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“Amanda, let’s go,” Paul mutters, unable to look at me. “The grandkids are waiting.”
She spits at my feet, and I resist the urge to spit out the entire truth about her daughter the same way she has declared me a murderer in front of half the town of Cypress Gardens. But I don’t.
“You should go, Amanda,” I mumble.
“Don’t you tell me what to do! I know what kind of monster you are, Pike Hartley, and I’m going to make sure the entire world knows it?—”
“Ma’am, there are children here.” Aspen steps between us, her expression calm as she faces Amanda and Paul. “You’re scaring them.”
“They should be scared! That man?—”
“Amanda!” Paul interjects as security approaches. “Let’s go, honey. You… you should take one of your pills.”
Amanda scoffs bitterly. “I will make sure everyone knows,” she grumbles but allows her husband to lead her back through the throng of people. Passersby cast us curious looks, and my stomach churns as I will the ground to open up and swallow me entirely.
Aspen spins around to look at me.
“Are you all right?” the security guard asks, but Aspen waves him away.
“We’re fine, thank you.” He bows his head and moves on as she looks at me. “Who was that, Pike?”
My eyes trail toward the strawberry ride, which is still spinning around, Lily’s gleeful face passing by every few seconds.
“No one,” I say, but Aspen’s hands are on my cheeks.
“Please don’t do that,” she begs. “I am not your enemy. I am on your team. But you have to let me in if you want it to work, all right? Tell me who those people are, or I’ll just go home and Google the hell out of everyone in this town until I find out their connection to you.”
She offers me a half-grin, but I’m not sure she’s kidding.
“They don’t live here. I don’t know what they’re doing here,” I mutter. “They’re from Peachtree City… or rather, they were, the last I heard.”
“Okay…” Aspen presses.
“My former in-laws,” I sigh. “I was married to their daughter, Maddy.”
The shock on Aspen’s face is palpable. “You were married?”
“It was a stupid, whirlwind thing,” I mutter, humiliated now to speak about it aloud. “We were young, and Maddy was… convincing. I shouldn’t have married her.”
“Because you were young?” Aspen asks, leading back to sit at the table, and not a minute too soon. My legs are jelly in the aftermath of that encounter.
“Because I wasn’t in love with her.”
More stunned surprise overtakes Aspen’s dark features, and she looks away, embarrassed. “Oh…” she murmurs. “I see.”
“No, you don’t,” I growl. How can she?
“You’re right. Maybe I don’t. But I know you, and I know you hate making waves,” she replies quickly. “So I can see how a woman might take advantage of that when she finds a sensitive, wonderful man that she wants to marry.”
My defensiveness melts away. Maybe she understands better than I think.
“Why are they so mad?” Aspen asks, her eyes darting toward the ride again.
I turn my head and see Lily come running toward us.
“Can I go again?” the little girl asks excitedly.
“Yes!” we chorus in unison and share a smile as she rushes to join the much smaller line now.
