Page 58 of The Banned Books Club

Gia ignored him. He was trying to get a better look at her. Or upset her. Or both. She tried to keep her eyes averted, but before she could even finish her burger, she saw him come by yet again.

Of course this would happen on her first chance to get out of the house...

Shoving the rest of her burger and fries back into the sack, she tossed the food in the wastebasket as she made her way to her father’s SUV. She was done letting Evan Hart gawk at her.

Besides, she had to help her parents with dinner and get showered before the Banned Books Club meeting. Since she’d heard from Ruth, she wasn’t quite as nervous about attending as she’d been a few days ago, but she still wanted to look her best.

Gia was just climbing into the driver’s seat when the vehicle Mr. Hart had been driving turned into the burger joint. A chill ran down her spine the moment she saw him. He wouldn’t say anything... Surely, he knew better than to do that.

Stopping immediately behind her, he glared at her via her side mirror.

Incensed that he’d made it impossible for her to leave, Gia got out. “What do you want?” she yelled.

It was cold enough that there weren’t many people eating at the outdoor tables, but there were a few. They looked up in surprise, but Gia didn’t care. Mr. Hart was obviously trying to intimidate her, and she wasn’t going to put up with it. “Well?” she demanded, resting her hands on her hips.

His window slid down. “I want to know how it feels to ruin a man’s life,” he yelled back at her. “I want to know if you’re proud of yourself.”

“How dare you!” she said. “Youruined your life—and you nearly ruined mine!”

“I’m happy you sufferedsomeconsequences!”

“You know I’m not lying about that night!”

“Hey!” A mountain of a man stood up from where he’d been eating and motioned for Mr. Hart to move along. “I won’t tolerate a man accosting a woman. If you have a legitimate beef with her, you’d better handle it somewhere else, when you’re not around me.”

Mr. Hart didn’t respond to the man directly. He shook his head, said she should be ashamed of herself and drove off.

The man held his soda in one hand as he watched the Blazer go around the drive-through and turn onto the street. “You okay?” he called over to her when Hart was gone.

Initially, Gia thought it might be someone she’d known from high school—someone who understood what was going on. But she was glad, once she had a chance to look more closely, to see that her Good Samaritan was a total stranger. That made things a little simpler. Encountering Mr. Hart had been enough of a blast from the past. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for...thanks for getting rid of him,” she said and climbed into her father’s SUV as he returned to his meal.

Cormac hadn’t been able to reach Louisa or either of his brothers-in-law. They must’ve decided among themselves that he was now part of the enemy camp and closed ranks. That they would exclude him instead of considering what he had to say stung—and made him angry at the same time. These were his little sisters. Louisa worked for him; he was the reason she had a job that was flexible enough to allow her to take off when she wanted or even bring her kids to the clinic. But she, along with Edith, had fully embraced their father’s side of the story for so long they’d indoctrinated their husbands. He was the one who’d changed; he could see why that would upset them.

Finally, an hour before the reunion was supposed to start, Cormac called his father. He wanted to know if Evan was involved, if he knew what was going on and was possibly even behind it. If so, maybe he could get his father to listen to reason and call off the others. Evan had to see how a confrontation, especially a public one, would just dredge it all back up and continue to split loyalties and keep people talking.

When his dad’s voicemail came on, Cormac thought maybe Evan wasn’t speaking to him, either. But five minutes later, his phone lit up with a picture of his father.

“You called?” Evan said when Cormac answered.

“I did. Are you at work?”

“Not anymore. Just got home.”

“You must be feeling better.”

“I told you I would be, that you were worried I’d miss more days for nothing. What do you need?”

Cormac sat on the edge of the couch and scratched behind Duke’s ears while he talked. “Louisa and Edith and their husbands are going to a reunion Gia planned for the Banned Books Club tonight.”

“They are? Why would they go there?”

It didn’t seem as if he knew about it. “They plan to confront Gia, to humiliate her in public, I guess, because nothing else will come of it. They haven’t told you about this?”

“No. Haven’t heard a word about it. But more power to them. It’s about time someone stood up for me.”

Cormac grimaced at his father’s response. “You were a grown man. She was just a girl.”

“Which is why all the sympathy went her way. You think that’s fair?”

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