“Sorry if it’s going to make you sad.”
“Gale,” he said. “I’m long past sad. Even angry. I’m at the numb phase. It’s not a good feeling, but it’s getting me through.”
“Life should be more than just getting through.”
“I agree. I’m trying. If I wasn’t, then I think you and I wouldn’t have gotten as close as we’ve have. I want you to know that. I don’t know if I can give you what you need.”
“I don’t know what I need any more than you. I just know we’ve got to find out who is doing this. If not for you, then for Rene. For all of us. But more for your sister.”
“It’s always been all for her.”
“And now it has to be for you,” she said. She turned to see him sitting on the couch watching her. He stood up and moved closer. She held her ground and he put his hands on her waist.
“I want it to be about us, but it scares me.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “What is scaring you?”
“Everything. What is happening around me. Trying to figure it out. Not wanting you to get hurt. I don’t even mean physically, just hurting your heart. I don’t want to do that, but I’m not sure I can prevent it.”
She took his hand and put it on her chest over her heart. “It’s tough, Rory. Maybe I fear hurting yours too.”
“It’s stone now,” he said.
“No, it’s not. Or if it is, it’s just a tiny layer waiting to be opened. As I said, I’m tough and I know how to use tools. You just need to ask yourself if you want more, notifyou can have it.”
He nodded, gave her a light kiss on the lips, then walked away.
Well, that didn’t give her any clues what he wanted or even thought.
She turned her back to finish the dishes before she cried.
She never cried. Never over a man.
But this man, he was making her do things she never thought she would.
31
SO CLOSE
“Don’t get yourself killed, Rory. I don’t need Mom on my case.”
“It’s not all about you, you know,” he told his sister. How the hell did she know what happened to him?
Stupid question when she seemed to know everything else.
Or, as the rational part of his brain always thought, this was nothing more than him talking to himself, and rather than think he was any crazier than he was, Rene’s face was there doing the talking.
“You’re making it about me,” Rene said. “You’ve got a woman there on your team trying to help. She’s giving you hints and clues and you didn’t even answer her. Even at fifteen I could have figured out she wanted you to give her something more than you did.”
“Mind your own business,” he said.
“Sorry, can’t do it. It’s not like I’ve got anything else pressing on my hands while I sit here and wait.”
“Are you stuck here?” he asked. “Trapped between, I don’t know, worlds?”
It was something he’d told himself never to ask. That he didn’t want to think she had no peace even in death.
“I’m not trapped,” Rene said. “Not like you think. But I can’t leave. You and Mom aren’t ready for it yet.”
