Page 54 of Out to Get Her
The funeral had been scheduled for Tuesday, but with the storm picking up speed and leaning their way now, they’d pushed it up to tomorrow morning.
More silence. That definitely wasn’t good.
“Erin?”
“I heard you.”
“So you’ll stay away, right? I just need to handle this myself, and I don’t need to run interference with you jumping the gun on whatever you think you’ve figured out.”
“I said, I heard you.”
Samantha noted that Erin’s response was not an answer to her very direct question.
She also knew she had no right to demand anything of Erin, and she’d probably already pissed her off with that last statement.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to order you around or anything, I just—”
“You think I’m going to mess everything up.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to. You think it. Everyone always thinks it. I’m the town screw-up, right? Always have been. Always will be.”
“Erin, I’m sorry. I don’t—”
“It’s okay. I’ll put these back and wait for the other officer. Thank you for your help, Sergeant Ardoin.”
“Erin—”
The line went silent. Samantha pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the screen.
Call ended.
She wasn’t sure if she was more upset because she’d clearly hurt Erin or because she was fairly certain Erin was going to do the exact thing she’d asked her not to do.
Melanie peeked her head through the French doors. “All done with your call?”
Samantha realized she was still staring at her phone and let her arm drop. “Yeah, all done. Work thing.”
“Uh-huh.” Melanie stood beside her on the patio. They both stared off at the sun halfway below the horizon, leaving a warm pinkish glow over the western sky. “Your cheeks are redder than a white wine flush, and you never get this worked up over work. Ms. Calm, Cool, and Collected. Want to talk about it?”
More than anything, she wanted to tell Melanie everything. About Erin. About the kiss. About all the things she’d hidden from her sister over the years.
But she couldn’t. Not because Melanie wouldn’t keep her secrets, but because she didn’t want to put Melanie in that position. She knew how hard it was to keep anything quiet in this town. Plus, there were already enough wedges in her family. She didn’t want to be the cause of yet another battle line drawn between them all.
And she certainly didn’t want to find out which side people would choose.
“Not really,” Samantha said. “It’ll all blow over by tomorrow. Always does.”
“Going to the funeral?”
“Yeah. You?”
“I guess. Elliot is going, so I’ll probably go with him and leave the kids with Mom. I’m sure she’ll be glad for the excuse to stay home.”
“But she’ll miss the opportunity to wear her new funeral outfit.”
Melanie folded her arms and leaned against the side of the house. “I mean, we could give her a reason to wear it. Bury her in it?”
