It was several degrees cooler inside than out and felt wonderful on her sweat-soaked skin. She’d stalked several miles from Main Street in her small South Carolina town outside Columbia to her boyfriend’s property. Vinny Banks. She wanted to kill him she was so pissed. She would if she could, too, if she weren’t so damned in love with him. She hadn’t even bothered to grab her car keys when she heard the news he was back in town. The picture off her office wall, oh yes she’d snatched that up, but not the damn keys. That fact, realized as soon as she’d run out of the family hardware store in hurt-filled anger, hadn’t helped her mood any. Rather than go back to face the man who’d brought her the news of Vinny’s return, as well as the customers she’d left staring after her, she just kept walking. She had a very capable couple of employees who would take up the slack in her absence, and while what she’d done was hotheaded and not very responsible, it didn’t concern her as much as confronting Vinny did.
