AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lucy listened in bemusement as the timid field mouse stood up to the Evil Queen. What had happened to the insecure woman Lucy had first met? Lucy reluctantly stepped out of the trees. Temple slammed her hands on her hips. “There you are! I’m furious with you.”
“Leave her alone,” the field mouse said.
Temple stalked toward Lucy. “It was bad enough for you to walk out on Panda, but I didn’t do anything, and you had no right to walk out on me. Did you stop for one second to think how I’d feel when I heard you’d run away without a word? I’m so furious with you that I don’t care if I ever speak to you again.”
“Then why are you here?” Bree’s jaw set in a newly stubborn line.
Temple spun on her. “Stay out of this. It has nothing to do with you.”
“This is my house, and Lucy’s my guest. That makes it my business.”
Lucy forced herself to step in. “Have the two of you been properly introduced? Bree West, this is Temple Renshaw. Temple, Bree.”
“I know who she is,” Bree said tightly.
Lucy regarded her ruefully. “Believe it or not, Temple really isn’t quite as rude as she seems.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for me,” Temple retorted, taking in Lucy’s chin-length and much neater hairdo—compliments of Bree and her scissors. “I’m still infuriated with you.”
“I understand,” Lucy conceded. “And you’re right. I’m sorry. I should at least have left you a note.”
Temple sniffed. “You deserve to be sorry. When are you coming home?”
“She’s not,” Bree said firmly. “She’s staying here.”
“That’s what you think.”
Listening to the two of them argue over her made Lucy feel better than she had in days. Temple turned her back to Bree. Some of her aggression faded, and her brow knit with concern. “What did he do to you? He told me what happened at that dive you went to, but I know he didn’t tell me everything.” And then, to Bree, with forced politeness, “Would you mind going away so Lucy and I can talk?”
Lucy reluctantly put a halt to their tiff. “Stop glowering at her, Temple. She has every right to be here. I was planning to talk to you. I just didn’t want to go back to the house to do it.”
Wrong thing to say. Temple’s brow shot up in righteous anger. “Then obviously our friendship isn’t important to you.”
“That’s not true.” Lucy dropped her beach towel in a patch of shade and sat on it. As the spicy scent of basil drifted toward her, she filled Temple in on more of the details of what had happened at The Compass. When she was done, she hugged her knees to her chest. “I thought I was so tough.”
“You’re not seriously blaming yourself for not being able to fight off those gangsters,” Temple said.
“Other women do it.”
“In the movies.”
Her indignation was comforting, but Lucy couldn’t give herself a free pass.
In a single graceful movement, Temple dropped beside her on the beach towel. “I don’t understand why Panda was so stingy with the details.”
“Client privilege, I’m sure.” Lucy swallowed her bitterness. “Basically, that’s how he still sees me. As his responsibility.”
“He protected you,” Temple said adamantly. “So why are you so pissed with him?”
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m pissed with myself.”
“Sure. Blame the victim,” Bree interjected.
“It’s not that,” Lucy said. “All summer I pretended I was so tough. Joke’s on me, right?”
Temple brushed that away. “What about Panda? Why did you walk out on him?”
“Because our relationship was as phony as my tattoos.”
