She backed up.“God, Quin.”Her hand fell away from his and she covered her mouth.Tears made her mocha-hued eyes glassy.“Who would hurt Liam?And how?He fell out of the boom lift bucket...”
He watched as her features twisted with suffering, her mind likely ripping through the details of Liam’s case.Tears poured through her lashes, and she crushed her knuckles to her lips.
“The lanyard was cut.I have a picture.”He kept his voice even as he pulled out his phone and found the image he’d saved months ago.A severed part of the lanyard.The remainder had ripped in the fall.
She didn’t touch his device but stared at the image.Swallowing, she took three paces to the kitchen doorway then stopped and pivoted.“Why now, huh?Why are you back eight frigging months later to tell me this?”Her cheeks flamed.
He’d expected her anger but welcomed it—it was ten times better than seeing the devastation on her face all over again.Both times he’d been the fucking messenger.She could hate him all she wanted if it lessened her agony.From the moment he’d watched Liam fall, he’d known something wasn’t right.He, Liam, and Cody, the three owners of Whistlemore Lumber, were always cautious with the boom lift when cutting down high parts of the trees.The worst part was he’d helped Liam inspect the machine, bucket, harness, and lanyard before Liam had gone up.
I should have caught it.
Quin stood, fighting every urge to cross the room and hug her, or do something that would stop the broken sobs coming from her lips.He’d fucked up when he raced to her house to tell her about Liam’s death.The frantic words had gushed from his throat before he’d had time to candy coat them.And now, he’d shaken her once again.
“It took me that long to accept Liam’s death might not have been my fault.”He swiped his hand over his face.Christ he was tired, and he hadn’t even booked a room at one of the town’s inns.He’d be lucky if he could lie low until he could do some digging.“Look, I’ll get out of your hair.Just do me a favor?Don’t tell anyone I’m here.Not even McKenna and Dez.”
Her cheeks puffed out.“You can’t just come here and drop that bomb on me and then...leave.”The last word came out on a wail, sucker punching him in the solar plexus.
“Jos—”
She held up her hand.“You never trusted me before, so why now?”
Hell, there was the anger he’d invited, but he hadn’t been prepared for the assault on his conscience.He’d left when she needed support the most, and clearly she wouldn’t let him forget it.
He took a step closer, his resolve to not touch her becoming thinner and thinner.“I’ve always trusted you.After what happened at the bar, I didn’t want you involved.”He closed the distance between them.The top of her head barely reached his chin.She’d changed in the last eight months.Her shoulders tilted forward more, as if mourning had been too great a weight to carry.Dark circles ringed her eyes, and a few gray strands dotted her temples.She’d lost a few pounds too, her shapely thighs a little slimmer than the last time he’d seen her.But she was still insanely beautiful.He caught her elbows in his grip.
“The reason I’m here is because you’re the only one I trust.I need your help, Josie.You have every right to say no and kick me out, but I came back to avenge Liam’s death—for you, too.”He held her stiff arms in his palms, the ache to hold her close to his chest making his muscles quake.“If you believe like I do that something wasn’t right about Liam’s death, please—”
She held up her hand.“Fine.I won’t say anything.But you can’t stay in town.Someone will see you and call the sheriff.”One of her eyes narrowed.“And I won’t bail you out if you go to jail.”
He shrugged.“Wouldn’t ask.”
She rolled her lips in and lowered her gaze.“You can take the loft.”
He cocked his head.“Isn’t that your room?”He hadn’t looked around the cabin, but the last time he’d been inside, her and Liam’s bedroom was in the loft.The office and yoga room were on the main floor.
She shook her head.“I’m downstairs now.I couldn’t sleep up there after...”
He smoothed his hands up and down the material of her shirt.“Thanks.”
Her eyes softened and she lifted a shoulder.“You’d do it for me.”
Remorse gnawed at his insides.She’d needed his friendship and he’d left.If it weren’t for the bastard who’d framed him for the fire, he wouldn’t have bailed.But jail wasn’t an option either.“I wish I—”
She shook her head.“Don’t.You did enough in those four months after Liam died.”Sadness pulled her features down, and she shook off his hands.“I need to sleep.”
The fact that his presence had exhausted her cut through his conscience.She turned from his hold, but he caught her bicep.There was so much to say, but so many things he couldn’t put into words yet.
She lifted her eyebrows.
He forced his fingers to loosen their hold.“’Night.”
“Make yourself at home.”She bumped past him, this time more gently, her spine hunched with defeat.She moved across the kitchen into the living room and toward the bedroom that lay down a short hallway.
He peeled off his jacket and draped it over a kitchen chair then glanced around.Not much had changed.Dried herbs hung on a kitchen wall, and the plant stand that held fresh botanicals had accumulated more members.He reached out and pinched an aloe plant.Oh, Josie.Liam had been crazy about her.He’d always joked about her hippie tendencies, but he’d supported her work and beliefs dutifully.He hadn’t been ready to leave this world, and Josie still needed him.Everything about the house, even the energy inside it, was like a silent keening.
The place was hollow without Liam’s jovial laugh.
Josie was hollow without him.
