As she grabbed her things, she couldn’t help but watch Stuart and Maddie joking around as they waited for her. They were very easy together, much like she’d always thought of herself with him. Seeing that gave her a kind of pang. Here was his new friend, one he obviously saw a lot of, and they were clearly close and had a lot in common. Maddie was an artist, like him, after all. While she and Stuart had fun this morning before Maddie showed up, and she was incredibly glad to see him here, happy and healthy, she couldn’t quite shake the idea that she’d been replaced.

“Ready?” Maddie asked, her gaze sweeping up and down Ryann.

She fought an urge to ask her about her appraisal.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

Chapter Six

They parted from Stuart outside, and Maddie led her to her beat-up classic red Bronco, apologizing in advance for the over- or under-enthusiastic heater.

“It’s either the Sahara or the arctic—your pick.”

“The Sahara, please,” Ryann said, smiling.

Maddie started taking off her outer layers again, smiling when she saw Ryann watching her.

“I’m not kidding. It’s like a thousand degrees in here when the heat’s on. Sometimes I roll down the window to try to regulate it, but then my nose gets cold.”

Ryann unbuttoned her coat slightly, not sure if she should completely disrobe, and sipped the rest of her espresso. She glanced around the cabin as they started driving. The car was old but clean. She saw no coffee cups or food wrappers, and the worn carpet was freshly vacuumed. The back seat had been laid flat, and plastic sheeting covered the entirety of the carpet back there. Having been Stuart’s friend as long as she had, she recognized the dried, red streaks on the plastic for what it was—leftover clay.

“I’m not a serial killer, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Maddie said.

“Isn’t that exactly what a serial killer would say?” she asked.

Maddie chuckled, and they drove in semi-awkward silence for a while, the radio playing soft classical music, the town unrolling in the piercing brightness of the winter sunshine reflecting off the snow. The care that had gone into the decorations was a little more obvious than what Ryann had noticed in the taxi yesterday, when it had seemed overdone and over-the-top. Now she recognized a coordinated theme and the professional quality of the lighting displays. She’d seen some of this lighted last night between the brewery and the restaurant, but here in the daylight, it looked festive, fun.