“I heard you were working here,” Hunter John said when he reached her.

“Yes, I imagine you did.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You have lipstick on your neck.”

He rubbed his neck sheepishly. “Emma came to tell me at work.”

“So you took over your family’s business.”

“Yes.”

Matteson Enterprises was a group of mobile-home manufacturing plants about twenty minutes outside of Bascom. Sydney had worked as a receptionist in the front office the same summers Hunter John had interned there. They used to meet in his father’s office when he went to lunch, and they’d make out. Sometimes Emma would drive out when things were slow, and the three of them would sit on the stacks of lumber outside the warehouse and smoke.

What was his life like now? Did he really love Emma, or had she just gotten him with sex, as Clark women were wont to do? It was Emma, after all, who told Sydney how to give the perfect blow job. It was only years later that a man finally told Sydney she’d been doing it wrong. It suddenly occurred to Sydney that Emma had told her the wrong way to do it on purpose. Sydney had no idea Emma even liked Hunter John. And Hunter John had always said Emma was a little too high-strung for him. Sydney had never put the two together in her mind. But, then, she’d been oblivious to a lot of things back then.

“Can I have a seat?” Hunter John asked.

“Do you want me to cut your hair? I’m great at it.”

“No, I just don’t want it to look like I only stopped by to talk,” he said as he sat.

She rolled her eyes. “Heaven forbid.”

“I wanted to say a few things to you, to clear the air. It’s the right thing to do.” Hunter John always did the right thing. That’s what he’d been known for. The golden boy. The good son. “That night at the party, I didn’t know you’d be there. And neither did Emma. We were as surprised as you. Ariel hired Claire. No one knew you were working for her.”

“Don’t be naive, Hunter John. If Eliza Beaufort knew, everyone knew.”

Hunter John looked disappointed. “I’m sorry for the way it happened, but it was for the best. As you saw, I’m happily married now.”

“Good Lord,” Sydney said, “does everyone think I came back just for you?”

“Why did you come back, then?”

“Is this not my home, Hunter John? Is this not where I grew up?”

“Yes, but you never liked who you were here.”

“Neither did you.”

Hunter John sighed. Who was this person? She didn’t know him at all anymore. “I love my wife and kids. I have a great life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I did love you once, Sydney. Breaking up with you was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“So hard that you sought comfort in marrying Emma?”