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Her mutinous heart sped up at the mention of Mateo’s name “When did you talk to him?”

“Yesterday,” Natalie said “He smelled like he’d bathed in a vat of whiskey and looked like he’d been hit by one of the Sweet Salvation Brewery delivery trucks”

“Good” That made her feel better Misery loved company, even if it was the person who’d ripped out her still-beating heart and put it in a blender

“You didn’t skip town because of Larry,” Miranda said

As always, big sister cut through the bullshit and got right to the heart of it “No”

“Did so happen with Matteo?” Natalie asked “We have plenty of eggs in the house and we’ll go with you to redecorate his house if you just come home”

Picturing her sister in her signature pastel-colored sweater and with her hair up in a bun, lobbing eggs at Mateo’s house, made her lips curl upward for the first ti the police chief’s house is the best plan—even for a Sweet”

“Come home anyway,” Miranda said “We need you back here where you belong”

It’s all she’d ever wanted—to belong She’d grown up in a tohere no one ever wanted her and she’d fought back with crazy Sweet attitude She’d gone into h people said her curvesazine cover She’d always had her sisters, but she was the wild child triplet who stuck out

The only place she’d ever been where she hadn’t had to fight to belong was in Mateo’s arn that she shouldn’t be there As a Sweet, she knew she had to fight for everything Anything that came too easy, felt too perfect, was bound to be bad He’d pushed her away at the hotel He’d ignored her es while he was in the VA hospital He’d told her point blank on his porch to get out of his life

How many more times did he have to break her heart before she learned that the belonging she felt in his arms was an illusion?

Not another single one

A hard anger chipped away at the nu with it hurt and embarrassment and bitterness

“I ain What was new about her inant, Miranda, I realized the next generation of Sweets couldn’t grow up in a town that hated them But if we could have successfully hosted a fundraiser for the veterans’ center, that would have shown the town that the Sweets could bring soood to Salvation That’s why I was so determined to make it a success”

“None of that sounds like a ,” Miranda said