Page 130 of Nothing to Fear

“And now you’re through?” Roxie asked. She nodded in response, unable to look the woman in the eye. “Do you want to be through?”

“With the man I thought he was? No. Shame that’s not who he is.”

“How do you know? He fucked up? What did he do? Screw around?”

“No! God, Darroch would never—” What the hell did she know? Not the truth of him. “I thought he was someone else.”

“Guys get weird when they’re falling in love. Believe me, I’ve seen it in many crazy forms. Sometimes we act crazy too and—”

“No, I don’t mean…” Blowing out her shame, she had to do it or give up. “How are you at keeping secrets?”

“I’m the goddamn Vatican. Tripp might be a priest, I’m his Holy Father. Wooo, the things I know about that man.”

Roxie wouldn’t want to hurt the Breckenridges if Tripp was one of her best friends. And it wasn’t like the woman could hurt her, she’d quit her job, which entailed cutting off friendships. Maybe Roxie could be her one last thread of sanity.And, it turned out, a job had just sauntered up to say hello and offer itself to her.

FORTY-TWO

ROXIE WAS A lifeline. She hadn’t completely agreed to join Huddle Hope, but hadn’t discarded it as an option either. Who was she kidding? If it wasn’t for Roxie’s Breckenridge connection, she’d have signed on already.

Over the last three days, her newest friend had called six times. Other callers, she ignored. Roxie? She picked up. If the stories were even half true, Roxanna Kyst knew no limits. The woman was not about hollow threats. There was something about her, an openness, a welcomeness. She’d challenge anyone to dislike or discourage Roxie Kyst.

At least she was getting out now. Groceries, pharmacist, boring errands, but it was better than moping around the apartment. Walking down the sidewalk, she found herself checking the faces that passed by. No Breckenridges. Post-contact with that family, their tentacles slunk into every area of her life, her consciousness.

With a bag on her hip, another around her wrist, she fumbled in her purse to retrieve her ringing phone. Good, she needed a distraction.

“Hello?”

“Want to come to the club tonight?”

“Roxie,” she said and smiled. “You ask me that every day.”

“Eventually, you’ll say yes. Everyone does in the end. Take a break from job surfing and type my guy’s name into Huddle Hunt. That’s Z-A-I-R-N.”

She laughed. “And why am I putting your guy’s name into a search engine?”

“He’s hot. Really, smokin’ hot.”

Life got lighter with this woman’s support. “And you’re charging for viewings?”

“Oh, I would if I could, believe me, I would. Unfortunately, he believes in flashing it all over the place, wrecking my chances of exploiting his beauty. Lucky for you, it’s more of a sucker punch in the flesh. You’ve got to see him up close.”

And she might consider it, except… “Tripp lives in the building.”

“Unofficially. And he’s usually all for mending a woman’s broken heart with his spunk. Unfortunately, that doesn’t extend to his brother’s girls… I think. I’ve never seen verifiable evidence either way. If there was an exception to that rule, it would be Brant… if he could ever get a girl.”

“I don’t want to crash his party. I’ve cut ties with everything Breckenridge.”

“Until you come home to Huddle. Come on, honey!” Roxie whined. “Get back on the horse.”

“Horse?”

“Yeah, I’ll find you one, don’t worry, Toria’s vetted a lot of eligible men since she moved here. We’ll start you off gentle, find you a real nice steed to ride.”

The last thing she could think about was men or relationships.

“I’m swearing off dating.” Indefinitely. “I don’t have the energy.”

“So we’ll have a girls’ night. Freya would love to get to know you better. At the very least, you should come to dinner.”

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