She toyed with her bottom lip before she muttered. “Yeah. It’s home.” She didn’t sound so pleased by that, but I got out of the truck anyway and walked around to her side. I removed the wheelchair and set it down beside her door.
She took my hand when I opened the door to help her out. She rolled herself inside of the building with me following her. After we took the elevator to the third floor, she removed the keys from her purse and stared at the door for several seconds.
“You need some more time?”
“No. I can do this.”
She slowly inserted the key into the lock, and I wondered what all had taken place behind these walls. What had her so afraid to step on the other side of that door?
The first thing that I noticed was the stuffiness of having been closed up for so long. I knew that Waverleigh had been by here on a couple of occasions, but that didn’t give the house that lived in feeling. A home needed love, laughter, and emotion to fill it up. There were no odors from cooking or cleaning. The air was just stale.
The second thing that I noticed was that the condo was decorated in muted shades of grays, yellows, and blues. It was tastefully done, and it was clear that they had poured a lot of money into their home from the artwork and sculptures thatdecorated the interior. But it was missing Sevyn’s warm, bold personality.
Sevyn set her purse down on the sectional and tossed her keys beside them. I watched as she rolled from one room to the next. She looked in the refrigerator, but she couldn’t reach the cabinets. She rolled to the bedroom, looked around, and went into the closet. She removed her husband’s shirt from a hanger, rolled to the bed, and pushed herself out of her wheelchair so that she could sit on the bed.
“I don’t have many of his belongings. We were separated at the time of the accident, and he was not living here.” She buried her face in his shirt.
I nodded and stepped back, because I did not want to intrude on a private moment. “Please,” she pleaded as she looked up at me and held her hand out. I walked to her and let her take my hand. She tugged until I sat down beside her.
Sevyn buried her face in his shirt, and she squeezed my hand as she inhaled. My heart broke a little as she cried. She leaned into me, and I wrapped my arm around her. I had no idea how I got in this position. In the past, I had always been a good guy to my female friends, but not once had I comforted a woman while she cried over another man.
Somehow, this felt like the least that I could do, considering he wasn’t here any longer because of me. I needed to tell her that it was my fault her husband was dead. I waited until she got herself together and looked at me with a smile.
“Deuce, I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s good. You needed that, and that’s what friends are for, to support you when times are hard.”
“You’ve been better to me than I deserve.”
“No, I haven’t. There’s something that I need to tell you, Sevyn. The night?—”
“Who could that be?” she asked when the doorbell rang.
“I don’t know. Maybe one of your neighbors came to welcome you home,” I suggested, getting up and helping her into her wheelchair again.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Were you friends with them?” I asked as she rolled back to the living room.
“Not that I can recall. Maybe? But I don’t think so. I feel like I would know.”
“Let me answer the door, just to keep you safe.” I always carried a piece with me, even when I was off duty. I was always prepared for whatever happened; it was a job hazard.
She allowed me to go to the door first, but she was right behind me. I frowned when I saw who it was, but I figured we might as well get it over with. I opened the door and stared into a pair of identical eyes.
“What are you doing here in my son’s home?” Mrs. Shields asked in shock.
“I was escorting Sevyn so that she can get settled in.”
“There’s nothing for her to settle into. We’ll be taking possession of this property again.”
“Excuse me?” I growled.
“This condo is in my husband’s name. It was a gift to him, but it was never transferred to his name. I’m sure that she will be able to find somewhere else to settle.”
“You can’t do that to her.”
“You’re an officer of the law. You know that we can,” her son declared, standing beside her and holding a sheaf of papers up.
