Page 26 of Until You

“Saved by the bell,” Tanya says when Alma is out of hearing range. “I love that woman to pieces, but she’s known for questioning you to death, and then only taking the information she wants from it to help bolster the gossip she spreads.”

“Thanks for the warning,” I say with a smile.

“We all mean well, here. I promise.” She pats my arm as Bobbi Jo’s laughter carries over to us. “We’re all just a little overbearing—that comes from knowing each other since we were basically born—but I assure you that’s a good thing. Overbearing means we like you.”

“Well, it’s always nice to be liked,” I say and begin stuffing my envelopes again.

“It is indeed. So, New York, huh?”

“New York?” I ask.

“Rumor is that’s where you’re from?”

“Sure am. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been there, though.”

“Cold Spring?” she asks, and my smile falters slightly.

“Correct. We lived there a couple of years while growing up.”

“It’s a beautiful town. Perfectly located—rural but close enough to the city.”

“You know it then?” I ask of a town I’ve never lived in but that I know from research.

“Sure do. My sister and her boys live there. Been there more times than I can count. When were you there? Maybe you know her, or we crossed paths at some point. Wouldn’t that be something?”

“Army brat here.” I raise my hand and offer a warmer smile. “We moved around a lot, so much so that the years get all confused at some point.”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it only gets worse as the years add on.” She pats my hand. “Take it from someone who knows. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go see if Jess needs help calling food vendors.” She reaches out, puts her arm around my shoulders, and gives me a quick and unexpected squeeze. “This is just so exciting.”

I watch Tanya head in Jess’s direction as I draw in a deep breath and take in the scene around me. There are pods of people working on projects. Vendor sponsorships, town decorations, carnival booth ideas, and the list goes on and on. Per Bobbi Jo, we are in the assessing phase of planning. What do we have? What do we need? What do we want?

Once we figure those three things out, we can go from there.

Lucky for me, I’m in the envelope stuffing phase where I can put my head down and avoid as much local gossip as possible.

Or rather, doing something that would make me become the local gossip.

Which is why I kept the bouquet of wild daisies I found on my front porch this morning to myself.

No doubt they were from the girls, and no doubt Alma could have spun a little tidbit like that into a whole damn love affair that doesn’t exist simply because she could.

But those flowers . . . they brightened my day and made me think way too much about our non-dinner, dinner. The whole thing is silly really—the me thinking about it more than I should part—because it’s not like it was the first time I’d ever had a disaster of an evening.

But it’s still on my mind—Crew and the girls are still front and center—because it got me here. Out in the public. Pushing me out of my comfort zone that I’ve been hiding in for the past two years.

No one here knows the truth about who I am or anything about my past. I’m just Tennyson West, the anti-social book editor who lives in the cottage out on old Ian Madden’s farm because she decided she wanted a slower-paced, quieter life than the one she had in New York City.

And yet the doubt is always there in the back of my mind. The fear of being found out is a constant thought.

The reassurances I’ve been given can’t fully erase my knowledge of the power, the influence, and the thirst for revenge that Kaleo has—even when he thinks I’m dead.

We were a couple who lived in the public eye. Our faces were known to many—for good and bad. The change in my hair color can’t exactly erase what I physically look like or who I am. A change in location, a change in name, can’t alter that.

And so, I’ve lived my life since that day on the yacht years ago, constantly looking over my shoulder. Always wondering. Competently knowing that even from behind bars, Kaleo still calls the shots over his empire. What deals to make. What orders to be completed. What hits to make.

My hope is that in time, the worry and fear will dissipate and that I’ll be able to live a normal life just like everybody else in this gym.

Normal.