Rowe snorted. “You don’t exactly smell like roses either, brother.”
I thought they both smelled amazing. I’d spent an hour today, watching Heath work out in the yard. He’d come inside dripping with sweat, and it had been all I could do not to throw myself at him and dry hump his leg. I hadn’t missed Rowe looking at him in a very similar manner.
I disentangled myself from Heath’s embrace, kissing him on the cheek before picking up Rowe’s keys. “I need to go get us some food.”
“There’s food here,” Rowe complained. “Stay.”
“There’s other things I need to do, too.”
A silence fell over us, and Heath rubbed at the back of his neck. “You going to try Liam again?”
I nodded. He hadn’t come out to the cabin at all. He’d sent a text saying he had to work and that the police were on his ass, so he was keeping a low profile, but I wasn’t buying it. “I need to check in on him.”
“He shouldn’t be alone right now.” Heath gave my backside a pat, pushing me gently toward the door. “Go. Bring a rug with you. Maybe we’ll show Rowe how to use it.” He winked at me, and I shook my head as Rowe threw a shoe across the room at Heath. I left them to their squabbling and got in Rowe’s car.
I drove back into town, stopping at my place to shower and change. I checked the mail, watered my plant, and then, curiosity getting the better of me, I knocked on my elderly neighbor’s door and asked if the police had been by to see me.
She frowned at me, her light eyebrows drawing together. “Don’t tell me you’ve got yourself in more trouble? Haven’t we had enough of the police around here after what happened to your sister?”
She wasn’t wrong, but her tone irked me anyway. I hadn’t asked for any of this. I didn’t want the police sniffing around any more than she did, but I thanked her politely, because it wasn’t in my nature to snap back at someone.
My place felt empty and cold without Liam sprawled out on my couch. After an hour of hanging out there, I was itching to leave. I went to the store, buying a stupidly large amount of food, enough to feed three grown men for a couple of weeks, and loaded it into the back of Rowe’s car.
Once I got back in the driver’s seat, I tried calling Liam. It went to voicemail, again. So then I tried Tori and got the same.
I swallowed thickly. Tori hadn’t spoken a word to me since Heath’s trial. I wasn’t even sure I blamed her. The hurt and betrayal on her face when Liam had called her husband up to the stand, then accused him not only of having an affair but being a murderer, had gutted me. The moment the judge had dismissed Liam’s accusations, Will had collected his wife from her seat beside me, and the two of them had walked out. Will had shot me a look of anger, Tori hadn’t turned back at all.
I understood why they were mad. But I hadn’t known what Liam was going to do any more than they had. And Tori was my best friend. I wasn’t throwing a decade of friendship away without fighting for it. I’d get down on my hands and knees and grovel at her feet if I had to.
Tori’s place was on the way to Liam’s. Groveling started now.
With all the freezer items packed into cooler bags, I drove to Tori and Will’s cute house in the suburbs of Providence. They were on the opposite side from my father and Liam, where sprawling mansions, hired help, and day drinking were the norm. Will and Tori’s place was smaller but lovely. It was a cookie-cutter house, near identical to the others on their street. Their grass was always perfectly cut, not a weed in sight in their garden beds. The front door was a shiny sleek black that shone in the late afternoon light. I stopped Rowe’s car in their driveway and tentatively picked my way across the little stone path that led to the front porch.
I shouldn’t have been as nervous as I was. I normally flounced up their porch steps and walked in like I owned the place. I hadn’t knocked in years. Why bother when I had a key? It was supposed to be for emergencies, but Will always just shook his head with a laugh every time he found me sitting on their couch or pouring a wine from their refrigerator. He’d tease me about the fact he might have been walking around naked, but we both knew that he never would have.
I tucked my key away in my purse now, though. After the way we’d left things, I couldn’t just let myself in the way I normally would have. Things had changed. Whether that change was permanent remained to be seen.
I hoped with all my heart it wasn’t. I already missed my best friend, and it had only been three days since I’d seen her.
With a trembling hand, I used the brass door knocker for the first time ever, then stood back and waited.
There were no footsteps from within, so I knocked again.
Still nothing. Maybe they weren’t home. Their cars weren’t in the driveway, but that wasn’t unusual, since they normally parked in the garage.
The cry of a baby came from somewhere at the back of the house, and sadness spread through me. They were home. They just didn’t want to talk to me.
I wasn’t giving up that easily. I banged again, this time with my fist. “Tori! Please! I know you’re in there. Can we just talk?”
I bit my lip at the silence from within.
“Please, Tori! I didn’t know Liam was going to accuse Will like that. The judge was—”
The door flew open, and Will’s angry face towered over me.
I took a step back.
“Are you seriously standing on my front porch, yelling so the whole street hears that your boyfriend accused me of—” He dropped his voice to a hiss. “Murder.”
I shook my head as fast as I could. “No, I swear, I just came to say that I was sorry. I need to talk to Tori.”