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town all he wants, but he won’t be seeing me,” Victoria said as she quickly typed a reply.”
    VST: No need to see me unless it’s wedding-related.
    She waited for her phone to vibrate and sure enough a minute later Parker had sent another text.
    Parker Brightwood: It is. Will be in town for business. And want to go over cost of rehearsal dinner.
    VST: Text or call your question.
    Parker Brightwood: This requires face to face. Heading to a meeting. Will message you later.
    Victoria stared at Parker’s response and shook her head. “Damn it. He can never leave well enough alone, and I can already see that he’s going to cause trouble.”
    This would make Parker’s fifth visit to Atlanta over the last six months, and his frequent trips were starting to fill Victoria with worry. He’d moved back to his hometown of Washington, D.C., over twenty years ago, and although PJ had returned to Atlanta to complete his pediatric residency at Emory University Medical School, according to what Alexandria had told Victoria, Parker rarely came back to the Peach State for visits. “PJ usually goes to D.C. to visit his dad, especially since all their family is there,” she’d said, “but Mr. Brightwood sure has made a point to come here more often since PJ and I became engaged.”
    Victoria remembered the suspicion in Alexandria’s voice when she had mentioned Parker’s visits last month. It was no secret that Alexandria, as well as PJ, was well aware of their parents’ complicated past. But Victoria wasn’t about to offer up any commentary on the subject.
    Victoria didn’t like the fact that ever since Alexandria and PJ had started seeing each other, Parker had been adding to his frequent-flyer miles traveling back and forth to Atlanta. And now that the happy couple’s pending nuptials were drawing near, it seemed as though he was making it his business to show his face as often as he could. Victoria wondered if Parker had plans to move back to the area. “Lord, I hope not,” she said to herself as she thought about the prospect. “God, I know you have a lot more pressing issues to deal with than mine, but please, please hear me and keep Parker in D.C. where he belongs.”
    As Victoria thought about her past, her mind drifted to Ted. She reached over to the edge of her desk and picked up the pewter frame that held a photo of him and her when they’d celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary a few years ago. Aside from giving birth to her children, Victoria knew that marrying Theodore Thornton was undoubtedly the single best thing she’d ever done, and with the exception of her late father, John Small, he was the best man she’d ever known.
    Just as she was about to call Ted, her cell phone rang again. She looked at the caller ID, shook her head, and chuckled. “Hey, Samantha. How are you?” Victoria greeted with a smile in her voice.
    Samantha Baldwin Jacobs was the wife of Victoria’s best friend, Tyler Jacobs, and in the seventeen years that she and Tyler had been married, Samantha had also become one of Victoria’s closest and most trusted girlfriends.
    Samantha had once been a hellcat who’d gone through men as if they were disposable products for her personal use. She had possessed a rebellious streak that landed her in drama-filled, and sometimes dangerous, situations. She had partied nearly every night of the week, regardless of the fact that she’d had a young son whom she’d let her best friend and her parents raise for the first five years of his life. Simply put, she’d been out of control. But all that had stopped when she’d fallen in love with Tyler. He’d shown her what true love was, and helped her grow and mature into the responsible mother, wife, businesswoman, and friend she was today.
    â€œHey, girl, how’s it going?” Samantha asked.
    â€œMy day was