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I shook my head and tried to give them a reassuring smile. “I’ve got Daisy Lynn and Becca. I just want to sit down for a little while.”
They all nodded and I turned to walk back toward the house. Daisy Lynn and Becca were on either side of me, and I could feel Becca’s hand on my back.
“Are you going to be okay?” Becca asked. “You look like you might faint.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I’m not going to pass out or anything. I’m just… worried.”
“What are you going to do?” Daisy Lynn asked.
I looked over at her and nibbled at my lip. “What else can I do? I’m going to talk to Nora.”
Chapter 17
Janessa
“Where are you going?” Cade asked, eyeing me from his chair on the front porch as I walked out of the house.
Oh, God.
This felt like a repeat of the other night. Did I have to get security clearance every time I wanted to leave the house now? Even in the middle of the day?
“I have a hair appointment,” I said, smiling sweetly to hide my spark of annoyance. I knew he was just looking out for me, and I didn’t want to seem ungrateful… but I was really starting to miss the time when my life had at least seemed a little more normal.
It was hard to believe that I would have even considered my day-to-day life a littleboringjust a few weeks ago.
Boring was definitely not a word I’d use to describe my days now, though.
“Surely, I can do that on my own, right?” I continued. I’d made the appointment on the spur of the moment after the sheriff had left. And honestly? I’d made the appointment knowing it was the one place in town where the men around here would probably let me go by myself. “Unless you and Boone want to sit there with me at the salon?”
“You know Boone and I would go through hell to spend a little more time with you, beautiful,” he said, then crinkled his nose. “But, uh… I think we might look a little out of place if we went with you to the salon. Your friends aren’t going with you, though?”
I shrugged. “I asked, but they both wanted to stay around here this afternoon.”
And okay. So that might have been a little white lie. I hadn’t exactly asked them if they wanted to tag along, but whatever. This wasn’t exactly going to be a social trip anyway, if it worked out the way I was hoping.
Cade looked a little skeptical for a second—God, I really wasn’t a very good liar. Could he tell? Was I being that obvious? Finally, though, he shrugged and tossed me a wink. “You’ve got your phone in case you need anything, right?”
I held up my purse. “Right in here. I’ll be fine, though. Just going to the salon and back. You won’t even miss me.”
“I already miss you,” he said, grinning. “But okay. Be careful and call if anything seems weird.”
I gave him a mock salute and turned to walk toward my car. I didn’t feel great about leaving out some of the details of my trip, but Cade and Boone wouldn’t have understood. They would have just tried to talk me out of going.
Because I wasn’t the only one who had a hair appointment in town today. As long as her old routine hadn’t changed too much, there was one woman in particular who I planned onaccidentallyrunning into.
And then, hopefully, I could start to get some answers.
* * *
From across the parking lot in my car, I could see through the big floor-to-ceiling window of the salon.
And yep, she was there.
Nora.
I could feel my stomach start to knot and my blood pressure start to rise just from looking at her. I wasn’t normally a violent person at all, but I’d had enough interactions with Nora over the past year to realize that it was probably best for both of us if we weren’t in a confined area together for too long.
But just once, I really wouldn’t mind kicking her ass.
