5. Scarlett
Scarlett
“Wow, you look hot,” my younger sister, Aurora, cheered from where she was sitting on my bed.
I felt kind of bad. She was only in town for a few more weeks before she headed across the country to UCLA in September for her graduate program starting in the fall.
This was the most time we’d spent together in almost a decade.
At five years my junior, Rory was only thirteen when I moved out for college.
Next thing I knew, I had moved across the state from western Massachusetts to Calla Bay, the quiet little coastal town on the eastern seacoast. Now that she had been staying in the spare bedroom of my apartment for the summer, I’d had a chance to reconnect with her—and loved every minute of it.
So much so that I wasn’t sure if I should be spending my time going out on another date instead of hanging out with her.
“I’m sorry for leaving you hanging tonight. Are you sure you’re not mad that I’m going out with Eddie?”
“Of course not. Go. I’m an adult, Scarlett. You don’t need to watch over me,” she chided. “Plus, I want to be here to see your walk of shame in the morning,” she laughed, wiggling her eyebrows at me suggestively.
“There will be no walk of shame,” I told her.
“Why not? You two have been seeing each other for a few weeks now. Things are supposed to progress, or so I’m told.”
“Yeah, well, they can progress at our own pace.” I grabbed a pair of simple black, heeled sandals and sat on the bed next to Aurora. “So, what are your plans tonight?”
I adjusted the strap around my ankle as she started talking.
“Probably go to Courtside’s, see if anyone is around,” she said, referring to the sports bar in town.
I didn’t frequent it often, usually preferring to go to Harpoon’s Tavern if I were to go out for the night.
“Maybe I’ll borrow a little dress from you, and we can do our walk of shame together.
” She stuck her tongue out at me playfully when I leveled her a hard look.
“Okay, you’re right,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I won’t go on a walk of shame… because it isn’t anything to be ashamed about,” she laughed.
“Aurora.” I turned to her, my mouth open. My baby sister was grown up. I had missed so much of her growing up, it hit me hard sometimes to see the beautiful, smart woman she’d turned into and not the awkward teenager with frizzy, red hair and braces.
I stood up and smoothed down my dress, doing a little spin for her.
The silky black fabric clung to my curves, thin straps showed off my shoulders, and the little bit of added height from the sandals made my legs look long and toned, if a little pale, but that was par for the course with my fair skin.
I tied my hair off my face but left the ringlets to fall down my back.
Light makeup finished off the Friday night date-night look.
“You look great,” Aurora told me again. “What time is he going to pick you up?”
“He said 7:00 p.m.” The clock on the nightstand read 7:03 p.m. “But he’s usually a little late.”
Eddie and I had been seeing each other for a few weeks now, and almost every time he said he would pick me up at a certain time, he was late.
It wasn’t like we needed to be anywhere at a specific time, so it didn’t really bother me.
Much. But Eddie was great, so if a little tardiness was the worst of it, I had to consider that a huge win.
Another ten minutes passed before a knock sounded at the door. “I’ll get it. You stay in here and make him wait for a minute,” Aurora said.
“Thanks, but I’ll get it. I don’t want to play games. Plus, I’m starving.”
Eddie’s soft smile greeted me when I opened the door. “Hey, sorry I’m late. Again,” he groaned. He wore a pair of dark gray joggers and a plain blue T-shirt. He wasn’t late because he spent too much time getting ready, that was for sure.
“No problem. Let me just grab my purse, and we can head out.” I smiled at him.
“Hi, Aurora.” He waved to my sister, who was standing by the bedroom looking thoroughly unimpressed.
She offered him a quick smile and a flick of her hand. “Have fun tonight,” she called to me.
“You too. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Well then, I wouldn’t be having any fun, would I?” she teased.
Eddie walked me out to his car, talking about the traffic to get into town.
The warm air felt nice on my skin. The sun was already starting to set noticeably earlier, but that didn’t keep the heat at bay now that August had arrived.
My apartment didn’t have any off-street parking, and with Aurora staying with me, as well as George downstairs, our vehicles took up most of the street in front of the building.
Eddie had parked a little further down, directly next to the telephone pole.
He rounded the car and got into the driver’s seat as I maneuvered around the pole, opening the passenger door as far as it would allow—the smallest of cracks—and shimmied my way inside.
“Good thing you’re thin, right?” he chuckled.
A forced smile played across my face. “What’s the plan tonight? I’m starving, so I hope dinner is on the agenda.”
“I heard a lot of good things about Millie’s Pizza. Have you ever been there?”
Millie’s was a staple in town. Brick oven pizzas and a liquor license. It was a no-brainer. “Millie’s is great,” I told him. “And maybe afterwards, we can walk the beach or something, if we’re staying in town. Unless you had other ideas.”
“Oh, um…” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking straight ahead as he drove us toward the restaurant. “I told some friends I would meet up with them later.”
“Oh, sure.”
His eyes rounded, and his Adam’s apple bobbed on a hard swallow.
Ah. He meant that he was meeting some friends. Not us.
“It’s just, it’s in Braintree. And I would hate to drive down here, to drive back there, to drive back down here… you know.”
“Absolutely. That’s totally fine. We’ll have a nice dinner and call it an early night.” I smiled a genuine smile at him.
“Are you sure? I feel like an idiot right now,” he said. I could see the worry on his face that he was making himself look bad .
“Seriously. It’s fine.” I really did mean that, mostly. I had wanted to stay in with Aurora anyway, but a little voice inside my head was wondering why Eddie would make other plans the same night as our plans, an hour away.
Downtown Calla Bay was packed with locals and tourists alike, and Millie’s was no exception.
The aroma of fire-baked bread tickled my senses as soon as we walked in.
Despite the petite storefront from the street, Millie’s was more spacious than it appeared.
Even still, every table was taken. Snippets of conversations floated past me while Eddie and I waited to place our order at the counter.
Pizzas ordered, along with two beers, we waited in the corner for our number to be called or a table to open up.
My gaze raked over the place, familiarizing myself with the surroundings.
Years of working at a police department, even a small one like ours, made me a more socially aware observer.
The table in the back corner caught my attention.
Captain Langston and Matt Monroe were sitting together, just the two of them.
It shouldn’t have been odd. They were colleagues, after all.
But I had never known them to be overly friendly.
Socialize at a party or event, sure. But to have dinner together on a Friday night?
And something about it didn’t look social.
Matt’s gaze caught mine, and I thought I saw a spark of fear in his eyes.
He turned back to the captain, informing him that I was here.
Although he tried to be subtle about it, his head tilted in my direction while his eyes stayed focused on the captain, far too intense to be casually having a conversation.
“Hey, we should grab that before it’s too late.
” Eddie’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
A table near the wall had opened up, the smooth wooden tabletop still sticky with dropped pizza sauce.
A young guy came over to wipe the table down a minute later, moving our tented number marker momentarily to swipe underneath.
I had never noticed before how much the order number identifiers looked like evidence markers.
Luke had been quiet on the Karrigan case front for the last few weeks, but I wondered if he was still looking into things.
Probably not. There was nothing to look into. The Calla Bay Police Department didn’t have dirty cops who hid evidence to convict the wrong man.
And besides, he would have told me if he were.
I could be helpful. I was often one of the only people in the police department, especially if I was on an overnight shift.
No one would even know. Luke just needed to give me a little guidance as to what to look for, but I could help.
I knew I could. I made a mental note to talk to him about that.
Let him know that he can use me however he wanted.
At work.
In a work capacity.
If he needed me to help him with something at the station. Not, like, however he wanted. Not that he wanted to.
Good Lord, my thoughts were spiraling. I pulled in a breath, blinking my focus back to my dinner and my date.
Eddie and I were mostly quiet during dinner, sometimes circling back through our previous conversations.
How did I like having Aurora staying with me? I loved it.
How was work in the mortgage industry going? Still strong despite the sellers’ market, coupled with high interest rates.
Any fun plans for the weekend? Nope.
The world’s most uneventful date came to an end, and despite neither of us having any plans for the next two days, he didn’t make plans with me until next weekend .
It wasn’t that I wanted to hang out with him every day.
Our relationship was still new—although we had been seeing each other for weeks, even if that only meant four dates—and too much time together could seriously backfire.
But it would have been nice to feel like someone wanted to see me, wanted to hang out with me.
God, I sounded so needy. Eddie was respectful and nice and mature enough to know what healthy space in a relationship looked like.
He pulled up outside my apartment building, and I turned to him to give him a hug.
Instead, Eddie lunged forward and smashed his lips into mine, his tongue spearing into my mouth like he was trying to catch a fish.
I kissed him back for a few seconds, recovering from my shock.
Up until now, we’d ended each date with a hug.
His kiss was… nice. It was nice. I searched inside of myself for some spark of heat or desire but came up empty.
“Thanks for coming all the way down here just for pizza,” I told him when I pulled back.
“Turns out it wasn’t just for pizza,” he smirked.
I smiled back at him. “Have a good night.”
“You too.” He pulled away from the curb before I had even turned toward my front door.
At that moment, a man popped out of the shadow of my front stoop, and I screamed.
“Does Aurora Hart live here?” the man asked. He looked well put together. His neat hairstyle and bright white smile contradicted the darkness in his eyes though.
“Who are you?”
“I’m looking for Aurora. Is she here?”
“No,” I told him, immediately reaching for my phone in my purse. “There’s no Aurora here. But I’m trying to get home, so if you’ll excuse me. I have to get ready for my shift at the police department.” I wasn’t on shift tonight, but the lie had the desired effect of getting him to step aside.
“You look like her. Same beautiful red hair,” he said. His tone missed the mark of charming by a mile. The smoothness of his voice sent a shiver down my spine. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
I shuffled past him without replying. Only when I closed and locked the door to my apartment did I breathe again.
“Rory?” I shouted.
Wait, no, her car was gone when we pulled up. She must have gone out like she said. I sent her a text, warning-slash-asking her about that guy.
We would be having a serious talk in the morning about whoever he was. I just hoped she hadn’t gotten herself mixed up in anything.