Page 51 of Love At Peace

“That’s my goal, though.” I glanced at the front door when the bell dinged. Several people came in but we still had room to move slowly in this short lane. “I’ll probably be moving soon, anyway.”

“Oh, yeah.” He almost smiled. “I heard you were going to help Roarke look at houses.”

“Well, I—”

“And with Todd getting ready to announce that they’re tearing down those cabins soon, you’d need to find a house yourself.”

“No.” I hated the idea of those cabins being gone. Mine had really grown on me over the last couple of months. “I meant moving away. Out of Burton,” I clarified.

“Again?” Ashley taunted, clearly overhearing from the register at the front.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring her. “I might move away.”

“To get away from David, you mean?” he asked.

I nodded.

Eric stepped to the side to let someone else pass through. Keeping his back to us, it wasn’t as obvious who it was, but I recognized Jerry nonetheless.

Like Ashley, he was eavesdropping on my conversation with Eric, but he seemed to try to hide it.

You asshole. Renting out a place to someone like David and not cooperating with Marty.

“What?” he smirked. “What’s that bitchy face for?”

“You’re enabling someone like my ex to hang around here and prey on a young woman.”

He huffed once. “You can’t prove that.”

Annoyed and so fed up with him in general, I took one big step forward to intimidate him. He flinched, backing up.

“That doesn’t matter. You should have some damn decency for once in your life,” I retorted, putting him in his place. “You’ve got no business welcoming a cruel man like him into town.”

“Oh, like you’re welcome yourself.” He scoffed. “I heard you. You’re moving out anyway. Like before. You think you got better places to be and bigger things to do. Like you’re too good for Burton and—”

I grabbed the front of his shirt. “Shut up. You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. You’ve got no idea what kind of a man David Kenning is. If you’re aiding him, you’re even more worthless than I thought you were.”

He wrestled out of my grip, glaring at me. Then he noticed Eric near me, watching him. It was quiet, without anyone speaking. He stepped back, glancing around the rest of the shoppers, even Ashley, as though he had no clue how to come back from me telling him off like that.

This wasn’t lying low.

This wasn’t keeping to myself.

It was as though telling Roarke about my past and opening up and made me braver.

That owning up to the hell I was put through reminded me I was stronger for surviving it and getting away.

“What?” he snapped, scowling in the direction of Ashley at the register.

Oh, great. I was so not in the mood for her to chime in. She’d pounce on any opportunity to bother me.

To my surprise, she wasn’t grinning at me and taking glee in the fact I was having a hard moment here. She narrowed her eyes on Jerry, curling her lip up in an involuntary display of anger.

“David Kenning?” she asked with malice in her tone. “I remember that name.”

“He’s my ex,” I said. “From Chicago. I came back home to get away from him.”

She huffed, setting her hands on the unmoving conveyor belt and regarded me closely. “I can’t say I’d blame you. That piece of shit tried to slip a drug into my drink at the bar.”