Page 71 of Freshmeet
I stood, brushing dirt off my ass. “I’m going to find out.” Standing to my full height, I confidently walked over to the men. “Ready to go?” I asked, using it as an excuse to interrupt. “Carter needs someone to drive his car back.”
Rick McCormick gently smiled at me, holding his hand out. “You must be that Sarah Tilney the boys haven’t shut up about.”
I gave him a firm handshake and forced a polite smile onto my face. “And you must be their uncle. It’s nice to meet you.”
He let go of my hand and looked at the sheriff. “We all good here?”
“Yeah,” the sheriff said, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. Turning to Jamie, he gave him a stern look. “No more underage drinking. We clear?”
“Crystal,” Jamie said, taking off toward my roommates.
“Keep an eye on him. I don’t want to get another call like this,” Uncle Rick said to Connor.
“You got it.” Wrapping his arm around my waist, he curled his fingers into my side. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going to take her home.”
The sheriff smiled and nodded. “You take care now, Ms. Tilney. We‘ll be in touch if we have any more questions.”
“Okay,” I said, letting Connor lead me to my friends.
“Are we free to leave?” Kat said, standing from the picnic table.
“Yep.” I looked at Carter, and my heart broke. “You want to come back with us to Frattic?”
He wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand and nodded. “That would be great.”
Mona looped her arm through his and walked him to Kat‘s van. Connor opened the passenger-side door of the Lincoln for me, helping me in before slapping Jamie on the back of the head. Grumbling, Jamie slid into the back as Connor got into the driver’s seat.
Leaning between the front two seats, Jamie said, “Like you never drank at the lake before you were twenty-one.”
“The difference is Uncle Rick never had to bail me out,“ Connor snapped, putting the keys in the ignition. His shouldersdropped, and he sighed. “Listen, I’m just freaked out.” Turning in his seat, he said, “Sorry.”
Jamie nodded and sat back. “No worries, just keep those freakishly large hands away from me.”
Connor lifted his hand and frowned. “They’re not freakish.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said. “You guys okay?”
“No,” I said honestly.
“Fair.”
Back at Frattic, Kat and Mona were already making pancakes.
“Where’s Carter?” I asked.
“Passed out on the couch,” Mona said, pointing the spatula at the living room. “You guys hungry?”
“I’m not, but you guys eat,” I said to the McCormick boys. “I’m going to go get changed.”
I trudged up the stairs, the events of the night catching up with me. I’d thought seeing Emma’s head splattered across the gravel next to my car was traumatizing. Turns out, seeing a girl’s internal organs fall to the ground was much worse.
I grabbed fresh pajamas from my room, then shuffled into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, avoiding my reflection above the sink. The skin around my eyes felt tight from dried tears, so I could only imagine how I looked. Stripping off my swimsuit, I hopped in the shower, taking my time to scrub every inch of my body. I waited for the tears to come, but they never did. I was just numb. After Emma died, I was a total mess, but now the only tears I’d shed were from the violence of vomiting up the contents of my stomach.
No. Instead of feeling grief for the loss of a young life, I was hung up on the fact that Hailey’s killer was still out there, doing God knows what.
I went through my nightly routine, slathering my limbs in body butter.
If I have to be fucked up in the head, at least I’ll have fantastic skin.
