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cheeks burning with the kind of humiliation that makes you want to hide in a dark room someplace and not come out for a while. I really didn’t know where I was going, or care; I just wanted to get away from all of those awkward, pitying gazes.
    It was stupid. It wasn’t as though I had any claim on Buck, or wanted to. I was with someone else. He was with someone else. But he married her. And I hadn’t known.
    Buck was married.
    I sat down abruptly on a curved concrete bench beneath the shade of a big oak tree, staring straight ahead at nothing at all, willing my cheeks to cool and my breathing to slow, until I suddenly realized where I was. Then it was a moment before I could breathe at all. I twisted my fingers together in my lap, hard.
    Jolene sat down stiffly beside me. “I don’t like you,” she said, “and I don’t want to be your friend. But no woman deserves to be ambushed like that. I thought you knew, or I would’ve said something at the diner.”
    Jolene’s dog Nike had found the first bomb less than twelve feet from where we were sitting. Miles and Melanie and Cisco and Pepper had been in the car right there, four easy strides away. A prickly film of perspiration broke out on my skin, and the shady air chilled it.
    “It’s not like she hasn’t been flashing that ring around the office since before I got here,” Jolene went on. Apparently she thought I’d want to know. I didn’t. “I guess they got married last night at the courthouse, didn’t want a fuss. Some of the staff girls found out about it and wanted to surprise them with a cake. Stupid. Unprofessional. I guess you can get away with that kind of thing in a hick town like this.”
    “I have nightmares sometimes,” I said. I intended my voice to be conversational, but was surprised at how thin and wavery it sounded, with a little catch at the end. I knotted my fingers together even more tightly.
    “Stop it,” Jolene said.
    But I couldn’t. “The thing is,” I went on rapidly, “I always wake up before the bomb goes off.” My breath was coming fast, a little shakily. “I know it’s going to happen and I’m trying to warn people, but nobody will listen, and when I wake up it’s almost worse because I think if I could have stayed asleep a few more seconds I might could have saved them.”
    “Stop it,” she repeated fiercely. “Don’t you let that bunch of redneck fools come out and see you sitting here crying over some man.”
    “I’m not—”
    “I know that,” she said shortly, “but they don’t. Take a breath, get yourself together, or I swear I’ll pinch a black and blue mark on you.”
    That surprised a laugh out of me. “My grandmother used to say that.” When I swiped a knuckle under my eye there was moisture there, but when two deputies came out of the building across the walkway and glanced in our direction I was glad they saw me sitting there laughing with Jolene.
    “Everybody’s grandmother used to say that.” She stood, glaring at me. “I’ve got work to do. Don’t you have someplace to be?”
    I glanced at my watch. “Yep, sure do.” I stood up too and added casually, “Let’s have lunch some time.”
    I knew that would annoy her, and so it did. Her frown only deepened, and she walked away without another word. But I felt a little better as I went back to my car and drove out of town.
     
    ~*~
     
    Crystal greeted me with a big smile from behind the desk when I walked into the vet’s office. “Good news,” she said. “We found her vet and they faxed over her shot records.” She presented some papers to me. “She’s good to go until March. Also, we got a phone number for the owner, but it goes to voice mail.” Now her smile turned to a grimace. “Probably their home number, a Virginia area code. Seriously, you’d think people would learn to put their cell phones as contact numbers on the microchip. You’re out of town, you lose your dog, what good does it do to have people calling your