“Um, no, sorry, it’s Ellie.”
Ellie? Oh shit, Ellie. Her landlady. Well, soon to be ex-landlady she guessed. Sadness filled her.
“Oh, right, sorry, Ellie.”
“Is now a good time to talk?”
“Sure. I guess so.” She sat up, having to bite back a whimper of pain as knives slashed through her head.
“You all right?” Ellie asked, sounding concerned. “You sound like you’re in pain.”
Tells welled in her eyes at the other woman’s concern.
“Sugar hangover,” she told her. “I ate my weight in chocolate last night. And gummy bears. And I think there were even a few Twizzlers.”
There was a beat of silence. Then Ellie burst into laughter. “Oh sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. I can’t say as I’ve ever had a sugar hangover. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much chocolate before though.”
“Stick with me, I’ll show you how. Sugar is my crack.”
More giggles. Then they died off. “A sugar hangover the next day doesn’t sound that pleasant.”
It wasn’t. It really wasn’t.
“I hear you’re leaving.” There was a note of sadness to Ellie’s voice that cut her to the quick.
“You’ve spoken to Jed.”
“Yeah. I get that you two have history, but you don’t have to go, do you?”
Now she felt terrible.
Worthless slut.
Her breath left her in a shuddering gasp and she reached down to pinch her thigh. Hard. So hard tears entered her eyes.
She was not worthless. Or a slut.
“I don’t want to leave,” she whispered, surprising herself. Surprising Ellie too if the silence that filled the phone was anything to go by.
There was nothing for her back in Kansas City. Sylvie didn’t need her. Except for money. She sucked in a breath. She knew deep down that that’s the reason why she’d called last night. Not because she was upset about Jack-the-jerk. If she needed someone to talk to then she’d call her friends.
Not her sister.
After all, what did Daisy know about men?
Not a thing.
Do us both a favor.
Why did she have to leave town? She loved this house. She’d only been here a week, but she’d made a place for herself. And she barely went anywhere so what were the odds she would run into him?
“You don’t want to leave? But I thought Jed said. . .”
“I know he’s your friend and—”
“Actually, I don’t know him that well,” Ellie interrupted. “Bear knows him a bit better than me, but I’m not sure anyone knows Jed that well. I mean, we’re loyal to him, he’s a part of Sanctuary so if you hurt him, I will come after you.”
The threat might have made her laugh under other circumstances, Ellie was tiny and she didn’t appear to have a mean bone in her body, but it just made her feel sad. Because she didn’t have that sort of loyalty, not even from her own family.