Page 65 of The Coworker
“Seriously? Because you took one look at a necklace that reminded you of that night, and you looked like you were going to have a panic attack. And Christ, what if he found out about Josh?”
I frown. Tim is worried about me working at a maximum-security prison, but it’s not as bad as he thinks. And maybe Shane isn’t as bad as he thinks either.
“What if…” I clear my throat. “What if I got it wrong? What if Shane wasn’t the one who tried to strangle me that night?”
Tim’s hand abruptly leaves my knee. “What?”
I hug my chest. “I’m just saying, it was so dark in the living room. I couldn’t see a thing. I never even saw his face.”
Tim slams down on the brakes, inches away from rear-ending the car in front of us. “You havegotto be kidding me, Brooke.”
“I just think—”
He swerves the car to pull over to the side of the road. I can make out a vein throbbing in his temple. “Maybe it was too dark for you to see him, butIsaw him. He came at me with a goddamn knife and buried it in my gut. All I could do was hit him with that bat, but the bastard didn’t go down. He looked right into my eyes, Brooke, and he told me you were next. Trust me—it was him.”
The police found Tim unconscious and bleeding on the floor of the farmhouse with a stab wound in his belly. In the last month, I’ve had the opportunity to see the scar left behind from that night. It’s a one-inch line of raised skin a few inches from his belly button. I always thought it would be bigger.
“It was just very dark that night,” I murmur. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Tim turns away from me. He looks down at the steering wheel, his eyes glassy. After a second, he puts the car back in drive. We travel the rest of the distance to my house in silence.
“I’m sorry,” he says as he pulls up in front of my house. “I shouldn’t have… look, I get why you might have mixed feelings about Shane, given…”
“Right,” I say before he can complete that thought.
“But you need to know that he is an evil human being. He’ssick. And if you ever see him at the prison, you need to turn around and run the other way.”
I lower my eyes. “I can take care of myself, Tim.”
He doesn’t have anything to say to that. I unbuckle my seatbelt, but he is still quiet. I don’t offer to let him come inside, and he doesn’t ask. I think this birthday has officially fallen out of the top ten.
When I get back into the house, it’s quiet except for the sound of water running in the kitchen. Margie is probably cleaning. She may be old, but she never sits still. Honestly, I wish I had her energy.
I walk into the kitchen in time to see Margie scrubbing at a pan and humming to herself. “Hi, Brooke!” she chirps. “Josh is asleep. Did you have a nice time?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Oh, I’m so glad!” She sighs. “To tell you the truth, I miss dating. I love my Harvey, but I sort of miss that excitement. And Tim issohandsome.”
“Yeah…”
“He has great eyebrows,” she adds.
“Does he?”
“Oh yes. You can tell a lot about a man from his eyebrows. Nice eyebrows mean he’s wise.”
“Interesting…”
“Also,” she adds, “he has a nice butt.”
Oh my God. Although she’s right—Tim does have a nice butt, but I’m sort of embarrassed that Margie noticed. “Uh, thanks?”
“And that’s such a beautiful necklace he got you! But you should put it in your jewelry box, where it will be safe.”
My stomach drops. I had abandoned the necklace on the kitchen table and then forgotten all about it. Well, I didn’t forget about it so much as I hoped it would vanish into thin air while I was out with Tim. Or at least, he would know enough to throw it in the garbage bin, where it deserved to be.
But he didn’t. He left it there for me.
