Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
“It has a large kitchen,” Rachel said, pushing aside the drapes to let more light in. “And all new appliances. The owners renovated the kitchen and both bathrooms last year. What do you think?”
Cat liked the house. She’d liked all the homes that Rachel and Winnie had shown her. And yet…
Something had been missing from all of them. She didn’t know what it was, so she couldn’t articulate what she was feeling. All she knew was that while the homes were lovely, she hadn’t yet walked into one and had been able to see herself in it.
“You hate it,” Rachel stated with a sigh. “I can see it in your expression.”
Cat had never had much of a poker face.
“No, I do like it. It’s beautiful, and it has everything that I’m looking for.”
She couldn’t fault Rachel or Winnie. They’d done their job when it came to finding what Cat was looking for in a house.
“But?”
Luckily, Rachel wasn’t angry that all her hard work was for nothing. If anything, she appeared amused at the situation.
“I guess I don’t truly know what I want,” Cat admitted. “You’ve given me everything I’ve asked for. But I don’t know. Something is just missing from these homes, but I don’t know what it is to ask you to find it.”
“We can put off the house hunt, Cat. Take a few weeks or months off. See how you feel later.”
“I’ve never truly connected with any real estate I’ve purchased,” Cat replied, “I’m not sure that I’m the type that is going to fall in love with a house. Not right away. I think it’s going to have to grow on me.”
“Like fungus?” Rachel joked. “Seriously, I don’t want you buying a house that you don’t absolutely love and adore. Homes are too expensive to make a mistake like that. We’ll keep looking. Eventually, you’ll find what you want.”
Cat wasn’t sure what she wanted. She only knew she wasn’t finding it. She was sure that it wasn’t hardwood versus carpet, or open plans, or a finished basement.
“Maybe I’m just not in the mood to buy a house. So much has happened since I moved back to town. Maybe I should slow down a bit. If I’m affected this much, I can only imagine how you feel.”
“I try not to think about it when I’m working,” Rachel said. “I want to stay focused. I’m not going to let this derail me. Whatever happens, Josh and I will face it together.”
“You’re a strong woman,” Cat replied. “I’m not sure I could be so calm and put together in your shoes.”
“I don’t have any other option,” Rachel explained. “I won’t let some asshole try to scare me out of living my life. Fuck him. He doesn’t get to win.”
“Him? Has Finn narrowed down the suspects?”
“I said ‘him’ because I always think of shooters as male. Isn’t it a man’s weapon? And poison is a woman’s?”
“I have heard that,” Cat conceded.
“And I don’t think that I’m all that strong. Josh says that I’m stubborn, and I’ll go with that explanation. I won’t let this ruin my life.”
“I still think you’re strong. And probably stubborn, too.”
Rachel’s gaze wandered to the large picture window that overlooked the manicured backyard. She didn’t reply for the longest time, simply studying the large oak tree that shaded the patio.
“I think Josh is having an affair.”
Of all the things that Cat had expected her to say, this wasn’t it.
“I feel like I can talk to you,” Rachel admitted. “You’ve been around the world, and you’ve met so many people. You’ve been outside our little town bubble. You know that people aren’t perfect, and life doesn’t always play out as you imagine or hope. I love Josh, but boy, is he not perfect.”
“No one is perfect,” Cat replied. “Not one person.”
“If I told any of my other friends, they’d ask why I hadn’t kicked Josh’s ass or thrown him out of the house.
You realize that life is more complicated than that.
I still love him, you know. More than he deserves right now, but I’m not going to blow up my marriage to a man I’ve been with since I was thirteen just because he made a bad decision or two. I think we can fix this.”
To Cat, infidelity was a bit more than a bad decision. It was a deliberate decision. She was sure that Josh hadn’t fallen penis first into another woman by accident. He’d decided to risk his marriage to do it. He wasn’t a stupid person. He had to be aware of the consequences.
Was that the attraction? The risk? After years of being happily coupled, had Josh decided to do something wild and out of character?
He wouldn’t be the first or the last.
“Relationships are complicated,” Cat agreed, wanting to stay strictly neutral in this discussion. She was in no position to give any advice or judgment. Hopefully, all Rachel needed was a sounding board. “They take a lot of work.”
Such platitudes. It’s all Cat had to give her friend at a moment like this.
“I think it’s Lindsay, our dog groomer,” Rachel continued. “Our pups have never smelled or looked better.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s an affair,” Cat replied. “It could be something completely different.”
“You should see him around her,” Rachel said with a shake of her head.
“He acts like a giddy teenager with a crush. I don’t remember the last time he acted that way around me.
I would never try to hurt him, Cat, but he’s hurt me.
It’s so painful, I can barely get through most days without breaking down in tears. ”
“Have you tried marriage counseling?”
Shit, she hadn’t wanted to get into the advice business here. She knew nothing about being in a committed relationship.
“We’ve been in marriage counseling a few towns over.
I didn’t want anyone here to know that we were having trouble.
It hasn’t really done much, although I haven’t brought up that I think he’s having an affair.
You know how Josh is. He’ll just charm his way out of that.
He can make anyone believe anything, especially me.
He’ll talk me out of it, and I’ll fold like a cheap tent. ”
Josh was a charming devil. He’d talked his way out of dozens of detentions back in high school.
“A part of me was thinking about asking for a divorce if he didn’t end his relationship,” Rachel revealed when Cat didn’t say anything. “But if I do that now, they’ll think I was the one who tried to kill him.”
“They can’t think that,” Cat replied firmly. “You were inside when he was shot at.”
“Okay, then they’ll think that I hired someone to shoot at him. It’s all the same. It’s always the spouse who’s the main suspect. That’s who the cops go after. I’ll go to prison, and Josh will marry Lindsay and get free dog grooming for life.”
“Finn would never railroad an innocent person into prison. That’s not his style.”
“I don’t want to take that chance.”
Rachel’s phone buzzed, and she pulled it from her pocket to check the screen. Her face paled, and she began frantically digging in her purse, tossing tissues and mints on the kitchen counter.
“I need my keys,” Rachel yelled. “Fuck it all. They should be right here.”
“I can help you,” Cat offered, trying to calm down her clearly frantic friend. “Are you okay?”
“No, I am not okay. You’re going to have to go with me. I don’t have time to take you back to your house.” Rachel finally held up the sought keyring, jingling it in front of Cat’s face. “We have to go now. Let’s go, and I’ll lock up behind us.”
Cat was afraid to ask where they were going based on Rachel’s tense behavior.
The woman had practically sprinted to her SUV, fumbling with the ignition to get it started.
She floored it as they backed out of the driveway, and then slammed on the brakes so hard that Cat had to grab the seat with one hand and the dashboard with the other.
“Um, Rachel? Where are we going?”
“The hospital,” Rachel said with a sob, her shoulders beginning to shake with the force of her tears. “Someone tried to kill Josh again. He was biking, and they tried to run him down.”
Cat reached over and placed her hand on Rachel’s, which was clutching the steering wheel.
“I’ll drive. You are too upset to be behind the wheel. I’ll have us there in no time.”
Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but then an expression of relief passed over her features, her entire body slumping in the driver’s seat.
“Yes, you should drive.”
They switched places, and Cat drove the rest of the way to the local hospital while Rachel stared out the window. She didn’t move, say a word, check her phone, or anything else she normally would have done.
From the corner of her eye, Cat could see silvery tears sliding down Rachel’s cheeks.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or feel. How am I supposed to react? I think I feel numb.”
“I think that’s a normal response,” Cat replied. “If it’s all too much, you just sort of go into survival mode until you can deal with it.”
“When they find the person that’s doing this, I swear I’m going to kill them myself,” Rachel vowed. “Why should I show them any mercy? They haven’t given me or Josh any.”
Cat doubted Rachel was capable of killing a person, and she was simply blowing off steam. She wasn’t going to go all vigilante and stride around town packing heat.
It took a few minutes to locate Josh in the emergency room. He’d been taken into a treatment area, and a friendly nurse escorted them through a labyrinth of hallways to where he was being treated.
Finn was already there when they arrived, and Josh was lying in a hospital bed, but conscious and talking.
Wearing a hospital gown, Cat could see the vivid scratches on his face and the deep road rash on his arms and legs.
He looked like someone had lifted him by the hair and dragged him down the road for a mile or two, smacking him down on the pavement a thousand times or so as they went. It wasn’t a pretty sight to see.
“Oh shit,” Rachel groaned, her face going pale and her hand flying to cover her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick.”