Page 72 of Living Hell

TWENTY-FOUR

Iona

“THIS WASN’T WHAT Ihad in mind when I said we needed to meet,” Babette said as she sat in the corner of the room at the doctor’s office.

“Blame Tyler. He made me come here,” I said as I once again adjusted the paper gown I was wearing.

I had been throwing up for the last four days. Tyler was worried about me, as was Cara and Jake. And, if I was being honest with myself, so was I.

Jake drove me and Babette here today and he now waited in the waiting room.

I’ve had stomach bugs before, but nothing like this. I was having trouble keeping water down.

“If the doctor can fix this,” she waved her jewel-covered hand at me, “then you should thank him.”

“The doctor?”

“No, your fiancé.”

“Fake fiancé, you mean.”

The corner of her lip twisted. “Whatever you say . . .”

I wasn’t too happy with him right now. He met with the mayor yesterday and punched him, then I had to collect him from the police station. Luckily, Sheriff Heart was fond of Tyler. He mentioned in our meeting, before he let Tyler go, that he saw him as a lost puppy.

The sheriff asked if I would meet him for some questions later and I agreed. I just hope it wasn’t about Tyler.

Garrison knew what an asshole the mayor was and didn’t lock Tyler up. But the mayor threatened a lawsuit, which was why I had to reach out to Babette.

I played with Tyler’s grandmother’s ring on my finger. He was doing a great job as my fiancé, except for punching the mayor.

The way he looked at me and the sweet things he’d say to me made my heart ache in a way it never had. And when I thought about the end of the month and heading back to the West Coast, the ache grew painful.

I didn’t want to leave.

“Once I play my part at the apple festival, I can start packing. Cara’s done a great job mentioning all my involvement in town on my social media pages. She said my following has gone up quite a bit. That’s a good sign, right?”

Babette nodded but sighed.

“What?”

“It’s just this stupid rumor about Tyler killing animals. It won’t seem to die. Has he noticed anything different with people reacting to him?”

Pretty much everything, since I showed up, has been different for him. I knew Tyler liked the simple life and mine was anything but.

That’s why when he professed his love, I thought it was some ploy to get rid of me. Why would a hot guy like him—who only wanted peace and quiet in his life—fall for a train wreck like me?

I was a mess and the opposite of quiet.

“He did mention that the office had been slow over the past few weeks.”

“I’m going to look into it. When I researched him, he was the perfect candidate for your fiancé. Something isn’t right.”

“You researched him? When?”

Babette was thorough so it shouldn’t surprise me that she found out everything she could on Tyler, but I felt protective of him for some reason. I never wanted the Hollywood crazy to touch him but with me in his life, I suppose that was impossible.

“When I was looking up your hometown before I bought your old house. Magic Mike mentioned you having a comeback to help your career.”

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