We’re both quiet for a moment before North speaks again. “I actually came in here for a reason.”

“Aside from all this awkward-ass talk of our feelings and women who stomp on them?”

He laughs. “Not that this hasn’t been fun.” He sobers. “Lisa Brown is dead.”

Blood rushes from my head so quickly my hands prickle. Lisa Brown. The woman who ran me off the road and took pictures of the aftermath. In the darkest shadows of my heart, I can admit that she scared the hell out of me. “How?”

“I don’t know if you’d call it irony, but she was struck by a car crossing Sunset last week. I only just heard from Martin about it today.”

My breath expels with an audible whoosh. She’s dead.

The numbness crawls along my fingers, and I flex my hand. “And Michelle Fredericks?” The friend who was with her. “What’s going on with her?”

“From what Martin has gathered, Fredericks is heading back to her hometown in Arizona. Apparently that was in the works for a couple of months.”

It’s over. I close my eyes and take a couple of deep breaths. When I can talk, my words come out in a rasp. “I’m a horrible person, North.”

“Why?”

I can’t look at him. “Because I’m relieved. A woman is dead, and my first emotion is relief.”

“You’re human, Saint. She stalked you. You were physically injured. A lot of stalkers never give up. Of course you’re going to feel relief when that threat is gone.”

“Because she’s dead.”

North nudges my arm with a fist. His expression is resolute. “I was relieved, too, okay? Not because I wanted her dead. But because it was over. Don’t feel guilty for being human, man.”

Dully, I nod. I’m tired. All I want to do is curl up around Delilah and sleep. But she’s gone. When faced with the notion of actual death, my jealousy and hurt pride becomes meaningless. She made a mistake. I’ve made far worse ones when it comes to Delilah, and she’s forgiven me at every turn.

“Shit,” I mutter, resting my face in my palms. “I shouldn’t have been so hard on Delilah.”

North doesn’t say anything. It’s gone so quiet that I wonder if he’s left the room. But when I lift my head, I find him looking back with a thoughtful expression.

“What?”

He shakes out of whatever fog he was in. “I was just thinking how alike you two were. In the most basic ways, that is. I still like Delilah better.”

“As you should.”

He stands, stretching out a kink in his back. “You’ve been given a gift, Macon. Sometimes that’s all you need to know.”

He heads for the door.

“North?”

He stops and turns back my way.