“Good point.”
Zahara tilted her head toward the bar. “Go chat him up, but be prepared, he's a talker. Yap, yap, yap, let me tell you. And whatever you do, do not mention fantasy football or you'll be up with him all night.”
“Really,” she said with a sly smile.
“Really.” Zahara matched her smile. “Just sayin'. You know, a woman-to-woman warning.”
Brook's face split in a grin, and she held up a fist. “I owe you, girl.”
Zahara tapped her fist to Brook's. “We gotta take care of each other.”
Giselle and Zahara watched Brook make her way over to the bar.
“Does she like football?” Zahara asked.
“She hated it up until thirty seconds ago.”
Zahara's laugh made Giselle smile. “Good. That boy needs to get laid.”
It was Giselle's turn to laugh. “So does that girl.”
They looked at each other and grinned.
Zahara said, “Our lifestyle sucks.”
Giselle burst out laughing. “Seriously. Brook and I were just saying the same thing when you walked up.”
Zahara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I wanted to tell you we have a friend in common.”
“Oh really? Who?”
“Nathan Ryker.”
Giselle's smile turned to surprise. “Really?” Then excitement. “How do you know Nathan?”
“It's so weird to hear you call him Nathan. Everyone calls him Ryker except Rachel, which is how I know him.”
“Oh…Oh…” All the dots were clicking in Giselle's mind. “Right. She works for the stunt company…”
“Same one I'm working for.”
“Wow, small world
.” Her mind immediately veered from Nathan and Rachel to Troy. Surely this woman wouldn't also know Troy.
“Six degrees of separation and all that,” Zahara said.
“Have you seen Nathan and Rachel lately?” Giselle asked, edging toward the questions she knew she shouldn't ask for the same reason she didn't ask Nathan.
What if she found out Troy was married? What if she found out Troy had kids? What if Troy had ended up with a perfect little family, like the perfect little family Giselle had always dreamed of? Like the perfect little family she and Troy had planned out together? What if Troy had used the names he and Giselle had picked out for their future children to name his children with another woman? What if he'd put Giselle completely behind him and never even thought about her anymore?
What if… What if… What if… There were a million of them.
And the answer was always the same. Troy had every right to have all those things. Giselle loved him. She wanted him to be happy.
“Yes, actually,” Zahara said. “I saw Rachel just a few weeks ago when she came here to check on this filming site. Ryker was working, so he didn't come. But we see them pretty often, maybe every other month.”
“That's great. I've only spoken with Rachel on the phone. I haven't gotten a chance to meet her yet with this darn schedule. But, God, I've never heard Nathan so happy. He's such a good man. He's been through so much. He desperately needed a good woman in his life.”