Megan swayed back and forth before finally lowering herself to her knees and then leaning back on her heels. That tormented look was back, and Harmony wondered if Megan had ever thought about her at all between high school graduation and Nolan’s mention of her earlier that month.

Focusing her gaze on Harmony, she frowned and said, “I really, truly am so sorry for how I treated you during our school days. I’m just torn up about it.”

Sure you are, Harmony thought bitterly. She’d long since stopped dwelling on the bad things Megan had done to her back then, but it didn’t make facing the woman now any easier.

“I was going through some rough stuff back then. Not that it excuses how I behaved but…” She licked her lips and looked away.

Going through stuff for more than six years? That’s a lot of stuff. Harmony thought the words on the inside but managed to plaster on a smile on the outside.

“It’s okay,” Harmony told her. “I understand and I’m not angry anymore.”

Megan breathed a huge sigh of relief and then settled into a more comfortable position. “Really? Do you mean it?”

“I do,” Harmony said with a nod.

Nolan reached over and squeezed her hand.

“I forgive you,” she said.

“Oh, Harmony!” Suddenly Megan had hurled herself across the blanket and now had Harmony wrapped in a rather uncomfortable hug. “You have no idea what a relief that is to hear. I really am so, so sorry and hope we can start over. Can we?”

“Sure,” came her answer.

Nolan moved to let go of her hand but she hung on tight. While it was nice that his sister had apologized and clearly she felt better about it, Harmony felt just the same as she always had.

Sorry didn’t erase all the tears that had already been shed. Sometimes mistakes couldn’t be reversed. The best anyone could do was to try to learn from them and then move on. It seemed that Megan at least had tried to do that, but it didn’t make Harmony want to become best friends with her all of a sudden, either.

“Tell me about you,” Megan said. Her eyes sparkled in the same way her brother’s often did. “How long have you been back in Charleston? Where are you staying?”

“Little over a month now, and I’m renting a room from Virginia Clementine.”

“Oh, she’s such a nice lady,” Megan said, clasping her hands together as if Harmony was a puppy who’d just performed a cute trick right on cue. “What else? What did you do after we graduated? What are you doing now?”

Harmony took a deep breath and began her story, or at least the PG version with no curse words, no scary parts, and—most importantly—no bad guys.

Chapter 27

Harmony

Harmony sat chatting politely with Megan for about an hour, but by then, she’d reached the limit for how much chitchat she could handle in one day without losing her temper. Nolan saw it, too.