Chapter 10
“Well?” Mom asked me, curiosity written all over her face.
I raised a brow. “Well, what? ”
She shrugged, but I could see she was way more invested than what she let on. “What was that about? With Garrett?”
“Just catching up.” My head was still spinning from his familiar cologne, and the three words he threw at me without any kind of warning. He’d always known I’d loved him, because my stupid seventeen-year-old self couldn’t keep my mouth shut. He’d never said it back.
Well, I guess he had now. Just sixteen years too late.
Blaze stood watching, leaning against the railing, a few feet from where I had just trashed Garrett’s number. “I didn’t know you were close to the town drunk. He sure got spiffed up to see you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know about any of that.”
Blaze chuckled. “About him being the town drunk? Or showing his face sober for the first time in years the night after some girl shows up murdered?”
“Hey,” Mom spoke up, warning him. “No need to go there. He was just stopping by to talk to Beth. They haven’t seen each other since…” Her voice trailed off, and clearly, she was rethinking what she wanted to say. “They haven’t seen each other in years. He’s always been respectful toward her.”
“Right,” Blaze grunted. “I gotta get to work. I’ll see y’all this evening.” With that, he pushed himself up off the porch, his muddy boots leaving tracks across the white, chipped paint. As his shoulder brushed mine, he paused, leaning down to my ear and saying in a low voice, “Be careful with him, Beth. He’s not the kid you used to know. Trust me.”
I shifted my gaze up at him, but didn’t have a chance to say anything before he was thundering off down the steps and back out toward the barn. I watched him, and then innately shifted my gaze to the driveway, where Garrett’s truck had just been. I went back to the chimenea, and plucked the paper back out as a deep, unhealed heartache came throbbing back. My decade long marriage had hurt but finally healed…
And that was one thing I couldn’t say about Garrett.
“He has a lot of problems,” Mom’s voice cut through my thoughts as I shoved the paper into my pocket.
“Who? Blaze?” I raised my brows.
She chuckled, shaking her head. “You know who I’m talking about.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t have to worry about that. He just wanted to clear the air. ” I used his words with the same bitterness I had felt when he’d said them. “He needed to talk so he could move on or something.”
“So then what’s that for?” She gestured to the pocket.
“It’s his number in case we need anything.”
She smiled, but was as somber as the overcast skies. “I wish things had been different.”
“Me, too.” I stood in silence, my mom and I ignoring the elephant in the room for a few more minutes. However, I finally broke the tension. “Did Sheriff Myers tell you I might have been the last person to see her?”
“Yep,” Mom popped her lips, letting out a sigh. “But who knows what she was mixed up in. She’s always been a sweet girl, I guess, but she was surrounded by drama, too. Blaze said that she was mixed up with some of the shadier characters in town.”
I nodded. “Wonder who that’d be?”
She met my gaze, her expression faltering. “Well, for starters, Garrett’s one of them.”
Of course, he is. Sarah had said that herself, which was all the more reason to stay away—far, far away.
The rest of the day passed, and the evening came with no new information—or news stories. Part of me was relieved, and the other part was battling the guilt of not looking for her last night.
Or just freaking following her to the bathroom.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment as I tried to take a deep breath. The air, despite being cooler, felt more suffocating than ever as I stopped just outside of the barn. Mom had spent the entire day chatting with people from church on the phone, and watching her social media page like a hawk, waiting for the news to break in the town...
But it hadn’t yet.
I slid the barn door open, having been asked to feed the horses their evening meal. My body felt heavy as I trudged into the old concrete floor barn. It had been really nice back in the day—which was like the 80s. Now, even though it had been up kept to the best of my parents’ ability, it wasn’t like the grandiose places that was often shown on TV. It had an ever-lingering smell of dirt and manure no matter how often it was cleaned, and the concrete was chipping from years of wear and tear.
Shaking my head, I grabbed the buckets and headed into the feed room. My eyes landed on the dry erase board, taking in the sight of my dad’s handwriting. It hit a cord deep in my chest, but I pushed it away. The best way for me to deal with grief was to just keep going. Don’t get me wrong, there was a time to cry...
But it wasn’t right now, especially with Sarah’s murder and Garrett’s visit hanging over my head.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I said to myself under my breath as I scooped out some of the grain, tossing it into the bucket. I wasn’t sure if I believed my own words, but someone had to say it.
“So, saying affirmations in the barn is your thing?” A deep chuckle erupted from behind me.
I let out a heavy sigh, turning around to see Blaze in a sheriff’s deputy uniform. I motioned to it. “ This is why Mom said I had to do the evening feed shift.”
“That would be why, and I’m heading back out to pick up an extra shift,” he replied, leaning against the door frame. His cowboy hat accentuated his square jaw, shadowed with just enough stubble to be considered attractive to some. “You do anything exciting today? Hang out with anymore town drunks?”
I spun back around, returning to measuring out grain. “ Nope. I got this, by the way. No need to hang around and help me.”
“Great. Makes me feel better. Can I ask you something?”
My shoulders slouched as I realized he hadn’t taken the cue to leave. “Yeah?” I said from where I was hunched over the large bin, digging the quart scoop into the pellets.
“Not to be nosy, but...”
But he’s going to be nosy.
“What were you doing out with Sarah? Your dad always said you never associated with anyone from the town after the accident.”
I dumped the feed into one of the buckets and looked up at him, blowing a puff of air to move my hair from my eyes. “Um, honestly, she cornered me at the store, and I don’t know why she had an interest in me. I just accepted the offer for drinks because God knows I needed one after the week I’ve had. Why’s it matter?”
He raised one of his dark eyebrows at me. “I was just curious. Maybe I find it intriguing that you were out with Sarah, and then Garrett Myers shows up this morning. The two of them were close.” Something about his tone irked me, even more than the thought of Sarah and Garrett being close. It wasn’t hard to get what he was implying.
“I got a question for you then,” I said, setting the buckets down.
Blaze chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. “Okay. What’s your question for me, Beth?”
“Where were you last night?”
His easy smile quickly faded. “Really? Like you didn’t see me last night?”
“I mean, according to Sarah,” I began, tugging my damp T- shirt free from my sweaty abdomen. “The two of you were kind of seeing each other.”
I swear the light went right out of his hazel eyes, though he played it off coolly. “She told you that, huh? Did you ask her about me?” He took a step forward. “Were you curious about me?”
“Ha, no,” I laughed dryly. “She offered it up and said that she was waiting on you to call her back or something.”
He nodded. “Well, if it puts that mind of yours at ease, I was not really interested in Sarah. If you knew her to any extent, you’d know she kind of had this way of finagling her way into your life— if that’s what she wanted to do.”
The past tense talk of her caught me off guard. “Yeah, I guess I get that. She did have a way of getting what she wanted, I think.”
“But, no , for the record,” he said, his tone calm and cool. “I had no intention of calling her. We went on two dates—both of which were just drinks there at Outlaws after I got off my shift. Never even left the bar with her.”
“Great, good on you. How honorable,” I snorted, grabbing up the buckets of feed. “Thanks for the clarification.”
“Yeah, anytime, Beth.” He didn’t move out of my way. “Would you like to know about my other past dates?” He gave me an amused grin, but I ignored it.
“I have no interest in knowing anything more about your dating life,” I grumbled. “But I would appreciate it if you’d move out of my way.”
“If you say so,” he said, stepping to the side—and then following me out into the aisle way.
Ugh. Why will he not just go away?
“Beth? ”
I exhaled sharply, dumping feed as I went. “Yes, Blaze?”
“I was here last night, working horses,” he said, his eyes locking with mine as I glanced back up at him. “That was the original question you asked, you know—and as a lawyer, I wouldn’t have expected you to let that one go unanswered. It’s much more relevant to the case, hon.” There was a teasing tone to his voice, as a smile tugged his lips upward.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Mm, thank you for filling in the gap.”
“Anytime.” He shot me a wink that did absolutely nothing for me. “I’ll let you get to that feeding, but seriously, don’t forget the advice I gave you earlier. We don’t really know each other, but your dad would want me to look out for you.”
“He wouldn’t want me to ignore Garrett,” I forced out the words, spilling some feed as I fed one of the horses, a bay mare I didn’t recognize. “He cared about him.”
“Yeah, and I think it’s plain to see that you cared about him, too, standing here defending the guy who ruined your life.”
I froze, my hands trembling. “No one ruined my life.”
“He kept you from coming home. That’s what your mom said.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t talk to my mom so much,” I snapped, shaking my head as I made it to the last stall, my heart squeezing.
Jett.
My father’s old black gelding greeted me with a nicker, poking his head out of the stall. He had been the last of the horses my dad had personally trained and that was years ago, making Jett nearly twenty-four years old. He looked to be in good shape as I stroked his forehead and filled his trough with feed. Tears slipped down my cheeks, and as I brushed them away, I stole a glance back to where Blaze had been standing. He was no longer there.
Thank God.
“I know you miss Dad,” I choked out as I turned my attention back to the old horse, my emotions catching up to me as Jett hungrily dug into the feed—like he wasn’t fed copious amounts of the highest quality stuff with a workload of zero. I watched him for a few moments longer before leaving him to finish in peace. I put the buckets away, before stopping to take a seat on one of the stools in the feed room.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, and the piece of notebook paper fluttered to the floor. I scooped it up and smoothed it out, reading it for the first time since he had handed it over.
Please call me sometime. (214) 555-1739
My heart jumped to my throat, and fresh tears from a well I’d thought had long gone dry slipped down my cheeks. Grief was fresh from my dad’s passing, but nothing had prepared me for facing the man who I’d pined after for years. I wanted to hate him, and I’d pretended to for so many years that I’d nearly convinced myself I did.
But apparently, the lie didn’t stick.
I scrolled to my contacts, and rolled through the list until I made it to what I was looking for. I compared the number to the one in my phone. It was the same. I considered sending him a text but stopped myself. With everything going on, it was better to let it go. Let him go.
So, I distracted myself and went to Google, unable to help myself. I typed in Sarah Armitage , and then hit the search button. I held my breath as I waited for the page to load, halfway expecting to see the news of her death plastered all over the page.. .
But there was nothing.
“What the heck?” I muttered, shaking my head at the screen. Since when did someone— someone who happened to be a bright, young woman—get murdered and it not show up everywhere . Even in Chicago, the murder capital of the USA, there would’ve been some sort of report hitting the news by now. Well, maybe. It hadn’t quite been twenty-four hours, had it?
I stared at the screen a little longer, before locking it and putting it back in my jeans pocket. I knew how criminal investigations went all too well. And it had been my job to defend the guilty—well, sometimes not guilty, but mostly, I defended the bad guys. I had never wanted the job, but it had been thrown in my lap, and honestly, I was good at it.
But that life felt like a distant memory in the moment.