Page 81 of His Road Dog

Just hearing Kristi's voice, she wanted to rush back and hug her.

"Sorry about making you wait. I was putting—" Kristi stopped at the entrance. "Nicole?"

"It's me." She put her hands up and straightened her fingers. "Can I please tell you again how sorry I am for leaving you in the lurch. I want to explain to you what happened. If you'll listen, and I don't blame you a bit if you want me to leave. You have every reason not to want me here."

Priest had told her there were certain things she couldn't share with others. So, she was going to blame everything on Roy, considering all her problems started with him.

"Shut up." Kristi walked forward, stopped in front of her, and then grabbed her tightly. "I'll listen. You have no idea how much I've missed you."

"Oh, my God. I'm so glad." She squeezed her friend. "Not glad that you missed me, but you're not mad at me. I was afraid you'd hate me for all the trouble I caused."

Kristi pulled her over to a chair and fingers her blown-out curls. "Tell me what happened."

"Ugh. It's a long story. Remember Roy?" She sat at Kristi's nod. "After he was killed, I guess I freaked out. I just wanted to go home. I went back to my parents' house and stayed there."

"You recuperated. Having someone murdered in your motel room would do that to a person. I always worried about you, because you seemed to take it all in stride and I thought you really liked him."

"I did." She shrugged. "But I don't think I really knew him. I needed time away from everything here in Missoula to figure out what I wanted to do with my life."

"And what's that?"

She looked hopefully at Kristi. "To work here again—please don't think you need to say yes, because we're friends. I can look somewhere else and still be friends with you."

"Of course, you can come back and work here. Most of your clients I've contacted just moved their appointment to Barb or me, so it'll be no problem for you to continue cutting their hair, or even start over with new clients. Hell, you can take walk-ins for a while if you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Kristi squeezed Nicole's hand. "You can start paying rent now or start Monday."

"Monday would be perfect." She stood and hugged Kristi. "I'll get out of here, so you can go home. Please, give my love to Jason."

"We'll catch up."

"I can't wait. Thank you so much for understanding and taking another chance with me." She walked out of the building and hurried to the curb where Priest was parked.

"Did you get your job back?" he asked.

"Yes. Kristi is the most forgiving friend. I just love her." She slid onto the seat of the motorcycle and wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his stomach. "I'm so excited."

"Let's go home, road dog."

She smiled the whole way, holding on to Priest. Feeling like the bad parts of her recent past were behind her, she could look forward to the future.

A future with Priest.

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