Bristol lifted her latte cup toward him.“Cheers.”
He tapped his cup to hers, feeling a renewed sense of determination.And a flare of hope that verged on painful.“Cheers.”
Now he understood what he was actually up against.And why it was going to be so hard to crack through her armor.
But she was worth it, so he wasn’t giving up.He just needed to change tactics.
Initially, he’d wanted Cassie to lower the drawbridge and let him through her walls herself.Instead, he would take them down himself, brick by brick.Until there was nothing left to keep him out anymore.
Chapter Eleven
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Cassie shifted hershoulders to ease the muscular tension that was starting a piercing headache in her temples.Driving normally calmed her and helped her feel in control, but this was her first time back behind the wheel since the shooting, and she couldn’t shake the sense of dread.
She kept watching all the other traffic around her carefully as she drove, her nervous system still on edge that someone might be following her.
Which was ridiculous.Traffic was steady behind her.No one was maneuvering in and out trying to catch up to her.She just needed to keep moving forward and get past this trigger.
She refused to let this tragedy define her or hold her back.She’d come too far to let that happen.
“You good?”Bristol asked from the passenger seat.
“Yeah, fine.Glad to be out and about after being holed up at home for the past three days.”They’d decided to get out of Crimson Point for a while and had driven out to their favorite pie place on the highway to Portland.This time she’d forsaken her favored sour cream lemon pie for a warm slice of sour cherry and had zero regrets.She had a new favorite.
Now they were both on the verge of a sugar coma on the way back to town.She was in no hurry to get there.While she liked her own company for a while, she needed interaction.Living on her own was peaceful but sometimes lonely.
“Know what I wound up doing last night?”she continued.“I was so bored I resorted to hauling out a jigsaw puzzle and sat at my kitchen table for three hours putting it together.An actual puzzle, Bristol.”
“Oh my God, not a puzzle!”Bristol said in mock horror.“Won’t somebody think of the children?”
“I know!At one point I was even contemplating using one of my socks to dust the baseboards.”
“Okay, now I’m actually a bit worried.”
“It’s all right.I used a used dryer sheet instead.Those things work like a charm, fyi.”
