Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
A collective groan went up immediately at the mere mention of Bale Landry. Shabina gave a little sigh. “He recently contacted me and asked if I would go back to court to lift the protection order I have against him. I tried talking to Rainier about it. Bale’s lived his entire life in this town. He can’t come to the café, and if I’m in a store or at the Grill for an evening, he can’t be there. I do feel sorry for him. His best friends seemed to have walked away from their friendship…”
“Can you blame them, Shabina?” Stella asked. “Bale Landry is a narcissist and a misogynist. He despises women, especially any woman not on his list of approved ethnic background—which is nearly all of us. Edward is in love and seems to be really trying to make a life for himself. Jason broke away long before Edward, and he’s in partnership with Bruce Akins at the brewery. Bale beat the crap out of Sean when Sean refused to implicate you in a murder. It was for Sean’s own gain, but that’s beside the point. It isn’t like Bale is a good guy.”
“But maybe he could be,” Shabina said. “We all make mistakes. I’ve certainly made my share. And he was friends with Lawyer and just lost him. He might be a better person if we all tried with him again.”
Harlow sighed. She wished she were more like Shabina, but she wasn’t. Shabina saw the good in people despite her horrific past. Despite her father. Sheesh, when she let herself think about it, Shabina’s father had actually tried to hire an assassin to kill his daughter so his wife wouldn’t suffer any longer with the thought that their daughter had been kidnapped and wasn’t being returned. That was the kind of father Shabina had. No way was Rainier going to allow her father anywhere near her. And Bale? He’d threatened Shabina and tried to implicate her in a murder.
“Honey, I love you so much for your ability to forgive and have such compassion for others, but I have to be honest with you,” Harlow said. “After Lawyer died, I received three very ugly letters from Bale accusing me of not doing my job. He claimed that as Bale’s nurse I should have been watching over him, but he had it on good authority that I was too busy sleeping with a doctor and had let him die.”
“He didn’t,” Zahra snapped, her dark eyes flashing fire. “What a mean, horrible, asinine jerk. Bale knows you were friends with Lawyer. All of us were. He tried to blackmail Lawyer and was furious when Lawyer just went to the local radio station and told on himself. How could he accuse you of neglecting him? Every minute you had off, lunchtime and breaks, you were with Lawyer, trying to get him to rally, trying to figure out what was killing him.”
Shabina looked horrified. She had brought food to Harlow at the hospital on more than one occasion, knowing, from Zahra and Vienna, that Harlow was skipping meals while she was staying with Lawyer. “I’m so sorry he did that. You said he sent you more than one email?”
Harlow shook her head, wishing she hadn’t said anything. She didn’t like Shabina looking so distressed. It wasn’t her fault that Bale Landry was a jerk. Every woman in town knew he was—even Shabina. He’d been particularly ugly to her. At that time, his friends had participated in his harassment of women, especially Shabina. It was just that Shabina had such a kind, compassionate, forgiving heart. How she had remained that way after all that had happened to her, Harlow would never know.
“Not email. He put the letters into my mailbox. Rainier has them now.”
Somehow Shabina was able to be in a relationship with a man like Rainier. She was a strong woman to be able to live with him. Harlow envied her that strength and determination. She wanted a relationship with Wilder. She really did, and the more she was with Shabina, the more she felt she should take that chance with him. Jump in with both feet. Shabina had done that, and she had done so with her eyes wide open. Harlow knew that if she did as Wilder asked, she would have to go into the relationship wholly, not hold back, just as Shabina had done.
“Harlow?” Stella prompted. “What else did Bale have to say? And was it only Bale, or did Sean send you something as well?”
“Bale. Sean has been avoiding me. I think he’s been avoiding everyone. If I’m being honest, I told him I thought he was a complete jerk for what he did to poor Chelsey Sarten. He’s on the no-date list of every nurse who works at the hospital.”