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She gave me a knowing look. It was remarkable how we were able to read each other after such a short time. “You and Trent.”
I jerked back around, facing forward as I lifted my paper cup and took a sip of coffee. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yeah. I said that too. When I was falling in love with Dalton but was scared out of my mind over what I was feeling because of the ugliness in my past.”
I didn’t have a response to that. It hit way too close to home. She was right, but instead of acknowledging that, I made an excuse. “It’s not just about that. It’s the fact that he kept this huge secret. He knew who I was the whole time, and he used that to manipulate me into falling for him.”
“Did he though?”
“I—” Now that she’d asked, I was having trouble answering. Because what if he hadn’t? What if everything that had happened between us was real?
“Look, I’m not going to tell you whether you should forgive him or not, but I will tell you this: I know Trent. He’s one of my closest friends. He’s had my back and Dalton’s on countless occasions. When he cares about someone, there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep them safe. You have every right to be mad, no doubt about it. Hell, I was furious. Why do you think Dalton gave him that second black eye for me?” I couldn’t hold back the laugh that bubbled up my throat. “But there’s one question you need to ask yourself. Is your life better now that he’s in it than it was before you met him? When you figure out the answer to that, you’ll know what you need to do.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said weakly, not quite able to give up the fight. “He’ll go back to Hope Valley eventually. This is my home, Char. How is a relationship supposed to work when there’s a freaking continent between us?”
For some reason, she smiled at that. “I know all the dudes that Trent and Dalt work with, and they all have one thing in common.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
Her eyes grew intense when she looked over at me. “When they fall in love with a woman, they’re capable of moving mountains. And that man loves you with everything he has.”
We lapsed into silence the rest of the way to the general store, my mind swirling in a million different directions as I pushed through the door to the sound of that familiar tinkling bell.
Georgia’s head came up from her romance novel, her smile taking over her face. “Well, there she is,” she said brightly as she rounded the counter and started for me. “Dezzy!” she shouted loudly. “Get in here! Chey—” She caught herself, casting a quick glance at the few customers browsing the aisles. “Sawyer’s here, and she’s brought her sister!”
Word spread like wildfire that I had a twin sister who was in town, and everyone was more than eager to meet her, but the secret of who I really was had stayed between me and those people I was closest to. True to their word, they hadn’t said a thing.
Dezzy came around the corner from the stockroom, his expression just as excited as his wife’s. “Hey! You’re here!”
My mood instantly brightened, thoughts of Trent pushed to the back burner, at least temporarily. “Guys, I want you to meet my sister, Charlotte. Charlotte, this is Georgia and Dezzy Warren, my bosses and two of the best people you’ll ever have the privilege of meeting. They’ve helped me through some tough times.”
“It was nothing. We’re blessed to have this one here in our lives,” Desmond stated with genuine warmth laced through the words.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Charlotte said with a genuine smile as the three of them exchanged handshakes. “Thank you so much for taking care of her all these years. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”
“Pleasure’s all ours, believe me,” Georgia informed her.
After introductions were made, the Warrens started to fill Charlotte in on every embarrassing story they had about me from the past three and a half years, like real parents would any time their child brought a friend home from school. They were in the middle of cutting up about that one time I’d accidentally stocked three whole cases of soda in the freezer instead of the refrigerator, and how they were certain it was Armageddon as all the cans started to explode, when we heard the sound of sirens whipping by the store.
It was a foreign sound here in Whitecap. There was little to no crime, so the only time we heard police cruisers or ambulances was when someone had gotten hurt.
Georgia stared through the glass, worry marring her face. “Hope old Emmet Clifton didn’t try trimming his own trees again. Last time he did that, he fell off the ladder and nearly sliced himself up with his chainsaw. Got lucky he didn’t really hurt himself.”
Just then, another cruiser whipped by, lights and sirens blaring, followed quickly by a third. Through the glass, we could see that people were coming out of the neighboring shops and businesses, starting to line the streets.
“Whatever happened, looks like it’s big,” Dezzy said, heading for the door just as an ambulance raced by. We all followed after him, picking up the pace.
“What’s going on?” he asked the first person he came across on the sidewalk.
“Apparently there was a shooting,” Karen Norton stated, lifting a shaky hand to her mouth as all the blood in my body turned to ice, Whitecap didn’t have shootings. We were a small, quiet town. Stuff like that didn’t happen here.
“Where?” I asked as the panic started to set in.
She looked at me with wide eyes full of fear, and said three words that ground my world to a halt. “At the daycare.”
* * *
I couldn’t tellyou how I got to the daycare or how much time it had taken. One second I’d been standing on the sidewalk outside the general store, and the next I was running across the street toward the daycare’s parking lot at a dead sprint.
