CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Brett
One Year Ago
“ You’re gonna get stuck! ” Jay shouts through the trees.
Hildy either doesn’t hear him or chooses to ignore him as she breaks away from the other two quads. I cling to her waist as she rumbles down the hill through the brush, praying she doesn’t hit another bump and toss me off into the ravine.
“That’s why you have a winch!” she yells as she heads straight for the creek.
I’ve never been on a four-wheeler in my life, and for some reason, Hildy decided that today she needed to change that. I’m having a blast, but I’ve noticed something about Hildy. She’s a pillar of safety in any other situation, but when she gets out in the woods with just the four of us, she catches a wild hair and there’s no telling what she’ll do. Headlines start flashing through my mind about quad accidents, head injuries, and having to be air lifted out of the woods.
I glance over my shoulder at the other two quads buzzing along the top of the ravine. Bowen is leading Jay and watches us over his shoulder until they disappear from view. I suck in a breath when I see how fast the current is as we approach the bank.
It rained for three days straight and the water level is much higher than the last time I was out here with them. Instead of clear and nearly stagnant, the creek is a muddy rush carrying broken branches downstream. I can’t even see the usual flat rocks that create a convenient path over the water. But none of this seems to concern Hildy. If anything, it makes her gun the engine harder and take aim .
Frankly, I just don’t want to die. Especially during Jay’s birthday celebration.
Hildy hits the bank, spraying muddy water onto our legs as she plows over the rocks into the water. She maneuvers over the hidden terrain, the water steadily rising until it covers the wheels and reaches our knees. I shriek as the cold water shocks my skin and starts soaking into the hem of my shorts. Suddenly, the quad lurches and one tire drops, lodging us at a crooked angle. Hildy screams as a splash of water hits us and I think we’re about to go over. But we don’t.
Instead, we’re stuck—like Jay warned—in the middle of the creek. Hildy revs the engine and rocks the quad back and forth, trying to dislodge us from whatever lies beneath. But it’s no use, she throws her head back and lets out an obscenity-laden groan. She knows what’s coming once Jay and Bowen arrive on the other side of the creek, and I surmise she’d rather stay stuck in the rushing water than hear about how he warned her not to drive through it. But I’m more worried about the current that’s much stronger than anyone realized.
“Can you swim?” Hildy glances over her shoulder at me.
“Shouldn’t you have asked me that before you ran us into the middle of the creek?” I laugh.
Hildy rolls her eyes with a crooked smile, “ Oops. ”
The water runs up over the edge of the seat, soaking us from the waist down. At least it’s not strong enough to knock us off the quad entirely.
“Shit,” Hildy mutters when she catches sight of Jay and Bowen rolling down the hill in front of us.
When they come to a halt at the edge of the water, Jay lets out a whoop of laughter. Bowen pulls up behind him, grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, well, well… ” Bowen dismounts his quad and saunters to the edge of the bank.
Jay stands next to him, arms crossed, staring at Hildy’s submerged vehicle wedged in the middle of the creek, “I told you,” he shrugs with a shake of his head.
“It didn’t look that deep!” Hildy yells, her excuses falling on deaf ears.
“Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me…” Jay croons, kicking a stone into the water.
“Shut up and get us out!” Hildy hollers impatiently from our precarious perch.
Jay and Bowen turn to one another, probably discussing what to do. A minute later, Jay starts unwinding the cable from the winch on the front of his quad and hands the end of it to Bowen. Bowen pulls his grey t-shirt over his head and tosses it onto his seat before he starts wading into the creek with his boots and jeans still on. Jay continues unwinding the cable as Bowen makes his way toward us, the current breaking hard against his hips .
When he finally reaches us, he grabs onto the handle bars and bends down. By the time he gets low enough to hook the winch onto the front of Hildy’s quad, he’s fully submerged except for his head, the water lapping at his chin. Bowen stands back up, creek water dripping from every contour of his body, and eyes us with amusement.
“I told you,” he turns to me with a smug grin, “you should’ve ridden with me.”
“Whatever,” Hildy rolls her eyes, “just tow us out.”
“No,” Bowen shakes his head, “I don’t know what you’re caught on. If it flips when we start pulling, you’re toast. You have to come back with me.”
“Can we walk?” I dip my hand into the water to test the current, knowing full well it’s always stronger than it feels.
“No way,” Bowen shakes his head again, “it’s too strong for you.”
“Even if we hold onto each other?” Hildy hitches her leg up and swivels around on the seat.
Bowen glances around, surveying the situation. After a minute, he motions to us, “Come on,” he gives a nod and points to Hildy, “you, on my back, and you,” he points to me, “I’ll carry in front.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Hildy scoffs.
“Yes, I’m fucking serious right now,” Bowen asserts, “just get on my back. It’ll be easier walking back with the two of you weighing me down.”
Hildy and I look at each other and then at Bowen, standing waist deep in the water, waiting for us to do as he says. A minute later I’m clinging to Bowen around the shoulders while he grips me under my thighs. Hildy’s body is draped over his back with his waist clenched between her knees.
“Oh my god,” Jay laughs as he whips his phone out of his pocket, “I have to get a picture of this.”
I can’t believe we make it to the bank without tumbling over into the water and washing downstream. And even though the three of us are thoroughly soaked, I can feel my shorts starting to dry out by the time we emerge from the tree line in Hildy and Jay’s yard. This time, I’m riding behind Bowen on his quad. And by the time we trudge up the hill after parking them in the pole building, Leona is already at the patio table with towels, Hannah right behind her with another armload.
I groan to myself and consciously refrain from rolling my eyes back in my head. I knew this was coming. It’s Jay’s birthday, so of course Hildy’s best friend will be in attendance. But the last time I saw Hannah was just over a week ago at the Rickhouse, after narrowly escaping an attempted assault and exchanging sordid accusations with her in a public restroom. Not to mention all this happened while I was trying to evade my newly acquired stalker who’s already broken into my vehicle and is obviously the one who left garden bricks piled behind my car months ago. Seeing Hannah only reminds me of all the things I’m actively trying to avoid.
Because that’s what I do .
Leona’s shrill voice cuts through the air, turning my attention away from another awkward encounter with Hannah.
“Girl, what is wrong with you—you drove into the creek? ” Leona chides from the other side of the table, “You could’ve died!”
“You told my mom on me?” Hildy whips around to Jay.
“Hey, all I said was that we got held up down by the creek…” he averts his eyes, “and that you might need a change of clothes.”
Hildy swipes a towel off the table with an irritated growl and starts drying off.
“And where were the two of you when your wife and your sister were driving off to their death?” Leona turns her ire to Jay and Bowen.
“Towing their asses out!” Bowen tosses his balled-up shirt onto the table, “Well, Jay towed the quad. I towed them.”
Jay holds out his phone to Leona, unable to speak as he’s overcome with laughter again. She squints and cranes her neck to look at the ridiculous picture of Bowen carrying Hildy and I across the creek.
Her eyes fly open, “Brett was stuck in the creek, too?” Leona reels back and smacks Bowen across the shoulder, giving him a start.
“She was riding with Hildy!” Bowen draws his shoulders up, his eyes darting back and forth with bewilderment.
“ Boy… ” Leona points her finger up at him with a warning look, “you’re her older brother, you need to be a role model,” then she points a finger at me, still glaring up at him, “and that’s your future wife, use your head!”
Hildy’s mouth stretches into a grin that extends from one ear to the other, relishing her brother getting lambasted by their mom. Leona is over a foot shorter than Bowen, but she still gives him the business like she’s going to knock him from here to next Tuesday. And she’s not done.
She whips around and shoots Jay a look, “And don’t even get me started on you, ” she scowls before starting back toward the house, leaving Bowen stunned and with eyes wide.
“We’re the same age and she’s a grown-ass woman,” Bowen calls after her, “with a husband!”
Leona waves him off, not even turning around.
Bowen’s eyes shift to Hildy, “Next time, I’ll leave your ass out there,” he hisses at her, grabbing a towel off the pile.
“Would you leave me out there, too?” I smirk as I take a seat and start running a towel across my legs to soak up any remaining creek water.
“Nah,” Bowen flashes me a smile, “I’d save you, no matter what. Then kick her in so Jay can fish her out when she washes out downstream.”
“Hater, tsk, tsk …” Hildy gives him a smug look and a shake of her head.
“What happened to you guys?” Hannah asks Hildy from across the table.
“Small problem with the quad,” she utters nonchalantly, dismissing the event .
I collapse back in my chair, laughing uncontrollably, “Jack Sparrow over here almost sunk us,” I gasp, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“It didn’t look that deep, OK?” Hildy whips around, pointing a finger at me, “Don’t act like you’re not complicit in this!”
“What was I supposed to do,” I shoot back, “grab the handlebars from you?”
Bowen steps behind the edge of the truck bed, out of view, and starts unbuckling his belt, “Like old times, huh?” Bowen says to Hildy as he drops his jeans and kicks them off his feet. Then he looks at me, “Like you’ve always been here.”
He throws his drenched jeans and boxer briefs over the edge of the truck and starts wrapping the towel around his waist. I watch Hannah steal a glance at him, but when he catches her, her eyes dart back down to the ground. She starts picking at her nails, avoiding eye contact with anyone until he comes out from behind the truck. Good thing, because if she looks my way, I’ll burn holes in her with my eyes.
Suddenly, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders and Hildy leans over my chair and presses her cheek to mine. I pause at the unexpected gesture and reach up to squeeze her arm. She remains there for a few moments, holding me in a tight embrace.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she murmurs before loosening her arms.
I momentarily forget my animosity toward Hannah, “Me too.”
And I am. She and her family are the closest thing I have to one that doesn’t require a round-trip airline ticket. Their love comes with a type of acceptance and security no one else has ever been able to offer and every time I’m around all of them, I feel like I’m home. Which is why when I look at Hannah, I feel nothing but disdain. Whenever she’s around, it throws a damper on that security and I start to feel like I’m an unsuspecting mouse waiting to be ambushed by a viper in the weeds.
Hildy gives me another squeeze before letting her hands fall from my shoulders, “Are we going out right after dinner?” she asks Bowen. “I still have to shower.”
“Yeah,” he glances at his watch, “I’ll take one now.”
Not only do I have to spend another evening with Hannah, but I’m not sure whether it’s better to be intoxicated or not. I search the patio for the cooler sitting in the shade by the back door and decide that, between being stuck on a quad in the middle of a creek and spending the rest of the evening with a woman who doesn’t hide the fact she hates me, I could use a beer.
And, of course, when I get halfway across the patio, I realize Hannah is already crouching down to dig through the cooler. As much as I’d like to avoid her, I decide it’s more awkward to do an about-face back to the table for no reason. When I arrive at the cooler, she glances up at me briefly before returning her focus to the cans buried in the ice .
I crouch down next to her, “Is it all the same?” For some inexplicable reason, I’m still trying to make small talk even though I definitely called her a salty bitch only a week ago.
I assume there’s more than one kind of drink because Hannah doesn’t answer me and continues digging through the ice. I roll my eyes and wait for her to finish tossing cans around, also deciding that this will be the extent of my congeniality today.
As Hannah bends over the cooler, her shirt rides up, exposing two large, dark bruises along her waist and back. The one on her back is oblong and dark purple in the middle, bordering on black, and changes from purple to brown as it fades back into her normal skin tone. The one on her waist is slightly smaller, rounder, and purple with dark speckles throughout.
“Oh my god,” I peer around her back at the splotches radiating across her skin, “are you OK?”
Startled, Hannah glances down at her exposed skin and immediately gives her shirt a tug, covering the bruises and abrasions, “You’ve made your point,” she hisses, “now leave me the fuck alone.”
I stare at her, oblivious as to what she’s referring to. I don’t get a chance to respond before she sees Bowen sauntering across the concrete toward us. A second later, she grabs the first can she sees and slams the cooler hastily, nearly smashing my fingers. She slinks past him and even though I’m looking at the back of her head, I know from the way Bowen’s eyes move that he’s made eye contact with her. When he does, she puts her head down and cracks her can open.
They have the weirdest relationship I’ve ever seen. One minute, Hannah’s fawning over Bowen and talking about him like he’s Adonis, and a day later she’s a nervous wreck who can’t even look him in the eye. Granted, right now he kind of looks like Adonis with his white towel slung around his hips and the blithe way he ambles across the patio. In a strange way, he seems to be enjoying Hannah’s uneasiness by the subtle way he smirks at her when she walks by. It’s similar to how he and Hildy treat each other, except Hildy would’ve hurled some insult at him or punched him in the gut.
I open the cooler again as Bowen comes to a halt next to me. He reaches in and pulls out the first can he sees. I finally choose one and stand back up, still watching Hannah as she takes a seat next to Hildy at the table.
“What’s up?” Bowen notices me staring across the patio.
“Hannah has some really bad bruises on her back. She wouldn’t tell me what they’re from.”
He cracks open his can, “Maybe she finally mouthed off to the wrong person. Maybe one of her simps turned out not to be such a simp.”
Bowen’s flippant response catches me off-guard. I don’t know how to take his nonchalance that Hannah might’ve been beaten up by another man. He seems surprisingly unconcerned for someone who claims to be watching out for her emotional state. Or maybe he’s finally gotten tired of her antics, too—not that it’s an excuse.
I look down at the concrete and don’t respond.
“Hey, I need to ask you something,” Bowen changes the subject, and I’m kind of glad he does, “what do you think about August 24 th ?”
“For what?”
“For marrying me.”
In an instant, I forget all about Hannah and her suspicious bruises, “That’s, like—” I stammer, visualizing the calendar in my head, “three months away!”
He’s unfazed, “How much time you need?”
And, the truth is, I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to get married, eventually, but I was never the little girl who dreamed up her wedding day and had every detail figured out by the time she turned 10.
“I guess not much,” I admit with a smile. “What kind of wedding should we have?” I’m so unprepared. I’ve been so focused on getting my book written and sent off to agents, I haven’t even thought about what kind of wedding I want.
“That’s all you, baby girl,” Bowen reaches up and brushes his thumb down my jawline, “I picked the date. Just tell me where and when to show up.”
“Great,” I scoff, “maybe I just won’t tell you anything and you can just hitch a ride with Hildy and Jay the day of.”
“My favorite kind of plans,” he says with a wink, “now, since that’s out of the way, join me?” he nods to the house.
“Yeah,” I jerk my head up with a laugh, “because I really want everyone out here to think about me showering with you.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Bowen reaches up and tips my chin up with the edge of his can before giving me a soft kiss, “but they already know what I do to you in the shower.”
I consider it for a brief moment; after getting drenched and hauled out of the muddy creek, taking a steamy shower with Bowen sounds like an absolute fucking dream.
“Valid,” I nod, “but that doesn’t mean I want to deal with all the shit-talking afterward.”
Bowen looks over my shoulder at the table, where Rick and Leona have joined the others, “I guess you know them pretty well by now,” he smirks. “It’s fine, I’ll just get my pound of flesh later.”
I shoot him a sultry smile, loving the tremors that ripple through my stomach every time he looks at me like that, “Are you going to be nice?”
Bowen gives me a once-over before starting for the house, “Joke’s on you, sweetheart,” he calls over his shoulder, “I’m never nice.” When he gets to the back door, he stops and turns halfway around, “Hey!” he shouts past me, drawing the attention of everyone seated at the table, “August 24 th —we’re getting married.”
A moment later, there’s an eruption of stunned gasps and excited shouts from Hildy and Leona. When I turn around, Bowen’s grinning at me with a smug look on his face, knowing full well the onslaught that’s waiting for me at the table. I shoot him a tight-lipped smile and then, in a split-second decision, turn to follow him inside the house.
He gives me a sharp smack on my ass as I slip past him, “I know you’re not one for big scenes,” he whispers with satisfaction, letting the door swing shut behind us.
●●●
I return to the backyard about an hour later, hair fixed, make-up done, and wearing a much cuter outfit that doesn’t smell like muddy creek water. The dust has settled, more or less, since Bowen made his announcement from the back door.
Jay’s voice booms above all else as I arrive at the table, “How the hell could you keep your big-ass mouth shut for that long?” he calls to Bowen, who’s sitting on the edge of his tailgate, freshly showered, wearing a clean t-shirt tucked into a new pair of jeans.
“It’s not difficult,” Bowen grins as he swings his legs back and forth.
“Why?” Leona glances back and forth between Jay and Bowen, “What’s he done now?”
Jay cocks his head at Leona, “You seriously never knew?”
“What?” she narrows her eyes at them, getting more excited by the second and glancing over at Rick, who’s watching the exchange with amusement.
I pull out the remaining chair and take a seat as Jay begins telling his story.
“So, this happened a while ago…” Jay pauses to collect himself, “we’re all sitting out here and Waylon and Brody come tearing out of the woods. Brody’s chasing Waylon because he’s got ahold of something and he’s running like he has a fucking T-bone steak in his mouth. Except—” Jay pauses for dramatic effect, “it was not a T-bone steak.”
I glance at Bowen, who turns away with a laugh.
“I don’t know what it was—a dead possum, part of a deer carcass—but it was foul ,” Jay gives a shake of his head, “all mangled and rotten, and Waylon was tearing around like he was having the time of his life. Well,” he squeezes his eyes shut, giggling uncontrollably, “Bo sees him, freaks out, takes a flying leap off the deck, and chases that dog all over creation. So then both Bo and Brody are chasing Waylon, who still has God-knows-what hanging out of his mouth. ”
Rick is sitting back in his chair chuckling and Leona is scowling in disgust like she’d rather not hear the rest of the story.
“He must’ve chased him a mile into the woods,” Jay continues, “but when Bo finally came back, he was dragging Waylon up the hill by his collar and, I swear, he used an entire bottle of shampoo on him and hog-tied him so he could brush his fucking teeth.” Then he turns to Leona dramatically, “Because he knew his mom wouldn’t allow Waylon back in the house if she ever found out.”
Bowen hops off the tailgate and strolls over to the edge of the table. Leona is squeezing the bridge of her nose and shaking her head, which only makes Jay and Rick laugh harder.
“Hey,” Bowen interjects, “it was gross, but I took care of it.”
“What was it?” Hildy looks up at him, “What’d you do with it?”
“I don’t know,” Bowen shrugs, “some dead shit from out in the woods. It was a bitch getting him to let go of it, though. I finally had to just grab it and rip it out of his teeth. Then ,” Bowen adds with irritation, “I had to go back out there to bury it where none of them could find it again.”
“ Gross, ” Hildy shudders, screwing up her face.
“That is so disgusting,” I groan.
“You’re telling me! ” Bowen chuckles as he tosses an empty can into the five-gallon bucket sitting on the ground at the end of the table.
In the midst of Jay and Bowen’s back and forth, I notice Hannah surreptitiously leave the table, making her way across the patio and disappearing inside the house.
A little while later, I’m the only one left at the table while everyone else scurries around completing tasks that only seem to matter right before we’re about to leave for the evening. Hildy is inside, tearing her bedroom apart looking for one particular shirt, and Bowen and Jay are down at the shed with Rick making sure the quad that was stuck in the creek still runs properly.
My phone vibrates against the wrought iron table, and when I look at the screen, I let out a laugh.
COLSON (6:03PM): Hot or not…Lee Pace. Dallas says hot, but I don’t see it. She said to ask you.
ME (6:05PM): Hot. But only as an elf king.
COLSON (6:06PM): This is the weirdest thing you’ve ever said.
When Colson texted me the first time, I thought he was a wrong number. And then when I realized it was him, I couldn’t believe he still had my number from college. I thought it would be weird, but so far, his texts have mostly included new music and stories about Dallas and her latest antics .
It makes me think there’s a chance we can move beyond what happened. It’s been three years with no contact. Maybe we can be friends. Maybe we can be…normal…
“He’s only across the yard,” Hildy mutters with a laugh as she sits down next to me.
“What?” I quickly put my phone down, “Oh, yeah,” I’m smiling so much that my cheek muscles are starting to ache.
This realization immediately makes me uncomfortable, as does the fact that Hildy noticed. But, right now, she looks equally as uncomfortable, which is not like her.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” she shakes her head with a huff, “Hannah just left.”
“Like, left left?” Not that I’m disappointed, but I am surprised that Hannah would skip out on this particular event. “Is she not coming out with us?”
Hildy looks down as she picks at her cuticle, “She said something about just not feeling it tonight and then said she was going home.” She lets her arm drop onto the armrest and jerks her head around, “Like, seriously, on Jay’s birthday? ”
It’s odd—extremely odd—if for no other reason than it seems like Hannah would rather die than miss out on a night of partying with Bowen.
“That’s—” I can’t think of anything helpful to say, “really weird.”
“Yeah, well she can be fucking weird,” Hildy scowls, her tone turning harsh.
Before, she sounded disappointed, and now she sounds angry.
“Did something happen to her?” I ask, trying to choose my words carefully.
“Like what?”
“Today I saw she has these really gnarly bruises on her back. They weren’t there—” I immediately cut myself off when I realize that Hannah probably didn’t tell Hildy about what happened at the Rickhouse a week ago. “I mean, they look pretty recent.”
Hildy glances up in thought, “No,” she shakes her head, “not that I know of.”
She seems to dismiss my observation as nothing. And when she pauses, it’s apparent she has something else on her mind.
“You should probably know,” Hildy turns to me with an annoyed look, “Hannah’s my best friend, but she has issues. And sometimes they’re really annoying and ruin everything.”
“She hates me,” I deadpan.
Hildy presses her mouth together but a faint smile sneaks through anyway, “Yeah,” she admits, “but it’s not you. She did this with Bo’s last girlfriend.”
“Yeah,” I mutter, “Bowen kind of said as much. ”
“What did he tell you?”
“Nothing specific,” I shrug, “I don’t know, I think she and Bowen have a really weird relationship.”
Hildy hesitates at first, like she’s deciding whether to continue, “Bo never used to date. He just kind of…” Hildy scrunches up her nose, “fucked around. I remember him telling me on the night of our high school graduation that he’d never get married. He said that women are only good for three things—mouth, ass, and pussy, and he didn’t need a ring to get any of those.”
“ What? ” I whisper in shock, “But what about you? You’re a woman,” I point out, “and you seem to have a decent relationship.”
Hildy flashes me a sardonic smile, “Oh, I asked him the same thing. He said since I share his DNA, that automatically makes me superior to other women.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
“ Yeah, ” she purses her lips, “I think some girl just pissed him off, but,” Hildy motions down the hill to the pole building, “this is not the brother I grew up with.”
“So, what changed?” I ask.
Hildy shrugs, “He finally found someone he got along with.”
I knit my brow in confusion, “What do you mean got along with? ”
“Bo can be…a lot,” she casts me a sideways glance, “he’s the most fun person I know and he always has been. I love him to death—he’s my brother, right? But, when we were younger, he was a complete asshole.”
I nod in agreement at her from my chair, that’s an understatement…
“He was selfish and cocky and got in fights all the time. If it weren’t for Granddad, he’d probably be in prison. He just strung girls along until he got bored and I was usually the one who had to deal with it because then they’d come crying to me about it.”
“Like Hannah?” I surmise.
Hildy shoots me a side-eye, “Bo never had any tact. He liked the attention and he didn’t care what happened beyond that. But then,” she arches her brow, “one day he just changed. It was like he woke up and decided he was going to be someone else, that he was going to be different. And he’s been that way ever since.”
I peer at her with curiosity, “Like how?”
Hildy chews the inside of her cheek, “Did he ever tell you about Emily?”
“Kind of,” I cock my head, gazing down the hill, “only that she ghosted him or something.”
I don’t mention finding her photo in a shoebox in his basement.
Hildy rolls her eyes, “God, he’s such a weirdo. He bottles up so much stuff. Don’t tell him I told you any of this, because it probably won’t go over well, but I think you should know.”
“I didn’t hear it from you,” I say, casting her a sly smile .
“OK, because no one really talks about her anymore,” Hildy lowers her voice, “Bo was engaged to Emily, but I was the only one who knew about it.”
My eyes round, “Why?”
“They were only engaged for a few days before she just up and left. He never even got the chance to tell anyone about the engagement.”
“Like, just bounced, never to be heard from again?”
“There’s more to it,” Hildy admits, “but it was very sudden.”
I glance down at the teal sapphire on my finger, “How long ago?”
“A little over two years ago. Emily and I had been friends since freshman year of college and they started dating during senior year. She came home with me one weekend and it was like a light switch went on. Bo can be nice and polite when he wants to be, but he went out of his way to take us places, do stuff for us, and basically be the complete opposite of himself.”
“Wow, so what happened?”
“They were so good together,” Hildy laments, “but I think she had a lot of problems that just caught up with her and she didn’t know how to deal with them.”
“Like what?”
“Her family was a mess. Once she went off to school, she didn’t talk to them much. That should’ve been a good thing, right—getting away from toxic people? But I think that’s why things moved really fast with Bo. I think she wanted to escape and he was more than happy to let her do it because he would do anything for her.” A pained look spreads across Hildy’s face, “After we graduated, Emily decided she wanted to go to medical school. She was really smart, studied her ass off, and even took extra classes in the summer and fall, so I was sure she’d get in…” Hildy’s tone tells me the story’s about to take a turn for the worse, “but she didn’t. After that, Bo said she stopped taking her meds for bipolar disorder and she started spiraling. She drifted away and stopped talking to everyone until, one day, Bo came over for dinner and said she was gone.”
“Gone?”
“Gone. But she left him a note basically telling him he was the worst person on the planet.”
I stare at Hildy, speechless.
“She did it right before Christmas, too,” Hildy adds with slightly more venom.
“Wow.” It’s the only response that comes to mind.
“Bo was devastated ,” she says with an air of contempt, “so it’s probably better that she stayed gone, because I could never forgive her for that.”
“Well,” I sigh, “I guess I can’t blame him for not wanting to talk about all that.”
Hildy takes a breath, “That’s why I’m glad you found each other. He can be a dumbass sometimes, but he’s changed so much and he’s worked so hard for everything he has. He deserves to be happy. ”
I admire Hildy’s love for Bowen. Maybe it’s a twin thing or maybe it’s because they’ve never lived more than a town away from each other their entire lives, but I’m envious of the bond they share.
“It really sucked,” Hildy continues, “her leaving like that almost felt like…” Hildy trails off and, after a few moments, turns to me with curiosity, “Did Bo ever tell you about Evie?”
“Yes,” I nod, “he told me what happened to her and how horrible it was.”
Hildy squints into the sun flooding over the hill, “She was my best friend. We were together all the time. We played softball together, got our licenses together, vacations, dances, all that. She might as well have been my sister.”
I listen to Hildy intently, connecting the image of Evie in my head to the photo on Bowen’s wall and the news clipping in his basement.
“It was only a few weeks ‘til graduation. One night, we all went to the skate park to hang out and she never made it home. No one knew where she went, she was just gone . They found her a week later. She was so far in the woods that it wasn’t even the park anymore. Someone murdered her and dumped her in the creek.” Hildy’s voice goes soft, “It was the worst day of my life.”
“Yeah,” I say gently, “Bowen said no one was ever arrested.”
“ No, ” Hildy snaps, a flash of momentary anger breaking through, “Granddad ran the investigation and all he said was there wasn’t much to go on—that it was probably some transient or a migrant.”
It takes all I have to suppress an eyeroll. Xenophobia at its finest—a faceless migrant, how convenient. I’ve been a fan of true crime for way too long not to realize what a cliché this is; a tactic often used by inept law enforcement who don’t want to expend the time or effort to find the real perpetrator. But clearly I can’t say this to Hildy, so I let her continue.
“But still, Evie’s family was lashing out at everyone because they were convinced it was someone she knew. They were angry with the police and they were angry at us for who-knows-what reason, especially since it was probably—” she stops herself short and hesitates, “Anyway, that’s all I know because it’s still an open case. I don’t even know how she died,” she mutters.
I knit my brow in confusion, “What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Granddad wouldn’t let them release anything,” Hildy shrugs, “in case it went to trial.”
“But Hildy,” I stare at her for a few moments, “she was strangled.”
Hildy looks at me like my face is turning inside out. My stomach drops as soon as I say it and I realize I probably shouldn’t have just blurted it out like that. But how could she not know? Then I wonder if she’s in denial like Bowen said and I just royally messed with her head. I’ve spent enough time around Barrett to know how trauma works. Thank God I didn’t mention any of the other things…
She narrows her eyes, “Where’d you hear that?”
“From Bowen.” Obviously …
“Bowen knows fuck all!” she snaps, giving me a start, “ Nobody knows how Evie died. And nobody ever will until they catch whoever did it. He needs to accept it and quit saying dumbass shit to make himself feel like he’s in control.”
And, with that, she jumps up and storms across the patio into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.