Page 74 of Passion in Bloom

“And the manager who was asking about you is still interested,” Janelle said. “For the new branch opening. All will be fine on that front.”

I nodded, hardly caring about that. It mattered more that all would be okay here, in Burton, at this bank and with these coworkers I was growing close to.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Janelle and Fergus both looked at the files when they could. County officials were also trying to troubleshoot it, but there was nothing I could personally do about it. Time would tell if the documents and spreadsheets would be usable again. In the meantime, I continued collecting things for the toy drive and taking the donations out of the donation boxes. Fergus came with me. He could be an eye witness. And we saved the numbers and item lists on a new spreadsheet he co-authored, so it’d be accessible to both of us in case another “glitch” or anything else could happen.

There was no way in hell I was taking my laptop home again. In this case, working from home wasn’t an option I wanted to risk. It wasn’t like I was in charge of state secrets or billionaires’ accounts, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to be trusted. I had to prove I’d done nothing wrong.

At the end of the day, I walked to my car and hoped that everything would just be fine in the morning when I came back again. That it was just a glitch. A minor oops somewhere, and all would be restored.

I didn’t have long to daydream about that because someone approached me.

I was tense, fearing it could be David, but it was that woman. The stay-at-home-mom who was freelancing for remote work at the apartment building she seemed to loathe. She pushed a stroller with the toddler bundled up against the chilly air.

“Hey,” she said, hurrying to catch up to me. “Hang on a sec.”

I had no idea what she’d want, but I stopped at my car. “Hi.”

“You were at the diner yesterday, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. Heather James.”

She nodded. “I’m Molly. I thought I saw you from the park.” She pointed at the tiny public square on the other side of Main. It was a pathetic patch of now brown grass. I supposed the single bench in it made it a “park.”

“Remember how I said that girl had been hanging around those losers’ apartments?”

I nodded. “Nevaeh?” I tamped down the bitterness at the thought of that teen.

“I saw her again. Just this morning.”

“Oh.” I arched a brow.

“Yeah. I realized that she’s the one who’s been staying with that tall blond. Have you seen him around?” She cringed. “Looks like he thinks he’s the shit. Better than everyone else.”

My blood ran cold. Deep in my chest, my heart hammered faster and faster as panic washed over me.

Tall, arrogant blond?

Nevaeh...and David?

I was too stunned to reply.

“Really?” I asked, at a loss for anything else I could say.

She nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.” She shrugged, hoisting her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “Anyway, you seemed like you knew her.”

Hardly.

“Or that you were concerned about her.”

I’m not so sure I should waste my energy like that now.

I thanked her and drove home in a daze.

Nevaeh and David.

An untrustworthy and rude teenager prone to stealing and breaking in with my abusive, controlling ex.

Nothing good could come from this.