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“You’ll get the hang of it,” Layna declared. “The longer you are around, the more people you will meet, and the easier it will be to link them all in your head.”
“It seems like you’re going to be staying around, right?” Gracie asked as Sully and Vi came out of the kitchen, Vi with a plate piled high with leftovers.
“I mean, ah, I can’t really say,” I told them. “I’m here mostly until, you know, Voss or the police figure out who attacked me and stole my stuff.”
“Kit and Ariah are who you should be talking to about stalkers,” Gracie said.
“They have stalkers?” I asked.
“I don’t think they have a current one,” Gracie said.
“Are they… famous, or something?”
“I mean, sort of? They’re popular vloggers. So they’re popular in their niche, but they can walk down the street without being recognized,” Gracie explained.
“Oh, okay. That makes sense. I mean, up until the attack and the break-in, I had no idea I even had someone stalking me.”
“Did Valen say that they stole your pet?” Vi asked between shoveling food into her mouth. I couldn’t blame her. I’d had seconds of that dinner too.
“Yeah. Irwin. He’s a Blue Tongue Skink,” I said, feeling that familiar tug in my heart when I thought of him. Was he even still alive? Reptiles weren’t like dogs and cats. They needed specialized care. Certain lights, temperatures, and complicated diets. If this person didn’t think to look into that, he could have easily passed on already.
“Asshole,” Layna grumbled. “Andi is going to have a field day when she hears about that.” Andi, the vet “So, you and Voss, huh?”
“Oh, um, I mean… we’re friends,” I said as my mind flashed back to the pantry, to the things that were done that were decidedly more than friendly.
“Friends, huh?” Sully asked, making everyone turn in his direction.
“Oh, an insider,” Layna said, smiling. “Do tell.”
“I’m just saying, the way he looks at you is more than friendly. And going out of his way to find the bastard who put their hands on you.”
“I think all your romance movies have gone to your head,” I said, even as hope swelled inside of me.
Because that was, what, three men so far who said that Voss was definitely more into me than things seemed on the surface.
“Maybe,” he said, shrugging. “But I get the feeling that Voss isn’t the kind of guy to keep a chick around unless he was into her.”
“He feels guilty.”
“He likes you,” Sully said with an eye roll. “If it was just guilt, he could have put you up at a hotel. But, no. You’re in his bed. Stealing his dog’s affection. Sharing meals with him. He’s into you. I figure the reason you aren’t aware of that yet is because you’re injured.”
“How are you?” Gracie asked. “Vi and Layna said it was a pretty awful attack.”
“I’m doing okay. I went back to work today. Overdid it a little bit, but I absolutely feel a lot better than I did a week ago when my eye was swollen shut and I was getting dizzy all the time.”
“You should have seen her on crutches,” Sully teased.
“Hey,” I grumbled.
“I’m sure you were fine,” Gracie said, even with no proof of that, further cementing her reputation as the sweetheart of the princesses.
“Ran herself into a wall once,” Sully told them as he sat down next to Vi.
“It was a doorway.”
“But your face hit the wall.”
I had no comeback to that. He was right.
“Vi said you work at the Barlowe House,” Willa said, speaking for the first time.
“I do,” I agreed, giving her a smile.
“I’ve never heard of it,” she admitted. “I thought I knew about all the charities in town.”
“Because she donates to most of them,” Gracie explained.
God, we could use a wealthy donor.
I mean, I wasn’t going to hit her up for money. I was trying to make a decent impression in case what the guys around me were saying was true and Voss was interested, and we might date, I wanted his people to like me.
It was a strange realization.
I’d never really been in the position to impress a partner’s people. Unless some dirtbag, women-hating gaming buddies of theirs counted. Which, we all could agree, didn’t count.
But no one had ever been into me enough to introduce me to their family. And, to Voss, this was his family now.
“I think sober houses tend to not get as much attention. Everyone wants to give to animals or battered women, that sort of thing. But a lot of people have a lot of prejudice toward those struggling with addiction still. Despite addiction impacting most of us in our lives. Either personally or through family or friends.”
“That makes sense. Let me know if you have any events coming up,” Willa demanded. “I have friends I can convince to donate.”
