Is that possible, for legs to feel dizzy?
Tansy continues as if her words aren’t knocking me off my feet. “Half the morning crowd the other day was whispering about Knox hauling a picnic basket up the east ridge before dawn. You can hear that man’s truck anywhere it goes.”
“Oh.”
“That lookout point is prime real estate this time of the year, by the way. College kids drive out here every spring for the wildflowers.”
I say the only thing I can. “It was private when we went up there.”
“Which is wild to me,” Tansy says as she comes over and takes the soapy washcloth from my hand, “because it’s usually never empty up there. Not during the springtime, anyway.”
Just the mention of that morning has memories of the cool morning air rushing over my skin. The way Knox smiled at me like I was something worth waking up for.
Tansy starts wiping down the countertops I used. “And trust me, word got around quick when Walker dismissed his staff and cleared his whole schedule for that date. You think stufflike that doesn’t get noticed around here? It’s how we entertain ourselves.”
My pulse thuds in my ears. “Ah.”
“And Eli?” she adds, almost as an afterthought. “Amber told Mrs. Lo at the school that her dad was ‘spending lots of time with his new best friend, Lia.’”
My face must be doing something because it makes Tansy’s head fall back with laughter.
“Sit, before you pass out.”
She pushes a rolling chair in my direction and I don’t hesitate. I ease myself down onto the cushion, my legs giving out at the last second. I lean forward and place my head in my hands. My elbows rest on my knees as I breathe in through my nose and let it out steadily through my mouth.
I feel a frustrated heat prickling up my spine.
“They look at you differently, you know,” Tansy says.
I wish I could pretend not to hear her. But instead, I mutter into my palms. “I’m sure they do.”
“No, seriously. I grew up with the three of them. We all ran the same streets. Attended the same school. Annoyed the same teachers.”
“And?”
“And do you want to know what they look like to me? Especially Knox, when he brought you in here with that extra pan of cinnamon rolls?”
That makes me lift my head as I give her a quizzical look.
She motions at me with the washcloth. “They look like men trying to soothe a skittish animal. Like they’re afraid they’re going to scare you off.”
The nervousness threatening to make me puke morphs into something gentler at her words. I study Tansy for a while as she cleans, trying my best to clock whether she’s lying.
“You say you grew up with them?” I ask.
She snickers. “Unfortunately. You should’ve seen Eli when he was a kid. Right troublemaker, that one was. He may look innocent enough now, but back in high school? That guy loved his pranks. Pissed everyone off with them.”
I blurt the question out before I can come up with a tactful way to say it. “Are they good men, Tansy?”
That makes her stop. She pauses, her gaze slowly gravitating to my face, and she tilts her head.
“Is that what you’re afraid of? That they’re not good Alphas?”
Does she know about my ARS? Does the town gossip about that as well? Dr. Quinn didn’t strike me as the kind of man to talk about his patient’s medical conditions out in the open like that. Should I tell her? Do I want my private information to become gossip fodder?
Might as well rip off the band-aid if I want real answers. “Well, I have ARS, so. I sort of really need to be sure they’re good men and not Alphas who just think they are.”
Tansy freezes. The only proof of her still being alive is her shoulders moving in time with her breaths. The bakery noise fades into the background as she studies me, and I feel as if I’ve been inserted underneath a microscope.
