Page 65 of Between the Lines

He studied his tiles, then looked back at her. “So you don’t see her as a threat anymore?”

“Not like I did in the beginning,” Paige said. She placed a word down and leaned back. “At first, it felt personal. Targeted.”

“Because it was, I’d say.”

She nodded. “Yes, true. But now it feels more like she was testing the waters. Maybe trying to see if I’d push back. Or if I’d crack. Which I didn’t, so she backed down and decided to do her own thing.”

“You think she realized she wasn’t going to take over what you’d started?”

“Something like that,” Paige said. “People who want to run something usually don’t want to burn it down and then rebuild. They want to move in right away and reorganize it to their satisfaction. And they want participants. Or maybe followers is a better description. Darcy figured out pretty quickly she wasn’t going to get that from the Queen Bees.”

“Or get to be one of them.”

Paige smiled. “Exactly.”

“Maybe you’re right about this new group of hers, then.”

She shrugged. “I think so. Running a group takes time. There’s planning, organizing, dealing with all the people who join and their personalities. If that’s where her focus is, it keeps her busy. And out of my hair.”

Graham smiled faintly. “You sound grateful.”

“I am,” Paige said. “Let her have it. I have my people.” She tapped the edge of the Scrabble board with one finger. “And I’m not interested in competing for influence in a place where I’m perfectly happy. I don’t need more of anything. I have the Queen Bees and, frankly, they’re all I need when it comes to the friend department.”

He reached over and touched her arm. “I think that’s a very healthy outlook.”

Paige smiled. “Thanks. I like to think so.” It was really the only path she could take. She refused to be obsessed with this woman. To let Darcy get under her skin any more than she already had.

She studied her tiles without really seeing them. What Paige hadn’t said to Graham was that she had one new concern. How would Darcy react when Paige finally posted about the deal with Luminelle?

Darcy seemed like the type to be jealous. And jealousy made people do strange things.

When Paige looked up, Graham was watching her, eyes narrowed. “What haven’t you told me?”

She let out a soft laugh. “You are far too good at reading people.”

“My apologies, but some of my training is impossible to shake.”

She sighed and sat back. “I’m worried about how Darcy will react when I post about the deal with Luminelle.”

He nodded. “I think you’re right to be. But you won’t really be able to cross that bridge until you come to it.”

“I know.”

Paige rearranged her tiles, hoping to find some inspiration for a word she hadn’t discovered yet. “I just don’t want to give her something new to fixate on,” she said. “I didn’t work this hard to let someone else ruin things.”

Graham leaned back in his seat. “Just remember that whatever reaction she has won’t be about you. It’ll be about what she wishes she had. And that will show you her weakness.”

Paige considered that, turning it over. It rang true.

“It’s up to her to behave like a civilized adult,” Graham went on. “And if she doesn’t, people will see her for who she truly is. Don’t allow what she might do to dictate your actions. Rise above her.”

Paige nodded slowly. “I need to remember that.”

She placed her word on the board, then looked at him. “I’m going to post when I’m ready. I will not make a decision based on how someone else might react.”

“That’s the right call,” he said.

Paige smiled with more feeling this time. “It has to be. I can’t live in fear of what if.”