Darkness at the Edge of Town (Iris Ballard #2)(32)

“Iris? Are you okay?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah. Yeah. Coffee went down the wrong tube. I’m good. I’m okay.” I took a deep breath to regain my composure. “Okay. Better. Hi! How are you? How…are you?” My voice was higher than normal. I sounded like Minnie Fucking Mouse.



“I’m good. I’m good. I got roped into helping on a kidnap right after we last spoke and haven’t had a moment to myself in two days.”

So that was why he didn’t call back and sent that short text message. He wasn’t angry, he was just busy. That realization released at least half the tension I’d been holding in. “Oh. Good. Well, not good, but…I was worried you were mad at me for cancelling our…outing.”

“Mad? Why would I be mad? I was actually relieved,” Luke said.

My tension spiked again. “Relieved? Why?”

“That you beat me to the punch. I was going to have to cancel on you.”

“Oh. Well, you know me—I really don’t mind being the bad guy,” I chuckled nervously. “Better me than you.”

“Please. You only wish you were a bad guy. You barely have a bad bone in your body.”

“Still have one or two more than you,” I pointed out. “So you aren’t mad at me? Really?”

“No. It was mostly just…disappointment. I was really looking forward to…the symphony.”

“Me too,” I said sadly. “God, me too, Luke. You have no idea.”

We were both silent for a few seconds before he cleared his throat. “So, uh, what’s going on? You were vague in your voicemail. You’re in Grey Mills for a minor family emergency? Something with your brother?”



Yeah, I’d actually upgraded it to a moderate emergency the night before, but he didn’t need to know that. “My brother ran away from home to become a hippie farmer or something and took all his and his fiancée’s money with him. I’m trying to track him down.” Not a total lie. He didn’t need to know about the more nefarious elements of the situation. He had enough to worry about at work.

“What?” Luke chuckled.

“Oh, it gets better. I discovered he got a girl pregnant and married her the day we talked. I just had to tell his ex-fiancée and still have to tell my mother.”

“Oh, I’m sure Faye’s going to take that news well,” Luke said with a scoff.

He and Mom never really clicked; probably because at my wedding she told him to respect my marital vows and warned him to never put himself in a position where I would have to choose between him and my husband. Then when I was in the hospital after Hayden’s death, I found out she wouldn’t let him in to see me and proceeded to shout the hospital down, claiming it was his fault, and said he was a vulture circling me now that Hayden was out of the way. She was just terrified and lashing out, and part of Luke knew that, but I was sure it still hurt him. How could it not?

“Yeah, she’s not currently talking to me after last night’s histrionics. I deigned to agree with the police that Billy’s an adult and can become a hippie farmer if he so chooses.”

“She yelled at you?” Luke asked harshly. “She has no right to get angry at you. None. Pardon my language, but screw her.”



“It wasn’t just the police thing,” I said before sighing. “It was about how I never called, never wrote, I barely know my stepfather, my stepbrothers, and Billy’s ex-fiancée. How I almost died, again, and how worried she was about me during Shepherd. I mean, she’s not wrong. Even before Meriwether I all but ignored them. The last time I was back here was her wedding, and I had to leave before the reception was over to get back to work. My brother got engaged and pregnant and I had no clue.”

“It’s a two-way street, Iris. With something that big, someone should have thought to tell you,” Luke said.

“But what does it say that they didn’t?” I countered. “They thought I wouldn’t care. And they were probably right, at least for the past two years.”

“And they could have—hell, should have—driven down to check on you and kick your butt.”

“I pushed them away, Luke. I said horrible things to all of them, screeched my head off so they’d leave me alone.”

“You did the same to me, but I still came down. I still tried. And I succeeded. And I’m not even family.”

“Come on,” I said. “You’re more my family than anyone. What did my students call it? You’re my person? My bae?”

“Bae?”

“It stands for ‘before anyone else.’ Ride or die. You already proved the ‘or die’ part,” I scoffed.

His end was silent for a second. “You really think that about me? I’m…your family?”



“Of course I do. You’re my best friend, Luke. You were the maid of damn honor at my wedding. Hell, even when we were on the outs, I don’t think that ever changed. Deep down I always knew you were just a phone call away. And you obviously thought the same or you wouldn’t have shown up in North Carolina asking for help. If I’m not your best friend, who is? I’ll have to challenge them to a duel.”

Luke chuckled, which made me grin too. “Okay, fine. You’re my best friend. You’re my…family. No duel required.”