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"I trusted someone and he hurt me. "
"Join the club," she muttered.
I hadn't realized how much my leaving and not coming back had bothered her. I should have. Grace was difficult to say the least, a pain in the ass to be truthful. I doubted people were beating down her door applying for the position of best friend. Around here, I doubted she got many dates, either.
Sleeping with the head cop might have perks, but in macho-man land, which we were smack-dab in the center of, it was probably more embarrassing than anything. That Lake Bluff had a female mayor and a female sheriff was downright progressive, but that didn't mean the guys in town wanted to be seen with us.
Which was probably another reason I'd come home. I wouldn't have to worry about being pursued. Or at least I hadn't been worried until Malachi Cartwright showed up.
"I checked the police reports," Grace said quietly.
My gaze flicked to hers. At first I thought she meant in Atlanta, and my heart thundered, though I wasn't sure why. She wouldn't find anything. Then I realized she was talking about Cartwright and his merry band of Gypsies.
"What did you find?"
"Nothing unusual for towns where a festival is being held and a lot of out-of-towners have shown up. " She took a sip of wine. "Fights. Assault. Reports of strange things going bump in the night. "
"Like wolves?"
"Some. Plus huge bats, wild cats, zombies, ghosts, and, in one case, a dragon. "
"You don't consider that unusual?"
"Not with all the drinking and revelry. "
"Hmm. "
"While I was at it, I checked the police reports in Atlanta. "
My heart, which had just begun to slow, sped up again. "The Gypsies were in Atlanta?"
"No," she said, "you were. "
"You think I was arrested?"
"I was hoping you filed a report on what happened to you. "
I shook my head. I couldn't.
"When you say someone you trusted hurt you, you don't mean your feelings. "
"Why not?" My voice shook. Damn. I didn't want to talk about this.
"I know you," she said. "You were going to take Atlanta, then the world, by storm. Now you turn up here, and you don't leave. "
"Maybe I like it here. "
Grace gave me a skeptical look over the rim of her wineglass and waited.
Sitting on the porch with my childhood home behind me, the forest in front of me, and my best friend next to me, I did the one thing I'd been told I needed to do to heal but had been unable to. I talked about it.
"I was dating a nice man who worked in the governor's office," I began.
"Nice ones are always trouble. They're either boring or not really very nice at all. " She tilted her head. "Which was he?"
"Not very nice at all. "
"That's what I thought. "
