Chelsea pov
I drove away from the coffee shop with the windows down, letting the cool air do something to settle the small, satisfied hum still sitting in my chest.
That had gone well. Better than well, actually.
Vanessa had walked in already halfway convinced, whatever had happened with Cole clearly still raw enough that she'd needed somewhere safe to put her anger, and I'd simply given her a shape for it. A story that made sense of her own hurt without asking her to examine any part of herself too closely.
*People like her don't have to try.* She'd nodded along to that one immediately, practically finished the thought for me before I'd even gotten there.
It was almost too easy.
The trick was never lying outright, not really. Outright lies were fragile things, easy to trip over, eas
