Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(47)

Oddball questions.

It irritated her.

And it set off some interesting warning bells inside her.

By the time she shook hands with him nearly an hour later, Betsy felt glad to be out of the office and back in the safety of Loren’s car.

“What’s wrong?” Loren immediately asked. “Did you not get it?”

“I don’t know. He said he’d let me know next week.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I…” She felt silly. And how much of her feelings were paranoia based on her situation?

Loren arched an eyebrow at her.

Betsy finally went over what happened and her feelings on the matter, feeling even less good about it when she watched Loren’s expression darken.

She shifted the car into reverse and backed out. “I don’t think this is the job for you,” Loren said.

“It’s not just me?”

“Trust your gut. If he’s asking you questions like that…honey, some of those questions weren’t even legal to ask a prospective hire. Like relationship status, things like that. Something isn’t right.”

Loren swung by to pick Ross up from his office. They were meeting Kenny and Nolan for dinner at a restaurant and Betsy would ride home with them from there. When Loren had Betsy repeat to Ross what had happened, he also looked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say if the guy does call you back to offer you the job, tell him thanks, but sorry, you already accepted another position.”

Betsy wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved or upset by this setback. “Figures it was too good to be true.”

Loren, who was now riding in the passenger seat because Ross was driving, turned to where Betsy sat in the backseat and held up a finger at her. “Hey, consider it a test, and you passed. You trusted your gut that there was something wrong, and you brought it to people you trust to talk about it to see if you were overreacting or not. That’s a solid win, honey.”





Monday, Tilly once again helped Betsy pick her outfit via Skype. Loren would again drive her to the interview.

So far, the man from Friday hadn’t called back, but she did have an e-mail from yet another agency she’d applied to, wanting to interview her tomorrow at ten in the morning.

Tilly—and Nolan, and Kenny, and pretty much everyone else who heard the story—agreed with Betsy’s feelings that something had been off at that interview, and not to take that job, even if offered.

It felt counterintuitive in some ways, because she didn’t want to turn down a valid job offer, but if all her friends were saying the same thing, she’d trust them.

Especially since Kenny and Nolan had agreed.

Kenny’s mom wasn’t doing the actual interview, but she was sitting in on them with the person who was. This interview felt so much different—better and less creepy—than the guy who’d asked unusual questions on Friday. When Betsy finished up with them, she made sure to remember to smile and shake hands with them.

And this time, she gave Loren a thumbs-up as she walked back to the car.

Loren was already cheering for her when Betsy opened the door. “And?”

“I don’t know if I got it, but yeah, I get what you all meant now. Even if I don’t get this job, the interview felt much better.”

“Win.”

“Win doesn’t pay bills.” She fastened her seatbelt.

“You didn’t get here overnight,” Loren reminded her.

“I also don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.”





By the time they pulled into the driveway, Betsy had another e-mail, and this one pulled a long squee from her.

“Yeah?” Loren asked.

Betsy held up the phone so Loren could read it. It was from the director of human resources at Michelle’s work, wanting her to come back on Wednesday for a follow-up secondary interview.

“That’s a good sign,” Loren said, handing the phone back. “Meanwhile, you still go to the other interview tomorrow.”

“Definitely.”

Betsy had dinner ready for the guys when they got home. No, they didn’t ask her to do it, she wanted to do it. She’d forgotten how much she liked to cook. Jack had a very specific set of meals he wanted, and that was it. She wasn’t allowed to improvise or experiment. And usually every meal, even though he’d eaten it, he’d find something about it to punish her for.

She was seeing the common theme and growing more and more disgusted with herself over it.

So much she’d allowed to happen. The old frog in cold water analogy. She’d climbed into the pot and he’d turned the heat up slowly.

Cooking for Kenny and Nolan was different in a good way.

A much better way.

They always praised her efforts and tried to do the dishes. More and more, she was doing chores. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to. As she relaxed and realized they were serious about appreciating her efforts, she found herself enjoying the service, even if it wasn’t asked of her.

It made her feel good to do for them when they’d already done so much for her. Because she wanted to do for them, not because they asked or expected it of her.





Thursday morning, she still hadn’t heard anything back yet from the place she’d interviewed on Tuesday. Eliza had just picked her up to head to their self-defense class when Betsy’s phone rang.