“But not flat-out lie,” Whitney said. “That could be complicated sometimes.”

“Oh, you might have to lie sometimes,” Zoe said.

Jane nodded. “Sometimes.”

“Really? Like when?” Whitney asked. She needed to understand these rules if she was going to be a part of the group.

She lifted her glass to hide the smile that thought brought to her lips. She wasn’t twelve and being asked to sit at the cool-kid table in the cafeteria.

But it felt like she was.

She’d been one of the cool kids for God’s sake. She’d been fine in high school. Which meant she was one of those sad women who’d peaked in high school, stayed in her home town, and never quite gotten past those years. Ugh. She really hated that. These women had all stayed in their home town—the same one incidentally—but they’d changed and gotten better.

Whitney regarded them as she thought about that. Zoe and Josie still worked at the same bakery they’d always worked at. They were still best friends, just like they’d been in first grade. Zoe lived a block away from her parents and was now involved with a guy who had been a part of her life as her brother’s best friend forever.

Josie lived in her grandparents’ house, worked in the bakery she’d started working in after school as a a teen, and saw her family every day.

Jane worked in the factory, where she’d worked since she’d been sixteen, and, again, saw her family all the time.

Still, they were content. Happy. Had grown and changed and didn’t see the things that hadn’t changed as failures. They actually protected them. Jane was a huge advocate at Hot Cakes and continued to work there even though she was engaged to a millionaire. Zoe had always fiercely protected her bakery and its reputation. Josie, too, took Buttered Up and its place in the community very seriously, guarding its recipes as if they were her own.

Whitney could learn a lot from these women, she realized.

“Okay, times for lies,” Jane said. “Like, if I say, ‘is it time for strawberry pie yet?’ The answer is always yes. Even if it’s four a.m.”

“But,” Whitney said, pretending to be confused, “that isn’t a lie. It’s always time for strawberry pie, but especially if you’re asking at four a.m.”

Jane grinned and lifted her glass. “Exactly.”

Whitney took a deep breath. This was going well.

“So we know that you already knew Josie and Grant were married. But I want to know how you knew,” Zoe said, glancing between Josie and Whitney. “Have you been baking for her on the side?” Zoe asked Josie.

Josie worked for Zoe but she also had a side baking business. One that she’d kept from Zoe for a long time. It had never been anything that competed with the bakery. Josie only made things that Buttered Up didn’t offer. Zoe had been a stickler for following in her grandmother’s footsteps right down to every single recipe and every single product on the menu, so that hadn’t been difficult.

But Josie had come clean about a month ago and now worked part-time for Buttered Up and part-time for herself.

Whitney shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Grant was in my office discussing the launch of the new snack cake when Cam came in and told him the insurance claims had all been paid and handed him the divorce papers.”

“Insurance claims?” Jane asked.

“For her gall bladder surgery,” Whitney said. “Since they’d just gotten married for the health insurance, Cam was letting Grant know it was all covered and over with. Cam handled all of that paperwork and drew up the divorce papers.” She smiled. “Well, kind of.”

Then she realized the other women weren’t smiling. She looked from Jane to Zoe and then to Josie.

Josie was draining her glass of lemonade.

“What did you need health insurance for?” Zoe demanded.

Oh. Crap.

Whitney grimaced. “You hadn’t told them that part?” she asked Josie.

Josie swallowed her lemonade and vodka. “Nope.”

“Shit.” Well, it had been going well.

“It’s fine.” Josie took a breath and quickly explained that she’d needed to have her gall bladder removed and had been worried about it because she didn’t have health insurance through Buttered Up. Grant had stepped up and offered the idea of getting married, temporarily, so she’d be covered under his.

“But we fell in love and it all worked out wonderfully,” she said. “So the gall bladder thing doesn’t matter.”

“But you were going to get divorced?” Zoe asked. “Cam even drew up the papers?”

“Well, they were really just cat adoption papers,” Whitney jumped in, hoping to help the situation. “They weren’t real divorce papers.”

Zoe and Jane both looked at her with confusion. “Cat adoption papers?”

Whitney nodded quickly. “He came to me upset because Grant thought he wanted to go ahead with the divorce.” Dammit, that didn’t sound right either. She swung toward Josie. “I mean, he didn’t want to get divorced, but he did because he wanted to give you the chance to date him and fall for him for real.” She grimaced. “I mean, not that you didn’t have real feelings for him… he wanted to be sure that you were together because of real feelings rather than because of the insurance.” Dammit, she wasn’t saying this right. She grabbed Josie’s hand. “He knew that he was in love with you,” she said. “When I talked to him he was really torn up about it all. He just wanted a fresh start. To have the relationship develop from the beginning without the money and everything in the way. He didn’t want you to need him. He just wanted you to want him.” Fuck. This still sounded wrong. “I mean… Dammit,” she finally said out loud. “I’m messing this up.” She took a deep breath. “Grant was in love with you and he just wanted to be sure that he was doing the right thing.”

She finally stopped, pressing her lips together.

No one said anything.

She lifted her glass and took a huge gulp, welcoming the feeling of warmth from the vodka spreading down her limbs. And hopefully stopping her runaway tongue.

Finally Zoe spoke. “Wow.”

Yeah. Well, that wasn’t a terrible summary.

“So these cat adoption papers,” Jane said. “Is this why you have Melody, Val, and Alan?”

“Melody, Val, and Alan?” Whitney asked.

“The cats. Two girls and a boy,” Jane said. She grinned. “They’re named after characters from Josie and the Pussycats. Of course.”

Whitney laughed out loud. “Of course. That’s awesome.”

Josie looked pleased. “Grant’s idea, but I think it’s hilarious. Was the cat adoption your idea?”

Whitney shook her head. “Cam. He knew he needed to give you papers for you to both sign, but didn’t want them to be divorce papers.” She looked at Zoe and Jane. “He knew that as soon as Grant and Josie thought they were officially divorced, they’d realize they didn’t want to be. But I agreed. And I helped get them back together by keeping Grant busy at work while Josie planned their romantic dinner.” She looked back to Josie. “And I’ll admit that the three cats might have been me.”