Chapter 10

Michelle

The sky above me slowly faded from twilight to night sky. Trees rose up on either side of the road as I made the trek back into town.

“I knew I should have stayed home.” I let my head fall down and laughed mirthlessly to myself. I couldn’t believe how right I had been. Why do I never listen to myself? I shirked off the outside world for a reason. It was a bitch. I knew I could trust the solidity of working. Of focusing on money. That was my template throughout law school and it’d been a flawless success. No heartbreak. No highs or lows. Just cold, impersonal assignments and appointments.

“I can’t believe I believed him.”

I’d been walking for about an hour, and a few cars stopped to see if I needed help. I waved them on. I didn’t need anyone’s help. Accepting a free heat coil was what had gotten me into this whole damn mess.

Now it was dark and no headlights dotted the horizon. I was alone. Just me, and the chirp of a million crickets, and the occasional spark of a lightning bug in the shadows. I talked to fill the desolate hum of the surrounding woods and walked over the soft, cool grass on the side of the highway.

“He begged me to come, and I told him that I didn’t want to get involved! I told him about Daniel, and then he brings me here, just so I can see some sloppy foreplay in the church with his ex? The one Chet warned me about? God!”

I had a feeling this night would have me on simmer for weeks.

Maybe it would be a good idea to hand off his case to another court attorney... but I could really use the money.

“I wish I’d known it would be this bad,” I grumbled. Here I had thought that I’d just be awkward and left out, but that turned out to be the best part of the whole damn evening. I’d spent my life awkward and left out. I could handle that. “But it’s my fault for coming,” I reminded myself bitterly. “I said no for damn good reasons—”

The light of a pair of headlights splashed down on the ground in front of me and I glanced over my shoulder at the approaching car, then looked back toward my destination. I could see the vague shape of uptown Pelham in the distance. These were the last two miles, I was certain. Most importantly, I’d be off the highway within thirty minutes, saving me the embarrassment of the entire wedding party passing by, asking me if I needed a ride, wondering what happened.

Please let this not be Andrew.

I heard the rumble and crunch of a slowing vehicle, but I continued my pace. I didn’t need a ride. I didn’t want to talk to anybody about anything. I just wanted to be left alone. That could be my tombstone.

She Just Wanted To Be Left Alone.

As the car continued its idle trek behind me, I twisted and glanced over my shoulder, then smothered the urge to roll my eyes.

Shit. It was a police cruiser.

As it coasted up to me, the passenger side window scrolled down and Chet’s face leaned so that we could make eye contact.

“Hey, there, pretty lady,” he called. His wheels crushed slowly along the road to keep pace with my feet. “How’d you get all the way out here?”

“I was at a wedding,” I explained lightly. Even though Chet had tried to warn me about Andrew’s enduring relationship with Lola, I still didn’t like him. I saw that dash-cam footage. He’d nailed Andrew twice with his elbow for no reason.

“Ah, shit, I meant to go to that.” Chet snapped his fingers with chagrin. “Why don’t you get in and I’ll take you on home? No sense in walking out here at night like this in that beautiful gown. You never know what someone might want to do with you.”

I glanced at Chet and thought about how true that was. He might have been obnoxious, and pushy, and an obvious narcissist but he had a car, and he wasn’t Andrew. So, he was perfect. He could get me off this road before the wedding party came through.

“That... sounds great,” I allowed.

Chet brought the car to a complete stop and pushed the door open for me. I let myself drop into the seat and Chet surprised me by leaning over me to close it, even though I was fully capable of closing my own door. His nose hung just above my cleavage for a few seconds and I tensed, but then he was gone, back into his personal space.

Okay, obnoxious, pushy, narcissistic, and slimy, but still better than Andrew.

Chet hadn’t humiliated me. Chet hadn’t fooled me. Chet hadn’t dashed my heart.

“So, carjacking?” Chet wondered as we cruised toward town. “Flat tire?”

“Asshole,” I explained brightly.

“Ahhh. Ace?”

“Yes,” I answered with a twinge of discomfort. Something deep in the pit of my stomach told me that I shouldn’t trust Chet, either. Talking about Andrew to Chet was a display of trust—but that twinge was buried beneath layers and layers of pain that I just had to get out. I had to talk to someone about it. “You were right about him.”

“I was?”

I pursed my lips and nodded, ignoring the surprise in his voice. It didn’t matter if he didn’t know he’d been right. It didn’t take back what I saw.

Lola crowded against him, her breasts pressed to his chest, his hands tangled in her top. Her hands down at their crotches, fondling either him or herself.

My angle hadn’t been perfect, but I’d seen enough.

“Yep,” I said, closing my eyes. I needed to rest. “He and Lola aren’t quite over yet.”

The cruiser reached the lights and storefronts of uptown Pelham, a quaint mixture of neighborhoods and businesses. I relaxed into my seat a little, knowing I’d be home soon, and I could bury my face in a tub of ice cream. I could turn on Netflix and let it cover the sound of unrestrained sobbing into Bubba’s worn, stuffed chest. Then a hot bath. Then bed. Bed for days.

“I’m real sorry about that, Michelle,” Chet said, twisting the wheel. The cruiser jostled gently through the Withers Community gate. “A woman like you deserves someone’s absolute and undivided attention.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling nothing. “But it’s okay. I’m just going to go back to the way I’ve been for a long time.”

“Oh? What way is that?” We passed Andrew’s rancher and it stung. I forced myself to look at Chet, instead of looking out the window. How had he gotten so deep under my skin, so fast?

“How long has it been since you’ve been with someone like this?”

“Um, I last had sex in 2014...”

“I mean, like this.” He passed his hand back and forth between us.

I swallowed. “Never.”

“Me neither.”

I blinked away the reverie, letting it disintegrate and fall. “Alone,” I answered Chet solemnly, firmly. “It’s worked for years.”

“Don’t say that, now,” Chet chastised me in a gentle drawl. “Everybody needs somebody.”

We turned onto Mayhew and relief ballooned in my chest. This abysmal night was almost complete.

“I guess,” I said. But not me.

“Just give it some time, darling.” I shuddered again when he called me darling. “Ace is an asshole. It was better that you found out now, when y’all just started talking to each other. But there’s plenty of men in Pelham, and I bet they all want to be with a girl like you.”

Almost all of them, anyway.

“Thanks,” I allowed. I was really just trying to get through this conversation. I was almost home. “Maybe.”

The cruiser swooped around the cul-de-sac, where our homes nestled against each other, and Chet pulled into his own driveway. “Do you wanna come inside?” he offered. “Talk about it? You know what they say. Time heals all wounds... but, in the meantime, better cauterize it with some liquor.”

I gave up a soft half-laugh. “Thanks, Chet.” My hand was already on the doorknob. “But I just want to be alone.” I pulled the passenger side door open and climbed out onto the asphalt.

“All right,” Chet called after me, shutting down his engine. “Have a good one, Michelle. I hope you feel better.” He put the car in park and climbed out. I was already in the grass, halfway to my front door, like it was the finish line on the worst night of my life. Had Ace Bogart somehow managed to beat out Daniel’s betrayal for the most painful heartbreak of my life? “And your fountain looks real nice, by the way,” he added.

I paused at my front door and had to smile. I sent him home from trying to help me with that, early in the project. For a moment, I considered asking Chet why he was so combative with Andrew. Why did he take cheap shots? Was there a reason? Was Chet redeemable at all?

“Thank you, Chet,” I said without turning to face him again, sliding my key into the door lock. I twisted it, expecting the mild resistance of the tumblers and then the click of the lock, but nothing happened. The door wasn’t locked. It turned with no resistance at all.

I scrambled to push open the door and enter the foyer.

I didn’t shut the door behind me. I dropped my heels onto the wood floor with an echoing clatter.

Someone had been in here. Again.

“Chet?” I called, voice trembling with fear. It was so dark in here... and what if the assailant was still inside?

Why is this happening to me?

“Yeah?” I heard Chet’s distant voice from his yard.

I darted into the living room when I saw my phone, flashing on the coffee table. I hadn’t taken it to the wedding because it wouldn’t fit into my tiny gold purse. I never got the home invasion alert.

I swiped the phone open and saw that the security alert had gone off. Shouldn’t the police have come? What was going on? Was this thief a hacker? Did the thief know my passcode?

And can you call them a thief when it doesn’t appear that they ever take anything?

“What’s going on?” Chet called from behind me. His shadow clouded the open doorway and I turned to look at him, pressing my lips together, on the verge of tears. I felt so vulnerable right now. So unsafe.

“They were here again,” I told him, bringing my hands up to hide my face as it crumpled into tears. “Those kids were here again.”

Chet’s boots thundered over the foyer and I was stunned when his arms came up around me, tight and hard. He hugged me to his chest and I let him. We embraced for several seconds, and then I lightly pushed him away.

“I’m going to check this out,” Chet said, drawing his weapon and nodding to me. “Don’t you worry, darling.”

I watched him go with a sense of doom, but he circled through the entire house and came back in a matter of minutes.

“Gone,” I said, disheartened. Why was this happening to me? What were they taking?