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Billy Parrish One of her brother’s best friends and a forer who noorked as a private detective

If the interior reflected the guy, she’d guess he was either the kind of anal military man who’d been able to bounce quarters off his rack Or he was never here God, she hoped it was the latter

The gray hard woods continued up here, where four doorways extended off the hallo closed, two open She went to the open ones first and found a basic but spotless bathroouest rooe curved desk and two sets of bookshelves that probably comprised Billy’s home office

And finally Shay found so that looked lived in

The desk wasn’t messy—certainly not by her standards—but there were tidy stacks of books, file folders, and legal pads Two cups filled with pens and paper

clips The bulletin board above the desk represented theshe’d seen yet, covered as it was in neat rows of pinned phone nuraphs, and papers of various sorts

She leaned over the desk to get a better look at a picture of two guys in ca in beat-up beach chairs, beers in hand Her brother grinned back at her And so did Billy

She’d first ht hiers’ typically short stateside rotations She’d been a high school senior, busy with the school newspaper, the winter dance coe acceptance decisions, while Billy had been a tall, broad-shouldered, belly-laughing god

Despite the fact that she only saw him occasionally, she’d crushed hard each and every time she had the chance

Not that he’d looked at her First, because he was six years older than her and, as such, way out of her league And second, because her brothers would’ve killed him Killed him dead

Well, there was just one brother who ht possibly interfere in her love life now If she had a love life, which she decidedly didn’t Though, it was funny how she no longer hated the thought of her brothers’ overprotectiveness the way she once had now that she’d lost one of them

On a sigh, she shook the thought away

Fresh starts and all that