Wood & Iron

Chapter 4

Liv Wood had initially hesitated about building a house next to her childhood best friend and two doors down from her brother-in-law and sister-in-law. But the Saturday afternoon bike rides she shared with her two best friends alone made it worth it.

Liv rode miles and miles every day, either on her Specialized Stumpjumper 12-speed bike, on the Peloton that lived next to Benji's pickup in the garage, or in the spin class that she taught, but couldn't convince any of her friends to join—but Saturday afternoons had become her favorite.

Sure, the pace was much slower than her everyday rides, but feeling the wind rush through her hair while the conversations flowed was well worth the unproductive workout.

The ads for Crooked River Estates had boasted about the five miles of bike paths that wove in and out of the forest throughout the neighborhood. On days when she rode alone, Liv never saw a house. She would walk her bike through her backyard and ride the path through the trees, preferring what had been here for centuries over the manmade structures that hadn't existed a decade before. But they rarely left the neighborhood when she rode with Morgan and Alex.

Alex wasn't difficult to please, and it wasn't that Morgan wasn't a fan of nature. She just loved the people. Liv's best friend had always been energized by seeing and being seen. Between winded breaths, she loved to ask about a recent vacation or compliment a neighbor's landscaping.

Liv knew Morgan better than anyone. She knew that she wanted to talk to everyone, that she was an open book, and that there was no word, emotion, or experience that Morgan didn't want to share with the people around her.

"I wish I had your confidence," Liv said as they pedaled just a few blocks from the cul-de-sac. "Some of the stuff you were saying up there last night... that took some major balls."

"Well," Morgan replied, pausing to use her energy to push herself up the hill. "I wish I had your legs. Plus, you know my balls are huge."

The laughter of all three of them could be heard a block away.

Liv knew that Morgan was confident, that she'd never deflect a compliment, but that she'd always take the opportunity to give one back. And Liv also knew that everyone was jealous of her legs.

Morgan was the type of person that Liv wanted to be, and last night, Liv realized that her best friend was the type of person that everybody in that bar either wanted to be or wanted to be with.

And if Morgan was the type of person everyone wanted to be or be with, then Alex was the friend everyone wished they could be or be with... but deep down, knew that they weren't good enough. It wasn't that Alex was stuck up or pretentious... not at all. It was that she was perfect in every discernible way, including that she had no idea how perfect she was.

Everything about her was meticulous, but it all came off so naturally. Every part of her life seemed so put together, from her marriage to her career to her children... down to how her perfect outfit fit her perfect body while she pedaled her bike down the streets of Crooked River Estates.

"For real, Morgan," Alex didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat, though they were more than four miles into their ride. "I give you 18 months before Netflix is banging down your door with a million bucks wanting an hour-long special."

"A million bucks, huh?" Morgan replied with a smirk. "Imagine the damage that I could do with a million bucks..."