Page 91 of My Beautiful Sin

“I was wondering that, too,” Anna says, her eyes an especially vivid blue, as if she’s channeling today’s bright sunshine. Her red hair is gleaming, too, and for the first time I notice that her roots are darker.

She and Tracy caught up with us an hour ago, about the time that Lamar, Christopher, and Devlin decided to camp out by the bandstand and chow down on tacos and churros. Ronan and Reggie were around earlier, too, but I haven’t seen either of them in the last few hours. I still haven’t figured out why Reggie looks so familiar, and I’ve started to think it’s just my imagination.

“Do you have an exclusive deal with The Escape?” Tracy asks, then turns to show off her own BB Bags crossbody. “I got this about an hour ago. It’s awesome.”

“You are my new best friend,” Brandy says. “Sorry, Ellie, but you had a good run.”

“She’s a lot of work,” I tell Tracy. “But she’s worth it.”

“I am,” Brandy says, laughing. “And nope, not an exclusive at all. In fact I was supposed to have a booth but I had to pull out last month.” A laughing woman with a to-go cup of wine pushes past us. “We’re blocking the booth,” Brandy says, then leads us to the backside with less foot traffic.

“So why’d you pull out?” Anna asks, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Brandy’s grin would rival the Cheshire Cat’s. “Because I had to ship all my inventory to Chicago for my new deal with one of the boutiques there. Totally awesome and unexpected. And it’s also why I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend sewing. And next week interviewing for part-time help.”

“You didn’t tell me,” I say, giving her a hug so enthusiastic I almost topple her into the back of the jewelry booth’s tent.

She shrugs, managing to look both modest and pleased with herself. “It’s just business.”

“At which you’re excelling,” Tracy says. “I want to be you guys when I grow up.” Still in grad school, Tracy is the youngest of our little group.

“Well, let’s go find out if you will be,” Anna suggests. “I saw a Tarot card reader set up at the end of the block. Want to?”

Tracy checks her watch. “I’m meeting Lamar in thirty, but if there’s not a line, sure.”

“I should have told you to bring a date,” I say to Anna since she’s the only one who’d come unpaired to the festival.

“There’s no one to bring, and right now, I’m fine with that.”

I wrinkle my nose, wishing I’d kept my mouth closed. “Bad breakup?”

She waves my words away. “Not even a breakup really. More like a clusterfuck. Turns out he didn’t value what was right in front of him.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. His loss, right?” Her smile is tight and thin, and though I nod in agreement, I don’t mention that I’m certain that the break-up was worse than she’s admitting.

“You’re doing the Tarot with me, right?” Tracy asks her. “We can find out if there’s a new guy on the horizon.”

“Or if my beloved is going to get his soon,” Anna says wryly. “Sure. I’m coming.” She looks at me. “How about you? Want to see what the cards say about you and Devlin?”

I shake my head. “Nope. Things are going fine right now. If anything bad is coming, I don’t want to know.”

Tracy frowns, and I immediately regret my words.

“Devlin and I are great,” I assure her. “I was just joking.”

“Oh, I know. I was thinking about what happened with the Range Rover. You’re doing okay now, right?”

I nod. “I’m fine. Really. It was scary, and now it’s over.”

Anna’s brow furrows. “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt.”

“My ass was a little bruised, but that’s all.”

“It was freaking terrifying,” Brandy adds. “I mean if someone really did it on purpose…”

“Do you really think the driver was trying to run you down?” Tracy asks.