“We were wrong,” Ruthie said forcefully. “This town tends to let gossip run things, and…we let it go too far.”
“Too far? Is that what you think this is?”
Most of them had the decency to look ashamed of themselves, but I wasn’t sure that was enough. Not when her livelihood had been destroyed.
“This is so much worse than taking things too far. Did you see the devastation on her face when she saw her shop? The defeat? Did you feel her body shaking as she cried right fucking here on the ground?”
I eyed all of them, wanting all of them to know just how horrible they had all been.
“She was just trying to help out a friend, and you all turned on her for it. Your beloved Liam and Bailey,” I laughed. “You were so concerned about them getting together, you had no problem stomping all over Ellie in the process.”
Michael and Blake pushed through the crowd, followed by Liam and Bailey. The moment I saw her, I wanted to fucking punch her, and hitting women was wrong. But on some level, I felt like this was all her fault. She couldn’t forgive Ellie, and because of that, the whole town turned on her.
Bailey’s face dropped in shock at the destruction. Stepping forward, her hand covered her mouth as she took it all in. I hoped she felt like a fucking ass for the part she played in all this.
But what shocked me was when she walked over to Delaney and Josie and apologized.
“I should have gotten over it a long time ago. She was only trying to help Liam, and because of my anger, she paid the price. I didn’t see it.” She shook her head. “No, I didn’t want to see it because I wanted to hold onto that anger.”
“We’re not the ones you should be apologizing to,” Delaney said, her tone lacking any real bite.
“I know, but I wanted you to know. What can I do to help?”
They both looked like they wanted to shove her to the ground and stomp on her a few times, but instead, Josie handed her a dress.
“Anything salvageable, we’re putting on that rack. We’ll try to sell them to recoup some of the money.”
Bailey nodded and got to work, and it wasn’t but a few seconds later that the rest of the town surged forward, asking what they could do to help. There were more workers than I could ever use, and as much as I wanted to tell them to fuck off again, I could use the help. This was their penance. They could see up close what the damage was and help her rebuild.
It was the only chance I had at getting Ellie to stick around.
The soundof bickering cut through the night, grating on my nerves. We’d been working nonstop for three days, and I was exhausted. So was everyone else, but while they’d all taken time to go home and grab some sleep, I’d stayed here to make sure this store got cleaned up and ready to open by tomorrow.
I drifted off to sleep for an hour here and there when I sat down, but quickly jerked awake the moment someone made too much noise. I wasn’t gonna last too much longer, but I forced myself to keep going.
I hadn’t been to see Ellie yet, too concerned about getting the store open, but Josie and Delaney stopped by a few times and assured me she hadn’t drunk herself into a bottle or packed any bags yet. Which meant I still had time.
“They’re here!” Josie called out, pushing a dolly of boxes into the main part of the shop.
“I’ve got the steamer!” Delaney called out, carrying a portable contraption behind Josie.
Josie grinned as she stopped in front of me, but her face dropped in a frown. “You look like shit. Did you go home at all?”
I shook my head, rubbing my tired eyes. “We’re almost done.”
“No, that screw doesn’t go there!” Liam shouted, smacking Jeff upside the head.
“Yes, it does! I’m looking at the directions. It says right there. Screw A goes into the tiny hole!”
“That’s not the tiny hole!”
“Should we go help them?” Josie asked, cocking her head at the men.
Both of them turned to look at the table they’d built in just under half an hour. Jeff and Liam had been working on theirs for the better part of an hour, and it didn’t look like much more than pieces of wood sprawled out on the floor.
“If we want to get anything done?—”
“I’ve got this,” JR rumbled, shoving past me with Archer hot on his heels. “Move,” he ordered, snatching the board out of Jeff’s hands. “Go install the lights.”
