Page 3 of Stay Away from Him

Thomas:I just know. I can feel it.

Amelia:That brings us back to the original question, I suppose. If youknowRose is dead, someone might be tempted to wonder—someone who doesn’t know you as well as I do, maybe, but still—to wonder whether you, you…

Thomas:You’re really going to make me say it, aren’t you?

Amelia:I think it’s important. For what we’re doing here. To establish, from the outset.

Thomas:I didn’t kill my wife.

Chapter 2

Melissa and Thomas ended up sitting next to each other at dinner, pulling their chairs close at the far end of the table. Their elbows bumped together as they ate, but neither made any move to scoot their chairs away from each other.

“I feel a little bit like we’re in the kids’ section down here,” Thomas said low in Melissa’s ear, close enough that she could feel the warm whisper of his breath on her neck.

She glanced up the length of the long table through the flicker of candlelight, Lawrence and Toby presiding on the other end, pouring wine and leading conversation. The other guests seemed to be talking local politics—Melissa caught a murmur about something being “a public safety issue, really”—and rather than trying to figure out what dull thing they were discussing, she turned back to Thomas, her shoulder tilted up to partially obscure a coy smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You wish you were more a part of the grown-up conversation?”

“No, the opposite. I always liked sitting at the kids’ table, myself. That’s where all the fun is.”

“Now I’m feeling some pressure,” Melissa said.

“Pressure?”

“To be fun.”

“Don’t worry,” Thomas said. “I’m already having fun. I wouldn’t have sat by you if I wasn’t.”

His hand crossed over to lightly squeeze her forearm in reassurance. She felt the warmth even after he let go.

“So what shall we talk about?” Melissa asked. “What’s the conversation at the kids’ table?”

“Toys,” Thomas said. “Play. Schemes.”

“Schemes,” Melissa said. “That one. I like that.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“You’re the one who brought it up. I was hoping you’d have an idea.”

“Sneak away?” Thomas suggested. “Run off to the lake? Have a dip?”

Melissa’s eyes drifted to the window, where the small lake near Lawrence and Toby’s house was a black void in the darkness.

“A dip? I’m not dressed for it. Neither are you.”

Thomas nudged her with his elbow, and she could tell it was on purpose this time. “Why should that stop us?”

Melissa giggled—actuallygiggled—as she realized what he was suggesting: skinny-dipping. It was a joke, of course, Thomas playacting the part of an irresponsible teen flirting with the girl next door at the kids’ table as the parents talked about more serious adult topics. At least, Melissathoughthe was playing around. She was scouring her mind for something to say in return when the conversation at the other end of the table intruded again and pulled her attention away.

“I’m afraid to go for a walk with that beast stalking around,” said an older woman sitting in the middle of the table. “You know it actually ate our neighbors’ dog and left the carcass in their backyard?”

Melissa gulped and set down her fork as the conversation continued, those around the table nodding in sympathetic agreement. She leaned toward Thomas.

“What are they talking about?”

“Oh, just the legendary local coyote,” Thomas said, a trace of a smirk in his voice. “Menace to pets and hikers alike for the past year or so.”

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