Nearly getting headbutted by a stranger in a tiny pharmacy foyer was the last thing anybody needed after a long day at work, but Gillian Pritchard took it in stride. Besides, it was partially her own fault. She’d been distracted by a text alert and wasn’t looking where she was going.
A tall man, sneezing repeatedly into a large bandanna covering most of his face, hurtling into her and nearly breaking her nose put Gillian back in pharmacist mode even though she was off the clock and on her way out the door. She didn’t mind.
Gillian had been a pharmacist for years, and she was good at it. Nothing made her happier than being able to serve the citizens of the small town of Willow Cove.
“Allergies?” she murmured sympathetically, and the man nodded as he pushed past her into the building.
Gillian didn’t take offense at his brusqueness; he was obviously suffering. She would have followed him back inside to help out if it weren’t for her text. A quick glance at her phone to see that it was from her elderly neighbor, Carol, and it only said Come quick was enough to send a zing of alarm through her.
Cursing the fact that the gorgeous spring weather had enticed her to walk to work that day, Gillian hurried through town and into her residential neighborhood as fast as she could, but it still took far too long to get home. She tried calling Carol back on the way, but there was no answer. Practically at a jog when she rounded the corner onto her own block, she nearly barreled into her three neighbors, Carol, Arnette, and Judy, clustered on the sidewalk. When they all turned to her en masse, their eyes wide, Gillian’s heart seized.
“What’s wrong?” she gasped. “Are you all right? Carol, why didn’t you answer my— ”
“It’s Retha,” Arnette stage- whispered, clutching the sides of her cardigan and pulling them tighter around her…
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