Grant set a plate of chocolate cake and ice cream in front of me. Was that challenge in his eyes?
Challenge or not, I couldn’t do it. I groaned and put my hand on my stomach. “No more. I can't take anymore. This is all way too good.” I held my laughter in. He didn't need to know that I ate when I was nervous, and he made me extremely nervous. Although, as long as we’d known each other, he probably already knew that.
He put on the face of a hurt puppy dog, which only enhanced the attractive angles of his face and the dark in his eyes.
“But I bought it from Costco. This thing is like a foot high. You have to eat some of it. Seriously, Olivia, you cannot leave me with this cake. Either that or you have to make Robyn eat it.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes and muttered something he could take as a curse word, but was really just me muttering gobbledy gook. “Fine. Robyn's not the only one that can take one for the team.” I laughed, and we stared into each other's eyes for a drawn out moment. Could I take one for the team?
In the end, he would be the one suffering. I didn't have what it took to be the type of person that he needed me to be. I couldn’t even ask Robyn for permission to see her brother. What was wrong with me? He was a great guy. Better than Da- but I didn’t want to think ill of the dead.
We were staying away from the topic that was in the forefront of our minds. What was that saying? The elephant in the room? Yeah, this was a whale and he was squirting whale juice all over the place.
A buzz from my phone on the side of the table broke our connection. Grant cleared his throat and took his plate to the other side of the table. We had way too many things going on between us. Soon as the murder case was solved, I needed to return to my original plan of staying away from him. Nothing good would come from us being around each other.
I grabbed my phone as if it were a safety net. Opening the text, I didn't recognize the number. For all I knew it could be anybody. Once I opened it, the message inside couldn't be more clear. “My brother is dead. I need to see you now. The cops said you did it.”
Slapping the phone down on the table, I jerked my hand away like the phone might start to self-destruct. Was I being stupid? Kyle couldn’t see me. I hadn’t done anything. Then why did I feel so guilty? I stared at the message on the screen until the backlight turned off.
Kyle.
What kind of a person was I? I hadn't even thought about what it would do to Kyle.
Kyle was David's younger brother. Younger but not by much. They were so close it was scary. The pain Kyle must be feeling... When David and I had first started dating, Kyle had warned me that David would be a problem. Then Kyle had gone and been more of a problem, constantly telling everyone how much he loved me and how much he was going to marry me. He’d even yelled at David multiple times at family gatherings how much David would miss out on if he lost me.
We’d only ever been friends. And while Kyle had been a friend, he'd been uncomfortable to be around as well.
Shame flooded me and I glanced at Grant. “David's brother just texted me. He wants me to meet him. The cops told him I did it.”
“Do you want to go see him?” Grant's bluntness got right to the heart of it. I wanted to tell Kyle I was sorry but I didn't want to take the blame for something I didn’t do. My apology would be taken as a confession to guilt and who knows what it would trigger in David’s brother. Kyle was an emotionally unstable man and I didn't want to take the chance that he might hurt me or him. Or someone else.
Did I want to? I’m not sure I wanted to, but I know I needed to. I should. David and I didn’t have a great relationship, but I was very close with his family.
I threw one last anxious glance at Grant before texting Kyle back. “What do you have in mind? We could meet tomorrow?”
His reply came back immediately. “I’m at Mike's. In the back.” Mike’s was a tavern in Athol that most of the locals went to. I’m not sure if it was because they liked the beer on tap or because options for watering holes were rare up in the forests of north Idaho. Either way, it was dark and dirty. Not my idea of a “public” place to meet someone.
Glancing up, I shot my gaze between Grant and Robyn. She had moved to stand beside him from the kitchen and she wiped her hands on a yellow dishtowel. “He's at Mike's. He wants to meet right now.” At least that's what I understood his text to mean. He hadn't said yes or no to the next day. The tone of his message told me to go to him right now. I swallowed. I didn't want to see him.
Was he the killer? Had he had enough of David’s antics? Was he really that jealous of David and me? Had David told Kyle we were getting back together? If I met Kyle at Mike’s, would I be the next one to end up dead?
Studying my stricken expression, Grant licked his chocolate frosting covered fork. “I'll take you to see him. You're not going by yourself.” He glanced at Robyn and smirked. “You're certainly not going with Robyn here. She’s about as scary as a canary.”
Robyn slapped his shoulder. “Hey. I resemble that remark.” Robyn was the worst when things came down to physical confrontation. If we were attacked, she’d probably just stand there and scream with her hands clenched at her sides. She acted scary, but she was all talk. I loved that about her.
I swallowed, more grateful for his protection them I could say. If I told him the depths of my gratitude, my words would put more restraints on our relationship, more expectations and they would all funnel down to the expectations of everything resting on the shoulders of me. Would I ask Robyn...? I wanted to, but I wouldn’t. Grant didn't need more failures from me to add to the ones we already had.
Tossing the towel toward the counter, Robyn thrust a hand on her hip and commented with a nonchalant tilt to her head. “I have a friend coming over anyway.”
Grant clenched his jaw and sighed through his nose.
I widened my eyes and pressed my lips together. Things were tense again and I didn’t want to be there when Ryan showed up.
Returning back to Robyn’s that night probably wasn’t high on Grant’s list of things he wanted to do. He packed up the leftovers Robyn had dished him and I followed him to his car. We wouldn’t be gone long. I hoped. He could drop me off at his sister’s afterwards and I could just find my way upstairs. I had a book to write anyway.
I settled into the bench seat beside him in his truck. Clicking my seatbelt, I angled my legs away from him to watch the clouds out the window. I chewed on my inner cheek, my eyebrows furrowed.
“What’s wrong, Andrews? You have that look.” His words came softly in the dark, startling me.
Twisting my lips to the side, I tried not letting my discouragement come through in my tone. I failed miserably. “I didn’t kill David. Can a cop say I did it? Without charging me or talking to me? I know the evidence points toward me, but is it okay to do that? Is it even legal?” I leaned my elbow on the windowsill and blinked back my frustrated tears. Sometimes, being a woman was hard. I didn’t love David, but I was still messed up about his murder.
“Hey, it’s okay to be upset. You have a lot going on.” Grant’s tone shifted and he gripped the steering wheel with a pale knuckled grip. “Paul does what he wants. I told you to stay away from him for a reason and it wasn’t because...” He shook his head as if that would put our past behind us. “I wasn't joking about Paul. There’s something off about him. Let's consider the fact that you're dodging him when you’re a suspect. I don't think there are a lot of rules in place right now.”
Of course, he was right. If I wasn’t going to play by the rules, why the heck should I expect Paul to?
Grant cleared his throat and shifted on the seat, the movement jostling over to my side. “Tell me about Kyle. He was listed in David's phone. He sent quite a few text messages and there were a few missed calls from him, as well. He even had a long connected call, but I’m not sure on time of death, so I can’t time the call.”
Pushing the button on my phone, I checked for messages or any calls out of habit. No one had reached out in the few minutes since I’d last checked, but talking about Kyle was more intimate than I wanted to own right then. But for the sake of the case, I dropped my phone to my lap and stared straight ahead while I spoke. “Kyle is David's younger brother. He's the heir now to the family fortune, the resort... everything.” I chuckled like the rest was a joke. “He’s professed to love me as long as I've known David. Like psychotically obsessed love, but he's never treated me bad or been aggressive towards me.”
The silence stretched between us. The tops of the trees caught the moonlight but only when the clouds allowed the man in the moon to peek out. The heater hummer softly by my feet and I tried not to imagine what it would be like to snuggle up to Grant like I belonged there.
He turned onto Highway 54 and headed toward Athol. After another mile, he spoke. “Why did you date David? He's not even your type.”
“You aren’t an expert on what my type is. And he,” I shrugged, because the truth was more pathetic than I could make up – even as an author. “He had me pretty convinced that no one else would want me. I wasn't enough to where someone would want to commit to other than him. I was a pity relationship for him. Well, I’ll tell you there, for a while, it tended to ring true. Some things are hard to shake.” I wouldn’t look at Grant. He didn't need to see my shame since he was hearing it loud and clear.
Now he would know one of the reasons I couldn’t be with him. I didn’t want to go through the struggle with Robyn only to have Grant realize I wasn’t what he was expecting and he didn’t want to be with me.
We almost got to Athol before Grant spoke again, his voice had grown hoarse and his words were thick. “Since he's with the Wilson family, does he inherit everything? I heard the Wilson patriarch was pretty sick.”
I nodded, even though he wasn’t looking at me. “Yeah, he’s the heir of the resorts and the press. David used to tease him and laugh about the hundred thousand dollar life insurance Kyle would get if David ever died. It was a joke because David was insured, but Kyle wasn't.” The family dynamics had left me more confused than anything, but they’d welcomed me and that was sometimes more than enough.
Grant finally shot a look at me, filled with surprise and a little pleasure. “Really? I think he might be our guy. Sounds like an awful lot of incentive to kill someone, especially since he professed to love you. That's a pretty big deal there as well.”
I hadn’t considered the situation that way. If I was quick to consider Paul, I could’ve jumped to the assumption that Kyle was an idea as well. David’s brother was a known entity to me and I really didn’t want the killer to turn out to be someone I knew and liked. “Are we going to get our guy? Should we call Paul?” As much as I didn’t want to, calling Paul and making sure he got the evidence would solidify taking Robyn and me off the suspect list.
We pulled into the parking lot before Grant could answer. A seedy dive, Mike’s promised little more than a drink in a dirty glass. I’d only been there once before, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know what the promise was.
Grant parked the truck and stared at the dark windows and even darker siding. “Not yet. Just because all the signs point toward Kyle, that doesn't mean it's him. We should’ve learned not to jump to conclusions from you.” But there was a lightness to the way he spoke. Both his sister and I would be cleared if Kyle had done it. The relief from that would take an extra layer of tension from my shoulders. Something I would welcome whole-heartedly.
I pulled open my bag to get my ID and wallet. I had crammed the bubble wrapped glass box into my purse earlier. I forgot to take it out at Robyn’s. I placed the gift carefully on the dash while I rifled through my bag.
Grant claimed the box in his strong fingers and looked it over. “What are you doing with this?”
I dug deeper into my bag, where had my wallet gone? I was distracted when I answered him. “Oh, I got it in the mail today. Isn't it beautiful? I think it's ivory. Robyn said I was supposed to ask you what you thought. The gift is so sweet. It must be from one of my readers. They just forgot to put a return address on it.” As well as signed it at all, to let me know who it was from, but I kept the creepiness of the note and the anonymity to myself.
He turned the box around in his hands, multiple times, studying the piece inside. After another moment, he handed it slowly back to me when I held out my hand. Grant tapped the top of the glass. “Just so you know, that's a metatarsal, not ivory.”
Lifting the box to see it more clearly in the light spilling from the tavern, I squinted at the beautiful quill inside. “A metatarsal? What are you talking about? Is that some kind of shell or something?” I closed my fingers around my wallet and breathed easier that I’d found it.
“It's a human finger. You can tell by the shapes of the ends of it, you have more going on than just writing. Seems like you're a hot mess.” Boredom soaked his words.
I clenched my jaw, gritting my teeth. Why? Why couldn’t I have a normal day or normal night with him? Why did everything have to be lined with veiled comments and meanings? I’d been sent a human finger pen and he calmly talked about it like I’d confused titanium for silver. I tucked the box back into my purse along with the other items I’d removed for my search. Frustrated with him, I threw my hands in the air. “You don’t need to worry about this mess. I've got it under control.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “I can't stop worrying about you, Olivia. It's all I do, worry about you. Let's go deal with the rest of this, so we can figure out just how deep in cow piles you are.”
Grant would drag me under and it wouldn't be because I had killed someone. It would be because we were both falling hard.