“It’s not exactly a love triangle, per se,” I spluttered, shuddering at the thought.
“What would you call it, then? She likes him, and he’s with you—that’s three people. Ergo, a love triangle.”
Looking at Santana for help, I waved my hand in the air, desperately trying to eradicate any love triangle association from my relationship with Marcus.
“For me, a love triangle’s when there’s been some history between all of the members. Like, for example, if Marcus and Marni had some sort of romance at some point before Addy came into the picture,” Santana whispered, leaning in closer. “That might not be the case for many people, but I’m not sure this whole thing with him and Marni fits the love triangle category.”
Pursing her lips, Sadie mulled this over. “You might be right. I’ll accept that there should be something more history wise between them, but I still think it’s close to the love triangle category.”
“Either that or it’s under the Fatal Attraction category,” Santana suggested, winking at me. “I loved that movie. When she changes and goes full psycho, I can’t help thinking that’d be a great idea for a plot.”
Sadie bounced in her chair. “Do it. How awesome would that be? But don’t boil bunnies, that shit’s just whacked.”
“When I think about it, I’m thinking she breaks in while he’s sleeping and stands over him watching them. Then she runs his wife off the road, and while she’s in hospital fighting for her life, psycho chick comforts him and helps him through it, but all the while, she’s taking on his wife’s identity.
“The thing is, he doesn’t realize until he’s clearing security cam footage off his phone—because we’ve all got those at home now—that she was breaking in before the accident and sees her doing it in the videos. Then he puts two and two together, and boom, you’ve got your psycho not-bunny boiling ex.” Santana looked more animated than I’d ever seen her as she outlined the plot, and although I was impressed by it all, I was also kind of scared of her at that moment.
“Oh, because you’re on a ranch, you could do the horse head version of it. Or even a hoof!” Sadie clapped excitedly, and that’s when I realized her brain was scarier than the thriller writing woman in the crowd.
“To borrow the phrase you used on Santana a few weeks ago: child, who hurt you?” When Sadie frowned at me, I gestured around us. “You’ve named one of the horses and seen how cute they are. They’re like little toddlers most of the time. And there you are, wanting her to write a book that ends up with one of their heads or feet in a pot?”
“Well…” Sadie said slowly, “not exactly in a pot. I don’t know if they do ones big enough for them because I only have normal sized pots at home. And I wasn’t thinking about one of the horses here, just horses in general.”
My eyebrows shot up under my bangs. “Like that makes it better?”
Pouting, she sat back. “Just forget I said anything.”
“Actually,” Santana said hesitantly, “I was thinking of adding in some of the story you told us you went through, Sadie. I love the idea of the friends being kidnapped—”
“In real life, it fucking sucked. I was called Miss Gimpy Limp for months,” Sadie mumbled. “Just as well he was a shit shot and went through my calve muscle instead of the bone.”
“What about the stalker and the lengths he went to?” Santana pressed. “I’m not saying what he did was impressive in real life or glorifying what he put you through, but apply it to the plot of a book and mix it in with murder and romance.”
I was worried Sadie would lose her mind because what she’d been through had been freaking insane, but instead, she was smiling.
“I love that idea. I think it’d work. You know, I should introduce you to Sasha, Jackson’s wife. She had some reeeeal fucked up shit happen to her. She’s all about the environment, so when the chick was shooting up her home, she noticed things like the fact the car she was driving was a diesel, she was using plastic boxes to store ammunition, and her carbon footprint.”
I wanted to say she was lying or exaggerating, but that’d really happened. I knew that because Marcus had told me himself and shown me a news article written the morning after Sasha’s dad had been injured, where she’d ranted about it all while they were waiting for him to get out of surgery.
“Or there’s Maya, who’s married to one of the Townsend cousins, Ren. This chick photoshopped Ren and his mate having a threesome. And the Montgomery friend, Mark, who got bitten in the bum by a rattlesnake someone had hidden in a car. Then there’s Layla, running through a forest and catching her top on a branch, and laughing about how she was like a real life horror movie.” Sadie chuckled, shaking her head. “When I think about it, the family could keep you with plots for the next twenty books. We haven’t even touched on the ones in Gonzales County yet.”