The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Have My Bread Too

Brett's text came Sunday night.

I'm sorry about the market. Dinner Tuesday at the Inn? Just us and Maddie. Let's reset.

I read it standing in my kitchen with the back door locked and a chair under the knob.

I showed it to Casper the next morning at the shed.

"Don't go," he said.

"I'm going."

"Rule one. I'm telling you what I can prove. He's going to try to make you look unwell in front of a witness."

"Then he can try it in front of one I picked." I held up my phone, with the recording app open. "It's legal in this state. One person has to know."

He looked at the phone and then at me.

"I'll be at the bar," he said.

"You'll be at the bar, drinking something, not talking."

"Rule three."

The dining room of the Fennimore Inn has white tablecloths and a fireplace nobody lights, and I had never been in it without feeling underdressed.

Brett had booked the corner table.

He stood up when I came in and pulled out my chair.

"You look great," he said. "I mean it. Thank you for coming."

Maddie was already seated, in a cream sweater, her hands folded.

She had been crying a little, and had fixed it.

"Lena," she said. "I'm so sorry about Saturday. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay."

"It isn't. I should have said no to the market."

"It's fine, Maddie."

I sat down.

Across the dining room, at the end of the bar, Casper had taken a stool in the corner.

I could see him in the long mirror behind the bottles, his bandaged hand around a glass of ginger ale.

He was not looking at me.

Brett poured me wine and I let him.

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