letters had started the week after Micah’s funeral and she’d received one every week since. Each one just as cryptic as the last, the notes were always short and to the point.
I saw you. I know what you did. I’m going to tell.
It wasn’t the gun that killed him, it was you. I’m going to tell.
How can you live with yourself, knowing what you did? I’m going to tell.
And the latest? The most disturbing?
You deserve to die. It should be you in a coffin beneath that heavy dirt. I’m going to tell.
It chilled her, this last letter. Possibly because it seemed so matter-of-fact, so stark. She’d never given much thought to dying or what exactly it meant to be buried. She’d never considered that the earth above a coffin would be heavy or how wretched that would make her feel. Just thinking about it had made her want to rush down to Rosewood Cemetery, where her parents and grandparents were buried, and claw the earth away from their coffins, then move them into an aboveground crypt, much like the ones she’d seen in New Orleans. Irrational? Costly? Yes, but she couldn’t seem to shake the idea.
Any more than she could shake the memory of Eli’s kiss—the blazing desperation and desire in his pale hazel gaze—from her mind. It stuck there. Haunted her. Mocked her. Shamed her.
Enflamed her.
She should have never followed him outside that night, Shelby had told herself a million times. She’d known if she danced too close to the fire she was going to get burned. And the kicker? The horrible truth? If she had to do over again, she’d probably do the same damned thing. Because getting burned was better than being numb.
And she’d never realized she was numb until Eli touched her.
Had there been a spark of something prior to that? Yes, God help her, as unwelcome as it was undeniable. Shelby had tried pretending that it didn’t exist, then chalked it up to Eli’s mysteriousness, that intense direct stare that occasionally left her feeling as if he’d opened her head and taken a peek inside. She’d tried avoiding him, not avoiding him, looking for faults...everything. Nothing had nudged that niggle of awareness, that lingering longing that stirred in her gut.
That’s why she’d ultimately broken it off with Micah. Because until Eli had kissed her, she’d been able to pretend that her affection and long history with Micah were stronger than something as small and insubstantial as the idea of someone else, of Eli. Because until he’d kissed her, that’s all it had been—an idea.
She’d so been wrong. Wrong for ever allowing things with Micah to rekindle, then progress to a proposal. He’d been safe and familiar, and she’d been vulnerable and lonely. He’d picked her up, dusted her off and loved her, as always.
She’d desperately wanted to love him back. And she did, to a point. But never as much as he cared for her. Never with the same sort of intensity. He’d known it, too. Freely admitted it. But he’d never cared, so long as they were together.
She tied off the final stitch, then reached for her scissors and trimmed the thread. It was hard to reconcile a world he was no longer a part of, to know that she’d never see his smile or hear his laugh again. That had been the best thing about Micah, Shelby thought, a pang tightening her chest. His laugh. It had been joyful and uninhibited, infectious. She missed it most of all.
“You look odd, Shelby,” Mavis remarked. “Are you all right?”
Shelby blinked and gave herself a little shake. Despite being extremely self-absorbed, Mavis could be disturbingly observant. “Yes, of course.”
“Well, aren’t you going to walk over there and say hello? He was Micah’s best friend, after all, and he’s using his leave to volunteer. I think it would be rude and inhospitable for you to ignore him.” She shot Shelby a pointed look. “Like you did at the service.”
Shelby stored her tools, then carefully folded the romper. She felt a blush creep up her neck. “I was understandably preoccupied,” she lied. “And so was he.”
“Maybe so, but he kept glancing at you and you never once looked his way. Say what you will, but I know that your actions were deliberate. It would have been less noticeable had you simply acknowledged him.” She frowned. “I’ve never known you to be so unkind. It was so unlike you. I can only conclude that I’m not in possession of all of the facts and that you had your reasons.” She paused. “However wrong they may have been.”
Subtle as always, Shelby thought. But Mavis was right. He was hurting, too, and she’d been a coward. As nerve-wrecking as it would be, this was her chance to make it right. Besides, she needed him.
Shelby stood, set the romper aside and smoothed the wrinkles out of her dress. “If you’ll cover the store, I’ll walk over there right now.”
Mavis beamed approvingly at her. “Of course I will.”
Shelby glanced at her pet and store mascot, then clicked her tongue. “Come on, Dixie,” she said, then watched her eighty-pound pot-bellied pig lumber up from her hot-pink satin-covered bed in the corner. She bent down and clipped the leash to her rhinestone collar, then straightened her custom-made tulle skirt and matching bow.
Mavis merely rolled her eyes. “I swear she’s gained more weight just since yesterday. How much bigger is she going to get?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Shelby told her. “That skirt’s got an elastic waist.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. She’s huge, Shelby. If she gets any bigger, she’s going to need her own zip code.”
Shelby smiled and scratched the top of Dixie’s head. “Nonsense. “
When she’d moved out of the upstairs apartment and bought the house a block from the square so that she could have more room and a yard, Shelby hadn’t counted on being lonely. She’d loved the idea of having more room, of having a little garden to tend, flowers to grow. But she’d barely been in the house a week before she’d decided that a pet—which she’d never had, because her grandmother had been allergic—was in order. A puppy, more specifically. Rather than buy a designer breed, she’d opted to go to the animal shelter.
She’d walked in knowing exactly what she’d wanted—a soft, cuddly, energetic puppy which would grow into a loyal companion. To everyone’s surprise—most especially her own—she’d walked out with Dixie.
The little pig had been abandoned outside the shelter months ago, when the owners had evidently realized that she wasn’t going to stay tiny and cute. It was a common misconception, which had resulted in thousands of the little animals being dumped in shelters all across the country. Knowing that the various dogs and cats would eventually be adopted, and that Dixie’s chances were extremely less likely, Shelby gave in. The thought of leaving her there, trapped in that five-by-five box, was simply more than she could bear.
There’d been a learning curve with the pig—try finding that kind of food on the pet aisle at the Piggly Wiggly—but with the help of her vet and the internet, Shelby had adjusted...and couldn’t be happier. Dixie had personality in spades. She was leash and litter trained, and extremely smart. Shelby grimaced. So smart, in fact, that she’d learned to open the fridge, which was why it was now locked tight with bungee cords. Hardly a permanent solution, but she could only tackle one thing at a time.
And
