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We’re almost at the cemetery gates when someone calls my name.

“Max!”

Sienna groans. “Fuck. What now?”

When we turn around again, I’m surprised to see Jennine hurrying toward us.

She practically skids to a stop in front of us, flushed and slightly out of breath.

“Maxine. Oh, thank God I caught you.”

Her attention flicks briefly to Sienna before returning to me.

“Would you mind if we had a few minutes to talk?”

I glance over her shoulder and find her daughter and friends still watching me from beside Sydney’s grave. And judging by their faces, they’d be perfectly happy to save everyone the trouble of waiting for my funeral and bury me right alongside her.

“Now really isn’t a good time.”

Jennine follows my gaze. When she looks back at me, something in her demeanor gives me pause.

She’s afraid.

“Just two minutes,” she pleads. “Please.”

Damn it.

I pull away from Sienna and move a few feet to the side. Jennine follows.

“I really should get going, Mrs. Crawford. I’m not exactly welcome here.”

“I know.” Her face falls. “And I’m truly sorry for what just happened. But I needed to speak to you. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.”

My brows pull together. “I don’t understand.”

Jennine takes a moment to gather her thoughts before answering.

“Peyton has always been strong-willed.”

That’s one way of putting it.

“But she’s a good person. She is. You should see everything she’s done for Fairhope.”

“Kind of hard to miss.”

She either misses my sarcasm or chooses to ignore it.

“She brought businesses back to Main Street. Created jobs. Sure, most of the money came from the settlements after the mill accident, but Peyton also managed to convince Crowley Industries to invest even more into Fairhope.”

A small, proud smile touches Jennine’s lips, but I’m still hung up on her particular choice of wording.

Accident? Accident? Did she really just say that?

“I suppose they were willing to pay whatever it took to keep the scandal out of the papers and their stock price from plummeting. But when Peyton came back to Fairhope after college, she made sure to turn that to the town’s advantage. All that money went where it was needed most. Roads, schools, local businesses. People actually want to move here, Maxine. Fairhope has a future now, and a lot of that is thanks to Peyton.”

“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me.”

Her smile disappears.