“And you didn’t tell anyone?”
“Didn’t know. Not until they found her body.”
He stopped scanning, his eyes staring blankly at the counter as he got caught up in the memories.
“She was so sick. We should have seen it coming, should have done something about it sooner, but…we were just trying to protect her.”
If he didn’t know about it until six months later, that could explain why he wasn’t in prison. Proving something like that would be difficult, unless he outright admitted it in court.
“So, there you have it,” he gave a tight smile. “I’ll help you take this out to your car, and then I probably won’t ever see you again. Much like everyone else in this town.”
I looked around the deserted shop again, noting the stocked shelves and all the food that was just going to waste with no one to buy a damn thing. What were people doing, driving to the next town?
I handed over my card and finished bagging the last of the groceries while he ran the payment. Nothing about this was right. Definitely not the fact that he concealed a murderer, but it also wasn’t right to boycott his shop when it was the only grocery store within twenty-five miles of town. If he went out of business, where did they think they’d get supplies in an emergency?
“It was good to see you, Ryder. Take care of yourself.”
“You, too.”
Grabbing my bags, I hauled them out to the car, thanking him when he put the last of them in my trunk. As I got in the driver’s seat, I watched him take a seat behind the counter.
He nearly lost his son, and now he was going to lose his shop. Life had a way of fucking you like that.
I was all too aware of that.
7
ELLIE
This week was kickingmy ass, and it was only Tuesday. After getting in a shipment of inventory yesterday, I spent the rest of my day unpacking and scanning everything into the computer. Then today, I steamed everything and made sure it was ready to be viewed.
Not that I had a ton of traffic these days.
There were still haters in town who thought I slept with Liam and ruined his relationship with Bailey. Oddly enough, no one seemed to hate Liam. Just the skank who sat on his lap at The Beaver and Boot.
I needed to find a way to move on with my life, away from Liam and the rumors swirling about me. But I couldn’t just pack up and move to a different town. I had friends here. I had family. And most importantly, I had my shop that I had slaved over for years.
I would not walk away from all that just because people couldn’t stop judging what they didn’t understand.
Setting my wine glass on the living room table, I grabbed my laptop and pulled up the site where Delaney uploaded my profile. I wasn’t all that hopeful that I would actually meetsomeone, but I was curious if anyone had at least responded to my picture.
To my surprise, I had ten men, one woman, and someone who claimed they were a chihuahua in another life. I snorted and declined all but the men.
The first guy was an automatic no.Wanna hook up?
“Not likely,” I said, immediately deleting his message.
The second guy wasn’t too bad. He was handsome and seemed like a good guy, but he was over forty miles away. I put him in the considering pile.
Not that I was actually considering any of these men. I was just curious.
Guy number three had too many piercings, and most of them were on his face.
Guys four, five, and six, I discounted because of the lack of information on their profiles. I understood not wanting to put too much information online, but nothing other than your name and profession seemed sketchy.
Number seven was definitely a possibility. Good-looking. Wholesome. “Aww, he’s a veterinarian,” I sighed when I saw the picture of him with his dog. “That’s a definite maybe.”
Moving on, I discounted eight and nine, but nearly spit out my wine when I saw the picture for number ten.
