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And behind that counter was Jude, in the middle of sorting a stack of books. He looked up to see who’d entered the shop and went utterly still.

I knew I needed to get this out, so I said in a rush, “I came to apologize. I was rude on Saturday. You’d just lost your closest friend, and I made it all about me. I’m sorry.”

For a moment, he didn’t say anything. He looked at the book he was holding, expression almost puzzled, as if he couldn’t remember why he had it or what it was about. Then, very carefully, he put it down.

“I came into Copper State Cellars spoiling for a fight,” he told me. “I’m not proud of that.” He paused before adding, “I’m sorry, too.”

How was I supposed to reply to that? Here I’d been steeling myself for more harsh words, and he was apologizing almost as much as I was.

Maybe more.

By that point, I was standing right in front of the counter. The cat got up and stretched luxuriously, and then rubbed its head against my hand.

For some reason, that simple little gesture of affection made my eyes sting. I hadn’t expected the cat’s approval any more than I’d expected Jude to tell me he’d been just as much in the wrong as I was.

“It’s a beautiful cat,” I said, since that seemed like a neutral enough comment.

“This is Flannery,” Jude said. “She’s a good judge of character.” For the first time, his eyes met mine. The light in here was brighter than it had been in the bar, so although I’d already guessed that his eyes were hazel, now I could see all their complexity, the mix of green and gold and soft brown and even slate blue, absolutely mesmerizing in the warm afternoon sun that slipped through the bookshop’s front window. “She usually doesn’t do that with strangers.”

The cat’s fur was soft, an entirely different kind of soft from Chauncey’s long, silky coat.

“I’m glad,” I said, and I was. “I like animals.”

“And she can tell that.” He straightened a little, then said, “How are you settling in here in Prescott?”

Another olive branch, I thought, another way to ease past the hostility that had marked our first exchange.

“Just fine,” I replied. “It’s different from Scottsdale.”

Now he chuckled. “I can imagine. So…what made you want to make the switch?”

“Hazel,” I said, then amended, “Or at least, her leaving me the bar and the house gave me a chance to revisit what I was doing and where I wanted to go. I lost my parents about a year ago — ”

“I’m sorry,” he told me.

Somehow, I managed not to shrug. Such a gesture would have looked indifferent to him, and I was far from indifferent. But I was also tired of hearing those words and having to respond to them, and now, a year later, I just wanted to put as much of it behind me as possible.

“Thank you,” I said. “Anyway, it seemed like the universe was kind of pointing me in this direction, so I decided to listen to it.”

Jude nodded. I could see now how he’d been trained as a priest, how he was able to simply be and listen to a person talking without injecting anything of himself into the conversation.

“It’s when we stop to listen that we can truly hear,” he said. “I’m glad that Prescott spoke to you.”

“And I’m really sorry about Father Frank,” I told him. “This whole thing is just awful.”

“It is.” For a moment, Jude was silent, as if he was trying to decide how much to say. Then he went on, “We were close for a long time. I think we talked at least two or three times a week for the past ten years. He’s the one who helped me through leaving the priesthood.”

“Why did you leave?” I blurted, and then realized that was an extremely intrusive question to ask.

Jude just looked at me, gaze level. “That’s not really a first-conversation question.”

“Sorry,” I said. At least Flannery had allowed me to continue petting her through all this, so I hoped I hadn’t just blacklisted myself.

To my surprise, Jude only said, “It’s all right. We can talk about it sometime.” Those hazel eyes fixed on me again. “Just not today.”

Fair enough. Time to move on to something else.

“The night he died, Father Frank wanted to tell me something about Hazel,” I said. “But it was kind of busy, and he said we’d talk later.”