Page 93 of So Right
“Should we sit?” she asked. Her voice sounded distant, unfamiliar.
“Sure.” Luke sat down in the chair at the end of the table. She did the same. It was as if all the intimacy of last night had never happened.
“Luke…” She looked down briefly. When her gaze shot back up, he thought he saw moisture, and her cheeks started to flush. “Why would you go after Noah?”
“I didn’t.” He sounded harsh and didn’t mean to. Forcing himself to take a deep breath and push some of the anxiety away, he tried again. “I didn’t go after him. I just said that.”
“To protect me?”
He nodded.
“Do you think—do you think I killed him?”
“No.” But it was clear she’d believed that he had. And why wouldn’t she when he said he was trying to protect her? “At least not on purpose.”
“I told you he was fine when I left him.”
“You’ve told me all sorts of bits and pieces and not very willingly, I might add.” He ran his hand through his hair, feeling as though his control was completely slipping away. He grasped it tightly, as if his life depended on it. “I just want you to be honest with me. Please be honest with me.”
She said nothing for a moment. He watched her swallow, then rise slowly to her feet. She walked the length of the table and pulled out the chair next to his. He pivoted, resting his arm on the table, using that connection as some sort of lame way to ground himself despite feeling as though the wind of anguish might sweep him away.
Without words, she took his hands in hers. Her touch was cold, but her gaze was warm. “I’m so sorry. Noah has always done a number on me. Seeing him last night made me feel like I did when I was with him. Alone. Powerless. Scared.”
For a brief moment, Luke wished hehadkilled the bastard.
“After I left the pub, I couldn’t think. When you hit him, all I could see, all I couldfeel, was Noah hitting me.”
Luke’s heart cracked. “Oh my God, Kelsey.”
She squeezed his hands. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s not okay, but it’s not you. I don’t blame you. It just is what it is, and, like everything else to do with that asshole, I have to work through it and figure it out. I understand why you hit him, and I’m not mad at you for that. Just like I wouldn’t be mad if you felt like you had to hit him with a rock in self-defense.”
Relief stole through him, but it was short-lived. “I didn’t. Butsomeonedid.”
“So it seems. But it wasn’t me. He followed me to the park and got out of his car to talk to me. I was sitting there with my window open just trying to deal with all the crap in my head. I listened to him for a minute or two, and I said I was leaving. That’s when he grabbed me.” She let go of Luke’s hands and encircled her left wrist with her right hand. “He must’ve got my bracelet. I didn’t even realize. Anyway, I left and I didn’t look back. I drove straight to your house, and I was there all night.” She took his hands again. “Just as I know you were there too. Which I will tell the police. There’s no way I’m letting you confess to something you didn’t do.”
He scooted to the edge of his chair and lifted her hand so he could press a kiss to the back. “I don’t want you to have to go through an investigation. What if they think they have enough evidence to arrest you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. But the truth will come out. They’ll find out that neither one of our fingerprints are on that rock.”
Luke let out a humorless laugh. “Except mine are. I stupidly picked it up when I found Noah.”
She winced, and her eyes grew wide. “Oh no.”
“It’s still circumstantial. And there’s a video—Talbot told me—from a weather camera. Hopefully it will show that neither one of us did anything.”
She slumped, and he saw the relief flooding her gaze. “Then what happened to him?”
“I have no idea, and I honestly don’t care, so long as it doesn’t affect us.” He recalled her reaction at the library, her tears. “But I suppose it does,” he said softly. “You seemed pretty upset.”
Her lips curved up, not quite forming a smile. She let go of his hand and leaned forward as she touched his cheek. “I was. Noah was a big part of my life for a long time. I had to learn to grieve the loss of my hopes and dreams with him. And now that he’s truly out of my life forever, I can do that in a way that I couldn’t before. I think.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I need to call my therapist.”
“So you don’t miss him?”
She looked horrified. “God, no. I mourn the loss of the man I thought he was, the man I wanted him to be, the man I suppose I was hoping he could rehabilitate himself into. I do feel bad for his family. This whole ordeal has been awful, and for it to end this way is very sad.”
Luke could agree with that. “You have the kindest, most generous heart of anyone I know.”
She laughed again, but it was dark and hollow. “You might not think that when I tell you a part of me is glad he’s gone.”
