“Grab me some, Nash,” he answers.
When they start to walk off, I look back to where Wyn has been and find her already looking at me. But something’s off. She’s not smiling, and there’s something else. She’s looking at me the same way she did when I first showed up—leery, nervous, and absolutely angry.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Wyn
“I’m goingto just say this, Wyn,” Sheriff Fury says. He holds up his hands like he doesn’t want to offend me, which is the tell that he’s about to do just that. “I know you’ve been through it?—”
I cut him off right there. Glaring at him, I hold up my hand. “Fury, not for nothing, but you have no idea what I’ve been through. So please don’t try to get on my good side here when you’re about to tell me something that you already know I’m not going to like.”
Reed can’t help but snort out a laugh, knowing I’ve just shut up our county sheriff with a few words.
I glance at Reed, almost annoyed that he’s listening to any of this. He barnacled himself to me as soon as I showed up here.
“Fine. Fine. You should know then that I spent a couple of hours last night talking with Julian Colton.”
I furrow my brow. “Wait, what?” I ask, coming back to what Fury is saying to me.
“Julian was real honest about some things, mostly about being here.”
My stomach sinks at his words. There’s no way he could really be honest with him, not about what brought him here. And there isn’t a single part of me that could see Julian cooperating with Fury.
Fury loops his thumbs into his belt loops and adds, “I’m not convinced that he’s not hiding something. The timing of your friend’s arrival in town keeps gnawing at me.”
What the hell would have taken a couple of hours to talk about at the sheriff’s station?The reality that knocks the wind out of me isn’t the fact that Julian knows the whereabouts of Deputy Stan Billings, but that he could easily negotiate saving his own ass. If he cooperated and shared what he knows, my family would be the target. I swallow and try to remain unaffected at what their conversation could’ve resulted in.
When I look out to the crowd, and past Birdie doing her reading, Julian’s having a beer and laughing with Jameson.When the hell did they get friendly?Jameson doesn’t like very many people.
I tune out the rest of what Sheriff Fury’s saying. I’m embarrassed for allowing other people's opinions of my family to play such a huge part in my choices when I was younger. I wish I’d paid attention instead of shoving the distance between us. I hate that they kept secrets from me the same way I’m lucky that they had. But at the core of the choices they made, they protected who and what they could.
“Sheriff, are you assuming Deputy Billings is dead, or still missing?” Reed asks next to me, but my focus is on mygrandmother now. I watch as Birdie fans out her cards, asking the woman sitting across from her to choose. It isn’t often that a reading takes all that long, but sometimes, when there’s more to be discussed, she has her company pull out more cards to help explain a situation more clearly.Or maybe it isn’t a reading at all.
I replay every word she and my mother had said in that kitchen, trying to think about what I could have missed over the years, but I come up with nothing every time. Nothing has stood out to me, but now...
Birdie isn’t looking at the cards being pulled; in fact, she isn’t saying much at all. When I see who’s sitting across from her, it makes me pause. Blond braided hair and dark-rimmed glasses—Andi. I haven’t taken all that much time to get to know this semester’s assistants yet, but she’s been paying Birdie quite a few visits lately—her visit at the house during dinner seemed like that wasn’t the first time she’d met with my grandmother, and now, tonight.
Andi swats away at her cheek like she’s batting a tear, talking quickly and looking upset. Normally, it isn’t my business, but after knowing more, it feels like it is. Like she can feel curious eyes on her, Birdie glances up and stares right back at me.
“Ah, shit, there’s Cora looking a little more drunk than I expected,” Sheriff Fury says as he moves around us. “If you’ll excuse me.”
“When was the last time she did one of those for you?” Reed asks, but it’s Andi who’s walking past that steals my attention.
“Andi, are you alright?” I ask, stopping her in her tracks. Her eyes are rimmed red as she offers a barely believable smile when she realizes who I am. “Dr. Crowne. So sorry. I didn’t see you there.” She clears her throat. “I’m just really stressed with my class load, and—” She waves it off, seemingly more jumpy than overwhelmed, but I know the requirements of the graduateprogram and what is expected of teaching assistants. She keeps her focus on me until she pulls her phone from her back pocket. “I have to run. So nice seeing you,” she says, all of a sudden seeming like she has to rush off.
“I’m going to grab something to eat. Want to get a plate?” Reed asks, seemingly just as eager to get away from me now too.
“Oh, no, thank you.” I have no plans to spend time with him. I’m here for someone else tonight. Someone I need to talk to, immediately. “I’m actually meeting someone. Thanks anyway, Reed,” I shout in his direction, and just as I do, I see Julian walking right toward me.
I can’t figure out how I should be feeling or which emotion is the right one for this situation. One moment, I want to flirt and play, and the next, I’m trying to navigate authorities, and now, I’m anxious at the idea that someone I want to trust might have just spent hours building a case against the two women who raised me.
“Crowne,” Julian says as he reaches me, his deep voice like a caress.
I shake my head, ignoring how he affects me. “Don’t Crowne me. And definitely don’t look at me like that,” I say, trying to skirt around him. I need to move. If I don’t move, I’m going to pick the wrong fucking emotion, I know it.
“Okay got it.” He nods. “Do notCrowneyou and don’t look at you,” he says with a lilt of humor in his voice. “I am going to follow you, though, because clearly I’ve done something you’re not thrilled about.”
“I’m not thrilled about a lot of things,” I mumble to myself as I weave through the mass of people. I keep having to stop and pivot around them.
