Tucker laughed, but Arlo barely raised a smile. “I just…didn’t expect this to happen. I thought I’d have to encourage her to start dating again at some point, like I had to encourage her to take the job at the old folks’ home. I’d have thought she’d be scared shitless of men forever.”

Tucker’s sentiments exactly. But Della’s recovery and how she was fighting for a normal life were the bravest damn things Tucker had ever seen. It was tempting to still think of Della as the frightened little bird that Arlo had ushered into town, but today she’d made a stand, and, as much as he worried, he was also full of admiration.

“She has needs,” Tucker said absently, that word still affecting him in ways he really wished it wouldn’t.

Arlo’s eyebrows leaped on his forehead before they pulled down low on his brow again. “I beg your pardon?”

Tucker realized he’d spoken out loud. “It’s what she said…when she was at the bar earlier. That she had needs.”

Arlo winced, looking discomforted. Drew, he of the four sisters, did not. “She does know there are ways to…meet needs that don’t require the assistance of a man, right? Maybe you can stop in at Frieda’s Palace on your way to Denver next time.”

Tucker could tell Arlo would rather be staked out on an anthill and covered in honey than take his sister to a sex shop. “Christ.” Arlo shook his head. “You Dr. Ruth now?”

Drew just grinned, and, as another burst of female laughter rang through the air, Arlo drained his second beer. Tucker was half tempted to join him as thoughts of Della finding something at Frieda’s to meet her needs were way more disturbing than was good for his mental health.

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The following Monday, Della was working the early shift at The Credence Retirement Home For The Aged. Not that anybody called it by its proper name. It was just the old folks’ home. Or, if you were Bob Downey, Death View Manor, given its closeness to both the funeral home and the cemetery.

Della worked in the villa section. Ultimately, she wanted to work in the high-dependency facility, where residents needed full nursing care. But she had to go to college to become an RN, which was something she’d realized in recent months she wanted to pursue.

It was just a matter of plucking up the courage and taking that first step.

Like she’d done with Tinder.

Della smiled to herself as she smoothed out the duvet and straightened the pillows on Mrs. Forbes’s bed. “Ah…I know that look,” said a warm voice from somewhere behind.