The auburn mane stilled. “Do me a favor? Tell Kevin I’ll understand if he leaves. I can’t say what I’d do if the tables were turned.” Then she snorted. “Of course, in a sense they are, aren’t they? I mean, I never doubted that he had nothing to do with his wife’s accident.” She made a huffing sound. “That’s how things go sometimes, don’t they? Sometimes the people you trust turn out to be the ones you shouldn’t have.”

By then Annie’s legs were weak. All the other chaos in her life seemed far less threatening. Then Taylor walked toward the front door.

“You’ll lock up when you leave?”

Annie uttered a mouse-like “Yes.”

And the woman was gone as quickly as she’d appeared.

Annie didn’t move until she heard the tires of the pickup rumble over the dirt and accelerate out onto the road. She realized she’d been holding her breath, but wasn’t sure for how long.

“Yikes!” she said aloud. “That was bizarre.”

It certainly was, Murphy replied from somewhere in the rafters.

And Annie smiled, less agitated now, thanks to her friend who had been with her in spirit. She went outside, retrieved her essentials from the Jeep, and got to work.

* * *

Donna claimed she’d eaten half a sandwich earlier that day, and Annie didn’t dispute her. Donna seemed at ease in the Lyons’s home that evening. Earl was entertaining, Claire was gracious, and John couldn’t do enough for her. Lucy, too, seemed on her best behavior, refilling Donna’s ice water when the glass was only half full and trying to keep Restless from jumping into Donna’s lap despite her cheerful protestations that she loved dogs.

Kevin didn’t say much, and he sneezed a few times, though he said he didn’t have a cold. He seemed to have to work at smiling.

“I think the ladies should retire to the living room,” Claire said once the fish and wild rice and green beans had been consumed. Annie would have bet that Claire had prepared the light meal with Donna in mind. “My favorite part of having friends for dinner is when I leave the men to clean up.”

Lucy said she’d take the dog outside to chase birds, then she’d make tea to go with Annie’s cookies. In addition to the usual chocolate chip, Annie had baked a batch of lemon wafers dusted with confectioners sugar, which she thought Donna might enjoy. Though she’d done a lot of baking at the center, Annie hadn’t written a damn word. It wasn’t only because she’d been unnerved by Taylor—she also recognized an undercurrent of Mark, as if he’d slid back into her life on Larry Hendricks’s slimy heels.