Page 63 of Unforgiven

Melonie cleared her throat. “Aren’t you going to offer me a cup?”

He adored his sister, but he was not loving her current attitude. “Didn’t think I needed to.”

“It’s the polite thing to do.”

“Help yourself if you want kaffi, Mel. You know where everything is.” Taking a seat at the kitchen table, he watched his sister pour a healthy amount of milk in a cup, then fill the rest with coffee.

Her mouth pinched slightly. “Where’s the sugar?”

“Second cabinet from the right.”

She opened two of the cabinet doors, located the bag of sugar, and added two heaping spoonsful. After stirring, she took a sip, added a bit more coffee, and tasted it again. Finally looking pleased, she sat down at the table.

He grinned. “I’d forgotten how much you like all that milk and sugar.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“You’re right, though I might as well be making you a cup of warm milk.”

She waved off his quip. “There’s coffee in here.”

“If you say so.”

“So, are you going to tell me why you not only fell asleep in your clothes but were still sleeping at ten in the morning?”

“Sure. I was up late reading.”

“That’s the story you’re going to tell me?”

He figured she had a point. As lies went, it was a lousy one. “The truth is I was helping a friend last night. It was late by the time I finally got home and got to sleep.” She didn’t need to know he’d been up half the night wrestling with what he’d learned from Tabitha.

“Who were you helping?”

“I don’t think I should share that.”

“Why not?”

“Because she deserves her privacy and it’s not my story to tell.”

“She?”

Seth felt like slapping himself on the head. He knew better than to give Melonie a single clue about last evening’s adventures. “Don’t worry about it, Mel.”

He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “You were over at Tabitha Yoder’s last night. Weren’t you?”

Well, he supposed it was ridiculous for him to even imagine that Melonie wouldn’t know who he was talking about. “No comment.”

“I knew it.” She smiled before turning serious again. “Wait. Is she all right? Does she need anything?”

Melonie sure seemed to jump to that conclusion quickly. “Why would you ask that?”

“Beyond the fact that everyone knows you look out for her, everyone also knows she’s struggling. So, is she all right?”

Seth wasn’t sure what to say. The short and simple truth was that Tabitha really was struggling, both emotionally and physically. She absolutely wasn’t all right. She had a scary ex-husband who had violated a restraining order, she lived by herself, and she didn’t even have the full support of her family.

Adding insult to injury was the fact that Sheriff Johnson hadn’t even been around the night before. No matter how much Deputy Ernst tried, he wasn’t anywhere close to the officer that Johnson was.

“I’m not comfortable sharing her story, Melonie. It’s private.”

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