Page 56 of Finding Our Reality

Clearing her throat, she walks away, joining her friend atourtable.

***

“I’ll meet you outside. I just have to get something from my car before we go.”

I nod, grabbing my stuff. “I’ll lock up, get us some waters for the road.” Five minutes later, I’m walking out the station door when I see Lulu trotting across the parking lot. Except she’s notheading to her own SUV, but an idling red pickup truck. I can’t make out who’s behind the wheel, but it’s definitely a guy.

The truck doesn’t look familiar either. It doesn’t belong to any of the guys in her life.

And what strikes me as odd is her behavior, her demeanor. Her stiff shoulders and straight back are gone. Gone is the imaginary hanger in her shirt, pulling her upright like a marionette. She leans through the open driver-side window, completely relaxed, completely at ease. Suddenly, she tosses back her head and laughs. Loudly.

It’s the laugh I can’t wait to hear… on the days I’m lucky enough to hear it.

Who is this guy? And what’s he doing with My Lulu?

Is this the ‘friend’ from the coffeehouse yesterday morning?

Hoisting her work bag and purse higher on her shoulder, she reaches into the truck, taking something from him. Waving, she walks away, and the guy reverses, pulling out of the parking lot. When she sees me staring, she just points to my truck, walking in that direction. I finally find my footing and hit the unlock button on my key fob, allowing her to jump in the truck before me.

I put the waters in the cupholders, toss my stuff in the back seat, and quickly reach for my sunglasses, hiding my eyes from view.

She seems completely oblivious to the turmoil surging through me right now. She flashes her green-flowered notebook in the air. “Sorry about that, I forgot my notebook. I need it for the interview.” She shoves it down in her work bag and twists in her seat, depositing it all on the back floorboard. I try to avoid looking at her, but the contortion of her body makes her blouse fall open, gifting me a quick glance of her black bra.

“Forgot it? Where? A public place, like a restaurant or bar? The library?”

She doesn’t follow my line of thinking. She thinks I’m actually concerned about her stupid notebook. “Oh no, I would never leave it out like that. It has confidential notes about Carrie’s case. I just left it at home. I was looking over it in bed last night, re-reading the information from Tyler’s interview, and I accidentally left it on the nightstand.”

Holy hell. This guy has a key to her house? Was he in her house with her? Last night? In bed with her? “Who dropped it off?”

Now, she gets it. She blinks, pausing before answering. “Oh, nobody, just a friend.”

“A friend? The same friend from the coffeehouse yesterday?”

She sighs. “Ry, don’t put words in my mouth. I said he was a friend, and that’s all you need to know, alright?”

Hell no, that’s not alright.

Huffing out a breath, she crosses her legs and stares out the window. Damn this woman and her skirts. A woman with legs that long should be outlawed from wearing anything that falls above the knee.

We drive for twenty minutes straight without saying a word. But Lulu makes it known that she doesn’t like my attitude. She huffs and puffs and grunts and groans every quarter mile of interstate. “So, help me, Lulu, if you sigh one more time, I’m gonna flip my shit.”

She spins in her seat, reaching across the console to point in my face. “Then stop being an asshole.”

I can’t help it. Hearing Lulu call me an asshole from her pouty little mouth has me cracking up. I try not to laugh. Really, I do. But I can’t help it. I burst out laughing, playfully slapping her finger away. At first, she looks like she’s going to explode, but eventually, a smile turns up the corner of her lips. Refusing to laugh, she looks back out the window, forgetting I can see her hidden chuckle in the reflection of the glass.

Although I’m not done learning about this douchebag, she calls a ‘friend’, I declare a truce for now and break the tension. “It’s still crazy to see how Tyler put his life back together.”

“Yeah, leaving Holly was the best thing he ever did.”

Yesterday was the first time we could meet with him. He’s been working a welding job in Nebraska for the past few months and just came home for two weeks on vacation. He’s then going back to Nebraska for two more months. After that, he’ll be sent to Alaska for six months. Besides being gainfully employed, he’s completely sober. After the raid and Trey and Trash’s arrests, he moved in with an aunt who helped him get clean. He broke up with Holly and began to focus on his work and health.

And you can see it. He looked healthy, happy, and stable. His fiancée is pregnant with their first child. His company provides family housing at all job sites so she and the baby will be moving to Alaska with him. He didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. He didn’t specifically remember the night from the pictures. He was too wasted.

“How do you think things will go with Dakota today?”

She shrugs. “Not sure. I haven’t seen any of Carrie’s friends in years. I’m just glad that one of them still lives close by.”

We small talk about nothing in particular as we finish the drive to the upscale Birmingham suburb. Following the directions from the GPS, we eventually pull into the driveway of the largest house on the block. This mansion makes Lulu’s house look like a potter’s cottage. “Shit,” I mumble underneath my breath, “looks like Dakota’s done well for herself.”

---