Chapter 17
It had been almost six days since she'd heard from Link. The desire to talk to him was driving her crazy. To fight off the desire to send him about a hundred messages, she headed out to find a place to eat where she could wander around after and do some window shopping.
For the last few years, her wardrobe had consisted of military-approved shorts, pants, and shirts. She wasn't one to wear dresses, but maybe she would buy one or two. First, she had to figure out which style would fit her body shape.
Some styles, like A-line dresses, were classic.
Sundresses and knee-length skirts were staples that she could add to her closet, but some of the in-fashion clothing didn't look like stuff she would be comfortable in.
Maybe she just needed to spend more time shopping to find a dress that would fit her.
She picked a restaurant next to an outlet mall so she would have time to eat and shop more before heading home. Being out in public was nice, but still something at the back of her mind made her worry. She couldn’t sit with her back to the door, and she didn’t feel that she could relax.
The place she chose served Mexican food, which was absolutely delicious.
It was more calories than she would normally have, but after a week and a half, she would be done with the Marines, and obsessing over her weight would calm down a little.
She knew she could drop pounds if she worked out after eating a meal like this.
Plus, she really didn't care about gaining a few pounds.
The only reason she needed to keep them off in the military was so she didn't have to buy new equipment.
After eating, she headed over to a store with women's clothing, checking out the dresses in the window. One of the dresses, a cap sleeve blue dress with small flowers across the bodice, looked nice. But was it the kind of dress she wanted to wear?
Would she feel more comfortable in slacks? Pants were more her style, but guys liked sexy women. Maybe slacks could be sexy. Not the kind of pants the military had her wear. She looked awful in those, but she could dress up pants with the right top.
She really didn’t know what Link considered sexy. Maybe she could ask him. But it would feel weird to ask that question over the phone.
“Are you thinking of ruining someone else’s life?”
The voice sent a chill through her. It had been a long time since she'd spoken to Peter.
The man still blamed her for Craig's death, but she hadn't had anything to do with his death.
He'd gone out on that pier on his own volition.
She'd begged him to just go home, but he'd been manic that afternoon.
She'd been at the beach with him when an argument erupted between them. He ran off, like he did when he was angry, and she'd called out, begging him to just go home. He exhausted her with his constant mood changes.
The months before, she'd grown tired of chasing him.
He expected her to run after him and beg him for some random thing and apologize to him, even when he'd been the one in the wrong.
He expected her to cave to him, to bow to his wishes and do whatever he wanted.
But she was done with being his lap dog and doormat.
She wanted a relationship that wasn't mired in drama.
That last day had been too much. He’d been chatting with a woman on Instagram, which wouldn’t have bothered her, but then he’d arranged a time to meet her. When Ansley found out, she called him on it, and he threw it back in her face, blaming her for his infidelities.
He was a cheater, and she'd forgiven him twice already in the time they'd dated.
His argument the first two times was that they hadn't formally stated what their relationship was supposed to look like.
It had confused him, so he hadn't thought it would be wrong to sleep with other women.
Then she'd stated plainly what she expected. He'd agreed they would be exclusive.
Then the Instagram thing happened after thirty other arguments, including him pouring a dish of chili on her head while they were out at dinner.
That had been the deciding factor to never chase after him again.
She was embarrassed to admit that he’d made her apologize to him about the chili incident.
She'd been young and stupid, thinking she could change him or fix him. The problems had been many, and she should have walked away, but she hadn't. It was easy to see where she'd gone wrong after the fact.
At the time, she hadn’t wanted to admit the sad truth that nothing she could have ever done would have fixed Craig.
Ansley turned and met Pete’s gaze. “Leave me alone, Pete.”
“You killed my brother.”
There wasn't any way to convince him she hadn't done anything to make Craig go out onto the pier and climb up on the rail, then fall, catching the strings of his hoodie in the railing, causing the jacket to pull tight on his neck.
It had been a freak accident that had come about because of his stupid actions.
She felt awful for Craig and had shed many tears after his death, but the security video from the pier had been clear. Craig had been the one responsible for his own death.
Ansley turned to walk away, but Pete grabbed her by the hair and yanked hard, pulling her off balance. Her foot slipped, and she tumbled back, landing hard on her rear.
For a brief moment, she thought Pete was going to pounce on her, but the security guard from the mall started yelling. Pete wasn’t brave when confronted, and he took off.
Someone close to her extended a hand to help her up. She took the offered help, dusting off her pants.
“You okay?” the security guard asked as he came over.
She nodded, unsure if she was really okay, but knowing she didn’t want the attention. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Want me to call the police so you can press charges?”
She shook her head. "No, thank you." She would be gone soon enough, and there wasn't any way Pete could track her down once she left California.
Not having to deal with Pete would be one huge upside to moving. He had no clue she was leaving California, and he never would know where she'd gone.
The attention drawn to her plight made her uneasy. She didn't want to sit around and give Pete time to come back. She snuck away and headed over to her car. She should have ordered pizza and watched a movie instead of going out.
Pete had been absent for a few months, and she thought she would escape without seeing him again.
If she lived on base, it would be easier to avoid him.
But base housing was in the process of being torn down and rebuilt.
There'd been issues with a building, and they had to take it down because of safety concerns.
She'd volunteered to move into an apartment and hadn't gone back to base housing.
It didn’t look like Link lived on base, but Pete wouldn’t show up in North Carolina. She felt she would be safe.
Her mood hadn't improved much by the time she got home, and when her phone rang, she thought of letting it go through to voicemail. After three rings, she picked up her phone, happy to see Link's name on the display.