Page 13 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

“How’s everybody holding up?” Xander asked.

“As well as can be expected, I guess. I keep walking into rooms thinking she’ll be there. The house just feels wrong without her in it.”

“I bet. We all felt like that when you left.”

The barb struck true. Kennedy opened her mouth. Closed it again. What could she say to that?

I didn’t want to leave you!

Even if she were free to admit the truth, it was too little, too late for that. She’d chosen to protect him, and that was a choice she’d have to continue to live with.

“Xander!” Pru hurried down the aisle and right on into the middle of the awkward. “I wanted to thank you again for all your help last week.” She moved into him and his arms went around her in an easy, affectionate hug.

“Of course. You know I’d do anything for you.”

The nip of jealousy was quick as a mosquito. Kennedy slapped it down, feeling stupid. Xander and Pru were friends. They’d been friends since they were children. And if they were more now, they had every right to be. Especially since apparently none of them thought she’d ever come back.

And you haven’t until now, so they weren’t wrong.

“You may regret that offer,” Pru warned, stepping back. “Depending on what happens with the house.”

His brows drew together in concern. “What’s going on with the house?”

“Mom took out a big loan to make some major repairs.”

“Yeah, about three years ago. I remember when Delbert Monroe put on that new roof. Is there a problem with it?”

“Maggie’s sorting through the details, but the bottom line is we have to figure out how to pay off the loan in order to keep the property. It’s the only stable home Ari’s ever had other than that stint with her grandmother.”

Given her background, stability was paramount to Pru. And maybe that was why, of all of them, she’d never left once she settled in Eden’s Ridge. Which made her absolutely the best one of them to be in charge of Ari right now.

Kennedy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We’re going to come up with something. We all know Maggie’s a genius. It will be all right.”

Pru just grimaced. “That’s easy for you to say. You won’t have to deal with whatever it is when you go back to Ireland or wherever.”

She absorbed the slap of that. This was Pru’s automatic thought? And not just hers. Awareness of Xander’s censorious look scraped along Kennedy’s skin. He totally believed she’d bail on her family in the middle of this crapstorm. And why wouldn’t he think that after what she’d done to him? Why wouldn’t any of them think that?

A bitter, helpless rage rose up inside her, almost choking her in its potency. She’d forever be judged because of a mistake they didn’t even know she’d made. This was the purgatory she’d been sentenced to a decade ago. She was so damned tired of having everything ruined because of that one night. She’d lost Xander, lost her family in all but the most peripheral sense. She’d thought she’d made her peace with that. But being back here, seeing exactly how bad the rift was between her and her sisters, made her want to fight as she hadn’t been brave enough to do at eighteen. Maybe Flynn was right and it was time to stop running.

Taking a firm grip on her temper and ignoring the judgment coming off Xander in waves, Kennedy kept her attention on Pru. “I’m not going back.”

Surprise flickered over Xander’s face. Kennedy ignored that too.

“You’re not?” Pru’s hopeful expression sliced her through the gut.

“I called a friend this morning to pack up and ship the rest of my things home from Kerry.” Which, okay, she hadn’t done. Yet. But she would as soon as they got back to the house. “I’m not leaving you to deal with all this alone.”

Pru’s eyes watered.

“Oh God, don’t cry. We’ve all cried oceans the past week.”

Pru hugged her. “Shut up. I’m allowed to cry when my sister finally comes home.”

Guilt knocked hard against Kennedy’s breast bone, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking at Xander over her sister’s shoulder. But it wasn’t condemnation she saw in his eyes. It was…curiosity.

No. Oh no. She knew him. Once he started wondering about something, he was like a dog with a bone. He’d keep worrying at it until he figured it out. She had to get out of here because it was only a matter of time before he came around demanding answers she couldn’t give him.

“We should get on home,” Kennedy urged. “I’d like to be there in case Ari needs a pick up.”

---