“You’re welcome. Now, shoo, both of you,” Annabelle said, dismissing the men with the wave of her hand. “I want to talk to Jen alone.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Where exactly do you want us to go?”
She waved her hand again. “I don’t know. Over there. Out of earshot.”
Jen hid a grin as the two men lumbered off toward the shallow end of the pool.
“Yeah, I’m thinking of dumping her,” they heard Ryan say loudly. “She’s incredibly bossy.”
Annabelle ignored her boyfriend’s taunt and flopped down on one of the lounge chairs. “Sit. I need to ask you something.”
Intrigued, Jen sat on the neighboring chair and met Annabelle’s concerned brown eyes. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you. Are you seriously in danger from this Brendan guy?”
Jen sighed. “I don’t think so. His creep levels are high, but I think the texts and emails will stop once he leaves town. He’s being transferred to Oakland at the end of the month.”
“Yeah, Carson mentioned that.” Annabelle’s expression turned shrewd. “Are you just saying this so nobody will worry? Because if you believe this guy might actually go American Psycho on you, you need to say something.”
“I’m not just saying it. Brendan is weird and clingy, and yes, he did get slightly violent one time, but I don’t think he’s capable of anything extreme, like murder. He’s got a good position at his investment firm and there’s no way he’d risk throwing away his career. Success is important to him.”
Annabelle relaxed. “Okay. But if you feel like you’re in real danger, don’t brush it off. Tell Cash, or Carson, or Ryan. Don’t think that a restraining order means you’re protected.”
“I promise I’ll tell someone if I feel like I’m in danger.”
“Good.” Annabelle ran a hand through her chocolate-brown hair. “Now I’m going to be extra nosy and ask you something else.”
“Um…okay.”
“What’s going on with Holly and your brother?”
“What are you talking about?” Jen asked in confusion.
“The arguments… Holly staying with her sister…?”
“What?”
The other woman instantly backpedaled. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“Wait a minute, you can’t just say something like that and ask me to forget it. What do you mean Holly is staying with her sister?”
And why the hell didn’t Jen know about it? She’d seen her brother several times this week and not once had he mentioned that he and his wife might be having problems. Granted, he hadn’t offered to let her stay at his place, but she’d figured that was because Carson and Holly’s apartment only had one bedroom. Sleeping on a couch for a month wasn’t Jen’s idea of a good time, and she’d assumed her brother had dumped her on Cash out of a sense of decency, so she’d have a real bedroom and some actual privacy.
But had he done it for another reason? Made her stay with Cash so she wouldn’t be privy to the rocky state of his relationship?
“What do you know, Annabelle?” Jen demanded.
“Not much. Holly won’t talk about it, and when I ask, she says everything is fine. But I know she’s lying. I caught her crying after the wedding we planned last weekend, but she chalked it up to nostalgia and said it reminded her of her and Carson’s wedding.”
Jen frowned. “You also said they were fighting?”
“Ry and Matt heard them arguing last week when they showed up early for poker night. And I overheard Holly fighting with Carson over the phone when I went by the restaurant to have lunch with her a couple of days ago. That’s when she told me she’d stayed with her sister the other night. She admitted that they’ve both been really busy and on edge lately, and she claims they needed some breathing room—why on earth would they need breathing room when he’s been gone for the past six months?”
Jen absorbed the information, wondering if she ought to be worried. It was true, her brother and sister-in-law did lead busy lives. Holly not only spent four days a week working at a five-star restaurant, but she also co-owned an event planning and catering company with Annabelle. The business ate up a lot of their weekends, and several weeknights now that the venture had gained more recognition. And Carson was a SEAL, which not only meant lengthy deployments every other year, but that he was forever on call, ready to get on a chopper at a minute’s notice and often gone for weeks or months at a time with no way to contact his wife.