And maybe it was that simple.

Maybe it was time to stop overthinking everything. Given that she wasn’t even sure she’d wake up this morning and Earth would still be the same, there was probably no better time to stop overthinking than the present. Why waste precious minutes?

She sighed. It was all so confusing.

She heard a vehicle approaching and looked at the dirt road. Halcyon probably wasn’t even awake yet and even Adelaide would have given her a heads-up before driving out. Avery darn well better be at school, so the only person she could think of who would drive out this way, this early, was Luke. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to see him, because she still hadn’t worked out how much of her attraction to him was genuine and how much was because of the emotionally charged situation he’d stepped in the middle of.

She was shocked to see Harold’s car round the corner.

What the hell did he want?

She deliberated between walking inside and locking the door behind her or walking inside to get the shotgun. Finally, she decided he wasn’t even worth the walk and she would just tell him to leave. If the past week had shown her anything, it was that Harold was a coward before anything else.

He pulled into her driveway and sat there for several seconds, not moving. Finally, he climbed out of the car and trudged her way, hands in his slacks pockets and staring at the ground. When he got close to the porch, he looked up at her.

“Is it okay if I come up there?” he asked.

“Suit yourself.”

He hesitated for a moment but finally walked up the steps and took a seat on the bench next to her. Snooze gave him the stink eye, farted, and went down the steps and under the house. Marina had the overwhelming urge to follow suit.

“What do you want, Harold?”

He blinked, clearly not expecting her to be so abrupt.

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said.

“Then do it. I’ve got a lot of things to do. As you can well imagine.”

“That’s why I’m here. I want to apologize.”

“Seriously?” Marina didn’t know whether to laugh or simply slap him.

“I know I’ve caused a lot of trouble. Chastity was a really bad decision.”

“She dumped you, didn’t she?”

He flushed a bit and Marina figured she’d hit the nail on the head. Not that it surprised her. Harold was never the great love of Chastity’s life. There was only room for one person there and Chastity had inserted herself in that slot a long time ago.

“We agreed that the relationship wasn’t going to work,” Harold said.

“Ha! You just now realized that? You’re just another middle-aged cliché, Harold. Thinking a woman half your age is interested in anything but the size of your wallet. Did she find out we’re broke? Or did she finally get tired of you not jumping in to help her beat up your wife or daughter?”