Chapter 16

“So, what, are you just going to hide for the next six months?”

Joy sighed. “Do you have a better idea?”

“I’m thinking you should get coffee with me and act like you did nothing wrong—which you did. Do nothing wrong, that is.”

Grace’s matter-of-fact voice bolstered Joy’s depressed spirits a little, but that didn’t stop the proverbial storm clouds from gathering over her still. In a town as small as Heron’s Landing, news traveled fast, and everyone and their dog had read the exposé about Carolyn. Since Adam had accused Joy of writing it, now everyone else in the town believed she’d written it, as well. The only person who thought she was innocent was Grace.

A week later, and things had only gotten worse. Joy barely left her apartment, afraid of the looks and whispers that accompanied her everywhere she went. She couldn’t even go into Mike’s downstairs without someone looking at her like she killed their firstborn.

“I don’t really want coffee,” she said to Grace. “I just want to sle