Chapter Thirty-Six
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MAGNOLIA CAFé IS A small coffee shop in the heart of downtown Haven. It’s the perfect place to grab a coffee before I’m stuck on a plane with Kai for five hours. He wasn’t happy I wanted to push back our flight, mostly because he wanted to go to the hospital to see Brina, which I wasn’t in any rush to do. I reminded him we didn’t have to be in the city until Wednesday morning. Anything else was extra time to get ahead (or to let me see what he had fallen behind on). When he started to argue, I told him to drive down to Denver and catch a commercial flight if he wanted to leave so badly, but our flight was leaving this morning at eight-thirty sharp.
The morning air is warm, and the sunshine already beats down from the clear sky above me as I stand outside Magnolia’s to-go window. Normally, I’d be comfortable in my current outfit—jeans, white camisole, and a flowy caramel-colored button-down left open—on an early spring day, but it might be too much today.
“I thought you’d be on a plane by now.” The gruff voice brings a smile to my lips.
Beau stands behind me with his hands on his hips. He is dressed in black trousers and a tan-colored button-up, with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up below his elbows. The material hugs his arms in a way that almost makes me jealous. His badge sits on his left hip, opposite of his holstered weapon. The layers of his short brown hair are styled this morning, but left tousled, giving it volume most women would kill for.
“I should be.”
One of the baristas calls my name, setting my coffee on the windowsill. Not a moment later, she calls out the window again, “Here you go, Sheriff.”
He didn’t even order yet, how did they—Shit. How could I forget? Beau gets his second cup from Magnolia’s every morning before he heads into the station.
Beau plucks our coffees from the window, dropping a five-dollar bill in the tip jar. “You have a minute?”
“Not really, but we’re already here. It won’t kill my brother to wait a few more.”
“Sure about that?” He chuckles, leading me down the steps of the patio to where his SUV awaits.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, ignoring the joke.
Beau sets both coffees on the hood and uses my hands to tug me two steps closer. “I’m sorry, Nina, for snapping at you yesterday. I—”
I cut him off. “Beau, you already apologized.”
“I need to say it again because I was wrong. Going off on you wasn’t acceptable…or professional. So, I’m sorry.”
“Are you saying this as Sheriff Beau or just…Beau?” My fingers tug on the front of his button-down, just enough to earn a small grunt in response when our bodies collide.
“Nina.” It’s a warning.
We’re not even one hundred feet from the coffee shop, barely shielded by his SUV, and technically he’s in uniform…This is not the place.
I take a step back and take a deep breath, rolling my shoulders to stand straighter. “Beau, I need to tell you something.” I chew on the corner of my mouth and my stomach sinks meeting his gaze. This is going to hurt. “I’m going back to New York.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“No, I’m going back…for good. Elena and I are moving back.”
Beau’s green eyes narrow at the unexpected announcement. “What do you mean you’re moving back…to New York?”
“I—I think it’s time. It’s been over a year, and I can’t stay in the house when…he’s everywhere . Everything about it reminds me of him. I can’t keep living like this, Beau. I can’t. I can’t keep sitting here hoping he’s going to walk in the damn door one day, because he’s not. Nick is gone and he’s not coming back. What happened yesterday only proves it.”
Every time I close my eyes, all I can see are the eyes of the strange man staring back at me. They were so cold, so distant…like he was there, but he wasn’t at the same time.
“Will that make you happy?” Beau asks. The question is so simple, but so heavy all at the same time. Will it make me happy? I don’t know, but it’s the only way I know how to start over.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“Nina—”
“Beau, don’t. Please.” I shake my head and pull my lips between my teeth. “Please don’t make this decision harder than it already is.”
Beau sighs and nods once. He crosses his arms over his chest and blinks away from my gaze. He scrubs his face with a hard sigh and changes the subject. “You know what I still don’t understand. How did they know you were there? And why show up now?”
Those were the questions I’d been trying to figure out. Nothing about any of this made sense. Why would the man risk showing himself now? Why did he let me go? I had seen his face, clear as day, but he still let me go. I think it’s pretty obvious he is the one who attacked Nick, but why? Was it a case of wrong place, wrong time? Did he know Nick? Or was someone trying to get to me? All questions no one seems to have the answers to.
And what about the other man? The one I had seen in the rearview mirror. He couldn’t have been more than two feet from the back of my car. What if I hadn’t left?
“Have you heard anything from James?” I ask, but Beau shakes his head. “You don’t think Sheriff Wilson—”
“I don’t know, Nina,” Beau says, pushing his hands through his hair, the sun warming his natural dark brown color. “Honestly, I don’t know what to think anymore. Something in me says there’s more going on here. Someone knows something. Whether that’s Rhett or—”
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” a different voice says, and my stomach lurches at the sound. A humorless chuckle follows the statement.
No, you’ve got to be kidding me .
“You know, for someone who says nothing is going on, you’re not doing a good job of being convincing.”
“What are you doing here, Alex?” I ask. I don’t have the energy to fight with him right now.
“Well, I came to grab a coffee while Lara’s in yoga class. The barista said you were around here somewhere, so I thought I’d come to talk to you. Try to apologize for how I handled things the other day, but…” Alex shakes his head, the hurt palpable behind his eyes. “I see you’re doing just fine.”
“Alex—”
“No, Nina. I don’t want to hear it.” My brother-in-law takes a deep breath. “Did you even wait for him to get cold? Or were you so happy to be rid of him it didn’t matter?”
“Enough, Alex,” Beau says. He wraps his arm around me and pushes me behind him.
Each word Alex said is like a stab to the heart. This time I can’t fight off the tears as they prick the corners of my eyes. Can’t stop a few of them from slipping down my cheeks. Can’t stop the nausea as it rises in my throat, nor the crushing weight building in my chest.
His murderous gaze falls on Beau. “And you—”
“Shut the fuck up, kid. Someone needs to knock you off your high horse before you forget who you’re talking to. You don’t speak to her that way. Do you have no respect?”
“Where’s the respect for my dead brother?”
Beau shakes his head and scoffs. He looks up to the sky, begging for patience to deal with this situation. If he wasn’t in uniform, I doubt Alex would still be vertical.
“The rest of the family might be okay ignoring it, but I’m not.”
“There’s nothing to ignore or not ignore, Alex,” I say. “We aren’t together!”
“I can’t believe you still deny it when I just caught you! You’re not even trying to hide it anymore. You’re messing around in plain sight—”
“In plain sight?” I scoff. “Alex, you didn’t walk in on us fucking around. We’re standing here, as you said, in plain sight , fully clothed and talking about Nick…Your dead brother, as you so eloquently named him.”
“Now, I’m no lawyer, just a lowly sheriff.” Beau scratches at the scruff on his chin, staring down at Alex. “But isn’t there something called innocent until proven guilty? Or does that not apply in your little witch hunt?” He looks over his shoulder and meets my gaze with a brief smile. It chips away at my already fragmented heart. “Nina has done nothing wrong, and neither have I. The only thing we’re guilty of is trying to find the answers to what happened to your brother. When the rest of you packed and left, she stayed here and worked tirelessly trying to get those answers.” Beau looks at me again. “You tell him about last night?”
“Beau, don’t,” I whisper.
“What about last night?” Alex looks between the two of us, but I avoid his stare.
Beau shakes his head, offering me an apologetic smile. “Nina was followed off the trail by two men, one of them in possession of your brother’s wallet.”
Alex’s eyes are wide. “Nina, why—You could’ve been hurt! Why wouldn’t you tell us?”
I scoff again. Is he serious? “Why would I tell you?”
“Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“You and I aren’t exactly on the best terms right now, Alex. Or have you forgotten you accused me of being happy about this? Happy that I was robbed of my happy ending with the man I love.”
Alex gnaws on the inside of his cheek, considering my words, and from my peripheral I see Beau brace himself to prepare for whatever else my brother-in-law may throw my way. Clearing his throat, Alex looks at the sheriff. “Are you going to reopen the case?”
Beau shrugs. “It’s not my call, but it might be enough for Warren to consider it.”
My phone rings in my pocket and I pull it out, rolling my eyes when I see the name.
Jace Powers.
Jace Powers is a former developer at the Villa Architecture Firm. He worked with Nick for a year or so before leaving the company to start his own firm, centralized in Denver. From what I can tell, he has done well for himself over the years, focusing more on developing some of the smaller towns to bring tourist activity to them. When he left Villa Inc., I jokingly warned him to stay away from Haven. We were fine. I didn’t want him picking apart my city. If anyone should be in charge of the further development of Haven, it was me.
When I was leaving this house this morning, I noticed a missed call from him. I assumed he called because he needed help, but I didn’t have time to clean up whatever mess he’d made. I had enough going on today, so I left his voicemail unheard and put him on my list of things to do on Thursday morning.
It seems strange for him to call again. Normally, he’d wait for me to return the call. Maybe it wasn’t about a project…
“I have to take this. Don’t leave, it’ll be two minutes tops,” I say to Beau, glaring at Alex over my shoulder.
Beau nods without looking away from Alex. I hear the sheriff say something to my brother-in-law, but his voice is too low to know what it is.
“What do you want, Jace?” I answer the phone when I’m far enough away from the duo.
“Where are you?” Jace asks, his voice quieter than I’ve ever heard it before.
That’s an odd question. “I’m about to leave for the airport. Why?”
“Which airport?”
“Jace, why are you asking—”
“Nina, what fucking state are you in right now ?” The tone of voice shocks me.
“Colorado…What does any of this matter? Jace, what’s going on?”
“We found him.”