“Oh, come on Buck. That’s all you’ve got? Fifteen years of anticipating this conversation, and you can’t do better than ‘I didn’t do it’ ?”
His brows drew together as he scowled, but no additional words made it past his lips.
Bobbie angrily filled the silence as she came back at him.
“Of course you did it,” she spat. “All of it. You broke into the hardware store for weapons of destruction, then went out and scuttled my boat, putting it at the bottom of the ocean. The evidence that Chief Ildavorg collected was irrefutable.” She tipped her head, sarcastically. “And…duh. If you reallywereinnocent, you wouldn’t have slunk off. You would have raised holy hell.”
“I tried,” Buck whispered, looking anguished. “But the Chief…my family… They wouldn’t let me see you. They said you were devastated. But Iknowyou would have believed me if we’d had a face-to-face.”
Bobbie wasn’t letting Buck off that easily. She had so many questions, and his denial of guilt had done nothing to mitigate them. “Why did you let the police railroad you into the Coast Guard if you didn’t do it?”
It looked like Buck had a head-full of things to say. It took him a long minute to find his voice, but when he did, it was with a question of his own.
“After I left, why didn’t you immediately buy another boat and enter those competitions so you could go off to college?”
“Buy a…?”
Howdarehe ask her that. Bobbie’s ire ramped up.
“Seriously, Buck?” she snapped. “You think I had enough money to buy a new boat? If I had, don’t you think I would have used that to pay for my college tuition in the first place instead of pinning all my hopes on those race purses?”
Now his brows drew together. “But…”
It took a moment, but the bewilderment on his face eventually cleared, and he looked like he reached his own conclusion. “I think I understand. You used some of it to get the less expensive, non-racer you have now, and the rest helped you open up your catering business. But my mother said you waited three years to get your boat, and seven to start your shop. Why did it take you ten years to spend the money?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Bobbie’s voice rose. “What money could I possibly have had to make anything happen?”
“My college money,” he answered without hesitation.
“Your…?”
A shiver went up Bobbie’s spine.
Could it…? Could he…?
This was the first she was hearing about Buck paying any restitution. If what he said was true, everything she’d believed for the past decade and a half was a lie…
“Buck.” Her voice shook. “Before we go any further down this rabbit hole, You didn’t answer my question before. Why did you let Chief Ildavorg talk you into joining the Coast Guard?”
Buck was already shaking his head before she’d gotten half way through.
“Because once I paid you and Mr. Jerlins at the hardware store for all the damages, my savings were kaput. I didn’t have the money for college anymore. Therefore, per Chief Ildavorg, it was either stay in town, serve some jail time, then perform many hours of community service under the condemning eyes of everyone in town who’d now labeled me an asshole, or gointo the military. It was a no-brainer. Three of my older brothers were already enlisted, so I just picked a branch of the service they hadn’t. Hence, the Coast Guard.”
“You…paid me and Mr. Jerlins?” Bobbie repeated, her heart slowly breaking under the weight of what this all meant.
Buck didn’t seem to notice her distress.
He nodded. “Almost sixty-thousand dollars that I’d earned and saved from years of working at my father’s mill,” he told her. “And don’t get me wrong, I’d do it again, just to help you out. But I’m still puzzled. Why didn’t you use the money to either buy a new boat, or head off to school right away?”
“Buck…”
Realizations were beginning to populate Bobbie’s head, and none of them were pretty. Her lips were numb when she finally answered.
“Buck, I… I never saw any of that money.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his eyes growing wide. “I gave it to the Chief before I left. He said he’d make sure it was distributed properly. You don’t think he…?”
Buck looked like he didn’t know quite what to believe.
