Chapter 40
Kelsi
After parking in Abby’s driveway, Kelsi rested her forehead on the steering wheel with a squeal, recalling how his lips had felt on hers. No kiss had ever felt so perfect. Kelsi grabbed her phone from the cupholder and called Abby.
Abby launched immediately into conversation when she answered. “Hey, girl. Look, I’m stuck in my car waiting for this man to leave a motel room. It’s looking like I won’t be home until later, so don’t wait up okay?”
“No, that’s fine. But, uh, something happened with Dylan earlier.”
“What!” Abby screeched. “Spill. Now. Do you need my help hiding the body? I keep a shovel in my trunk so give me ten minutes to drive over there and we can get it taken care of no problem.”
“Jesus, Abby, no. I’m going to leave the shovel comment alone for now, but we will revisit that later. We talked about everything, and—”
“And?” Abby interrupted.
“Hekissedme,” Kelsi confessed in a rush.
“Shut the fuck up! And you’re on the phone with me and not in his bed why?”
“Abby, we literally just started really talking to each other again. We can’t fall into bed together like the past four years are behind us or never happened.” No matter how much I wish we could.
“Ehh fine, fine, that will come later. But remember, my shovel is ready and at your disposal.” Abby paused for a second, then added, “Get it? Disposal? Like, body disposal?”
“I got it, Abs,” Kelsi said dryly.
“Okay, kill my buzz why don’t ya. But seriously, are you going to text him later?”
“No, I think I’ll wait and see him tomorrow. I don’t want to push anything too fast.”
“Fair, but you’ve also known each other your entire lives. I don’t think you can move slower than you two have. You’re practically glacial.”
“Fine.” Kelsi reluctantly chuckled because, well, Abby did have a point. “But I’m still not pushing anything further tonight. He’s out with his friends and I have an early morning anyway.”
“Okay, play it safe, I guess. If I don’t see you in the morning, good luck babes!”
“Thanks, Abs. I hope you get a good and incriminating photo of your subject tonight.”
“Oh, I will! Love you!”
“Love you too.” Kelsi hung up, chuckling again as she locked her phone and grabbed her oversized brown leather work purse off the passenger seat before stepping out of the car. Kelsi locked it behind her and stood in the driveway for a minute, breathing in the faintly salty air.
Virginia Beach was far enough away from major cities that there was minimal light pollution, and many stars were visible in the sky, though it had nothing on the stargazing in Oyster Shoals.
She loved these moments. There was something about the vastness and beauty of the universe being more evident that made her own problems feel small, like she could almost forget they existed.
Unfortunately, that night was overcast, and she was only able to catch glimpses of the Big Dipper and Orion and the waning moon when the clouds drifted and parted for brief moments.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, relaxing in the beautiful night before once again resuming her walk to Abby’s front door. She thought about what Abby had said earlier. Should I go for it?
Smiling to herself, she decided she was done living her life in fear of being hurt.
It was past time for her to fully seize the moment and be honest with herself and, most of all, Dylan.
It had been amazing having him back in her life the past few weeks, resuming the friendship she hadn’t realized she’d so dearly missed.
After kissing him tonight, she knew she never wanted to go back to a life without him.
Being in his arms had felt like finally coming home, and not because they were both back in Oyster Shoals.
It was all because of Dylan—he was her home.
After locking the front door behind her, she pulled her phone out and typed a message to him quickly.
Kelsi: See you tomorrow :)
Her phone chimed with a response only a few moments later.
Dylan: Counting the seconds until then, Red.
She fell asleep smiling.
* * *
She floated through the morning, pulling on her lucky green suit and spritzing herself with perfume. She took extra care with her makeup and hair, twisting it into a simple but elegant knot at the base of her neck, with Dylan in mind more than the jurors.
Back in Virginia Beach, Kelsi easily fell into her regular pretrial ritual and headed to the cafe by the courthouse to grab herself a coffee and Dina’s favorite croissant again.
She always had nervous jitters before a trial and liked to be at the courthouse early enough to go over her notes a couple times to prepare for the opening statements.
The parking lot was mostly empty, only a handful of cars sporadically parked throughout, so she had her choice of parking spots.
She pulled into a spot close to the entrance and climbed out, securing her work bag over her shoulder cross-body style and holding her phone and the paper to-go bag with Dina’s croissant in one hand.
Kelsi locked her car and walked six paces toward the front steps before she heard her name shouted from somewhere behind her.
She spun on the spot and looked around the parking lot in the hazy morning sunlight, searching for who else was here this early and yelling for her.
Her stomach soured and she crossed her arms, lightly scrunching the paper bag under one, when she saw the man striding across the empty spaces in her direction.
Sheridan stopped a few feet from her in his uniform, looking worse than she’d ever seen him. Dark-purple half circles sat under his eyes and his hair hung gel-free and lank around his face.
She scoffed, and he tucked his hands in his front pockets with his shoulders slouched forward. Her pulse was loud in her ears as it struck her that Sheridan was here, in Virginia Beach.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
“I volunteered to transport the evidence to the courthouse. I needed to get the chance to see you, to talk to you. I got here early to make sure I didn’t miss you.”
She tensed further. He’d manipulated the situation to force her to talk to him? And right before a major trial?
“I want to explain, Kelsi. We need to talk. I made a mistake.”
Kelsi snorted derisively at that. “A mistake is accidentally confusing ‘their’ for ‘there,’ Sheridan, not cheating on your wife and conveniently forgetting to tell me that you’re currently married.
” She took a moment and scanned the parking lot around her, but they were still the only two people in sight.
“Please, Kelsi.” His amber eyes tried to catch hers, pain and desperation clear in their depths and the furrow between his brows. “Please,” he implored again. “I really want to explain. I hate how we left things.”
She debated what to do. On the one hand, Sheridan had been a friend to her, and he owed her an explanation for his duplicity. On the other, she didn’t want to give him the time of day, not when she was, maybe, possibly, with Dylan now. Were they together? She thought so.
Eventually, her curiosity won out.
“Fine,” she said, uncrossing her arms and gesturing for him to speak, “but you only get one chance to explain. If you lie to me again, that’s the end of it.
We will not go back to being friends. And you need to know that I’m with Dylan now, and there’s no chance for you and I to be anything more than friends. ”
“I get it, I blew my chance at anything more, but I would really like to go back to being friends.” He looked around the parking lot too, shifting weight from one foot to the other. “Actually, can you help me with the evidence boxes in my car? We can talk while we bring them inside.”
“Fine,” she repeated herself. “Lead the way.”
He stepped back from her and pointed to his car parked a few spaces down.
Sheridan led her to it, a small sedan not unlike his police cruiser, with one hand resting on her lower back.
Kelsi stepped away, putting some distance between them and reminding him he was not allowed to take such liberties anymore.
He didn’t press the issue and opened the rear door, leaning inside.
“So, what was it you wanted to explain?”
“Look”—he sighed, straightening from the car holding a handkerchief in his hand—“I know I fucked up, okay? I should have told you right from the start that I was married, I know I should have. But we’d been split for months, and I didn’t want to scare you off by telling you about her.”
Kelsi opened her mouth to protest that it wasn’t any excuse, but he quickly cut her off, anticipating her retort.
“I know it’s not a good excuse, I do. But I thought you were beautiful and smart, and I wanted to get to know you. Can you honestly tell me that if you’d known from the beginning that I was married you would’ve given me the time of day? No matter that she and I have been separated?”
Instead of answering him immediately, she closed her eyes and counted to five. Kelsi knew he was right. Had she known that he was married, she never would have gone out with him. Even if he and his wife were in the process of legally obtaining a divorce, her romantic ideals wouldn’t have let her.
“No, I wouldn’t have,” she finally said.
A car backfiring startled her, and she turned to face the noise.
While her back was to Sheridan, the hand holding the handkerchief clamped down tightly over her mouth and nose.
A chemical odor invaded her senses and her eyes watered.
Another arm wrapped around her torso like a vice, binding her against the attacker.
Kelsi panicked, dropping her phone and Dina’s pastry on the ground while trying to pry the hand away from her face. But her breaths were already slowing and her body growing heavier, and she couldn’t budge the tight grip.
Right before her world went completely dark, Sheridan whispered, “I’m sorry, K. You gave me no choice.”