Page 42 of Everyone Loved Her

“His dad will help him out,” Brittany said, giving me a soft smile. “I’ve had to let it go. Everything that happened with Sarah made me realize it was time to put him behind me, and…” Her voice trailed off momentarily. “I don’t know you, Beth, not personally, but he used to, um, talk a lot about you… I know you two had something, but trust me, he’s not someone you get close to and walk away unscathed from.”

I nodded but didn’t get a chance to say anything as Ty Miller, one of the men that Sarah had listed off as having dated—and the one Garrett shot at last night—stepped up to the circle. His darkened eyes met mine for a moment, but a moment was all it took to know that he was judging me. Ty’sthin lips turned down, his face full of disgust before turning to Brittany.

“We need to get over to help serve. You promised you’d help.”

“Oh of course,” she said quickly. “I just wanted to stop and check on Andrea and Beth.”

“Well, thank you.” Mom smiled, but I couldn’t read her expression. “Keep y’all’s heads up.”

“Will do. Again, nice to meet you, Beth.” Brittany gave me a slight nod before falling in step with Ty and filtering out of the church.

I shook my head, immediately following the trail of people. The air felt stale in the foyer, and I didn’t slow down as I pushed through the front glass doors. I welcomed the chilly breeze of the day, but also, part of me wondered if Garrett was still out here, close by...

“I think you and I need to have a conversation, Beth,” Mom commented as we headed toward the truck.

“We can talk at home,” I said, knowing that I would have to fess up to a lot more than just kissing Garrett last night. My heels clicked obnoxiously on the pavement as I rounded the corner to the side lot, Mom’s silver half-ton in sight. I caught wind of a conversation as I started to walk around a group of unrecognizable patrons.

“That was one for the ages,” a man chuckled. “Did you see the look on her face? I think there’s a lot more to the story. She looked guilty. ”

“Makes sense,” a woman agreed. “I heard she represented criminals in Chicago. Lord knows, she might be with the mob.”

My face went hot as I ducked past them, feeling their eyes on me.

“Slow down,” Mom huffed behind me. “Jeez.”

“Sorry,” I muttered as I reached the driver’s side door. “That was just insane.”

Mom laughed, eyeing me. “You just ain’t been home in a while.”

Chapter 20

“Where is he?”Blaze demanded as he stormed into the station, Sheriff Myers standing right up front.

The sheriff made a face. “Who?”

“The main suspect in this investigation,” he snapped, removing his hat. “He made such a dang scene in that funeral, the whole town is going to be talking about it for years to come.”

“Garrett isn’t the main suspect in this investigation, and for the record,” he growled. “You gotta quit listenin’ to all the rumors floating around this place. No one blabbing ever knows the truth—and if they do, they ain’t telling the right information. On purpose.”

“Maybe, but he sure as hell is acting guilty,” Blaze bit back, not caring that he sounded biased.

“The only thing my son is guilty of is being stupid enough to get wasted and come to a funeral,” Sheriff Myers took as step forward, leveling eye to eye with Blaze. “I get that you wanna play hero, but you gotta lay off Garrett and take a step back, look at the whole picture.”

“Hestormed in that funeral, disrespecting?—”

“And we got him out.”

Blaze threw up his hands. “Did you not see him fixing to assault Beth Young?”

Sheriff Myers broke into dry laughter. “You ain’t got a clue. My son would go to hell and back for that girl. He pretty muchhas.She was theonlywitness in the accident all those years ago, and his attorney wanted to bring her in to testify, but you know what my son did? He let her go off and start a new life, not wanting to stop her from moving on—while he faced it alone.”

Blaze ran his fingers through his hair. “And that’syourstory, but that’s not Lucas’s. Everyone’s got something different to say about that night with Sam Young, and the only thing I saw in the file was him pleading guilty to reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter. Didn’t even take a blood alcohol level, but I guess you didn’t want him to get knocked with a DUI, too.”

“He wasn’t drunk. Not from alcohol,” Sheriff Myers shook his head, his hardened face softening. “He was head over heels for Beth Young. Sam was pissed when he found out they were together that night. He caught them. Sam was hammered, his blood alcohol level testing nearly four times the legal limit, plus having taken some uppers. He got combatant when he drank. Got rough with his sister, and Garrett wasn’t gonna let that happen.”

“The two got in a nasty fist fight,” the sheriff continued. “Which led to Beth and Garrett arguing that night. Garrett was doing what he does, taking care of the people he cares about. He loaded the Youngs up in his truck, but Beth was mad. She didn’t want to ride up front with Garrett, and Garrett didn’t want Sam in the back with her—but he wasn’t going to leave his best friend behind.”

“They were headed back to the Young’s ranch, on the main road. Garrett said Sam went back to arguing with him, telling him something about wrecking his truck. Sam then jerked the steering wheel, flipped the truck at highway speeds. Sam was ejected. Garrett and Beth walked away, though Beth had a severe concussion.” Sheriff Myers sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Anything else you need to know? Since you’ve been in the case file, you’d know he was charged accordingly. I never stopped them from ruining his life, but I wish I had done more. He didn’t deserve what he got, but the only person who could vouch for the cause of the accident had left him. She never saw him again after that night—well, till now, I guess.”

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