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had to bite her lip to contain her roiling emotions. She hadn’t expected to confront them all at once, hadn’t prepared herself for the feelings that doing so might evoke. It seemed as though they’d shoved her back into the skin of the needy child she used to be.
    How could she let that happen? Why hadn’t she seen it coming?
    She’d been too focused on what mattered to her as an adult, of course. Clay and Irene—and her stepsister Madeline, whom she hadn’t called yet. High school was like another life to her, a dark time when she’d despised herself far more than anyone else could.
    Suddenly, she realized she couldn’t stay where she was any longer. Bile rose from her stomach, burning the back of her throat….
    Standing with as much dignity as she could muster, she hurried to the back of the restaurant and into the bathroom.
    Once the door closed behind her, blocking out the curious stares that had followed her from the table, she launched herself into a toilet stall and fell to her knees, just in time to lose what little she’d eaten of her dinner.

3
    S he wasn’t coming back. The other guys had finally forgotten “Grinding Gracie” and gone on to talk about the election, the price local farmers were getting for cotton, a father/son fishing trip they were planning to take together in August. But Kennedy found himself glancing over at the table where Grace Montgomery had been sitting. Her food was still there. She’d eaten a little salad, but her pizza was untouched and growing colder by the minute.
    Was she okay? He rocked back in his chair to check the darkened hallway that led to the restrooms, but he didn’t see her. How long could it take to go to the bathroom?
    “Kennedy, what’s wrong with you, man?” Joe said, nudging him. “You too good for the rest of us now that you’re going to be mayor?”
    “I’ve always been too good for you bastards,” he teased as he lowered his chair. But after a few halfhearted remarks about the fishing trip, he let the conversation slip away from him again. He was waiting for Grace to come out. The guys had been groaning and whistling at her while she walked to the bathroom, making stupid comments that said they had more testosterone than brains. He wanted to say something to Grace that would smooth it all over, help her feel welcome. If he could.
    Another ten minutes passed. Their own pizza came. They devoured it, and still she didn’t appear.
    He checked the hall once again. Nothing.
    “Why are you so preoccupied?” Buzz asked.
    “I’m not,” he said, but he’d been thinking about the topless woman he’d seen in the window earlier. Now he knew who it was. Grace. She had to be staying at Evonne’s place. There couldn’t be two women with a body like that.
    But why was she renting a house when she had a mother, a brother and a stepsister in town who each had plenty of extra room? What was it with that family?
    They polished off another pitcher of beer—no sign of Grace. “Where is she?” he asked Buzz.
    “Who?” Tim responded, overhearing.
    “Never mind,” Kennedy grumbled.
    “Looks like Grinding Gracie’s left her pizza for us,” Ronnie said. “You guys think I should take a piece? Wouldn’t that be funny, to have her come out and see her pizza half gone?”
    “Do it,” Joe urged.
    Ronnie’s chair raked the carpet as he stood, but Kennedy caught him by the arm. “Sit down.”
    “Come on, Kennedy, it’s just a joke.”
    “Forget it. You know she had a rough childhood. Give her a break, okay?”
    Joe arched an eyebrow at him. “I never knew you had a thing for Grinding Gracie. The way I remember it, you wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.” He lifted his nose. “You were an Archer.”
    “I was with Raelynn,” he said evenly.
    “Yeah, he had a girlfriend,” Buzz added.
    “So did I,” Joe replied with a careless laugh. “Grinding Gracie didn’t interfere with that. It wasn’t as if I’d ever like her or