Callie wondered if she’d be alive to see what happened the day Phoenix returned to Whiskey Creek....
“Maybe she’s not as bad as we all think.”
This comment came from Sophia, which seemed to surprise more than just Callie. Sophia hadn’t been one of them in high school. She’d had her own group, most of whom were as mean as she’d been.
“She caused Lori’s death,” Eve said, obviously exasperated.
“I know but—” Sophia turned her cup in a circle as if she was hesitant yet driven to speak up “—she’d been drinking. Sometimes people do really stupid things when they’re drunk.”
There was no arguing with that, but everyone was so firmly on Riley’s side that this comment didn’t bring her the positive attention she’d been looking for since trying to become part of the group. Gail was about the only one who’d been able to forgive her. Maybe it would be easier for the others to do that, too, if she hadn’t done so many catty things. Actually, at times she’d been more than catty.
“Regardless, what happened happened,” Ted muttered. “Like I said, she should leave Riley and Jacob alone and build a life elsewhere.”
Sophia shot Ted a steely look. “When you’re a mother, accepting the loss of a child is easier said than done.”
Putting his elbows on the table, Ted leaned forward to make his point. “If Phoenix hadn’t killed Lori, she wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“You don’t know what was going on inside her head when it happened!” Sophia retorted. “How can you judge? It’s easy to think you know who’s right and who’s wrong when you’re looking in from the outside.”
Ted slammed down his cup. “So what are we really talking about, Sophia? What you did to Scott?”
There was a collective gasp as she blanched. Then her face reddened and she stood. “I—I’m sorry. I don’t seem to be very good company today. Excuse me.”
They all gaped at Ted as she left.
“Wasn’t that a little harsh?” Noah asked after the door swung shut.
Given how much time had passed, Callie thought it was. They hadn’t mentioned Scott’s name since Sophia had started coming to coffee. Once the best basketball player to attend Eureka High, he’d been killed in a drunk-driving accident that most people blamed her for causing. Even though she wasn’t in the vehicle with him, it was her actions that had led him to take the risk.
“She’s the only mother among us,” Cheyenne said. “Of course she’s going to feel bad for a woman whose actions have cost her her child.”
“Forget about her. She has no business coming here, anyway,” Ted grumbled, but he slumped morosely over his coffee, as if he regretted what he’d done.
“Gail says she’s not so bad anymore—” Cheyenne started, but Noah grabbed her arm.
“Let it go,” he murmured, and she did. They all knew that Ted was probably still in love with Sophia. That was why he couldn’t get past how she’d wronged him.
“There are better things to talk about than Sophia or Phoenix,” Baxter said.
“Like?” Eve asked.
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Callie’s got something interesting going on in her life.”
A flicker of fear raced through Callie—until she realized that Baxter wasn’t about to give her away. He was referring to the fact that she had a guest at the farm.
“Oh, yeah!” Noah said. “Tell us about this drifter.”
Obviously, Baxter had mentioned Levi to Noah. Or Kyle had. Maybe they’d all talked about him, because no one asked, “What drifter?” Anything of note spread quickly among them.
“There’s not much to tell,” she said, when all eyes turned to her. “His name’s Levi. He needs work—and I need labor.” She shrugged, hoping to convince her friends that his being in her life wasn’t a big deal. “So we’ve worked out a trade.”
“How long will he be staying with you?” Dylan typically didn’t do much of the talking. Until he’d married Cheyenne, he hadn’t been a member of the group. But he’d been a far more welcome addition to coffee on Fridays than Sophia, even though she’d been coming a lot longer. Their first loyalty was and always would be to Ted.
Callie met Dylan’s gaze. His eyes were too pretty to belong to a former MMA fighter, she thought, but his crooked nose betrayed him. “A week or so.”
Kyle’s scowl grew so dark, several people shifted as if he was making them uncomfortable.
“You don’t like that he’s there, Kyle?” Cheyenne asked, calling him on his reaction.
A second rush of panic, this one for an entirely different reason, had Callie curling her fingernails into her palms. If Kyle wasn’t careful, he’d give them away. She already felt as though she had the word guilty emblazoned on her forehead.
“I’m just worried,” he replied. “She doesn’t really know him, doesn’t know what he’s capable of.”
Eve looked perplexed. “Hasn’t he been there a few nights already?”
“Doesn’t mean anything,” Kyle insisted. “It takes longer than that to earn trust.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
When Baxter spoke up, Callie was grateful to him for drawing some of the scrutiny away from her. “I think having a man on the farm might be a good thing.”
“Why do you think that?” It was Kyle, of course, who challenged him.
“You never know.” He cradled his cup. “That means she’s got help on hand, if she needs it. From what she’s told me, this dude can fight.”
Dylan might’ve spoken up. He knew all about professional fighting. But Kyle was having none of it. “She’s got Rifle to protect her.”
“True,” Baxter said, “but the owners of those killer pit bulls are blaming her for the fact that they’ve been impounded.”
“Those guys are renters,” Kyle argued. “They won’t be in town long. And they’ll calm down and forget about her once he leaves.”
“What if they don’t?” Baxter asked.
“Then we’ll protect her. I don’t care how good this guy can fight. No one can fight better than Dylan.”
“What’s his name again?” Dylan asked.
Someone told him “Levi McCloud” and Dylan said he’d never heard of him, but Callie had stopped paying attention. Her chair scraped the old wooden floor as she shoved it back. Kyle was driving her crazy. “Look, I’ll do what I want, okay? We’re not taking a vote.”