Forgotten Groom in the Back Alley novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Recording

Yvette chose a bistro with candles on the tables, a place where nobody from Linden Freight would ever eat lunch.

I should have noticed that years ago.

I arrived ten minutes early and put my phone face-down by the bread basket, with its recorder running.

Ned sat at the bar with a newspaper he wasn't reading.

Hazel had taken the table behind Yvette's chair, in a black coat with a menu held up in front of her face, and her phone lay under her napkin.

I met her eyes over the top of the menu once.

She raised one eyebrow, and I almost lost my nerve.

Yvette swept in at twelve-fifteen in a cream coat and kissed my cheek.

"You came," she said, sitting down. "I was so afraid you wouldn't."

"I said I would."

She ordered for both of us, as she always had.

I let her.

"Before anything," she said, reaching across to take my hand, "I want you to know I understand why you were hurt on Saturday."

"Tell me why."

"The seating. The back entrance. It must have felt cruel." She squeezed my fingers. "But it was the only way. You know how people talk at Linden. If they'd known about us, you'd have spent every day being called the boss's boyfriend."

"I'd have survived that."

"You wouldn't have." She said it fondly. "You're sensitive, love. You don't like being looked at."

I turned my hand over under hers and kept my voice easy.

"Why Brodie?"

A small pause.

"What do you mean?"

"You always used him as your cover. Why Brodie, and not anyone else?"

"Because he's safe," she said. "He's my oldest friend. Nobody questions it. He's never needed anything from me, and he's never had an agenda."

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