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Ginny took a long sip of water rather than touch that question.
“We don’t know,” Melody said. “The new guy. Dark hair. Dangerous eyes. You’ve seen him around town.”
“Oh,” Ellie said. “You mean Shaun Buchanan?”
Ginny nearly spit out her water. “How did you know who he was?”
The brunette shrugged. “I remember him from elementary school.”
“He looks completely different. How in God’s name could you possibly have recognized him?”
“He resembles his mom, and she resembled my mom a little, which is no surprise because they were cousins. I guess the DNA tipped me off.”
And there it was. Ellie’s mom had died in a car accident shortly after Ellie’s fourth birthday. Little Ellie, being scary-smart and missing her mama, had memorized the family tree and apparently imprinted the features of everyone in town who shared a branch or two.
“Plus he contacted Tyler to get a roof quote. He’s fixing up a hunting cabin the family owns just outside of town.”
“Time out,” Melody interjected. “Are we talking Shaun Buchanan, as in Tom Buchanan’s son?”
Ginny closed her eyes and nodded.
“Holy shit.”
Holy shit, indeed. News had to be positively shocking to coax a swear word out of Melody Merritt, former Miss Bluelick, and poster child for southern manners.
LouAnn rubbed her forehead. “I’m confused. What happened between you and Shaun Buchanan?”
There was no getting out of this gracefully. And why bother? Melody was engaged to Josh, the man responsible for fueling the firefighter fantasies of every female in Bluelick old enough to play with matches. Ellie was engaged to Tyler Longfoot, a man who had sweet talked his way into the panties of scores of women between Bluelick and the state line—and you could identify them to this day by the satisfied smiles that split their faces when someone mentioned his name. LouAnn and Junior Tillman had been playing magnets for the better part of ten years—clicking together or pushing each other away, depending on how things lined up. None of the ladies were strangers to the power of amazing chemistry to make a normally level-headed woman behave like an idiot. Their houses boasted a bit too much glass for any of them to hurl stones at her.
She cleared her throat and quickly summarized for Ellie and LouAnn how a simple shave and haircut two nights ago had brought her sex hiatus to a shattering end.
“Wow.” Ellie fanned her cheeks. “I can’t believe you’re still feeling it two days later… Oh my God…did you”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“Chapter Thirteen?”
Ginny laughed. Over a round at Rawley’s a few nights ago to unofficially celebrate Ellie’s engagement, she had confessed to them that she’d once ordered The Wild Woman’s Guide to Sex in an effort to enhance her skills and seduce Melody’s ex-fiancé, Roger. Of course, she’d ended up falling for Tyler instead, even though he flat-out refused to Chapter Thirteen her.
“Ellie, sweetie, your Wild Woman authors would have to come up with a whole bunch of new chapters to cover things that man and I got up to—no pun intended.”
“I wonder if Tyler would Chapter Thirteen me if I gave him a shave and a haircut?”
“When you’re engaged to a man with a nickname like ‘Footlong Longfoot’, you might want to settle for two Chapter Fives followed by a nice Chapter Three to finish things off,” LouAnn observed. “Otherwise, you’ll join the ranks of fidgety-pants over here, who can’t sit still through breakfast.”
Ellie eyed Ginny, and slowly nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Let’s get back to the Shaun Buchanan part.” LouAnn tapped the table with a zebra-striped acrylic fingernail. “At what stage during your Thursday night sex-fest did he drop his last name and clue you in to the fact you were sleeping with the enemy?”
“Hey,” Melody interjected, and narrowed her eyes at Ginny. “We went running the next day, and you told me you didn’t know his last name.”
“I didn’t. Not then. Last night I stayed late at the salon to finish up some paperwork. When I left, I surprised some delinquent in the process of spray-painting a rude word on the wall of my shop. He bolted, and knocked me over like a bowling pin in the process.”
“Good Lord, girl, are you all right?” LouAnn’s hand landed on her arm and held on.
“I’m fine. I’d barely hit the sidewalk when Shaun appeared out of nowhere and ran the guy off. Then he convinced me to call the sheriff’s department, and sat with me while some deputy named Bob Crocker pretended to give a shit.”
“Yes, I’ve heard the sheriff’s department’s protect-and-serve skills leave something to be desired. Still, I’m glad you called it in,” Ellie said. “At least they’ll have the report.”
“I think it was a waste of time. Crocker just kept harping on how I couldn’t identify the guy, nor could Shaun. I finally snapped and told him I didn’t have to see the guy to know who it was.”
“Don’t hold out on us. Who was it?” Melody squeezed her arm.
