Page 69 of Wicked Games

“We might never know that.” I brush my thumb over her cheek. “How are you feeling? Crampy?”

Leaning into my touch, she says, “Oh, I’m fine. I took some ibuprofen this morning. Rowan was wondering about me though. He asked Bill why I wrote the last blog post on Hattie’s website and if he knew me. Bill told him that we were sisters and that’s how I had the information to log into her site in the first place. He asked if we were close, and of course Bill said yes because he knew we were. It really didn’t sound like they talked about much. Rowan’s still going through with the opening of the community center and he’s going to dedicate it to Brooke. He invited us to be there.”

“Us? Why would Vale want me to there?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Bill told him we were out here together. I didn’t think that was a good idea, but he said he only mentioned it to try to get Rowan to open up. Rowan didn’t say anything else about Theo, but he said that he and Brooke had married at the courthouse a couple of weeks ago and were planning a real wedding ceremony next summer. He said he’d like things to be civil between you two.”

“I don’t hate the guy. I feel sorry for him,” I say, picking up a handful of sand and letting it trickle through my fingers. “To lose someone you love so soon. He was probably looking forward to kids, hell, even just a honeymoon.”

“You were looking forward to a lot too,” she says quietly. “All those things you’ll never have now because she was jealous.”

“Some of that’s my fault, Avery. I didn’t listen when she spoke. It was her right to be angry.”

“Did she blame you for Theo’s kidnapping?”

I stare out over the water. “No. Maybe the money part, but that wasn’t blame, just the reason why it happened.”

“There’s that, at least.”

“What little good it does. I blame myself.”

“I know.” She pauses. “Bill asked if you were going into the city for Brooke’s funeral.”

“I don’t know when there will be one. Her body’s evidence, and now that they know Theo’s, Hattie’s, and Brooke’s deaths are connected, they might not let it go very easily. I forced them to let us have Theo’s. After those assholes got away with the money, it didn’t seem like the investigation would go any further. You buried Hattie soon after her death, right?” I wasn’t following a gossip blogger’s murder, but Avery never mentioned having to wait.

“Yeah. The cops didn’t think it was anything except a mugging gone wrong or someone after her to pay her back for writing about them, and they didn’t care about any of it.”

“Darren was there for you.”

She shrugs. “Yeah, if you want to call it that.”

“In that kind of situation, a little is better than nothing. Will you go to Brooke’s funeral with me? If Vale can get them to release her body? He’ll want to bury her as soon as possible.”

“Do you want me there?” she asks, surprised. “Violet will go with you.”

“Unless you don’t want to go. Avery, I want you with me everywhere, always.”

She sighs. “Seth.”

“I know.” I don’t know what I said that for. I know we’re too quick, or I know I’m too needy.

She sets her Perrier aside, tugs the elastic out of her hair, and lies down on the blanket. She didn’t say she’d go with me, but I know she will. And it will only take a minute for the gossip to spread. So far the cops have managed to keep Hattie’s involvement to themselves, but it will leak eventually. And when it does, everyone will want to know how I could have fallen in love with a woman whose sister watched Theo be abducted at a park while he was playing with his friends.

I lie on my side next to her and cup the side of her face in my hand. She looks at me, her eyes squinted, and I gently kiss her, rubbing my lips over hers.

We spend the next few hours at the beach, wading in the water when we get too warm and eating the lunch she packed—sub sandwiches and chips. She asks what I’ll do with the house I was living in with Brooke and Theo, and I ask her what she did with hers and Darren’s. She sounds wistful as she describes their home on a quiet street near the university, where she knew all her neighbors and wrote in her notebook while sitting in their garden. But there’s a lot she doesn’t say in those words. How empty the house was when Darren was in class, and how after a while what they didn’t have took up more room than what they did.

I also hear the uncertainty. She doesn’t think I’ll be happy with only her.

“What will you do while I’m working?” I ask curiously.

“You’re all in, aren’t you?” She nibbles on a chip.

“I told you I was. I don’t say things if I don’t mean them.”

She lifts a corner of her mouth. “Probably the same thing I would’ve done if we wouldn’t have met. Write and think of a different way to bring in some money. You’re right, Darren was generous, but even if five years sounds like a long time, it’s not really, and it’d be better to figure out something now rather than wait. Then I can put the money into savings, you know? I’m not sure.” She flicks a glance at me. “I don’t want you worried that I’m going to leave you or cheat on you because I’m bored. Brooke struggled with that, but I wasn’t bored when I was married to Darren and I won’t be bored being with you. I’m fully capable of filling my time in a way that won’t hurt you.”

“I just want you to be happy,” I say, skimming my hand over her hair. The tops of her shoulders are turning pink. Neither of us put on sunscreen.