4 Days to Trial
Kelsi sat ina wooden Adirondack chair on Dylan’s dock, cola can sweating in her hand in the afternoon heat. She thought about what it could mean that he had stocked her favorite soda, one that he didn’t like. Not to mention that the house he was renovating had been her dream home. He’d been so different these past few weeks from what she’d expected when she saw him again.
He was so much like the old Dylan, but more mature. A little more serious than he had been. She knew it was because he’d seen stuff, hard stuff, in the time they’d been apart. And she was different too. No longer as trusting, more jaded. Somehow, though, they still worked together.
Instead of growing apart, they seemed to have grown together, separately. They’d each had separate journeys to tread, but they were in the same place, the same moment, now. And maybe that’s how it had always been supposed to be.
On the tour of the house, she couldn’t ignore how masculine he’d grown, and she could feel her hormones going crazy. More than that, she was terrified that he had fully slipped through a crack in the armor she had wrapped tightly around her heart.Maybe there was something to what Abby had been saying the other day.
“Red,” he called to her, cutting through the fog of her distracted thoughts.
Desperate for a distraction from how her mind and heart were reeling, she joked, “After all these years, I would think you’d have come up with a more creative nickname than ‘Red’ based on my hair color.”
Dylan let out a deep, rolling chuckle, and shook his head with a grin when she peered over at him. “That’s not it at all. Well, that’s part of it,” he confessed when she looked at him skeptically. “I call you Red because of your hair, yes”—he tugged lightly on a loose strand for emphasis—“but that’s not the only reason. You know that saying the sailors always use? ‘Red sky at morn’, sailor bewarn’. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight’? I loved that saying when we were kids, and it always reminded me of you.”
A startled giggle slipped past her lips. “I remind you of an old sailor’s rhyme about predicting storms?”
“Yeah. I was obsessed with it as a kid—came with the territory of the pirate phase—and I could always predict how my day would go based on if I saw you or not. It fit you. Fit us.” He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck as he continued. “Plus, your favorite things were red. Anything cherry flavored is red—you used that ridiculous cherry lip balm compulsively. That dress you wore for a week straight when we were eight was red, and your stuffed Clifford that you carried with you everywhere until I’m pretty sure he’d lost an eyeball and at least one leg, of course, was—”
“Red.” Kelsi whispered the word, barely audible over the roaring in her ears. She was struck dumb by his statement. Kelsididn’t even remember the dress he was talking about. She hadn’t known he paid that much attention to her, even when they were children. This entire time she’d thought the nickname was a simple play on her hair color, but now, knowing it had always been so much more, she was off-balance.
As much as she had intended for her joke to help her to reform her defenses against him, he’d barreled through them like they were tissue paper.
Clearing her throat, she took a comforting sip of the Coke, letting the flavor roll around her mouth before she spoke about what she had come for. For now, all she could manage to do was ignore the unexpected revelations from Dylan. She could obsess over them later, but now she had to focus on their case—and on not breaking down.
“I prepared the supplemental witness and exhibit list with the photos of the boat and the repairman, and we can send that in on Monday if you review and approve it.”
If he was disappointed by her change of subject, he didn’t show it. “I don’t have to approve it, Red. I trust you, and it only needs one of our signatures anyway.”
As simple as the supplement was to prepare, she still sat up a little straighter at his confidence in her. “Okay, we should be pretty much all good to go for the day of. Oh, and guess what else? Scarlett contacted me last night.”
He leaned forward immediately, eyes intent on her. “And? Did she decide to testify?”
“She did.” Kelsi allowed herself a small smile. The relief she’d experienced when Scarlett had finally agreed to testify had been intense. Without her testimony, they would have had enough to meet probable cause to bring the case to the jury, but itwould have been hard to get a conviction. Now, with Scarlett’s eyewitness account? They stood a much better chance.
“Thank God.” Dylan’s breath whooshed out, and he relaxed in the chair again. “She really had me worried there. With how badly he scares her, I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do it.”
“She really loved Tripp,” Kelsi said, thinking about how Scarlett had told her about her yearslong crush on her friend before either of them had the courage to act on it. It had been over before they could really begin, thanks to McGuinness. Kelsi looked at Dylan, understanding Scarlett all too well. “She’s doing it for him.”
He lifted his eyes to hers, the blue of his irises vibrant in the sunlight reflected off the water. “I’m sure he would have done the same for her.”
Kelsi could only nod as something passed between them. She cleared her throat, getting back on topic. “I went into the office this morning and sent the witness subpoena to Scarlett already, and Dr. Hawthorne and Mr. Graves confirmed that they’re going to be there. The photographs are ready to go, and the map of the currents that Dr. Hawthorne prepared has been blown up to poster size for the jury. All the other evidence a deputy will drive down before the trial and will be stored in the courthouse to protect the chain of custody.” She paused, looking at Dylan, who was studying her thoughtfully. “Am I missing anything?”
“No, I think you’ve got it covered. Are you sure you’re okay doing the opening statement?”
She answered immediately. “Of course. As long as you’re sure you’re okay doing the closing.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
“All right, we’ve done what we can. I just hope we’ll be able to convince the jury.”
“We will. We’ve got him, Kelsi. And Marge’s previous testimony that will be read to the jury? That’s the ace.”
“You’re right.” She nodded firmly, determined. They would send this asshole to prison.
She bit her thumbnail as she looked out over the water in front of them. If their case was that much stronger against McGuinness, would her anonymous stalker up the stakes and make good on their threats?
For a moment, Kelsi wanted to confess all of it to Dylan, have him shoulder the burden with her and talk through how to keep everyone safe while still winning the guilty verdict, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t risk his safety by telling him.
