Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(48)

The funny thing was, it took her a minute to realize what the noise was. She hadn’t done a lot of talking on it, mostly texting, and the tone confused her.

Then she realized who it was—Kenny’s mom—and answered.

“Hi, Mom.”

Michelle laughed. “Just make sure you don’t call me that here in the office. Congratulations, honey. They picked you and let me make the call. You start Monday morning.”

Her heart hammered in her throat. “Really?”

“Really. Welcome back to the real world.”

When Betsy got off the phone with her five minutes later, she realized they were still sitting parked in the driveway, Eliza hanging on her every word.

Betsy burst into tears. “I got it! I got the job!”

Eliza laughed, hugging her. “Oh, honey, I was afraid those were bad tears for a second. Call Tilly, right now! I need to get us to class.”

Tilly nearly burst Betsy’s eardrum shouting for joy when she gave her the good news. And then they were at class and Betsy didn’t have time for anything else except learning how to defend herself.

Michelle had volunteered—refusing any money—to give Betsy rides to and from work for the next two weeks. After that, she’d accept gas money from Betsy, but wanted Betsy to sit down and work out her future budget, including savings, so she could plan for a car.

She was so excited that when Eliza pulled into the men’s driveway after class, Betsy realized she hadn’t even told them the news yet.

She hugged Eliza and bolted from the car, running inside to tell them.

Apparently, they already knew. Kenny wore a beaming grin as he turned from where he stood at the stove, cooking, and held his arms open for a hug.

Betsy ran to him, throwing herself at him.

“Mom already called me. I figured you were in class. Congratulations.”

“Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me. Mom said you interviewed better than anyone else, and you already had many of the skills and experience they were looking for compared to the other candidates. You earned it.”

“I mean for everything.”

Nolan ran into the kitchen. “There’s our girl!”

He hugged her, and for a minute it was too easy to envision rising up on her toes and kissing him, kissing Kenny, too.

They all went silent, staring at each other.

“Um, we got you cake,” Kenny finally said. “Black forest.”

Aaaand the mood was broken.

“Thank you!” She settled for giving them both quick pecks on the cheeks before going to grab a quick shower to rinse off.

Now she’d have to shift into a different gear in her life, back into the workforce while figuring out what to do about Kenny and Nolan.

Because letting them walk out of her life once she was back on her feet was feeling less and less like a good option every day.





Nolan listened for the sound of her bedroom door closing. Yes, he was happy for her. Yes, he wanted her to get her life back.

But more and more, he wanted to find a way to let that happen while the two of them stayed a fixture in her life.

The two of them looked at each other. “I don’t want to lose her,” Nolan admitted.

“Neither do I,” Kenny said. “But first she has to find herself.”





Chapter Sixteen


Except for the classes with Eliza, and going to the counsellor, which now happened on Tuesday evenings, the next four weeks of Betsy’s life were mostly filled with learning her new job, making friends with some of the people she now worked with, and doing whatever it was Tilly and the others had lined up for her on the weekends. Twice she’d gone shooting with Gabe, June, and Laura, although she would admit she wasn’t comfortable with a handgun the way the other three women were.

She almost felt better with the self-defense techniques she was learning in class with Eliza.

Brooke had taken her to learn archery twice. She’d enjoyed that far more than she had the act of shooting, although being with her friends, even at the gun range, was still something she enjoyed.

Jack was still stuck in jail and slowly winding his way through the judicial system. The state attorney’s office hadn’t offered him a plea deal yet, wanting him to sit a little longer before they did so he’d have a good taste of what life might be like for him if he didn’t get it over with and accept a shorter sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.

And then there was Kenny and Nolan.

A couple of times, they’d gone out to Venture, asking her if she wanted to go.

Before, she’d said no.

She didn’t know why, but wanted to puzzle it out first.

That was when it finally hit her.

The men had been nothing but sweet, kind, protective, caring.

And she wanted more.

A lot more.

She’d even been pulling back a little over the past week, afraid of throwing herself at them. While Tilly had been hinting to her that getting involved with the men, now that she was getting her life back together, wasn’t a bad thing, Betsy knew the truth.

She wanted them. She needed to be honest with them and tell them that.

And she needed to move out.

She couldn’t have it both ways. Not yet. Not now. She could stay there with them platonically forever and never make any progress. Or she could finally reclaim her life…