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Ao I have a hair appointo for coffee or out to a movie at the Bend theater at least once a week, if her crazy work hours per on Felix the Brown a few tiirlfriends are co weekend We’ll all go out, okay?"
"Maybe? I guess?" The same nervous blip of excitement and trepidation stirs inside me as it does every time I’m around new people Which is everyone
She reaches out and squeezes esture that she’s obviously learned from her mother "It’ll be fine I promise"
A sudden blast of rock music spills out of the speakers and we both jump
"Have fun," Amber whispers wryly and heads quickly out the door
Dakota pushes through the bead curtain a few estupid, Chuck?"
"Lucky for you this is a small town and I’ the fee Just s next time, okay, Dakota?"
She salutes hirin
"And tell Ginny that the Fanshaws say hi," he says tothrough the door I guess he’s a winky kind of guy
"Oh, ’d this get here?" Dakota traces the edge of the black horse on the new quilt with her finger
"Aht? I reive irls Honor roll Rodeo Queen Really into sports On all the school councils, running all the dances You know the kind, right?"
"Right," I lie, pulling down the other display quilt Rodeo Queen? I haven’t heard about that
"Soh Very self-absorbed A few ranch princesses, too They’re a nice fah, aren’t they? The Welleses, I mean"
"Yeah" I can’t explain just how nice they are without divulging inforly harreat"
"Have you met her brother?"
"Jesse? Yeah Well, not really I’ve met him, but he hasn’t been around much" Actually, I haven’t seen Jesse since the middle of April, when he waved at me and then peeled out of the driveway Every weekend, when I wake up and go down to feed and groost the trees He’s never there
"He’s cute, that one Looks like his daddy"
"He is," I agree Except, when I hear "cute," I think of Felix’s kittens bounding after theirbecause they haven’t grown into their feet But Jesse, with his dark eyes, his strong jaw, the way his body eous
I think somewhere deep inside, I knew that the first h"
"I keep hearing that What do you know about him?" I ask casually
"Oh, you kno it is The ser thethe sheriff’s son, people loved talking about hi to talk about" She takes a sip of her coffee and waves at Ms Milliken, the florist frohtly
"Dakota?"
"Hht Jesse Well, he used to hang out with these two hooligans--Ian and Dirk--and everyone knew the happened in town, you could guarantee that those three were involved ButJesse always seemed different from those two They were loud and obnoxious andrude Jesse wasn’t He was just there, usually hanging back, ulp of her coffee Dakota drinks her coffee fast "So when Tommy Myers was stabbed at that party--"
"What?" Stabbed?
Dakota nods "Yeah, that was a big deal for this town I don’t know exactly what happened, but there was this house party and Toht Sheriff Welles threw Ian, Dirk, and Jesse behind bars Ian and Dirk said it was Jesse who stabbed Tommy There were no other witnesses except them, and Toerprints?"
"It inter They all had gloves on But Toot Jesse off and put Ian and Dirk in jail, like the dirt bags they are"
My face twists with horror
"I know, right? To in Bend and married, the last I heard Likes to show his scars at parties" Her eyes flicker to the side ofthe old quilt gently on the floor
"What a h Jesse’s father almost lost the next election, and everyone kneas because of that whole fiasco with his son I can’t i at home after that"
I think I nohy he stays in that apartment above the attic
"It could just be coincidence, but hbor’s friend owns a security company and he said that Ginny had bars put up on her s not long after Apparently, she didn’t feel safe with Jesse living next door, even out there in the h So this is how rumors spread in a small town
"I think I slept with hiins to churn "You think you slept with Jesse Welles?"
Dakota cocks her head "What? No! Chuck" She points out theThere’s Chuck, leaving Poppa’s Diner across the street
Relief swells in my chest But why do I care who Jesse may have slept with?
"In fact, I’m pretty sure I did My junior year? Or ested that the "Dakota stories" extended beyond laced brownies and five-leafed plants in her backyard and into the beds of h school and older, both married and not Dakota has called herself a "free spirit" on more than one occasion, so this shouldn’t surprise me
It certainly doesn’t sway e? Maybe I was a "free spirit" too Thanks to the baby that I lost, I know that I wasn’t a virgin when I was attacked, though I iven that no one see for me, I must not have been in a relationship But who have I slept with? Just the father of my child? Was there anyone else before hi in thelike aat me "Yeah Fine" With a brief wave to the with the stereo?"
"Oh! It was unplugged I must have buain to begin flipping through the stations "So, what kind of music do you like?"