the other side of the candy rack, her eyes so bright she might have been crying, except she looked absolutely radiantly happy. At the sight of Jocelyn, her jaw dropped.
Charity held up her hand. “Don’t say her name, Glo. She’s our little secret.”
Gloria smiled. “You’re back.” Then she inched back, giving Jocelyn the once-over. “Truth or lies?”
Jocelyn sighed. She had a special bond with these two women. She trusted them. “It’s not true.”
“Oh, too bad. My cousin Grace has the hots so bad for Miles Thayer. She’d want every detail.”
“My daughter Grace has the hots for everyone, that’s her problem.”
“No,” Gloria shot back. “That’s her husband, Ron’s, problem.” She winked at Jocelyn. “See? Some things never change on this island. I’d love to talk, Jocelyn, but Slade’s off work and we’re going out.”
“Did you tell your mother you’re going to be out tonight?” Charity asked, referring, of course, to her sister, Patience Vail, Gloria’s mother and the recipient of Jocelyn’s secret loan a few years ago.
Gloria bit her lip. “Aunt Charity, I’m in my thirties.”
“Not too old to tell my poor sister when you’ll be home.”
“Later,” she said, slipping past Jocelyn, giving her a smile. “Nice to see you again, Jocelyn.”
As the bell rang with Gloria’s exit, the two construction workers came up with armloads of soda and chips.
“I better go,” Jocelyn said.
“Just you wait,” Charity ordered, ringing up the men first. “I have to tell you something.”
Jocelyn turned, not wanting to make eye contact with the strangers, picking up a copy of the Mimosa Gazette, her gaze on the headline. New Roads to Be Approved for Barefoot Bay.
So Lacey was making headlines in the Mimosa Gazette, she thought with a smile. Good for her. When the men left, Charity pointed at the paper.
“I was going to fight that resort, you know.”
“Of course you were.”
“But that damn Clay Walker came up with a way for that road to have another Shell station that we can get the franchise rights to. We’d have two gas stations in north Mimosa Key and I’d own them both.” She grinned. “How could I fight that?”
“You’re going to be very glad when Casa Blanca is finished,” Jocelyn told her.
Charity looked skyward, like she hated to admit it. Then she crooked a finger to get Jocelyn closer, lowering her voice even though the convenience store was empty.
“How sick is he?” she asked.
“Pretty bad. I’m going to put him… somewhere. Not sure where, though.”
“Check hell. I heard there’s plenty of vacancies.”
Jocelyn smiled.
“He meets the criteria,” Charity insisted. “And if the devil needs a referral”—she leaned even closer to whisper—“I still got them pictures.”
“You do?”
“’Course. They’re in a safe-deposit box down at the credit union. They’re yours if you want them. I’m keeping them just in case, you know.”
“Just in case of what?” The thought of those pictures still being around made Jocelyn a little nauseous.
“You know, if he ever tries anything again.”
She shook her head. “He won’t. He’s freakishly changed. Nice, even.”
“I heard a rumor to that effect. And you can bet those pretty diamond earrings you’re wearing that I didn’t repeat that rumor, ’cause I spread the truth.”
“It’s true he’s sick and—nice.”
She snorted noisily. “You know what they say about a rat-bastard wifebeater and his spots.”
“Shhh.” Jocelyn closed her eyes.
“Well, it’s a fact. And I don’t regret for one minute what I did, young lady. Call it blackmail if you want, but that man was a disgrace to the uniform and a terror to his family.”
There was no way to argue that.
“But the pictures are yours if you want ’em.”
Did she? She could destroy them. Or use them to remind her of why she couldn’t get all soft inside where Guy was concerned. “Yes, I do,” she said. “I want them.”
Charity nodded. “Fine. I’ll get them for you. And in the meantime, I haven’t seen you, and I doubt you’d ever come back here. Oh, and I stopped carrying the tabloids.”
“Bet that’s hitting your bottom line.”
Charity huffed out a breath and waved her bright-red nails like a flea was in front of her. “I don’t give a hoot what’s hitting my bottom line, long as no man is hitting me.” She reached her hand out for a formal shake, the gesture striking Jocelyn as odd, but she took the older woman’s weathered hand. “We stick togeth—”
The bell rang and Will caught them shaking hands. Jocelyn knew from his expression there’d be some explaining to do. Just as she knew that she’d never give him the full