Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
LAW
We don’t talk about what just happened until we’re safely inside Carlie’s house.
“You couldn’t just have said you were admiring the tub?” I ask after she tells me how she was searching his room for blood evidence. With a black light. Well, not his bedroom, but the rest of the house. She hadn’t gotten to the black light part before Chad came home and surprised her. “It’s a nice tub,” I point out.
“Yeah, maybe that’s where he stowed her body until he could take it out back and bury it.” She shudders, as though it’s an actual possibility that she’d lain in a tub where Shelby’s body was.
“He didn’t kill his wife.” The words come out in a sigh. Sure, Chad and I aren’t besties, but I know him well enough to believe he didn’t kill Shelby. It’s so ludicrous that she believes he might have done something to her. I just can’t believe it of him. His career is based on saving people’s lives, literally. Carlie’s only jumping to this conclusion because of her own experience.
She’s pacing back and forth in the small space that is her kitchen and living room while I look on from the couch, so I don’t think she notices the tension that has pulled my shoulders up. She’s too stuck on what she thinks she’s discovered.
She stops in front of the small coffee table and turns to me. “Why is the carpet different in the master suite than in the rest of the upstairs?” she asks, pointing an accusing finger at me.
I actually laugh at this, glad I have an explanation. “Oh, yeah. They had to replace it because of an incident with a robot vacuum and a diaper.” I pretend to gag. “Totally ruined.”
She puts her hands on her hips. “And you witnessed this? You saw the ruined carpet? Maybe you helped rip it out?” Before I can say anything, she holds up a finger. “But wait. Chad told me Zoey’s been potty trained for a year. Assured me that she was totally trained, that she was easy compared to Scarlett.”
I shrug. “So it happened a while ago.”
“And Chad told you about it,” she says pointedly. She sighs and drops her head. “Never mind.”
The only way I know to keep myself from lecturing her about the way she’s judging Chad right now is to make a joke out of what’s happening. Then maybe she can stop and see what she’s doing. “My offer to help you dig up that mound on Wednesday night still stands.” I let a small smile slip. I don’t want this weird thing coming between us. I want to believe that she’ll come to a place where she can trust me fully and then start to trust others again. I don’t want this to be something I have to worry about in our relationship. I’m falling hard for Carlie.
She rolls her eyes, and a tiny smile works its way onto her lips. “I’m not digging up the mound. I’ll let the police have the pleasure.”
I stand up and go to her, taking her hands in mine. “Look,” I say seriously. “I know it must feel like you dismissed a hundred little things about Xavier that, in hindsight, you feel were obvious.”
She shakes her head. “I didn’t.” She lets out a long breath and stares hard at my chest. “I mean, obviously I missed some things, but I don’t know what they were. It was nothing like this. There were no clues. He never took calls he couldn’t explain away. I thought he had a job that explained all the money. I never overheard suspicious conversations.” She walks away from me, going around the coffee table and plopping on the couch. “The government didn’t even want to use me to testify because I literally knew nothing. One day things were like happily ever after for me, and then the next, the FBI arrested my fiancé.”
I sit down next to her, putting my arm around her shoulder and pulling her into me.
“You think I’m leaping to a crazy conclusion,” she says into my chest. “But it’s all still suspicious, Law. It really is.”
When she lays it all out, she’s not wrong, but she’s only seeing the bad things. Is that how she sees me? “Yeah. It kind of is,” I admit. I take a deep breath. “But I am still worried that this is the side of Chad you see when I just can’t believe it. Have you talked to your sister about this? What does she think?”
She shakes her head. “I haven’t told Jenna. You’re the only one. And I’m not paranoid. This isn’t about Xavier, Law, I promise.” She looks so desperate for me to believe that his treatment of her is well in the past, that she’s over it, and it’s not affecting the way she believes a normal guy like Chad could kill his wife.
I sigh. “Okay.” This is definitely about her ex, but how do I make her see that? I’ll have to figure out a vague way to ask Ivy for help on this.
She sits up. “I have cookies that I made the other day. You want some cookies and milk?”
I love the playfulness on her face as she asks this, the fact that she told me something personal—vulnerable—a moment ago, and that she can also shift to teasing as easily. She trusts me, and given what she’s been through, that means so much. But how much does she trust me? Will she jump to conclusions about me if she sees things about me in tabloids? I shake the thoughts away.
I use the hand still resting on her back to gently nudge her toward me. Her hands fall on my chest, and our lips meet. I kiss her for several moments before murmuring, “What kind of cookies?”
She runs her thumb under my bottom lip as she says, “Chocolate chip, the best kind with milk.” But her touch only leads to more kissing and me wrapping both arms around her to hold her as close as possible. “I have the best recipe,” she says softly as we break apart who knows-how-long later.
“I’d love some.” I kiss her once more before she slowly gets up and heads into the kitchen area.
“Caleb brought Ivy to family dinner,” she says, taking out two glasses and then leaning toward the small, retro-looking fridge and opening it.
“And how did that go?” I rest back against the couch, not taking my eyes off her as she moves around the kitchen, pouring milk and setting out four cookies on a plate to bring in. I hop up to go help her make the transfer, and she hands me the plate while she picks up the two glasses. I’m very happy to discuss this very normal relationship thing—awkwardness with her family.
“Just fine.” She follows me back to the couch. “My grandma says she knew she wanted to marry my grandpa the night she met him.”
“Jett couldn’t stop talking about your grandma tonight. He seemed kind of mad about missing dinner. She must be pretty great.” I set the plate on the coffee table and grab a cookie before settling back down.
“She is. They were close before, but she kind of helped him see why he needed to forgive Ava for leaving all those years ago.” Carlie smiles as she settles back against the couch. “She’s the reason I was brave enough to quit my job and come out here. She told me I didn’t love my job the way she thought I should, that there was something better out there. I figured if Grandma, this responsible woman who did all the right things for as long as I could remember, thought it was okay if I walked away, it must really be okay.”
I lean over to kiss her temple. “It was more than okay. It was the perfect decision.”
She smiles. “Tell me what you think of the cookies.”
I obey and take a bite, enjoying the way her smile grows as I praise her around a mouthful of a very good cookie. Her worry about how quickly she feels Caleb and Ivy are moving tells me I have to take my time. And if how great things are between us is any indication, it will be worth the care and the wait this relationship will take.