Perfect Together by Kristen Ashley

I was in LA more than she was in Phoenix, so I’d been to her home a couple of times and we’d both shared. Fiona, not as much as me, and I got that. She was who she was, and to be sure she was protected, I’d have to be much deeper in her life, and she’d have to know me a lot better for her to share meaningfully.

But she knew about Remy.

“On Sunday he alluded to failing me about something…” I shook my head. “I don’t know, he didn’t fully explain it but…” God! “It obviously really bothered him.”

“You don’t know?”

“No. Because he didn’t fail me.”

“But he thinks he did.”

The waiter thankfully arrived with my drink, and he barely put it down before I picked it up.

“We’ll order in a second,” Fiona said quietly.

“Of course, Ms. Remington,” he murmured and moved away.

I sipped.

“So?” she asked me.

“Yes, oh yes.” I put my drink down. “He thinks he did.”

“Are you not curious?”

“If I’d allow myself to think about it, I wouldn’t be able to function, because that would be all I could do. Think about it.”

“You could ask him, Wyn,” she pointed out.

“I let him go on Wednesday.”

“Pardon?”

“I finally came to terms we were done. I did this last Wednesday.”

She stared at me a second.

And then she started laughing.

I wasn’t sure it was funny.

She was still chuckling when she again reached to her glass and murmured, “The shit we do to guard our hearts.”

“He left me, Fiona, and eventually moved a woman in with him.”

She sipped, but didn’t put her drink down when she replied, “He did. You were divorced when he did. She’s gone. That was then. This is now. You just let him go and you’re hanging on to that like it means something and missing what it really means. You’ve been divorced for years, and you just let him go, and he wants to work things out and what are you doing, Wyn? Holding back a man you love because…why…exactly?”

“He walked out,” I said shortly. “And divorced me. I wanted to talk about it then. I wanted to work it out then. He didn’t allow either.”

She swung her glass toward me. “So you didn’t get what you wanted, girl. Who cares? Again, that was then, and this is now.”

“So I snap to when Remy decides we’re worth fighting for?”

“Hell yes.”

My head jerked back in shock.

She lifted one long, elegant finger from her glass.

“Now, I said that, but what I did not say was that you should let him off the hook for doing something so entirely fucked up without engaging his damned wife in the process. I’m telling you to sit down and listen to what the man has to say. And then you can decide if it’s worth fighting for.”

Ugh!

“God, you suck. You’re just supposed to be beautiful and talented and demanding and vain. Not wise. It’s upsetting and annoying,” I groused, grabbing my drink and maybe spilling a little of it.

But that didn’t stop me from drinking it and then more of it because she was laughing.

I put my glass down and pinned her with my gaze. “Okay, what are you doing in Phoenix?”

I emphasized my words to share that we were no longer talking about me.

“I’m moving here.”

Another head jerk.

Then a big smile.

“Really?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m just…done with LA. I need a break. Phoenix is close. No snow. No natural disasters. And maybe I can go to the grocery store without someone taking a photo of me.”

“Fiona, we don’t have famous people wandering about willy-nilly like LA, but as much as I’d love having you close, please don’t hang your hopes on that happening. You know Imogen Swan lives in Phoenix. There are pictures of her published all the time, and in some of them, she’s grocery shopping.”

“Well then, I just need a break. And I need to know if my real estate agent is giving me the proper advice. She’s recommending Paradise Valley or Cave Creek. And all I know is Scottsdale. And no shade on Scottsdale, but I’m not sure I’m a Scottsdale gal.”

“Cave Creek would be far more private, you’d be able to have some land, but it isn’t super close to the city. However, it isn’t too far from Kierland and that has great shops and restaurants, not to mention Cave Creek itself is a little touristy, but the good kind. It’s a fun place. Paradise Valley has some amazing homes, is in the city, perfectly positioned between Phoenix and Scottsdale, but it wouldn’t be private. And, although you might be able to score a decent sized lot, you wouldn’t have a ton of space.”

“Okay, then part two, I want your ex-husband to design a home for me.”

I sat still.

My smile was slow.

And my words were too.

“You little minx.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Please, Wyn, do not think I got where I am without using every damned card I have up my sleeve.”

“You do know that if Fiona Remington called his office and shared she wanted him to design a home for her, he would take you as a client.”