“Which doesn’t answer my question.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a rueful grin. “He championed me.”
She eyed him. Tall and strong. An air of solid confidence. “You hardly look like you would need a champion.”
“I did then. I was this funny-looking kid. All freckles and bones.”
She laughed. “You were not!”
“Oh, I was. And weird, too. A total weirdo.”
Her laughter faded. “You got picked on.”
“They more appropriately call it bullying now, but yeah, I did.” He shrugged off her sympathy before she could even express it aloud. “One day Logan stepped in. Nobody bothered me again.”
“Just like that?”
“Pretty much. He was the school yard stud, even back then.”
She couldn’t help but smile, imagining Logan in that role. “But it still doesn’t explain your friendship.”
“You’re a little pushy, you know that?”
She smiled. “But in a good way.”
He snorted. “Logan decided he liked me, though at the time I was straight-up starstruck. But it turned out we had things in common. Horses, for one. We’d both have lived in the barn, if we could have.”
She loved hearing about Logan as a child. Loved picturing him that way. “How old were you?”
“Eight, I think. Things really changed when he brought me to Abbott Farm. Elisabeth took one look at—”
“His mom?”
“Yeah, sorry. That’s what she wanted me to call her. She took one look at scrawny little me and that was that.”
“What was that?”
“I had a new family. Metaphorically speaking.”
“What does that mean?”
“I went home at night, most nights anyway. But my heart wasn’t there, it wasn’t where I belonged.” His tone changed subtly, became harder. “They didn’t deserve me. That’s what Elisabeth told me.”
“Paul!”
Bailey turned. Paul got to his feet and crossed to meet the woman rushing toward them. She had met her before, Bailey realized as the two hugged. Stephanie was the waitress from Faye’s Diner—and the girl from the photographs at Henry’s, all grown-up now.
“How is he?” she asked.
“Dehydrated. Weak. Blood work’s not back yet, but the doctor suspects it’s the flu that’s been going around. But he’s stable.”
Her eyes flooded with tears. “Can I see him?”
“Absolutely.” Paul looked her in the eyes. “He’s going to be okay, Steph.”
“But if you hadn’t— It’s my job to make certain—”
“Don’t thank me, thank Bailey. She’s the one who noticed she hadn’t seen him and went to check on him.”
She turned to Bailey, though she didn’t quite meet her eyes. “I can’t tell you how appreciative I am. Uncle Henry’s all I— Thank you,” she whispered. “Excuse me.”
Bailey watched her duck into Henry’s room, then turned to Paul. “What now?”
“I’ve got to get back to the farm.”
“I think I’ll stay.”
“Stephanie’s here now, Henry’s in good hands. He’ll be fine, Bailey.”
“I know, but she seemed pretty upset. I hate to leave her alone.”
He checked his watch, then nodded. “Do you know your way back?”
She assured him that even if she didn’t, her GPS did, and promised to call if she ran into trouble. And then she sat and waited for Stephanie to return.
Which she did after thirty or forty minutes. “Hey,” she said.
“How’s Henry?” Bailey asked.
“He’s asleep. Resting comfortably, as they say in places like this.”
“That’s good.”
“The doctor said”—she cleared her throat, her eyes welling with tears—“if you hadn’t shown up when you did, he might have died.”
Bailey crossed to her, and gave her a hug. “But I did. He’s going to be fine. Right?”
“Right.” She smiled weakly and indicated the bank of chairs. “Do you mind? I feel a bit weak in the knees.”
Bailey got her a cold drink, then sat beside her while she sipped.
“Henry’s my dad’s brother. He never married.” She paused, then said almost to herself, “Of course he didn’t.”
“Because of what happened to him?”
Stephanie looked at her strangely. “I’m so sorry about yesterday.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“Yeah, I should. As a kid I spent a lot of time at Abbott Farm. Logan’s my friend.”
“So you don’t believe the rumors?”
“No,” she said, “I don’t.” She looked down at her hands, then back up at Bailey. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Tell me? What?”
“I watched you leave Faye’s yesterday. I saw you talking to Billy Ray. Saw what he was doing.”
She paused. Bailey waited.
“At one time, Billy Ray and I were in a relationship.” She looked away, then back. “In fact, I was in love with him.”
Bailey didn’t know how to respond, so she said nothing.
“He didn’t love me back,” she finished, words thick with emotion.
“He loved True, didn’t he?”
“Yes. He still does.” Again she stopped, but this time as if to collect her thoughts. “I finally admitted the truth and broke it off.
“There’s something else. I’ve never told anyone. It’s something that happened when he and I were together.”
A heaviness settled in Bailey’s chest. A feeling that she wouldn’t like what the other woman had to say, that once she said it there would be no going back. She didn’t know why—the seriousness of Stephanie’s tone or a premonition—but it took all her control not to just walk away.
“We were lovers. At his house, there’s a room he keeps locked. He said he used it for storage, but I knew he was lying. I caught him in there once, he closed the door before I could see much. But—”
“What?” Bailey prodded. “Tell me, please.”
“I got a peek inside. A board with diagrams and photos. There were pictures of True.” She paused. “And one of Logan. At the center of the board.”
Pictures of True. A picture of Logan. At the center. For a moment, Bailey felt as if she couldn’t breathe. “Did you ask him about it? What did he say?”
“I pretended I didn’t see anything. But it really freaked me out.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know for sure, but … I think he’s trying to build a case against Logan.”