Chapter 10
Kelsi
As the red sun crested over the horizon the following morning, Kelsi pushed her kayak off from the shore. She let the repetitive motions of her paddle—gliding through the water on the right, then the left, forward and backward—lull her into a zen state.
This was her happy place. Here, on the water, a light burn in her shoulders and biceps as she worked against the waves to propel her kayak through the slightly choppy water of the small creek off the Chesapeake Bay.
She moved the paddle faster and faster, shooting through the water, exorcizing her demons and frustrations until her arms shook with exhaustion and her chest heaved.
Only then did she lay the paddle across her lap and float.
She trailed her fingers through the lukewarm water, careful to keep away from the jellyfish floating lazily past her.
Kelsi closed her eyes, and the tranquility of the creek at sunrise filled her with contentment.
It was in these moments, with the soft cacophony of the birds in the woods framing the water, the soft splash of a distant fish jumping, and the rustle of the squirrels and snakes and deer in the reeds on the shore, that she truly felt at peace.
The crash of the waves against the shore, mixing with the beautiful array of undisturbed nature, when it was still too early for the tubers and skiers to be out on the water, was her version of heaven on earth.
Normally these were the moments she could let her mind go quiet and not worry about everything that she had going on.
When she was pushing her body hard, she had no room in her mind for anything besides focusing on her breaths and the movements propelling her forward.
Not today, though. Today she struggled to clear her mind. Thoughts of Dylan and the case—and the fact that she was going to have to go back to Virginia Beach, to Tom, sooner than she’d expected—floated around in her brain like pesky gnats.
Her phone buzzed loudly against the hard plastic of the kayak’s bottom with an incoming text, and she fumbled for it.
Dylan: Hey, I’m thinking we should check in with the police station at some point in the next few days and see what evidence they still have.
She sighed. Of course it was Dylan. She couldn’t even get a minute break from her thoughts about him, why shouldn’t he text her too?
Kelsi: Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll go tomorrow afternoon after the morning docket.
She put the phone away again, trying to reach a peaceful state. After a frustrating few minutes of drifting with the current and actively losing the fight to keep her mind clear, she finally caved.
In the past twenty-four hours, she’d seen her ex–best friend, the boy who shattered her heart entirely, for the first time in four years.
She’d been assigned a case alongside said ex–best friend, one which at first glance appeared to be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
She had to have the case ready to prove to a jury in under a month. Not only that, she would have to see her ex-fiancé and his new girlfriend at the same time.
Dylan had been back in town for months and everybody had actively hidden it from her. He’d been in a severe accident, he could have died, and would she have even known? Did he have someone else that worried about him other than his mom? That had been by his side in the hospital?
Her chest tightened painfully thinking about Dylan having somebody to go home to. She hadn’t seen him in four years, and a lot could happen in that amount of time. Hell, she’d been engaged—who knew about Dylan?
Being back in the town where they grew up, where they’d dreamed of settling together, where all their best memories had taken place, hurt her more than she expected. He’d been her best friend, and, at one point, she’d thought he could be more.
In the years since the incident, she’d tried not to think of him or look him up on social media. Not that it worked—the two-in-the-morning drunk social media stalks were her routine after she came home from a night out with Abby.
In the beginning, whenever she saw either of their moms, they tried to get her to share what happened or tell her what he was doing or something funny he’d said, but after enough times of Kelsi changing the subject whenever possible, they gave up.
She had purposely tried to push him from her thoughts for the last four years, and now that he was back, she couldn’t get him out of her mind.
What had happened to him in the past few years?
He was a different man now. When they were friends, he was always the guy with the easy smile and laugh, jokes for everyone, and slightly shy demeanor.
Now she thought back to how distant and professional he had been with her and wondered if that was because of her or something else.
Kelsi sighed and picked up her paddle. She turned the kayak around, heading back in the same direction of the waves and the wind this time, cutting through the water quickly.
The case she had was a mystery, but unraveling Dylan might be the greatest mystery of all.