That she’s wanted.
And that she has a home.
Thirty-One
Cassie
* * *
I spot the sheriff crossing the square toward the bakery shortly before noon. My belly’s full of delicious carbs—Savannah’s right, this is totally the way to combat heartbreak—and my throat and lungs are less scratchy now, thanks to Gerald’s honey tea.
“He’s not taking you anywhere, hon,” Ruthie May assures me.
“Not without going through me first,” Gerald agrees.
I haven’t called Savannah, and I’m not going to until I absolutely have to. Which is apparently going to be sooner rather than later.
“Maybe he’s coming to tell me Steve gave him a full confession, and he’s sorry,” I say, but I don’t believe it.
“Don’t say a single word,” Savannah’s lawyer, Deborah, advises. “Anything you say in this town will get taken the wrong way.”
“That’s not true,” Ruthie May objects.
Deborah clicks her manicured fingertips against the table and arches a thin blond brow.
“Okay, that’s possibly true,” Ruthie May concedes. “But we assume the best misinterpretation almost as often as we assume the worst. Look at all those people who didn’t believe Steve would screw a sheep.”
“And therefore assumed Savannah was making the entire thing up?” I remind her.
She pulls a face. “Bad example.”
The sheriff reaches the door, then frowns and tilts his head toward the radio clipped to his uniform shirt. His voice—but not his exact words—carries through the glass door, and there’s a muffled squawk back on his radio.
He pushes into the bakery and points at me. “You. Stay put.”
And then he turns and hustles back the way he came.
“That was…unusual,” Maud says.
“Maybe he got a call that his hemorrhoids are infected,” Ruthie May says.
We all look at her.
She smiles sweetly. “What? That’s not a good twist on a bad situation?”
I shove up from the table. “I have to use the ladies’ room.”
“If you’re sneaking out the window, let me know. I’ll meet you in the alley with the getaway car,” Ruthie May offers.
“I’m not running away.”
Her sweet smile widens. “I’m just assuming that if you were, you’d trust me to be your sidekick.”
I fight a smile as I head to the bathroom. It is nice to have friends with their hearts in the right place.
Even if they can’t erase everything that’s gone wrong between Ryan and me.
When I get back to the table, Ruthie May and Maud are pressed to the window. “What on earth is that boy doing now?” Maud murmurs.
Gerald peers over their heads. “Can’t be good if he’s bringing the raccoon into it.”
My heart stutters and my belly flips like I’m careening over the first big hill on a roller coaster.
I’m going to miss George.
“And what’s the clothesline for?” Ruthie May says. “Why’s he flapping his arms like that?”
“Where are all those people coming from?” Deborah the attorney asks.
Gerald starts to grin. “Cassie, hon…I think you need to see this.”
I shake my head. I don’t want to see.
Because if I see, I’ll start to hope, and if I start to hope, I’ll get crushed all over again.
“Come, come.” Ruthie May dashes to my side and grabs one arm.
Maud takes the other.
“What—” I start.
“We’re assuming the best about people,” Ruthie May announces.
They pull me out the door to look at the square, which is slowly filling with people. Most of them are coming from the direction of the factory, but they’re also coming from other directions too.
Ryan’s in the center of the square, which he’s divided with a clothesline. Even though he’s half a city block away, the determination in the set of his jaw when our gazes lock makes the breath rush out of my lungs.
“I have an announcement,” he calls. His voice carries, and the murmurs of the growing crowd settle down.
“Oh! He put it on InstaChat,” Ruthie May whispers. “Everyone come to the Square. I have a big fucking announcement.”
“Shh!” Maud hisses.
“Cassandra Mae Sunderwell did not sabotage Sunshine Toys. I know that for a fact, and so should all of you,” Ryan announces.
There’s a murmur in the crowd.
“I’m standing here, on this side of the line, because I’m on Team Cassie. I believe in her. The sheriff doesn’t, but he’s wrong. And any of you who don’t believe her are wrong too.”
My hand flies to my throat, tugging at the neck of the tee shirt dress I threw on after I was released from the hospital. What the hell is he doing?
“I don’t care what you think of Sunshine Toys,” he continues, “if you’re not willing to stand up for one of our own when she’s being framed, then you’re not my friend or neighbor. So you can join me on Team Cassie, or you can be on the wrong side of history. Which is it going to be?”
“Is this really happening?” I whisper.
“I’ll be damned,” Gerald says while the people of Happy Cat all look at each other uncertainly.
Ruthie May’s about to tremble herself out of her shoes from the excitement. “He’s taking a stand,” she whispers.
“For you,” Maud adds. “You know what people love about Ryan? He never takes sides. He’s the guy who lives and let lives, who tries to make everyone happy.”
I blink.
“Who’s with me?” Ryan demands. “Who’s on Team Cassie?”
“I am,” Blake announces, stepping up beside him.
“Me too.” Jace joins Ryan as well.
“Me! Me!” Ruthie May dashes across the square, followed by Maud.
Gerald squeezes my shoulder, says, “I’ll never be Team Sex Toy Factory, but I’m Team Cassie,” and trails after his wife.
The teenagers who invented dildo ball trip over each other racing to Ryan’s side, and are soon joined by Olivia. Then Emma June and Tucker.
Then Savannah’s neighbors across the street.
Neil from the lab at the factory.
The farmer I accidentally christened with my chunk of sno-cone.
The couple who own the Kennedy Family Day School where I get my very favoritest coffee in the whole wide world.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Ryan announces. His voice is steady, carrying across the square. “I’ll probably make a lot more. But I will never doubt Cassie again. She’s smart. She’s kind. She has the purest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, and even if she had burned that factory down—WHICH SHE DID NOT—she would’ve had a damn good reason for it. And any of you who don’t believe in her are no longer welcome at the annual O’Dell Halloween party.”
There’s a collective gasp, and at least fifty people rush toward the half of the square declared to be Team Cassie.
I swallow the lump forming in my throat, but I can’t stop the hot prick of tears stinging my eyes.
He’s staking his entire reputation on me.
Gordon the taxidermist strides across the square and ducks under the clothesline to join Ryan’s side. So does Carl, the crankiest old man in town twelve years running.
Some of the Sunshine Toys employees who haven’t been coming to work because they didn’t want to be photographed by the building march up to his side.
“You don’t have to like the factory to like Cassie,” Ryan says. “I don’t like Tucker’s loud-ass motorcycle, but I still like him. I don’t like Carl’s snappy beagle or the catfish at the place my parents made me go to every Sunday as a kid or how everyone in this town lives to be in everyone else’s business.” He pauses, his voice gentling. “But we’re neighbors. We’re friends, family. Or at least I thought we were. But if we, as a community, can’t embrace a woman as good as Cassie, then I don’t think I can be a part of it anymore.”
The Team Cassie half of the square is so full people are stretching the clothesline to fit onto that side.
I swipe my eyes, feeling both silly and overwhelmed.
Fool me once, I keep reminding myself as Ryan weaves through the crowd toward me. Fool me once…
Except I understand.
Ryan’s a protector, he always has been. He looks out for the people he loves, and the drama and danger at the factory have been a threat to the things he holds most dear.
And this is his home.
It’s been his home his entire life.
But he’s still willing to give it all up—home, family, his standing in the community. For me. For a second chance.
And you believe in second chances, girl, my inner voice whispers as he stops on the sidewalk before me. She may have gotten a little smarter since I first came to town.
“Cassie,” he says, my name a prayer on his lips. “I can say I’m sorry until the cows come home, and it still wouldn’t be enough to tell you how much I regret the way I acted this morning.”
I tuck my arms around myself and blink against fresh tears, looking over his head at the people in the square. Someone’s pulled up “We Are Family” on their phone, and other people are holding up lighter apps and swaying to the music.
This town is so…perfect.
Funny and complicated and, yes, awful sometimes, but also…perfect.
“Team Cassie!” Tucker hollers.
“Shush up so we can hear him, doofus,” Emma June hisses.
Ryan ducks his head and runs a hand over his mussed hair. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. Apparently being estranged from each other for the morning has been as hard on him as it’s been on me.
“It’s okay if you hate me forever,” he says, “but I wanted to make sure you know you’re not alone. You fit here, Cassie. I know how much the factory means to you. How much you want to do with it. You should stay. Shine. Embrace all of Happy Cat, the good and the bad, but know that these people—” He hooks a thumb behind him at the crowd, which is starting to sing along. “They have your back. And if you don’t want anything to do with me, I’ll leave. If that’s what you need to be happy, I’ll go.”