Page 42 of Wild Justice

The frustration in her tone was evident, and she wasn’t trying to hide it. She’d seen this happen half a dozen times. The outcome was always the same - Henry was unhappy and moped around for months, and the poor girl involved was confused as hell as to what she did wrong. The last time, Lulu had forced Henry to tell the woman so she wouldn’t blame herself.

“What do you think, Kai?” Henry asked. “You might as well dive on in here and give your own opinion.”

“I don’t think I know you well enough to give any life advice,” Kai said with a shake of his head.

“That’s why your advice might even be better,” Henry argued. “Because you’re not biased in any direction. You don’t know me well, and it sounds like you don’t know Lisa well either since you haven’t lived in Harper very long. You’re standing outside the situation and looking at it from a stranger’s point of view. I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

Kai didn’t make eye contact with Lulu, instead taking a long drink from his coffee. He settled into a chair at the table while she squirmed, waiting to hear what he was going to say. She’d been pushing Henry to get out there more, and Kai might just tell him that she was crazy and not to listen to a word she had to say.

Fair enough. She was well aware that she might be pushy and wrong. It was simply that she didn’t want Henry to live half a life because he thought something was wrong with him. He wasn’t broken or defective. He was a good and wonderful human being who deserved to have so much more in his life. He was just afraid of rejection.

Aren’t we all? It’s a normal human response, especially after what he’s been through.

“I think,” Kai replied slowly and carefully, his expression sober. “I think that I understand why you might not want to put yourself out there. You’re probably right that many people wouldn’t want to deal with whatever baggage that you have. I don’t know all the details of your situation, but it sounds like it was traumatic as hell.”

Times a hundred and then add ten.

“But sometimes a person needs to step out of their comfort zone and take a chance,” Kai went on. “I took a huge chance quitting my job and moving here to take over my grandpa’s newspaper. I think that’s worked out pretty well. I’m a hell of a lot happier now than I was a year ago. I also recently took a huge chance, and I’m glad that I did.”

Kai was looking at Lulu when he said the last part. She could feel the heat in her cheeks, but she smiled back at him. She was glad that they’d both taken that chance. It was good to think ahead, but sometimes a person needed to get some courage and just…jump.

If it didn’t work out with Kai, at least she’d tried. She didn’t want to be one of those people that had lots of regrets about things they didn’t do and chances they didn’t take.

“So, you think I should take a chance with Lisa?” Henry asked. “That I’m making this decision from my comfort zone.”

“Only you can answer that question,” Kai replied. “I’m just giving you my take on it. If you really like this woman, tell her. Tell her that you’re imperfect, that you have that baggage you talked about. And then let her make her own decision. Don’t make it for her.”

“I’ll think about it,” Henry announced, draining his coffee cup. “You’ve given me something to think about. I do like Lisa, but I’d never want to be a burden on anyone.”

“You are not a burden,” Lulu exclaimed. “You have a few issues. We all do.”

“Wait until you find out what they are,” Henry joked to Kai. “She’s a barrel of monkeys to live with, but she hogs the bathroom. And don’t even get me started about her long hair in the shower drain. It clogs it, you know.”

“Okay, that’s enough. Who wants scrambled eggs and toast? I have interviews at nine so let’s get going.”

It was about time to change the subject. She didn’t need Kai wondering about the pipes in her bathroom. She could snake her own drain. She didn’t need a man to do it.

She could handle her own business, and that included finding Dana’s killer. She had another jampacked day of interviewing people in Dana’s life. The more she knew about the victim, the better chance she had of catching a murderer.

First up, the ex-husband Jay and his girlfriend Allie.

Allie might not have been able to pull this off alone but with Jay’s help?

They were at the top of her list of suspects.

11

Deputy Steve handed Lulu a folder when she walked into her office, coffee cup in hand. Henry was upstairs getting started on his own job, and Kai had snuck out the back entrance just as the sun was coming up.

In a way, it was silly to worry about being the topic of gossip. The good people of Harper were going to realize she and Kai were a couple eventually. If this relationship had any legs, and Lulu hoped it did, everyone was going to know about it without her having to say a word. It was simply how small towns worked. Everyone from the butcher to the hairdresser to the mailman were going to have an opinion about Lulu and Kai together.

“What’s this?” she asked Steve as he exited her office.

“Medical examiner’s report on Dana.”

Lulu hadn’t expected it until tomorrow, but she was glad to see it today. She’d have time to look it over before Jay and Allie arrived.

Theoretically…

---