5
Brooke
“You okay, hun?” Darla asked two minutes after she arrived at work.
My boss was entirely too perceptive at times. Kind, but too observant for comfort. Was it the black circles under my eyes? The tear streaks? My pale skin? Because I’d tried to cover those up with make-up. Or was it the fact that my hands wouldn’t stop shaking?
Since Adeline, who’d been my bestie since elementary school, was still living in Coos Bay, Darla was the closest thing I had to a girlfriend in Baldwin’s Shore. We’d first met a little over four years ago when Darla started work as a live-in nurse for the oldest Mr. Baldwin—yes, one of those Baldwins—and I was still caring for Nonna. We used to bump into each other when I took Nonna for walks by the beach. Well, pushes, because after two strokes she had
