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That’sa familiar feeling.
“Where’s the butterfly pendant?”
My fingers itch to reach into my pocket, to feel the familiar rough texture of the stones from our grandmother’s necklace, all that I’ll have left of her now that I’ve handed over that small jewelry box to my sister. “Steve chewed it up and broke it.”
Truth.
But also not.
A disdainful look toward my pup. “Clearly, he deserved that kick George gave him.”
It feels likeI’vebeen kicked with that comment, but I just lift my chin. “I’m going to need you to go.”
“But—”
“Go, Ash,” I say, yanking the door open.
She closes the jewelry box, walks outside, doesn’t look back.
I close it behind her.
Then I go to the kitchen.
And I get out the vodka.
Forward. Just keep crawling fucking forward.
Thirty
Lake
“Thanks, Mack,”I say, shaking his hand as one of his deputies shoves George into the back of the SUV, not being all that careful of the asshole’s head.
Hit it a few more times and maybe then we’ll be equal.
No, we won’t be.
But I would feel better, at least.
“No thanks required.” Mack grins and rubs his hands together. “I’ve gotten all the payment I need.”
The sheriff doesn’t get that my tickets often go unused or donated. My family has seen enough of me playing hockey. They’re not going to travel halfway across the continent, sleep in a bed that’s not their own, disrupt their regularly-scheduled routine.
Definitely not my mom—she does best in her own home with all of her familiar things.
Certainly not my dad—he would have to give two fucks about me for that to happen.
My siblings have their own lives—and, anyway, it’s not their job to support me.
The SUV pulls out, taking the asshole with it, leaving room for Nova’s car, which is idling on the street, dug out of the snowbank thanks to a break in the storm and another pair of tickets to the local tow company.
They pull it into my garage, pass over the keys as the metal door rolls down.
Mack lifts his brows. “I’m sensing a story here.”
“No story,” I say.
The look he shoots me tells me he knows that’s bullshit, but the wind’s picking up again, and we’re all ready to go the fuck to sleep.
