Plain Outsider by Alison Stone

Author:Alison Stone [Stone, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

NINE

The next day, Becky sat on the couch with Chewie curled up by her side. She had the blinds drawn against the gorgeous sunny day. It was easier to pretend her life hadn’t gone off in a ditch this way. She didn’t have many friends as it was and certainly the ones she had in the sheriff’s department thought she was toxic. Even Anne, her closest friend and assistant to the sheriff, hadn’t returned her phone calls.

Her memories drifted back to the conversation she and Harrison shared last night over Chinese food. In a way, they were kindred spirits. Both struggling with life’s circumstances and family issues. The one difference: Harrison was truly alone. All his family had since passed. Hers was on the other side of town, choosing to pretend she didn’t exist.

All except Mag.

She wasn’t sure which was worse.

TV remote in one hand, she flipped through the stations, getting tired of all the shows she didn’t feel like watching.

After recent events, this was the only way she felt safe, cocooned in her house. Harrison had called her this morning to check in on her and she feigned cheeriness. She rambled off a long list of things she planned to do around the house that she never had time to do when she was working full-time. Yet, here she sat on the couch feeling too blah to move. She didn’t want him to feel like he had to come by to check on her. He had already done too much. She shouldn’t be depending on him. And she didn’t want to be his “get over his guilt” project because he hadn’t been there for his brother.

That’s harsh. The man’s genuinely concerned about you.

She turned up the sound on some all-hours news station to drown out the constant chatter in her head. Eventually, she began to doze. Her dreams were wild and disjointed. Stress did that.

Something startled her out of a dream—she might have been in pursuit of a speeding car or maybe she had been walking across a muddy field sinking up to her knees. Sitting up slowly and wiping the sleep from her eyes, she tuned in to a quiet knock on the door. Chewie, who had apparently also been sleeping next to her on the couch, lifted his head, looked at her, then looked at the door, then put his head back down. She couldn’t help but laugh and patted him playfully on the head. “Some guard dog you’d make.”

She squinted at the clock on the cable box and realized it was too early to be Harrison, unless he decided to stop by during his shift. Untucking her legs from under the blanket, she stood and shook out her right foot that had fallen asleep. Running a hand through her hair, she walked slowly toward the front window—Chewie in tow—and was surprised to find a horse and buggy in her yard. Chewie hopped up and rested his paws on the low windowsill and growled at the horse.

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