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Do you like wine?” Riley asked.
    Emily nodded. “Of course. I’m a native Northern Californian. I pretty much have wine running through my veins instead of blood.”
    “Excellent,” Riley said. “My kind of girl. If you’re interested, we just opened a bottle of pinot noir. The guys all make fun of us for drinking wine instead of beer, but they’re just jealous that they’re not as classy as us.”
    Emily laughed, while the men in the group all groaned.
    “Seriously,” Zach said. “Are you gals ever gonna quit with the classy jokes. Just because we like beer doesn’t mean we don’t have any class.”
    Riley just laughed, then reached for a red Solo cup from a stack on the edge of one of the tables. “Speaking of classy,” she said. “We drink our wine out of plastic cups around here.”
    Emily grinned as Riley handed her the cup of wine, and she took a long sip of the smooth red liquid. She instantly felt at ease. After living for so long near Northern California’s wine country, she knew a good wine when she tasted one, and this wine was good. She might be drinking it out of a cheap cup, but she could tell that it wasn’t cheap.
    As she had hoped, having a drink helped Emily relax. As the evening wore on and she continued to eat and drink, she felt more at ease than she had in a long time. She discovered that Riley was the owner of a pie shop in town called The Sweet Crust, which happened to be one of Emily’s favorite dessert spots. Clara helped Riley run the pie shop, which seemed to keep both of the women very busy. Bailey had a jewelry boutique, and Mindy was a nurse. River was a librarian, and recommended a few new novels for Emily to read. Charlotte was a smokejumper, the only female in the group who worked on the firefighting team, and Emily didn’t even try to hide her awe at the fact that Charlotte jumped out of planes to fight huge wildfire blazes.
    Chance had let the women in the group hog Emily’s attention, and she was grateful for that. She couldn’t remember the last time she had sat around and hung out with a bunch of women who inspired her and were doing things with their lives. When Emily had first started her photography business, she had been motivated to network and meet other women who were happy with their careers. But as her business had spiraled downward thanks to Scott’s negative influence, Emily had isolated herself completely. Now, as she sat among the amazing group of women she had just met, she felt alive for the first time in a long time. Emily was glad she had come out tonight, and she was thankful that she hadn’t turned around and run in the other direction when her initial introduction to the group had been a bit awkward.
    As the night wore on, the crowd around the picnic tables slowly shrank. Trevor and Bailey were the first to leave, begging off so they could go get their young baby in bed. Zach and Mindy followed not too long after them, since Sophia and Drew were up well past their bedtime by this time. At some point, Ian and Charlotte cleared away all the food from the tables, although they did leave a beautiful strawberry shortcake sitting out in case anyone got a craving for something sweet. Emily had eaten so much that she couldn’t imagine stuffing another bite into her mouth, but Charlotte just winked and said to wait a little while. Supposedly, the dessert was one of the few things Riley baked that wasn’t technically a pie—and Charlotte said it was to die for.
    Emily continued talking and laughing with her new friends, drinking several more glasses of wine and enjoying herself more than she had in ages. The group continued to thin out slowly, until finally only Chance and Emily remained. Emily briefly considered leaving. She imagined how angry Scott would be right now if he could see her sitting alone outside with another man, even though she was sitting on the complete opposite side of a picnic table from Chance. Emily took a long sip to finish off