Chapter 15
Could it be the same ring? The journal entries from Lila—the ring and the new lover disappeared on the same night.
There’s no question, Lila must have been writing about Andy.
He was sleeping with her while his then-fiancé and infant daughter were waiting for him at home.
And the ring. I can’t get over the ring.
Did Andy steal Lila’s ring and give it to Jo on their wedding day?
Jo never even wears her ring. I wish there was a way I could ask her about it without sounding like I’ve lost my mind.
I feel utterly nauseous. The possibility that all of this could be one huge misunderstanding evaporates as I consider the growing list of coincidences.
The minutes tick by in silence with both of us lost in our thoughts.
I keep thinking of Jo, just minutes up the road, with no idea…
After a while, I glance over at Shayne. He hasn’t moved.
His eyes are closed, and the only tell that he hasn’t fallen asleep is the pulsing intermittent clench of his jaw.
“What are you going to do, Shayne?” I ask.
“I can tell you what I want to do. I want to beat the shit out of him,” Shayne says. The anger in his voice belies his relaxed pose. “It’s too bad he’s already in the hospital.”
“We have to tell Jo. We should drive back up there right now and—.” My throat closes when Shayne suddenly leaps to his feet.
He drags his fingers through his hair and then paces across the room to the window, looking out into the endless night beyond.
When he turns back to face me, his eyes flash with anger.
“Tell her what? We had to leave to go and screw in the car but now we’re ready to tell her about her husband’s infidelity six years ago?
You want to go knock on her door and say that her wedding ring belonged to my dead sister?
That her husband stole it from her after fucking her in a parking lot?
” His voice is cold and almost unrecognizable.
It’s hard to believe this is the same man that carried me in from the car just minutes ago.
“Do you really think she’ll let me stick around to continue digging up dirt on her husband after you tell her all that? ”
My anger starts to rise despite the validity of his point.
“Shayne, that’s not fair. I’m trying to be understanding.
I know this is horrible—I feel it too, but please don’t take it out on me,” I argue.
If he asked me inside just so he has someone to take his anger out on, I’m more than happy to hike back to my car and leave him to rage against himself.
“Paige, you have no idea. How could you? My sister is dead, and that fucking guy—Jo has Lila’s ring.
I don’t know how else to explain it other than that psycho stole my sister’s ring and gave it to his wife.
” I can hear the fresh heartbreak in his words, and my anger softens slightly in turn.
His grip on the window frame is white-knuckled, his whole body held in rigid tension.
I’m worried about what all this means for Jo, of course, but the fact remains that his sister is gone, Jo is very much alive, and whatever he finds out about Lila and Andy’s relationship won’t bring her back.
“There’s got to be something we can do. You can go to the police and show them the photos and the journal.
Maybe they can pull up cell phone records, receipts—they had to communicate somehow,” I say, desperate to offer some kind of hope.
I hate seeing him so consumed with anger and grief.
It’s surprising how much seeing him in pain is affecting me.
When did my attraction to him turn into something deeper? When did I drop my guard and let him into my heart?
“I have very little hope the police would be able—or willing—to do anything. It’s been six years, there are no cell phone records. If only I’d found that fucking journal earlier.” When his eyes meet mine again, I recognize defeat in his weary gaze.
“Honestly, maybe I should just leave it,” Shayne sighs. “Nothing is going to change her being gone.” The anger that was pulsing through him seems to have left him just as quickly as it arrived. Standing there at the window, leaning heavily against the frame, he looks broken.
There’s a part of me that wants to agree with him.
What is the point? It was six years ago.
Andy may have been a callous philanderer, but hasn’t he proven himself in the past six years to be a great father and partner?
Is it worth throwing a bomb into Jo’s life?
The other, louder part of me thinks the opposite, though.
If Andy did steal Lila’s ring and if he knew she was here to collect a debt—what if he did have something to do with her accident?
If that’s who Andy is at his core, then he needs to be as far away from Jo and Kody as possible.
I can’t walk away without knowing more. At the very least, Lila and Jo deserve the truth finally coming out into the open.
“It won’t bring her back, Shayne. But you and your family deserve to know what really happened. I see how much not knowing has cost you. How can you ever move on without some kind of closure?”
He just looks at me, a sadness so deep in his eyes that my heart breaks for him all over again.
“Look, we’re both exhausted. Let’s get some sleep and in the morning we can go through everything you’ve found out. Maybe I’ll be able to dig through my own photos and texts to see if I can find anything useful.” I squeeze the bridge of my nose, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.
Shayne pushes himself back from the wall and then closes the distance between us, taking me in his arms. “Thank you, Paige. I buried these feelings for years and now that I’ve let them back out again— I was too harsh with you.
” He lifts my chin with his finger, the corners of his mouth lifting in a sad smile.
“I’m not just saying that because you’re helping me.
I really am sorry and appreciate you trying to help.
” His lips brush my forehead as his hands trace circles down my back.
The tenderness of the moment has the opposite effect on me than it should.
Instead of feeling comforted, panic flares through me.
I’m going to fall hard for this man, and then he’s going to leave, and I’ll be a wreck.
Again. I have to protect myself. Hot, spur-of-the-moment sex is one thing, being held like this (even though it does feel amazing), is too dangerous.
There’s no question about sharing a bed.
I can’t wake up next to him. It’ll be too much. Even the fantasy of it stings a little.
I pull back and pat him on the chest. It’s an awkward move, and he cocks an eyebrow at me.
“Can you drive me back to my car?” I walk over to the door and Shayne looks at me, confused.
“You sure? I know the bed looks small, but there’s plenty of room for us to—”
“Yeah, it’s probably best if we don’t do the sleepover thing.
It’s stupid to try and deny we don’t have an insane physical connection,” I say, waving my hand between us.
“And I’ll do whatever I can to help you figure out what happened with Andy and Lila.
But we should keep it casual. You were right. It’s better that way.”
Shayne considers me for a long moment and the intensity of his gaze on me has me shifting uncomfortably.
“Come on cowboy, drive me back to my chariot so we can both get a good night’s sleep and figure more of this mess out tomorrow,” I say, doing my best to throw him a cheeky smile, while ignoring the bitterness that has taken root in my stomach.
“You’re an odd one, Banshee, but if it’s home you really want, then home it is,” he says, grabbing his keys from the coffee table.
I follow him out of the door into the chill of the night air.
My breath puffs out in front of me in a cloud.
There’s an ache in my chest that has nothing to do with the cold.
“Lord, it’s freezing.” I open the passenger door and climb into the cab, rubbing my arms for warmth.
“There’s still time to change your mind and go back inside. I can think of numerous ways we can warm each other up.” Shayne cranks up the heat on the console after the engine rumbles to life but doesn’t shift the truck into gear.
“That’s very tempting, but I think both of us need some time to think.” All I want to do is curl up next to you is what I really want to say.
“Whatever you say, Banshee,” Shayne says and turns the truck back up the road to Jo’s
* * *
When I wake up the next morning, I decide I can’t take it anymore.
I have to tell Jo everything. I can’t believe I’ve even waited this long.
It’s her marriage—her family that’s at stake, and this need I have to protect her from the horrible truths I’ve discovered isn’t actually helping her.
Andy is coming home tomorrow, and she deserves to have all the information before she can figure out how to move forward.
The moment I make the decision to confess, a calm comes over me, and I feel whole for the first time in days.
I don’t even bother to change out of my pajamas before grabbing my keys and heading to the car.
Outside, the sky is still dark, but the horizon has a pink tinge to it.
It’s early enough that I don’t pass a single car for miles.
I don’t bother playing any music—I’m too anxious and spend the drive rehearing what I’ll say to her when I arrive.
“Jo, I’m sorry, but your husband is a snake, and your wedding ring that you secretly hate and never wear actually belonged to another woman, and that woman was Shayne’s sister, and she’s dead, and there’s a chance Andy might have been involved.”