Page 43 of Wicked Games

I study the picture. Vale’s hands are wrapped around Brooke’s and they’re standing close together. He’s looking at her, and anyone with half a heart could see he’s in love with her. I rub my thumb over her face. She’s laughing, her gaze fixed on Vale’s, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight, her eyes bright. She loved him too, back then, and everyone knew it but me.

I sigh. She should have left me years ago.

She shouldn’t have married me at all.

On impulse, I search Avery’s name, but she’s not gossip fodder like Brooke and I are. There’s only one tastefully written article about her winning a literary award for her book, and the photo posted with it is of her and Darren, his arm wrapped around her. She’s holding a bronze statue of a woman sitting, curled in on herself, her head resting on her arms, not unlike when she sat at the end of the dock after pouring her heart out into her notebook. She’s beautiful, her hair pinned back into a bun, wearing a black lace dress and high-heeled shoes. Darren really beat her into the ground, this woman in the photo and the woman sitting outside so different in demeanor. It’s not fair to blame it all on him, not when she’s mourning her sister, but come on. Him leaving her when she needed him was callous and cruel and I hope Karma sorts that out as I have no doubt one day Brooke will get hers for what she did to me.

There isn’t anything else about her, and I close out of the website.

I’m just about to get up and ask if she wants to have lunch when she looks away from her notebook and hurries inside. Winnie stays where she is, sleeping in the sun.

I leave her alone and go upstairs. I’m exhausted, but I toss and turn like I did last night. I’m getting so I can’t sleep without her, and that, I would find out, is a very bad place to be.

My cell wakes me from a light doze, and I roll over and groan. I grab my phone off the nightstand. “Hello?” I say, my voice rough.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Violet asks, amused.

“No, I’m alone.” I sit up and stretch, groaning again. Why do I feel like I’m eighty?

“So you and Avery kissed and made up? I’m glad.”

“Yeah. I forced her to let me apologize.”

“Seth—” she starts, but I know it’s only out of concern.

“It’s okay. It wasn’t like how it sounded. I apologized and we ended up in bed. She’s so sweet, Vi. I can’t get enough of her.”

She makes a retching sound. “Gross. I know we’re friends, but I don’t need that kind of detail.”

Chuckling, I say, “Not like that. Who she is as a person. The more I know, the more I want to know. The more she tells me, the more of an idiot I think her ex-husband is. I told her I didn’t want this to be a summer fling.”

She sucks in a breath. “You’re falling hard. I hope you don’t hurt yourself.”

“Me too. Hey, LaSalle called and said Hattie Maitland was shot with the same gun that killed Theo. They found the bullet in the alley where she was murdered. He seemed to think that since Avery and Hattie were friends that Avery’s involved somehow.”

She laughs. “How? She’s an essayist. What would she know about Theo’s kidnapping? What would she know about gangs? Hattie Maitland made it her business to stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and anyone could have paid someone to get back at her. Do they know it was that exact bullet that killed her? She’s been dead for four months and I bet that gun’s been passed around more times than a flu bug in an elementary school. They’re grasping at straws now because they don’t have any other leads and it’s making them look bad.”

The knots in my belly loosen and I realize that’s why I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want Avery in the middle of this. “I was hoping you’d say something like that.” I pause. “I think I’m in love with her.”

“No kidding, but I hope she feels the same way about you. From what you’ve said, she just got out of a crappy marriage. Maybe she needs time to get over that. Seth, I know you’ve been hurting, but I’m really scared of what it will do to you if this goes bad. You can’t replace your family with her.”

“I know, and I appreciate you reminding me,” I say, just so she knows I’m not mad she’s being honest. “Besides, she told me she can’t have kids.”

“I know. She’s been writing about it for years, so you have to make sure you’re okay with that before getting any more serious than you already are.”

“There are other ways to be a family.”

“Yeah, there are, but I remember how happy you were while Brooke was pregnant and when Theo was born. You won’t have that with her.”

I sit and think about the future, the past churning in my heart. Brooke and I were happy for such a short amount of time, but those couple of years I’ll never forget. Holding Theo for the first time in the hospital. Getting up to feed him in the middle of the night. His first steps into my arms. Then the terror when the cops told me Theo had been taken. Falling over his body after he was shot. I picture the sad smiles on Avery’s face and the quiet life I would have with her. A quiet, happy life even if she can’t give me more children.

“I’m okay with that, Violet,” I say softly. “I couldn’t handle having more kids. I’d always be scared of losing them.”

“Then I’m happy you found her. Anyway,” she says, her tone changing, “I called to ask you about the Strasser thing. Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah.”

I go downstairs while Violet asks my opinion on a small deal that we have in the works and if it’s still worth our time because of all the hassle it’s been giving us. Avery hasn’t come back outside and Winnie’s gone. I can’t see into her house, the cove’s glare reflecting off the windows. She’s free to do what she wants, but now that I’ve admitted how I feel about her, I’m going to have to control the anxiety that will creep up on me when we’re not together.