Page 46 of Before You Go

“What? If he’s going home, he could save me the gas.”

“You don’t pay for your gas.”

“Okay, then he could help save the environment.” She smiles. “We all have to do our part, right?”

“You don’t have to give me a ride home.” I look up at him. “I’m sure you have better things to do.”

“Nope, and your friend’s right. We all need to do our part to save the environment.” He grins.

“Well, I guess we’ll leave you here then.” Georgia steps forward to give me a quick hug with a quiet order to call her when I’m alone. Amelia doesn’t tell me to call her, but she does ask if I want to get lunch Monday, so I know that’s when she plans on grilling me about Dayton.

And Molly just says, “Have fun,” with a little laugh that makes me roll my eyes. When we step outside, the girls walk down the block toward the parking lot, while Dayton and I head in the opposite direction.

“Did you have fun tonight?” he asks, and I tip my head back to look up at him.

“Yeah, you?”

“I wouldn’t say I had fun, but it was all right. Did you eat?”

“Yes.” I stumble over my own feet when someone behind us shouts his name. “Thanks,” I whisper when he grabs my upper arm to catch me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just clumsy.” I turn with him and watch a man jog our direction, the woman I saw at the bar who I thought Dayton was with standing a few feet back like she is waiting for the guy running towards us.

“Dude, you forgot your card at the bar.”

“Shit, thanks man.” Dayton takes the card from him and puts it in his wallet.

“No problem.” His friends gaze comes to me, and he smiles.

“William, this is Franny, Franny, William.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” He focuses back on Dayton. “I’ll call you.”

“Yeah man, tell Gem good night.”

“Will do.” He smiles then jogs back down the block to who I’m guessing is Gem and when he meets up with her, she lifts her hand and waves in our direction. I wave in return trying not to overthink why I feel so relieved that Dayton wasn’t out with her.

“Sorry about that.” Dayton mutters and I latch onto my bottom lip with my teeth when he takes my hand in his. It’s huge, engulfs mine, and causes tingles to shoot up my arm. I don’t remember the last time I held hands with anyone. Matthew wasn’t the kind of guy to show casual affection, so we never held hands or kissed outside of the bedroom. We didn’t even cuddle on the couch while watching TV together.

“It’s good you got your card back.”

“Yeah.” He agrees as we stop at his SUV. Opening the door for me, he stands in the doorway until I’m buckled before jogging around the hood to the driver’s side.

“How was work?” I ask as he’s sliding behind the wheel, and he turns to look at me.

“All right, but I’m glad it’s the weekend.” He starts the engine and begins backing out of the parking space.

“Eighteen items were recovered from the crime scene. Those included bedding, clothes, an open soda can left in the middle of the bedroom floor, and a knife block from the kitchen counter that was missing one knife. The knife handle was found under Alice’s body, the blade still in her back, hair, carpet fibers…”

As I’m trying to figure out what I’m listening to, it switches, and music begins to play through the speakers.

“What was that?” I ask, and he glances over at me.

“A podcast.”

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