“What about them? Apparently he didn’t do anything illegal. Any pervert can set up and using a telephoto lens, shoot you taking a shower. Ridiculous. You can bet I’ll keep my curtains closed up tight. Hell, I even safety pinned them closed because a few of the pictures were shot between the gap where the two panels didn’t quite meet. Though they do go toward making him look like the perverted stalker he is so we can use that in the protection order hearing.”

“I feel guilty, he seemed so nice.”

“Don’t feel bad, Liv. How could you have known? He was a nice guy for a while.”

“So tell me about the fracas with Janie last night.” Liv’s eyes lit up as she drank her tea.

Maggie spilled the entire story to Liv.

After first being shocked, Liv started laughing at Kyle’s response. “I knew that boy was a keeper! Has hurricane Cece been here?”

“Of course. She starts in on how she’s been trying to get a hold of me and how nice girls don’t stay out all night. Kyle comes in and tells her I’ve been vandalized. She actually flirted with him and then he tells her he’s my boyfriend and she laughed like it was a joke. Liv, she told me that my word couldn’t be trusted over Janie’s and that I was jealous because she was superior to me.” That sliced into her gut.

Liv looked like she saw a pile of steaming dog doo. “Your mother is awful. She’s a crime in thirty states.”

“I stood my ground, Liv. For once in my life I defended myself and it felt great. Kyle defended me, too, which was very sweet. Poor ol’ Cece ran for the door looking like she needed some more botox. I hope she and Janie get five new wrinkles from this.”

Unashamedly listening from his ladder outside, Kyle nearly burst out laughing.

“You know, Liv, the Chase family showed me more love and concern in half an hour than my mother has my whole life. You should have seen them all here last night. Every single last one of them helped me. Matt and Marc boarded my windows and then finished scrubbing my door off. Polly showed up and ordered me to stay with them. At their house she made me hot chocolate and Edward appointed himself my attorney. Today he came to court with me. Shane took my report personally and has kept me updated on everything and Kyle has been with me the whole time. He took on my insane evil mother and sister.”

She stopped for a moment, tears choking her voice. “It’s just that I’ve been alone for a long time. I’ve had you and Dee and all but if my knee got scraped I got a lecture about being clumsy. Polly Chase is the kind of woman who would’ve cleaned it off and blown on the skin while she put hydrogen peroxide on it. They’re all so wonderful and I’m horribly frightened that Kyle’s feelings for me will wear off and I’ll be alone again. Only after having been a part of their world, it’ll be really lonely.” Her voice had gone to nothing more than a whisper at the last admission.

Liv held back her own tears and hugged Maggie tight. “Girl, you always, always have me and Dee. And I think you should give Kyle a chance. By your description of his actions, he’s in it for the long haul—the good, the bad and the ugly. Anyway, why quit now? You’ve already been in their world, it’s not like you can erase it.”

“Oh, Liv, last night it was so clear that I’m in way over my head. At The Oak Room everyone knew him. It was filled with people who never spoke a single word to me in high school. Everywhere we go women stare at him blatantly. Lyndsay Cole came onto him right in front of me! Even after he told her he was with me. How can I compete with that?”

“Maggie, you have got to stop this. You‘re nearly twenty-seven years old. How long are you going to let your mother and sister do a number on you? You don’t need to compete with the Lyndsays of the world. You’re better than they are anyway! Take a real look at yourself, please. You underestimate yourself so much! That’s why you dated men like Sam for so long. You made a comment a while back about lowering your standards—sugar, raise them. You deserve it. Let yourself be happy. Let yourself be with Kyle Chase. You won’t die if it doesn’t work out. But imagine if it does.”

Kyle leaned against the wall of the house, under the window, trying to process all he’d heard. He had to launch Operation Make Margaret Wright Know What A Goddess She Was, and he had to do it right away. Listening to her talk about her mother and sister, about how she felt last night among people he’d moved with for years, he felt bad. He needed to look at his own life a bit. He saw how shallow Jane Marie and Lyndsay were and wondered how many others in his circle were like that?

He pushed himself to standing and finished the last bit of installation for the lights and tested them. He was walking around the front of the house when Shane pulled up.

“Hey, Shane.” He walked over to meet his brother’s approach.

“Hey. Listen to this, Alex Parsons has four prior no contact orders on file. Seems that he had quite the way with the ladies back in college. I also talked with Dad’s investigator who spoke with two women here in Petal who’ve had such bad experiences with Alex they were afraid to file police reports.”

“Well, well, well. What a bastard. What does this mean then, for his case?”

“I passed it all on to the Prosecutor’s Office. They contacted Alex’s attorney. He’s going to plead out.”

“At least she won’t have to testify or face him in court,” Kyle said. “Let’s go and tell her.”