Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
RACHEL
“ O kay, we have some theories,” Jae says when I enter the back. She’s at the whiteboard we use to list out our priorities for the day.
“I know what happened.” I sink onto a stool, covering my shame-flushed face with my hands. “Kyle planted the lingerie in Nick’s bed.”
Silence stretches through the room, then Jae shouts triumphantly. “Didn’t I say Kyle was our number one suspect?” She jabs at the whiteboard, where Kyle’s name is written in dry-erase marker near the top.
“You did,” Sydney confirms, who comes over to me, gently placing a hand on my shoulder. “How do you know it was him?”
“Mrs. Montour said she saw him at Nick’s house when no one was home.”
“Like he broke in?”
I shrug. A lot of people in town don’t lock their doors.
Maybe Nick and Tanner don’t either. “At the very least, didn’t have permission.
” I can’t imagine Tanner would be good enough friends with Kyle to let him in the house, especially knowing Nick’s past with him.
“I… I can’t believe I didn’t trust Nick.
” The tears from earlier return with a vengeance, even as I press the heels of my palms to my eyes in an attempt to stop them. “I ruined everything.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did ,” I insist. “He told me he loved me and I walked away.”
“You were blindsided. Anyone in your shoes would’ve—”
“No.” I shake my head, something frantic running through me. “I should’ve known better. I don’t deserve him.”
“Rachel, snap out of it.” Jae moves in front of me, literally snapping her fingers. “This is not the time to fall apart. Call Nick and get this straightened out.”
Right. I’ll call him. If I wasn’t so frazzled, I’d have thought of it myself.
I stand, then pause as a terrible thought occurs to me. What if Nick doesn’t forgive me? After all I’ve put him through… this one might have put us over the edge.
I blow out a shaky breath as I head to the office and pick up my phone off the desk. There’s a voicemail notification. Maybe it’s Nick.
Bringing trembling fingers up to my mouth, I listen to the message.
Hey, it’s me.
My heart leaps in my throat as I recognize Nick’s voice.
I was hoping to catch you before work, but maybe you’re screening my calls, I don’t know.
My chest squeezes tight. He sounds so worn down.
I talked to Tanner and he didn’t know anything about why… that was in my bed. I promise I’ll figure it out, though. No matter how long it takes. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Rachel…
He exhales roughly, like he’s struggling, and my throat thickens with unspent tears I force down.
I know you’re hurting right now. Probably going crazy with worry and doubt.
I wish I could be there to reassure you, but…
please don’t give up on us. Whatever this mess is, we’ll get through it.
You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I…
I was hoping you were falling in love with me, too.
I am. Dear God, I am.
There’s a long pause, and he sounds more composed when he speaks again.
Anyway, I’m going in to work now. I’ll try to keep my phone on me in case you want to talk, unless I’m out on a call. I… I love you. I’ll talk to you soon.
I don’t realize how tightly I’m clutching the phone until I hang up, then immediately call Nick. Hope burns bright within me, that maybe this is salvageable if he’s still saying he loves me.
He doesn’t answer, though. Not when I call a second time, then a third.
I press a hand to my chest, overwhelmed by the powerful need to make things right. I call a fourth time, aware my actions are super stalker-ish, but hang up before the voicemail kicks in, afraid it’ll be a blubbering, nonsensical ramble.
I… I’ll go to the fire station and tell him everything. There’s no way I can wait until tomorrow to talk about this with him.
Jae and Sydney both look at me expectantly when I leave the office, and I give a little head shake. “He didn’t answer. I’m going to the fire station.”
They exchange a glance and Jae says, “How about I drive you?”
“No, I—”
“You’re shaking,” she tells me kindly, and I look down at my trembling hands to find she’s right. Okay, maybe a ride would be good.
Sydney promises she’ll be fine finishing up morning prep by herself, and I slide into the passenger seat of Jae’s hatchback, parked out front. I have my phone in a death grip, my knuckles white, but it stays silent.
“He probably didn’t realize you called,” Jae says, backing out of the space.
I nod, staying quiet. It’s only a minute drive to the station, but that seems infinitely too long at the moment. He must be worried out of his mind, afraid I’ll leave him.
Jae reaches over and places a hand on my knee, which is bouncing like crazy. “It’s going to be fine.”
The open bay is empty at the fire station, and when I rush inside, there’s no one there. I call out his name, but only silence greets me. I pace for a moment, chewing at my thumbnail. He must be on a call. That’s why he didn’t answer.
He’ll call me back when he’s done. There’s no way he wouldn’t. But how long will that be?
I return to Jae’s waiting car, restless with energy. She takes one look at me and her face falls.
“He’s not there?”
I shake my head. “Must be out on a call. Give me a second, okay?”
She nods and I step out of the car, walking a short distance away to call him again, wanting privacy.
As expected, it goes to voicemail, but I don’t hang up this time as it beeps at me to leave a message.
“Hi, Nick. I just found out about everything. The underwear. It wasn’t yours. I mean, obviously you know that.”
Oh, God. I’m rambling. This is why I didn’t leave a message earlier.
“I… I think Kyle broke into your house. Mrs. Montour saw him. He must have planted them. I don’t know why. I mean, I do. He wanted to ruin things. And I…” I sniffle, trying to get my voice under control. “I let him.”
I suck in a breath, wiping my nose with my sleeve.
“I should have believed you, but I was scared. I hope you can forgive me. I’m so sorry.” My voice cracks, but I swallow hard, keeping at it. “You told me you loved me and I pushed you away. I didn’t say it back. I want to say it to you, if it’s not too late for that. In person.”
I tug at the ends of my ponytail as I pace up and down the sidewalk, my thoughts fragmented.
“I’m here at the station. You must be on a call. I… just call me when you can. Bye.”
I hang up and rejoin Jae, checking again that the ringer on my phone is turned all the way up. She’s tapping on the steering wheel with her thumb, her lips pursed.
“What is it?”
She doesn’t look over at me. “I’m thinking about what I’m going to do to Kyle. We could lure him into the bakery and lock him in the freezer. Only for a few hours. To think about what he’s done. Or boil him alive in your raspberry glaze. Sweet, sticky justice.”
I sigh, slumping against the seat. “Either sounds good.”
“We could take it further, too. I’ve got a shovel at the house. Sydney will be my alibi. You just say the word.”
I rub at my temples. “Kyle’s a problem for later. I need to make things right with Nick first.”
“Okay, you focus on Nick, and I’ll focus on Kyle.”
“That’s not what I—”
“He tried to ruin your relationship,” she continues, as if I said nothing. “What? Because he’s jealous you won’t get back together with him? Or because he’s mad he outed himself to Autumn? Grow up.”
Oh, I never told her the rest of what happened at the cookoff, with him and Nick. I do now, watching as she gets angrier the longer I go on.
“That fucker seriously has the nerve to blame you for Autumn being mad at him? After he—”
She cuts herself off, thumping her hand on the steering wheel. “I swear to God when I see him, I’ll wring his neck.”
Jae is five foot nothing, but I have no doubt of her conviction.
She lets out a growl of frustration. “Are you going to file a police report on him?”
I hadn’t thought that far about any of it. “I don’t know.”
“You should. He needs to pay for what he did.”
Okay, she’s starting to worry me a little.
“Do you want to go back to the bakery?” she asks abruptly.
With her in this mood? “Not really,” I admit. As hard as it was to focus on work before, I won’t get anything done waiting for Nick’s call.
“Should we get ice cream?”
Sweets are Jae’s answer to most problems. That, or violence. “I don’t think they’re open this early.”
“Let’s go check.”
Why not? It’s better than sitting here obsessively checking my phone, as if his call will slip past me. “Sure.”
We’re only a minute down the road, though, before Jae slams on the brakes, making a sharp sound of disgust. “Oh, hell no.”
I look around wildly, trying to figure out what she’s referring to. We’re in front of the auto repair shop, the sign out front announcing our satisfaction is guaranteed.
She jerks the wheel into the lot and throws it in park, unbuckling.
“Jae, what—”
She’s already out of the car, storming toward… Oh, no. It’s Kyle.
He’s smoking a cigarette—something I’ve never seen him do before—walking around from the side of the building into the open garage. If I remember right, his brother works here.
I have no desire to confront Kyle, especially without Nick here, but apparently Jae doesn’t feel the same way, aggression radiating off of her.
“No, no, no,” I mumble, fumbling to call Nick one more time, praying he picks up.
It kicks over to voicemail and my stomach sinks.
All I can think of is the disappointment on his face yesterday when he found out Kyle had been sniffing around and I hadn’t told him.
I promised I’d include him about stuff like this.
When the phone beeps, I rush to say, “Jae is confronting Kyle. I… I don’t know what to do.” My voice shakes. “I need to go get her. We’re at the auto repair shop on Main. I didn’t want you to think I was keeping you in the dark.” I panic and hang up, knowing that was an absolute waste of a message.
Jae’s already yelling at Kyle as I open the car door—something about being a dirtbag as she gestures wildly.
“You’re a fucking psycho,” she shouts, pointing her finger at him, dangerously close to his chest. “You’re going to do time for breaking and entering.”
The last thing I need is for her to touch him and he claims it as assault.
“Can’t say I know what you’re talking about.” Kyle smirks as he blows his cigarette smoke directly in her face, riling her up more. “But guess I’m not surprised to see Rachel’s little watchdog yapping her big mouth.”
She lunges at him, and I get there just in time to hold her back, nearly tripping over a pile of black oil-stained rags on the ground. “Jae, please. This isn’t how I wanted to handle this.”
She doesn’t take her attention off of Kyle for a second. “He deserves to be called out. He tried to ruin your life.”
Kyle scoffs, and now that I’m closer, I can smell the alcohol on him. He’s already drinking this early in the day? “Ruin? Come on.”
“Shut up,” I tell him, still struggling with Jae. “And you can drop the act. I know you were in Nick’s house.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“We have proof,” Jae claims, and I don’t contradict her. Even though our proof is the word of a woman who has a reputation for being the town gossip.
The smirk drops from his face, his eyes red and bloodshot. “All I did is show you who Nick really is. How all men are, even if they try to hide it.”
“Not all men are disgusting pigs,” Jae says, slipping out of my grasp to get in his face. “Just you.”
He doesn’t back down, towering over her, even as he staggers a little. “You’re really starting to annoy me.”
“Good,” she challenges. “What’re you going to do about it?”
I don’t like Kyle’s expression, something volatile there. If he’s drunk, that sure isn’t helping the situation.
“Back off,” I warn, trying to separate them. We need to get out of here.
His gaze flicks to me. “Or what? You going to sic your fireman on me? Don’t see him around anywhere.”
Jae tries to get at him again and he swats her aside as if she’s a pesky fly. She trips over what smells like a canister of gasoline, and it spreads across the floor and into the pile of rags. Oh God, that reeks.
“You fucking fuckhead,” Jae screams, bouncing back up. “You got gas on my jacket.” She gestures to her sleeve, a dark stain there, then pushes him, yelling something else in Korean at him.
Like I’m watching it in slow motion, the cigarette is knocked from his mouth and falls, tumbling over and over in mid-air.
Oh my God, it’s going to land in the puddle of gas. This place will go up in flames. It’s the bakery all over again.
My throat tightens as panic presses against my chest, and I can’t draw in a breath as the fear crushes me. My legs won’t move either, even knowing I have to get out of here. I’ll burn up in this garage because of fucking Kyle. Before I could tell Nick I love him.
The cigarette lands, my whole body tensing… but nothing happens.
I blink, staring at it, waiting for some kind of explosion, but the cigarette goes out.
Relief floods me, my knees going weak as feeling returns to my legs. I press a hand to my chest, my heart about to pound out of it as I stumble over to a box in the corner of the garage to sit on. I guess a cigarette isn’t enough to ignite something like that.
Even so, it feels like I’ve been given a second chance.
“Look what you did,” Kyle mutters, pulling out another cigarette and a lighter.
Jae pushes at him again. “I’m trying to yell at you, dumbass. Stop ignoring me.”
She waves her arm at the exact wrong moment, and the lighter catches her gas-soaked jacket, flames rising from the sleeve.
Jae screams, clumsily ripping the jacket from her, and throws it behind her, directly into the puddle of gas, where it ignites for real this time.
All I can do is watch in horror as it spreads to the pile of oil-soaked rags, the flames getting bigger, then to a discarded can of brake cleaner, which explodes.
The flames follow the trail of gas still spreading… straight towards me.