My saddlebags.
I stared at him as his gaze lifted to mine. The room suddenly went quiet.
“Sam?” Truman’s voice was unsure. “Why… why were these in your saddlebags?”
Barney’s face darkened. “I knew it. I knew he couldn’t be trusted. Did you know he has a record? I wasn’t going to say anything because I didn’t want to upset you, but I heard it from Ellen Amana, who heard it from Jane Dempsey, whose husband works at the sheriff’s office. That man is a criminal. And now this!”
Deputy Stone’s eyes flicked between Truman and Barney and me. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on here?” he asked carefully.
“I don’t know how those got in there. I didn’t take them,” I said to Truman. “Someone must have put them in there.”
Barney’s eyes widened, and he spluttered. “Someone planted evidence right where the sheriff’s deputy was sitting? That’s quite a charge, sir.”
I could see the confusion in Truman’s eyes, and I didn’t like it. He stepped closer to me with the beads still wrapped around his fingers. “Is it true? Do you have a record?” he asked softly.
This was one of my biggest fears. Finally finding someone I cared about and losing them because of my own damned stupidity.
“Yes.”
Mikey stepped up next to me. “Tell him what for,” Mikey said angrily to me before turning to Truman. “Ask him why.”
“Does it matter?” I asked Truman instead.
His eyes filled with tears, but before he could say anything, Barney interrupted again. “Truman, you have known most of the people in this room for years. You’ve known this stranger for a matter of days. We all saw those beads come out of his bag with our own eyes. Do you really think someone came here to plant evidence on him? Who? The Stanners? Don’t be ridiculous.”
Chaya lifted her chin. “Maybe it was you, Barney. We never did hear where you were the night of the fire.”
Finally, someone had said it.
Barney’s face paled before turning florid with anger. He turned to her and barely kept his cool when he responded. “I’ll have you know I was at a model train meeting until half past midnight. I was almost home when I saw the fire trucks outside of the shop, so I turned right around to pick you up at the farm.”
I felt my shoulders drop in defeat. If the Stanners really had been the ones to set the fire, then who the hell had planted the beads in my bag?
The saddlebags had been in Mikey and Tiller’s kitchen all week, and any number of people could have had access to it.
That meant there was someone here we couldn’t trust.
I looked back at Deputy Stone, who’d been sitting right next to the bags. He could have planted them on behalf of an angry sheriff.
He narrowed his eyes at me as if trying to read my mind. Before either of us could say anything, Truman stepped forward and said, “No. It doesn’t matter.”
And then he stood up on his toes and wrapped his arms around my neck before kissing me full on the lips. It took me a minute to remember what the question had been.
No, it doesn’t matter you have a record.
I exhaled into the kiss and held on tight. No matter what happened after that, I would be okay. All I needed was to know Truman Sweet didn’t think the worst of me.
I could handle the rest, whatever that ended up being.
22
Truman
I knew I was taking a risk. My brain agreed with Barney. Why in the world would I trust someone I’d barely known a handful of days? I had a history of being proven time and time again that people weren’t trustworthy.
But I refused to give up trusting people. And I refused to tell my heart—the heart that had never gotten what it wanted, what it deserved—that it had been wrong about Sam.
Besides, why in the world would he have burned down my spice shop? He had no motive, and his best friend was one of my best customers.
I pulled back from the kiss but stayed close enough to enjoy the feel of Sam’s arms wrapped around me. “I know you didn’t burn down my shop. Besides, I went into your saddlebags for the gummy bears the other day, remember? And the beads definitely weren’t in there then.”
Sam’s eyes closed in relief for a moment, but when they opened again, he looked warily at Deputy Stone as if waiting for the metal slap of cuffs against his wrists.
I belatedly realized Barney had made a choking, gurgling sound, so my eyes flashed to him in time to see his apoplectic response to my kissing Sam.
“You’ve lost your mind,” he sputtered. “This man has brainwashed you. How could you… how…?” He suddenly sat down hard in his chair and dropped his face in his hands. He looked like he was going to pass out. I felt a little sorry for him.