Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
She was about to cancel on me.
I wasn’t stupid.
“What’s wrong?” I repeated, turning fully toward her as I started to shampoo my hair.
She sighed and scrubbed her hands down her face in a rough manner.
“I…” She blew out a breath. “Kerrie was there when I arrived last night.”
My brows didn’t rise.
I knew that Kerrie was there.
The officer that had responded to the call was one of my friends.
I’d called into dispatch to see who was working the call and had been informed that it was one of my buddies, Trane Jones.
After Trane had finished with the call, he’d called me and informed me of what he’d found, and who was there.
It hadn’t made me happy to hear that Kerrie was there when I wanted to be the one to assist her.
But the parenting gig wasn’t just a whenever I wanted to do it kind of job.
It was full-time, and I had to put my kid first no matter how frustrating life got.
I flicked off the shower once all the shampoo was out of my hair, then grabbed the towel that I’d left hanging over the top of the rail and wrapped it around my hips before stepping out.
The bathroom mat sank underneath my feet, but I didn’t pay it any attention at all as I looked at Dillan.
She looked… heartbroken.
And so freakin’ sad.
How had I not seen that before?
“Please tell me,” I said.
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.
“I spoke with Kerrie,” she said softly. “I… it’s all my fault.”
Her shoulders drooped the moment that those words were out of her mouth.
I wanted to pick her up off of the toilet seat and yank her into my arms, but I wouldn’t get the answers that I needed like that.
I frowned. “What’s all your fault?”
She stood up and started to pace, her hands going to her hair as she roughly pulled at the ends.
“You. Delanie. Asa,” she answered quickly. “It’s all my fault.”
I stood up and caught her hand, leading her into the guest bedroom which was the farthest room away from where Asa was asleep on the couch.
“What are you talking about, Dillan?” I asked. “You’re not making any sense.”
She turned to me, her eyes now filled with tears.
“Kerrie,” she started rambling. “You remember Kerrie from high school? How he always used to be around? He was one of my father’s best friend’s son. He was around all the time. And I counted him as a friend.”
I nodded, remembering that.
I honestly hadn’t always felt that Kerrie was all that great of a guy, but he’d always been with Dillan and Delanie, and I knew that they were childhood friends. Not to mention any time I got even close to looking like I was going to approach Dillan, Kerrie would maneuver himself so that I couldn’t without going through him.
It was kind of awkward trying to get with a girl—i.e. Dillan—when Kerrie was always blocking my path.
“Yes, I remember,” I said, not pointing out that it would be kind of hard to forget the man when he was always around. Even now. “What about him?”
“You told me last night that your last memory was of Kerrie handing you a beer, remember?” she said softly.
I blinked and nodded. I had said that.
“That’s Delanie’s last thought, too,” she whispered.
Then she went into what she’d learned from him yesterday at her donut shop.
“I kind of knew that he had a thing for you. It was obvious,” I said. “I didn’t realize that he was that obsessed over you, though.”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t have any clue, either,” she admitted, walking into the bathroom to splash water onto her face. “I mean, after I told my dad I wasn’t interested, and he saw the lengths I was willing to go to avoid it, Kerrie and I kind of had a falling out. And I was busy with Delanie. Then there was Asa. Then I started my business. And Kerrie was always put on the back burner. Until last year or so when he started to show his impatience with it. Not to mention the fact that I told him I wasn’t interested in him in that way when he brought it up a few times.”
“So you’re thinking that he drugged us?” I asked, following her. “That’s why neither one of us can remember?”
She sighed and stood up, pacing the short confines of my bathroom.
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted, turning to go the other way. “I just… what else am I to think? He didn’t out and out say it, but why else would neither one of you remember? Delanie had one beer, and one beer only. And I’d seen you at parties. Not to mention I watched you that entire night. You didn’t have any more than you usually drank. And now that I think about it, Kerrie was the one to pull me away. Tried to convince me to watch Bourne battling it out with those college boys. Do you remember that?”