Page 25 of All Yours

“I needed some air. And we did not cause that crazy-ass woman to do that,” she almost shrieked. I patted her on the shoulder in a ‘calm down’ gesture.

“That is unfair to blame us for any of what has happened,” Lauren pointed at him.

“If y’all were in here, then I could have put a stop to it quicker, is all I meant.” He held up his hands in surrender.

“We don’t go around just asking for trouble,” I said. How dare he suggest we were at fault for what happened?

In the middle of the bar, Adrian huffed and leaned toward us. “Chattanooga,” he whispered.

Lauren and Eden gasped.

“Okay, yes, that we could have handled a little differently. But, in our defense, that man should have known not to run towards a strange woman in a parking lot. Talk about sending someone into a panic.”

“We thought he was a murderer or something,” Lauren said.

“In broad daylight?” Adrian asked.

“It’s happened,” Eden chimed in.

Adrian rolled his eyes.

“We were all genuinely terrified,” Lauren said.

Adrian glanced over our head. “Look Sloane, your boyfriend’s here.”

We turned to see Jonah coming through the door. My heart thudded a little harder in my chest. The phone buzzing in my back pocket diverted my attention.

“It’s the PR rep,” I said, staring at the screen. I stepped away from the group. “Hi Jen. Please tell me you have some good news.”

“That’d be a negative,” she said. “The judge denied the injunction because of the publishers claim they couldn’t find you. So, it will release tomorrow. Sorry. But we are ready to go with your statement.”

Chapter Ten

Jonah

Back at Sloane’s front door, I put the accusation that I spend more time with Sloane than my mom out of my head. I’m allowed to spend time with my friends, right? And it was of particular importance right now because my friend needed help. That was all. As I knocked, the wind blew through the trees, dislodging an abundance of spent leaves that floated around me like brown confetti. After a few minutes of no answer, I stepped back and took in the cabin. The darkened windows meant nothing. Lauren said that Sloane had gone home. She’d left the bar before I had a chance to talk to her.

No one answered at the side door to the apartment where Eden was staying. I didn’t like anything about Eden being there, and the more things that happened, the more my suspicions were furthered that they should have sent her on her way instead of taking her in. But I couldn’t tell that to Sloane. She’d brought her into the fold and saw it as her duty to protect the young woman in need.

Where was everyone? I wandered into the backyard of the property overlooking Hart Lake and glanced around. Down by the water sat a little fire pit and smoke rose from the area. I took the path to find Sloane poking through a smoldering pile of wood with a stick.

“Whatcha’ doing?” I asked as I approached.

She didn’t glance up, with the gate now fixed random people couldn’t make it back here without hopping the gate. Wrapped in a faux fur lined winter coat zipped to the chin, she looked more like we should be in Siberia than Hart Valley in the autumn.

“Wondering how long it would take to burn an entire book,” she said, straightening. A low flame burst from the center of the pile.

“You have it?” I asked.

“No, they are sending me a copy that should arrive tomorrow. They had the nerve to ask Jen if I wanted an autographed copy.” Her voice was low and monotone, almost like she’d checked out of the whole thing already.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, following her to the Adirondack chairs beside the fire pit and dropping myself into one. It had been a long day and my feet ached in my work boots.

“I’m just gonna see what’s in it first,” she said, stabbing the stick into the earth.

“Shouldn’t we like go to dinner and be seen around town?” If I was supposed to pretend to be her boyfriend, we should make it believable.

“All I want to do is hunker down and hide until it all blows over,” she said, continuing to fiddle the with the stick she’d used to poke the firewood. “At this point, they still haven’t connected my former name to the one I changed it to or where I live. The more I go out, the more likely that is to happen.”