Haley’s face crumpled. “I can’t do it.”

“You can do whatever you set your mind to. Life doesn’t give you many moments like this, and you know what I think? I think that how you act in the next few minutes will dictate the person you’re going to be from now on.”

“No, I—”

Ted jumped out of his truck and rushed toward Meg. “The security people called. They said Spence showed up. I got here as fast as I could.”

“Spence is gone,” Meg said. “He left when he saw Haley.”

With one sweep of his eyes, he took in Meg’s bare legs and the damp T-shirt that didn’t quite cover her wet panties. “What happened? He gave you trouble, didn’t he?”

“Let’s just say he wasn’t pleasant. But I haven’t blown your big deal, if that’s what you want to know.” Of course it was what he wanted to know. “At least I don’t think I have,” she added.

Was the relief she saw on his face a reflection of his concern for her or for the town? She wanted more than anything to tell him what had happened, but that would put him in an impossible situation. No matter how hard it would be, she was going to bide her time, just for a few days.

He finally noticed Haley’s red eyes and blotchy face. “What happened to you?”

Haley looked at Meg, waiting for Meg to bust her, but Meg stared right back. Haley dipped her head. “I—got a bee sting.”

“A bee sting?” Ted said.

Haley gazed at Meg again, daring her to say something. Or maybe begging her to do what Haley couldn’t manage for herself. Seconds ticked by, and when Meg didn’t say anything, Haley began to pull at her bottom lip. “I’ve got to go,” she finally mumbled in a small, coward’s voice.

Ted knew something more than a bee sting had transpired. He looked at Meg for an explanation, but Meg kept her focus on Haley.

Haley dug into the pocket of her microscopic shorts for her car keys. She’d parked her Focus facing the lane, presumably to make a fast getaway after she’d burned Meg’s clothes. She pulled her keys out and studied them for a moment, still waiting for Meg to expose her. When that didn’t happen, she began taking short, tentative steps toward her car.

“Welcome to the rest of your life,” Meg called out.

Ted regarded her curiously. Haley faltered, then stopped. When she finally turned around, her eyes were bleak, pleading.

Meg shook her head.

Haley’s throat muscles worked. Meg held her breath.

Haley turned back toward her car. Took another step. Stopped and faced him. “It was me,” she said in a rush. “I’m the one who did those things to Meg.”

Ted stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m—I’m the one who vandalized the church.”

Ted Beaudine wasn’t often at a loss for words, but this was one of those moments. Haley twisted the keys in her hands. “I sent that letter. I put the bumper stickers on her car and tried to break off the wipers and threw the rock at her windshield.”

He shook his head, trying to take it all in. Then he rounded on Meg. “You told me a rock fell off a truck.”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” Meg said. Or take it upon yourself to replace my Rustmobile with a Humvee, something you’re perfectly capable of doing.

He spun back to confront Haley. “Why? Why would you do all that?”

“To—to make her leave. I’m . . . sorry.”

For a genius, he was slow on the uptake. “What did she ever do to you?”

Once again, Haley faltered. This would be the hardest part for her, and she looked at Meg for help. But Meg wasn’t giving it. Haley’s fist curled around her keys. “I was jealous of her.”

“Jealous of what?”

Meg wished he didn’t sound so incredulous.

Haley’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Because of you.”

“Me?” More incredulity.

“Because I fell in love with you,” Haley said, each word wrapped in misery.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.” Ted’s disgust was so palpable that Meg almost felt sorry for Haley. “How could tormenting Meg show your so-called love?” The word was a snarl that sent Haley’s fantasy world crashing around her.

She pressed her hands to her stomach. “I’m sorry.” She started to cry. “I . . . never meant for it to go so far. I’m—so sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” he shot back. And then he delivered the final proof of exactly how unrequited her feelings for him were. “Get in your car. We’re going to the police station. And you’d better call your mother on the way because you’re going to need all the support you can get.”

Tears rolled down Haley’s cheeks, and small, choked sobs caught in her throat, but she kept her head up. She’d accepted her fate, and she didn’t argue with him.

“Hold on.” Meg blew air into her cheeks, and then released it. “I have to vote no on the police.”

Haley stared at her. Ted waved her off. “I’m not arguing with you about this.”

“Since I’m the victim, I get the final say.”

“Like hell you do,” he said. “She terrorized you, and now she’s going to pay.”

“For whatever it cost you to put in my new windshield, that’s for sure.”

He was so furious that his skin had gone pale beneath his tan. “For more than that. She’s broken at least a dozen laws. Trespassing, harassment, vandalism—”

“How many laws did you break,” Meg said, “when you vandalized the Statue of Liberty?”

“I was nine.”

“And a genius,” she pointed out, while Haley watched them, not sure what was going on or how it would affect her. “That means you were at least nineteen in IQ years. That’s a year older than she is.”

“Meg, think about what she did to you.”

“I don’t have to. Haley’s the one who needs to think, and I could be wrong about this, but I have a feeling she’s going to be doing a lot of that. Please, Ted. Everybody deserves a second chance.”

Haley’s future rested with Ted, but she was looking at Meg with an expression that combined shame and wonder.

Ted glared down at Haley. “You don’t deserve this.”

Haley wiped her cheeks with her fingers and gazed at Meg. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I won’t ever forget this. And I promise. Somehow I’ll make it up to you.”

“Don’t worry about making it up to me,” Meg said. “Make it up to yourself.”

Haley took that in. Finally, she nodded—a small, hesitant motion—and then she nodded more decisively.

As Haley walked to her car, Meg remembered the nagging feeling that she’d let something important slip past her. This must be it. Somewhere in her subconscious, she must have suspected Haley, although she wasn’t sure how she could have.

Haley drove away. Ted kicked the gravel with his heel. “You’re too soft, do you know that? Too damned soft.”

“I’m a spoiled celebrity child, remember? Being soft is all I know.”

“This is no time for joking around.”

“Hey, if you can think of a bigger joke than Ted Beaudine hooking up with a mere mortal like Meg—”

“Stop it!”

The day’s tension was getting to her, but she didn’t want him to see how vulnerable she felt. “I don’t like it when you’re crabby,” she said. “It defies the laws of nature. If you can turn into a grouch, who knows what’s next? The entire universe might blow up.”

He ignored that. Instead, he hooked one of her wet curls behind her ear. “What did Spence want? Other than your rapt attention and an introduction to your celebrity friends?”

“That . . . basically covers it.” She turned her cheek into his palm.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

She turned her voice into a sexy purr. “Babe, there’s lots I’m not telling you.”

He smiled and touched his thumb to her bottom lip. “You can’t go running off by yourself. Everybody is trying to make sure you’re never alone with him, but you have to do your part, too.”

“I know. And believe me, it won’t happen again. Although I can’t tell you how much it bothers me that I’m the one who has to go into hiding just because some horny zillionaire—”

“I know. It’s not right.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Just stay out of his way for a couple more days, and then you can tell him to go to hell. As a matter of fact, I’ll do it for you. You can’t imagine how sick I am of having that clown run my life.”

The feeling returned without warning. The sensation of something lying in wait for her. Something that had nothing to do with Haley Kittle.

The sky had grown darker, and the wind pressed her T-shirt to her body. “Don’t you . . . Don’t you think it’s odd that Spence hasn’t heard about us? Or that Sunny hasn’t heard? So many people know, but . . . not them. Sunny doesn’t know, does she?”

He glanced up at the clouds. “Doesn’t seem to.”

She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. “Twenty women saw you kiss me at that luncheon. Some of them must have told their husbands, a friend. Birdie told Haley.”

“It figures.”

The racing clouds threw his face into shadow, and the fruit she’d been trying so hard to touch came closer. She sucked in more air. “All those people know we’re a couple. But not Spence and Sunny.”

“This is Wynette. Everybody pulls together.”

The fruit hung so close she could catch its scent, no longer pleasant, but fetid and cloying. “Such loyal people.”

“They don’t make them any better.”

And just like that, she had the poisoned fruit in her hand. “You knew all along that nobody would say anything to Spence or Sunny.”

A distant roll of thunder . . . He craned his neck toward the video camera in the tree, as if he wanted to make sure it hadn’t moved. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”