He rang off. I drove down my lane and parked.

I grabbed the sandwich bag, the bag from La-La Land (Shambles had been in a ginger mood so it was ginger snaps for luncheon dessert, dee-lish) and hauled myself out of my granddad’s truck.

I went into the house and found Deke in the study. A study that already had a full hardwood floor, the wood dusty but that didn’t hide the beauty it’d have when it was polished. Deke was wearing protective coverings over his boots and squatting by an outlet he was working on.

He lifted his eyes to me at the doorway.

“Sandwiches,” I said.

“Right. Few minutes, gypsy,” he murmured and looked back to his outlets.

“Baby?” I called.

His attention turned back to me.

“Chace called. The DNA was a match for Caswell.”

I watched the same relief I felt flare in his eyes so bright, I could see it even from a distance.

But he only said a soft, “Good.”

“And Faye and Chace want us to meet them for drinks at Bubba’s Saturday night.”

“You up for that?” he asked.

I nodded.

“I’ll text Chace,” he said, looking back to the outlet.

It hadn’t even been two weeks since my assault. Since my world changed. Since Deke, who had already been in it, came roaring into it, thundering my name.

And here we were, making plans for drinks with his friends like this was what we did. Like this was a part of life. Like this was the natural order of things.

I’d flown around the world and back again, the kind of girl who did that sort of thing and didn’t bother to count how many times she’d circled the globe.

And twice, those meanderings put me in Deke Hightower’s path.

It was clear that Deke thought it uncommon for someone like me to recognize life’s bounties.

But watching him work on my outlet, the sandwich I bought him in a bag curled in my fingers, knowing I was going to share one with him, and by the end of the week, I’d have a study (though, for me it’d be a music room) where I could hang and stay warm because he’d made that so, I wondered how he thought I’d ever miss them.

* * * * *

“Selfie!” Lauren yelled. “Everyone, back of the bar.”

The music was loud. Bubba’s was packed.

It was Saturday night in Carnal.

“I don’t do selfies,” Jim-Billy declared. “I don’t even do pictures,” he went on.

“C’mon, Jim-Billy,” Lauren cajoled. “I’m gonna send it to Krys. She won’t be back in for a while, she’s already stir crazy, and we should let her know we’re thinking of her.”

“Right, I don’t do selfies but more, my ass doesn’t leave this stool,” Jim-Billy retorted.

Lauren was undeterred, ordering, “Everyone, surround Jim-Billy.”

Jim-Billy looked unhappy, but considering his ass actually didn’t leave that stool, he was not about to vacate it to avoid a group selfie.

“Specific kinda torture, the genius who decided to put a camera on a phone. Fuck,” Tate muttered but he did this doing as his wife told him.

I gave Faye, sitting beside me, a smile, not for the first time since I met her several hours before thinking that Lauren was the perfect match for Tate, Lexie’s lush gorgeousness the perfect match for Ty’s outrageous handsomeness, but Faye’s redheaded sweetness was beyond the perfect match for Chace’s lawman with an edge.

I did not know Chace and Faye’s story. I knew she was the town librarian. I knew he had the same mountain man good looks that it seemed all of Deke’s friends had (though his was the only one that was fair rather than dark). And I knew she was the one who’d been buried alive.

I hadn’t thought about it, considering most of my interactions with Chace were during my drama or on the phone (after my drama).

But seeing him with his wife, I realized there was something different about him.

It had been Faye who’d been buried alive, but chatting with her, I’d noted that utter insanity seemed not to have touched her.

It was Chace who had somehow been broken and you could see the shards that had been carefully glued together.

Unless he was with his wife, who was definitely pretty but in a much more subdued way, not to mention a lot shier and more soft-spoken than all the rest.

But when Chace was with Faye, only then was he whole.

It was a beautiful thing.

And they were both so cool, I was glad they had each other. That Chace’s obvious strength led Faye to seem completely unfazed by an event that would probably break most people, and Faye’s clear but quiet love was what smoothed out the dents in a knight’s armor.

I stopped thinking this when Deke claimed me with an arm around my chest, pulling me off my stool, shifting me and securing me in front of him, my back pressed close to him, Deke not a guy, I was noticing, who had a problem with having his picture taken.

Lexie pressed in at my right side in the same hold with Ty behind her. Lauren had handed her phone off to Tate, a good choice since he had a long arm. She then curled both her arms around Jim-Billy in front of her, Lexie sandwiched in between Laurie and me.

Faye and Chace got close at Deke and my other sides and Tate leaned over his wife as he held the camera out in front of us.

“Give Krys a big, fat smile!” Lauren yelled.

I had no idea about the others, but in our huddle, mellowed by several beers, in good company, it was not hard for me to aim my eyes at the camera and give Krys a big, fat smile.