Tobias felt his muscles bunch. Go inside. Don’t let him get under your skin.

Swinging the door wide, he was about to cross the threshold when Carl said, “Does she know about the other girl you had over not too long ago?”

Unable to resist a response, Tobias whirled around. “I didn’t have that other girl over. She dropped by. There’s a difference. And she won’t be coming back.”

“She looked upset when she left. What’d you do to her?”

“Nothing.”

“So you like this one better.”

“This fascination you’ve got with me is flattering, but I don’t see why you should even notice what I do,” Tobias said.

“I think you’re interesting. And I’m bored.”

“There’s plenty of work around here, if you’re bored.”

He lit a cigarette. “I bet you believe almost any chick would like to ride what you got between your legs,” he said and took a long drag. “But do they know what kind of man you really are?”

Tobias’s hands curled into fists almost of their own accord. “What are you talking about?”

“Everyone thinks I’m such a loser,” he said. “At least I’ve never shot anyone.”

A premonition of danger, the threat Carl now posed, made Tobias’s skin tighten and prickle. But, once again, he knew he couldn’t let on that Carl had hit a nerve. He had to act as though he had nothing to hide. “Why don’t you go to bed, Carl?” he asked and yawned as though he was tired. “That’s old news.”

“Wasn’t old news to me,” Carl retorted. “That man I crashed into? Atticus Brooks? Some bitch I met at the bar tonight told me you’re the one who crippled him.”

Tobias clenched his jaw. “Like I said, old news.”

Carl pushed off from the barn. “That so? Does my father know you shot an eleven-year-old boy? Because first thing in the morning, I’m going to tell him. I bet he won’t think so highly of you after that.”

“Everyone knows about my past,” Tobias said with a shrug and went inside. He’d been desperately trying to disarm Carl by acting cool, but he wasn’t nearly as unruffled as he’d tried to appear.

There was one person who didn’t know, and he didn’t want her to find out.

Especially now that things were going so well.

The next day Harper was so much happier than she’d been since coming to Silver Springs that Karoline commented on it. “You seem so…up today. So energetic.”