“I’ll question him.”
“Eastern—”
“It’s my job, Sadie. I’ll just ask him a couple of questions and cover all our bases.” When she didn’t respond, just nibbled her bottom lip, he closed the remaining space between them and clasped the back of her neck in his hand. “Someone hurt you today. They put you in danger.”
“I’m okay.”
This time.The words were a whisper in his head that never made it to air.
He tugged her against his chest, needing to hold her. Reassure himself that she was safe. Even though that same little whisper told him he shouldn’t care as much as he did.
CHAPTER 11
“Nan, I’m okay.”
Her grandmother looked at her like she saw everything Sadie was hiding. The residual fear. The uncertainty. “You’re not okay. You caught someone breaking into the store and they hurt you. You don’t need to be brave with me.”
Sadie cut the ham, avocado and tomato sandwiches in half. It was a favorite of her grandmother’s. During the summers she’d spent in Misty Peak as a child, this was their go-to lunch. Maybe that’s why it was a favorite of hers now too.
“You’re right,” Sadie conceded without looking up. “I did catch someone breaking into the store, and yes, they scared and hurt me, but I’m lucky that I only came out of it with a few cuts and bruises. And after speaking to the insurance company and ordering replacements for everything, I feel good.”
Okay, maybe not good, but better than she had yesterday, right after the break-in had taken place.
She set the sandwiches onto plates and carried them over to the round table, then set one in front of her grandmother and the other at the empty seat beside her. Her grandmother’s house looked exactly as it had when Sadie was little. Woodenfloorboards with brown curtains across the windows. Photos and paintings on every inch of the wall. And trinkets and memorabilia everywhere else.
Some would describe it as cluttered. She called it comfortable. Comfortable open living room and kitchen, with cozy recliner seats in front of the TV.
Her grandmother raised a brow, and Sadie suddenly felt like she was about to be interrogated. The second she was seated, her grandmother touched her hand.
“Sadie. I’m worried about you.”
“It wasyourshop that was broken into. If anyone should be worried, it’s me aboutyou.”
Her grandmother shook her head. “No. I’m worried because you’ve been through a lot in the last month. Walking away from your wedding. Scott’s infidelity. Moving home. Now this.”
That was her grandmother, always putting others first. “You’re right, there’s been some crappy stuff happening in my life in the last month. But there’s also been good stuff. Leaving Scott and moving home were the best changes. And being back with you? That’s everything. You’re my last family, Nan. I love you. And being here feels right.”
Her grandmother shifted a lock of hair from her forehead to behind her ear. “I love having you home, darling.” Her voice lowered, a hint of sadness in her voice. “When you came to live here after your parents got into that terrible accident, I was so worried I wouldn’t be enough.”
“Oh, Nan. You were everything. Youstill are. You’re the reason I could get out of bed in the morning those first few months. You’re the reason I didn’t crumble.” She tilted her head, fighting back tears. “Now, I want to be what you need after what happened to the bakery.”
“The bakery is not a person. And everything in it that was broken can be fixed. Things can be replaced. People can’t. Just promise me one thing.”
“Anything.”
“Look after yourself. I can’t lose you.”
There was so much concern in her grandmother’s voice. She was really worried about something happening to Sadie.
“I promise,” she said quietly.
Her grandmother held her gaze for one long beat before nodding and looking down at her plate. “Good. Now tell me what’s going on with you and Eastern Walker.”
Sadie almost choked on the water she was sipping. “What?”
“You and Eastern. You said he visited you at the hospital.”
“He’s the sheriff, and I was involved in a crime.”
