Page 25 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“So, how do you know you didn’t say yes?” Shelby asked.

Caroline lost it. “Because I wouldn’t have!”

“But if you press charges, everyone is going to know what happened,” Shelby said, fueling Caroline’s hurt when she added, “I just don’t think I could do that. It would be so embarrassing.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Caroline said, nearly sobbing.

“Okay, but what if he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong, and then you accuse him—”

“Shelby, he laughed at me! He threatened me and my sisters! Does that sound like an innocent man to you?” Caroline’s throat began to close, raw emotions choking her as a vortex swirled inside. Uncertainty, guilt, anger, helplessness, embarrassment . . . she had been fighting them all day, and now, she could add another one to the list.

Shame.

“I thought you would be on my side,” Caroline said softly.

“I am. I just want you to be sure that you know what you’re doing before you potentially ruin your reputation.”

Caroline scoffed. “Why, Shelby? Because Little Miss Perfect can’t hang out with a girl who cries rape?” The silence on the line made Caroline’s hand shake with rage, and she screamed, “Fuck you, Shelby! You are a selfish, arrogant snob who can’t pull her head out of Marcus Boatman’s ass long enough to realize that he’s not interested.”

After that night, Caroline started avoiding Shelby, who had become one of those perky, giggling simpletons they’d once made fun of together. She avoided everyone, in fact. But the more Caroline isolated herself, the more she resented Shelby’s perfect life with her two healthy, caring parents. It even seemed like Marcus had started to notice Shelby more.

One day before Christmas break of their sophomore year, Caroline had seen Marcus lean over and give Shelby a sweet kiss after walking her to class. The whole scene was so sweet, so innocent. Two people sharing something good and pure and right.

Witnessing that, something had snapped inside Caroline. Everything she’d been told about love and guys and the best years of her life had been bullshit. She had no one to turn to, and she was utterly alone.

Until New Year’s Eve. Caroline had gone to a party that one of the football players was having. She’d started drinking shots of whatever was handy and when she was totally shit-faced, she’d bumped into Marcus, who had offered to get her some water, to take care of her. But it hadn’t taken much to flirt Marcus Boatman out of his tighty-whities and into one of the empty bedrooms.

It had been mean and spiteful.

Caroline hadn’t been drunk enough to ignore the fact that there would be serious consequences to her actions, but at the time, she hadn’t cared. All she’d wanted was to hurt Shelby the way she was hurting. Shelby had everything, and Caroline had nothing.

The next morning, when she woke up next to Marcus, the self-loathing sank in. She hadn’t even liked him, but she had screwed him to get at Shelby. To try to make herself feel better by hurting someone else.

After that, her reputation preceded her. She flirted with whomever she wanted and didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought. Looking back, she could hardly remember all the “fun” she’d had, but maybe that was for the best. She’d traded self-loathing, frustration, and anger for a void of emotionless hook-ups and numb oblivion.

That was a long time ago. Move forward.

“I need to get going. I’m looking at stuff for my new apartment.”

“Oh, where are you living?” Marcus asked, ignoring Shelby’s glare.

“Up there,” she said, pointing above Chloe’s Book Nook.

Marcus’s clear blue eyes looked into hers earnestly. “Maybe we can get together and catch up.”

“We’ll see,” Caroline said, avoiding Shelby’s murderous gaze. “Nice seeing you.”

She passed Marcus and could hear Shelby behind her, hissing angrily. “Why would you say that?”

As she headed down the street to Hank’s Bar, she wondered for the hundredth time if she had made a massive mistake in comin

g back here. There were so many people she had hurt and betrayed in one way or another. She had taken her pain and anger out on everyone else and made a lot of enemies.

You are a different person now. Leave the past in the past.

That had been her plan, but the whole turn-the-other-cheek thing might be too much for her. Edward Willis hadn’t raised his daughters to back down from a fight.

Chapter Eight

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