Glancing around the table—at Clover’s friends who became her family, at my cousins and even Chief, who’s somehow become mine too, at the fierce protectiveness radiating from every determined gaze—I believe her.
There’s no safer place to be than Happiness.
CHAPTER THIRTY
VALEN
After lunch, Madi insists on an “insider’s tour” of the town.
“You can’t appreciate Happiness without seeing it properly,” she declares, herding us out the door. “Plus, how will you protect Clover if you don’t know where the best hiding spots are?”
I pause on the threshold. Does she think protection is a game of hide-and-seek? The way she ushers us along as though we’re a bunch of preschoolers makes me believe she might.
Main Street is busier now than when we drove through earlier. People openly gape at us when we walk past. It doesn’t help that Madi introduces us as the Fit Five to literally every stranger we cross paths with.
Clover wasn’t kidding about the gossip network. The speculation is almost a physical thing. Especially when people start standing in windows, waiting for us to walk by as if they each got a text message saying the king of England was making his rounds.
“That’s Agnes,” Clover whispers, nodding toward an elderly woman on a bench.The infamous Agnes.Does she have a glass eyeball? And is that Pothole the pig she has on a leash? “She’ll have your story by dinner.”
“How?” I ask, tearing my gaze away from the nosy stranger currently sizing me up as though I’m her next offering.
“Witchcraft,” Elle deadpans. “We’re pretty sure she’s psychic.”
“She’s seventy-one and bored,” Madi corrects. “But yes, be afraid. If Savvy were here, she’d tell you a story that’d make your hair stand on end. But the short version? Don’t mess with Agnes.”
The group takes on a somber note at the mention of Savvy, who went home to rest—a reminder that she hasn’t been out of the hospital all that long and still has a protracted recovery ahead of her.
It only takes a moment for one bad actor to change the course of so many lives. Savvy was lucky with her ex—her injuries could have been so much more severe. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Terra doesn’t even get a chance at Clover. There’s no way that kind of luck will hold up twice in a row.
We stop at the Chug first. Madi opens the door, and we’re instantly hit with the scent of coffee, vanilla, and something spicy.
“Oh my fuck.” Sterling makes a beeline for the coffee stand he didn’t have time to visit earlier. “You have organic beans.” He practically beams at Blissy, and it’s a reminder that Sterling is a snob about certain things. Organic everything is one of them.
The Chug is packed full of people—some sitting, working on laptops, some milling about the coffee stand. There’s a group in the corner wearing football T-shirts, arguing over a play.
One of the boys runs toward us, and Clover gives him a big grin, so I don’t intervene. He grabs her in a giant hug, picking her up off the floor and swinging her around. “So glad you’re home,” he says. “We have a big game this weekend, but I’ll catch up with you at Uncle Braxton’s, okay?”
“Go,” Clover shoos him back to his friends before turning to me. “That’s Sage, Braxton and Greyson’s nephew.”
I stare at him until he rejoins his teammates. The Reyes men really did pack up their entire lives and move across the country for the women they love. By the looks of things, they have zero regrets.
Behind us, a group of older women are entrenched in a loud debate, with one woman waving a book that has a shirtless man on the cover.
“Book club,” Clover says, smiling at the discordant chaos happening over cups of tea.
Several people walk over to greet Clover with hugs and warm words.
“We missed you,” Moose says, squeezing her hands. “Town’s just not the same without you, kid.”
“Moose.” Her voice cracks. “I wasn’t even gone very long.”
“Long enough that we noticed.” He scowls in my direction, narrows his eyes, then huffs through his nose. “You take care of her, you hear me? There’s not a kinder, gentler soul in all of Georgia.”
Clover’s blush could start a forest fire, but she hugs the older man and tells him she’ll see him at poker tomorrow night.
He points to his eyes with his pointer and middle fingers, then directs them at me. The universalI’m watching yousign—obviously a favorite of all these old guys, and a little sliver of Happiness worms its way into my heart.
Witnessing Clover here—surrounded by people who love her, in a place that feels like it grew up around her—I understand.
