystery ailment before she got a chance to talk to Laurel when she felt a nudge of the psychic variety. She locked eyes with Wander down the table.

Her sister held up her cocktail napkin with a mix of uneasiness and amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Riley glanced down at her own.Griffin Gentry Sucks.

Well, shit.

“Who would like to begin?” Kiki asked.

A curvy woman with jet-black hair and cat’s-eye glasses raised her hand. “I’m Li-Mei.”

“Hi, Li-Mei,” everyone said.

The woman took a shaky breath. “I met Griffin six months ago at a spa. He was charming and attentive. Handsome. I didn’t realize how short he was until the esthetician called my name and he stood up to walk me to the door like a gentleman.”

It took every ounce of willpower Riley had not to roll her eyes.

“I knew he was seeing Bella Goodshine. I even asked him about her,” Li-Mei continued. “But he insisted it was just for ratings. They weren’t actually together.” She looked around the table, her eyes teary. “Normally I wouldn’t fall for that. I have a master’s degree. I’m not an idiot. But I guess understanding seventeenth-century English literature doesn’t protect you from being taken advantage of.”

The women gathered around the table all nodded over shared experiences.

“We had been dating for a month when he canceled our dinner plans. He said he was sick. He sounded so sincere, so sorry. I believed him. I thought I was being nice when I made a pot of chicken soup and took it over to his house to surprise him.”

Riley winced in secondhand embarrassment, knowing what came next.