“Know what?”
“Dane was raised in foster care.”
I blinked. “He didn’t have parents?”
“He had parents. They were just, like, really messed up or something. I think Evelyn kind of gave him his first real home. And shetrustedhim, you know? Like she let him run her house, her money. Not everyone felt that way about Dane before he went to work for Evelyn.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just… he was a bit rough around the edges, you know? Kept to himself, didn’t make eye contact. I’d never heard of him actually doing anything wrong, but let’s just say the old man who used to own the Morning Basket — before Morgan and Tessa — kept an extra close eye on him in the store. And theone time someone graffitied the hardware store, Sheriff Granger questioned Dane.”
“Sheriff Granger?”
“He was the sheriff before Sheriff Crowe, and hereallydidn’t like Dane.” She laughed a little. “Although I think the feeling was mutual.”
“So everyone in town thought Dane was some kind of criminal just because he was a loner and grew up in foster care?” Anger tightened in my chest, which was super confusing.
“Not everyone,” Lena said. “Just some people.”
“That’s lousy.”
Shitty,I thought.That’s so shitty.
“Totally. But Evelyn turned that around for him. Some of the people in town were worried about her, thought maybe she must be losing it to invite Dane to live in her house, to give him access to her accounts and stuff.” Lena smiled. “But Evelyn was a good judge of character. She knew Dane was a good guy underneath all his attitude. And then, because she trusted him, everyone else started trusting him too.”
“That’s nice but it shouldn’t take one person to be nice to someone for everyone else to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
“Agreed,” Lena said. “But you know how small-minded people can be. Most of the people in Blackwell Hollow aren’t like that, but there’s always a few. Evelyn really changed Dane’s life. He even dresses different now.”
“Different how?”
“For one thing, he used to wear this leather jacket everywhere. And, like, ripped jeans and these big black boots.” She grinned. “I know he’s your roommate and everything, but I don’t mind saying he was pretty hot. Still is, but you know, different hot now. Responsible hot, in control hot.”
The thought of Dane being in control immediately put my mind in the gutter.
Not a good sign.
“Anyway,” Lena continued, “it doesn’t surprise me that Dane takes Evelyn flowers every week. She was really good to him.”
My mind struggled to form a new picture of Dane. One where he wasn’t a surly, judgmental jerkwad but a lonely man with a tragic history who’d found a home with Aunt Evelyn, who’d taken care of her house and business.
Who’d taken care ofher.
Someone who owed her a debt of gratitude and still paid on that debt even though she was gone.
“You ready to go inside?” Lena asked, glancing at the door to the town hall.
Traffic had thinned while we’d been talking, and I realized the meeting was about to start.
“Sure, let’s do it.”
“I hope Rosie brings Mayor Biscuit,” she said on our way up the stairs. “That’s always entertaining.”
30
AVERY
The meeting room was packed,every seat occupied, townspeople clustered around the edges of the room like sardines in a tin. Conversation hummed, everyone talking to everyone else before the meeting started as six people milled around behind a dais on a raised platform at one end of the room.