Page 87 of Traces Of You

Reenie laughed when Gale stuck her tongue out at her mother.

She’d never had such easy and fun interactions with her mother growing up. She’d never consider sticking her tongue out.

Wrong. She’d done it once when she was younger, then tasted blood when her mother smacked her cheek and she bit down on it.

That was the last time she’d disrespected her mother or thought of ever doing it again.

“How are you holding up?” Ford asked when she moved by the bar. He’d waved her closer and snatched two bites of food off her tray.

She wouldn’t complain. No one ever wanted to hear that. “Pretty good. How about you?”

Ford was filling a few glasses while he talked to her. The tip jar on the counter was half full already. She knew there was a cover charge to come in today, then tokens for up to three glasses of cider.

“I’m not working nearly as hard as you.”

“You are when it comes to talking to everyone,” she said. “Though I’m getting some comments on us.”

“The same. It doesn’t bother you, does it?”

“No,” she said.

“I’ve got food for you too, Ford,” Lexi said. She had two plates full of dips and crackers and cheese. “For you all at the bar.”

“Thanks, Lexi,” he said, reaching for it and setting it down.

“Sweet,” Ash said. “I just said I could go for some cheese and crackers.”

Ash picked up one plate and moved it to the end of the bar. Lexi stared for a minute and then walked away.

“And I should get back out there.”

Three hours in, she wasn’t sure what was screaming for relief more, her back or her feet. There was a tingling between her shoulders, but she was too busy walking around to have it register that it wasn’t pain but awareness.

It finally hit her that it was the same feeling she’d felt in town before, as if someone was watching her. She looked around, but no one was staring right at her, but rather the tray with food on it.

Must be that.

It had to be, she told herself. She was too paranoid when she didn’t need to be.

The farm was her safe haven and nothing would happen while she was on this property.

Clay and Ford knew what Oliver looked like; they’d gotten a picture of him. If he was anywhere near her, they’d be on top of it.

She had to just stop thinking he was watching and waiting for the right time to make his move.

When the tray was empty, she returned, Lexi in there waiting while bowls of dips were filled again, watching her walk forward and set the tray down, then arch her back.

“This is the last time I’ll fill them,” Brooke said. “Or the last of them.”

“It’s thinning out now,” she said. “Maybe only fifty people remaining. I think the bulk of them were here early.”

There were over a hundred people in there mingling for a couple of hours.

“Bobbi Jo said the same thing too, and she thought it was slowing down. Callum came in to check on me and said they were winding down at the bar.”

“Do you know how many people have been here?” she asked.

“I think Clay said an hour ago that they had sold two hundred tickets. Good thing I made more food than he said.”