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restaurants.” She said the last statement just as the waitress arrived with their food. It wasn’t her imagination that her plate landed in front of her with a slight thump.
    When the waitress walked away, she realized Tosh was trying not to laugh.
    “This is really not my day,” she told him.
    “If you hate it here so much, why don’t you get out?”
    “I did for a while. Turns out the big city wasn’t so great, either. Maybe there’s nowhere for me.” She knew how pathetic she sounded, but she couldn’t help it. Right now she was at the end of her emotional tether.
    “What happened?” Tosh asked.
    She picked up her fork and cut her chicken, not sure if she wanted to answer.
    “Sorry, I’m also intensely nosy,” Tosh explained. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”
    Suddenly she found that she did want to tell him, though she had no idea why. She was generally a private person. “I went to New York right out of college. I had a job. It paid well, but not well enough to afford Manhattan . I had a few roommates and we found a slum uptown. Everything was going great. To date, it was the best time of my life.”
    “I sense a ‘but’ coming,” he interrupted.
    She shook her head. “Not for a while yet. The only thing missing was a guy, but I didn’t really mind. I’ve never been the type of girl who needs to be dating someone. And then I met Robert. He was charming. I know that’s an old-fashioned word, but it’s the best description I can think of. He was just so charismatic that everyone was drawn to him, myself included. Amazingly, the attraction was mutual, and we started dating almost from my first week at my new job. A year and a half later we were engaged.”
    She paused and looked down at her chicken a moment before continuing.
    “Next comes that ‘but’ we spoke of,” she began again. “A few months ago, my little sister, Riley, came for a visit. Apparently Robert and love at first sight are great friends because it happened again with her. While I was working, they were making plans behind my back. Robert dumped me and now he and Riley are together. We were only a few months from our wedding. I had to cancel everything.” She paused again, swallowing hard. “I couldn’t stay there after that. Robert and I worked in the same office. I couldn’t see him day after day, knowing…”
    She looked down in surprise when he covered her hand on the table. “I’m sorry,” he said gently.
    Something inside her shifted slightly with that soothing gesture. A little of the tightness in her chest eased. Just knowing that someone somewhere cared and understood was like a healing balm. Her family was torn between wanting to support her and not wanting to condemn Riley. But Tosh didn’t have the moral dilemma of having to choose between two sisters. He was fully on her side, and he cared about her pain.
    Embarrassing tears stung her eyes, but they dried quickly when someone spoke beside her.
    “Is this your boyfriend?”

Chapter 7
     
    Jason towered over them, his dark uniform making him seem even more intimidating. Tosh let go of Lacy’s hand and sat back, studying the newcomer as Jason studied him.
    “What are you doing here?” Lacy asked Jason, catching his attention so he turned from Tosh to her.
    “They have good coffee here,” he explained. “I’m on a break.” The way he looked at her was…odd. Was there accusation in his expression before he looked back to Tosh and held out his hand. “Jason Cantor.”
    “Tosh Underwood,” Tosh replied, shaking Jason’s hand.
    “Jason and I went to high school together,” Lacy explained to Tosh. Turning to Jason, she tried hard to keep her tone neutral. “Tosh is the new pastor at my grandmother’s church.”
    Jason’s eyebrow rose. “You look young to be a pastor.”
    “You look young to be a cop,” Tosh returned.
    Lacy frowned slightly as she looked between them. There were undercurrents she didn’t understand. Were