Chapter 13

With Tribute being such a small town, it shouldn’t have surprised Nick that the first words out of his aunt’s mouth when he got home were “Well, well, sweetie, you going to tell me who she is?”

To her credit, Beverly wasn’t usually a nosy woman, especially for a relative. A female relative, at that. She wasn’t demanding information. She was smiling eagerly, hoping, Nick knew, that he’d finally met someone. As in…Someone.

He should have realized that word of a strange woman in town—a

woman specifically seeking out Nick—would have arrived home ahead of him. He had not only stood in front of the high school with her, in plain

sight of half the town, he’d also introduced her to a trio of big mouths. After that, he had walked her right up to Main Street, for the other half of town to see.

Nothing on earth or in the universe traveled faster than the speed of gossip, and he’d provided plenty of grease.

And dammit, more people than Aunt Bev were going to wonder who

she was and what she was do