Page 48 of Screwed

“No, because he was there with you. Remember? He had stayed late,” Madelyn points out.

My stomach clenches and I wonder if she could be right. Maybe Arlo really had no idea what his brother had done.

“He never wants to talk about his brother though. I asked him once and he just said that he had fallen on hard times and was staying with him for a bit.”

My mind flashes back to when Arlo and I were making out in the bar. He had seemed nervous when his brother walked in. He didn’t stop me from walking to my car by myself. It’s almost like he wanted me away from his brother as fast as possible.

My stomach starts to clench and I lean against the wall as more and more revelations start to hit me.

“He was nervous every time I mentioned the police or the case,” I murmur as I think back to when Officer Miles had first come into the shop.

“Arlo had asked if they had any leads and he relaxed when the officer said no. I had thought that it was disappointment like I felt but now I have my doubts.”

“Maybe he really was disappointed,” Lyla argues but I shake my head.

“No, he looked relieved. He knew that his brother was the one who broke in. He must have.”

Everyone is silent and I know that they want to argue with me. They’re trying to think of something that I missed, some way to prove that Arlo couldn’t have known, but there is no proof of that.

“He knew how much those items meant to me and he never tried to stop his brother or get them back,” I say and it’s then that I realize that tears are streaming down my cheeks.

“You need to talk to him,” Madelyn says and I know that she’s right but I’m not sure that I’m strong enough to hear the truth just yet.

I still feel too fragile after learning that I’m pregnant and trying to find a good way to tell Arlo. Throw in the news that it was his brother who robbed me and it feels like my world is spinning. I just want to get back on solid ground before I question Arlo.

Is that too much to ask?

A rapid knock sounds at the door and I wonder who that could be.

I just figure that it’s one of the guys. Maybe they tried to call and we didn’t hear the phone.

I push away from the wall and head over and pull it open and my stomach drops when I see Arlo standing there.

He’s a mess. His eyes are filled with worry and fear and before I can say anything, he beats me to it.

“I can explain.”

I swallow down a sob and look over my shoulder at my friends. They’re staring at me with wide eyes. They look just as shocked as I feel to see him here, apparently confessing to knowing what his brother did all along.

Sutton clears her throat and points over to my bedroom

“We’ll just be in there. Give you two some privacy,” she says.

She has to physically drag Lyla and Madelyn behind her and I want to smile at how nosy they are but I don’t have it in me right now.

I open the door wider, letting Arlo in even though a piece of me wants to keep him outside of my cabin while we talk.

“So, explain.”

“I heard that my brother was arrested for breaking into Blast From The Past and stealing those antiques.”

“You expect me to believe that you had no clue that he was the one who did it this whole time?”

“I didn’t want to,” he admits, looking down at the ground. He looks exhausted and stressed out and I have a fleeting thought, wondering if this is how he was when he was working on Wall Street.

It hurts to see him in so much pain and I want to comfort him but then I remember what he did and I hold myself back.

“He’s my brother and I didn’t want to believe that he would do something like that.”

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