House of Cards - Nat Burns

The reason may be cards, but the game is really gossip.
Kaylen Strauder is more or less content with her status as a widow. She’s had decades to watch the gossip games in the Freshwater Magnolia Club?and she wants none of it to be about her.

Coping with domineering men all her life, she didn’t count on Eda Byrne. She didn’t plan for love, let alone passion, and with another woman. She never believed in irresistible attraction, until now.
Past the time of life when she ever thought she’d have to make such choices, Kaylen must decide which she needs more: her community or love.

Nat Burns peels away the civilized veneer of a small North Carolina town in this passionate story of a mature woman discovering the price and value of love for the first time.