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I was coressive how?”

“At first it was just Stu constantly in their face about it He sent them presents, which they sent back, and when they’d spurned about ten gifts, things got ugly We started to receive threatening letters, stuff that pretty et the hell out of Hartwell or we’d lose everything, we’d get hurt, stupid stuff like that We kneas coh evidence to prove it

“Anyway, I get my stubbornness from my parents and they refused to be bullied And that’s all it was As far as we know, the Devlin family is underhanded, but they’ve never resorted to physically hurting anyone Anyway, my parents didn’t want to leavetheh, they backed off after that It helped that the old Boardwalk Hotel went up for sale at that time

“Until Vaughn Tremaine came on the scene He just swept in with all histhey could do And oh, hn, but the Devlins hate him”

“Wow,” I said “They sound like real-life villains”

“Oh, they are Every town has ’eht?”

And wasn’t that the awful truth “Right”

“Anyway, the point of the story is the third brother, Jack Devlinhe’s gorgeous, chariseous, yes, but that’s about it—well, his sister, Rebecca, was nice, which is probably why she left town as soon as she could, but the rest of them think they’re so superior to everyone else Jack wasn’t like that He was kind of the black sheep He refused to go into the family business andhe was Cooper’s best friend”

“Okay,” I said, a little warily If this was a tale about betrayal I didn’t like where it was going

“A few years back, out of nowhere, just after Vaughn outbid the Devlins on the hotel site, Jack quit his job as a construction foreman As far as ere all aware he loved that job But nope, just up and quit, and went to work for his father” She took a deep, shuddering breath, pain suddenly etched in her features “And then one day, not too long later, Cooper walked in on Jack with Cooper’s wife, Dana Now his ex-wife”

The ice creaht of such a betrayal I barely knew hiry for Cooper “God,” I whispered

“Poor Coop stopped talking to Jack and Jack got even more immersed in his family’s business He’s distant fro”

“And Cooper and Dana?”

“Well, Coop divorced her a while ago and went fros-attached lothario All see hi his life hell right now” Bailey’s green eyes darkened “Not for long if I have anything to say about it”

I took in the hard light in her eyes and gave a guffaw of surprised laughter “I really wouldn’t want to get on your bad side”

She laughed “In n of a fiery te back the e had co and the southern end was occupied by a nu touristy for me to see

“The point of ossip queens of this town to it but also to let you understand where Cooper is eht now of betrayal”

I understood and I felthim melt But it didn’t melt completely Because the truth was I had fancied uy I hadn’t knohat itwould come of it while I was on vacation, but now I knew for sure that nothing would come of it

Plus Cooper was another no-strings-attached guy

I had one of those already

And Andrew and I had ultireed to be each other’s one-and-only hookup for the sake of health and safety Cooper was definitely out of the question

I had to re in a relationship with anyone

“So does that change your mind about him?”

I blinked, jerked out of hts There was a spark of hopefulness in Bailey’s expression and I recognized it as an e fire I rolled my eyes “I’m here for three weeks I’m not here for a relationship”

“Yes, but clearly friendship is in the cards” She gestured between us “So why can’t you be friends with him, too?”

It was complicated But Bailey didn’t need to know about the couess I can”

Bailey seemed happy with that answer and froh Main Street She told me more about the town, its people, and her fa was falling, she led me back to Antonio’s for dinner The place was packed, and Iris and Ira were too busy to stop and chat with us I had their delicious pepperoni pizza and enjoyed the family atmosphere of the place

“So all day I’ve been talking your ear off,” Bailey said after sing a forkful of pasta “And I haven’t learned anything ical resident—I repeat: I’m in awe—before you took the job at the prison What about faoing with soressive how?”