“Shut up or my neighbors will call the cops,” he hisses at me without a single solitary ounce of remorse.
“I am the police, asshole,” Denny reminds him and then gestures beyond Paul. “And you used that money to pay for this apartment, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, well, I needed somewhere to live since she refused to give back the house,” Paul replies.
“You’re a fucking bastard,” I say and turn and storm back toward the elevators.
“I’m done with you,” I hear Denny say. “Done. Forever. And if you so much as say her name, let alone contact her, I will call my police buddies here and make your life a living hell.”
I hold the elevator for Denny, who is storming away from his brother toward me. Paul steps out into the hall. “You can’t do a thing about it. I signed paperwork. They did too. It never said Ihadto give you any of the money.”
We both ignore him, and as the elevator doors close, I say the final thing I ever intend to say to Paul. “Rot in hell.”
Outside, we both try to take deep breaths of the cool ocean air to calm ourselves. It isn’t working for me, and I doubt it’s working for Denny. “I am so sorry.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t know. You don’t have to apologize.”
“You need to sue him for the money.”
“No. I don’t,” I reply as he unlocks his car and we get inside. “What’s done is done. He spent it. It’s over.”
“You deserve that money. All of it,” Denny says as we pull out of the parking lot.
“Money is the least of my problems right now,” I reply and close my eyes.
“What are you going to do?” he asks after we drive in silence for over ten minutes.
“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s a How-To YouTube tutorial for this situation,” I say, and the brevity of my words falls flat because of the seriousness of my tone. “I just want to curl up in a ball and hide from the world.”
He’s turning off the turnpike now. Up ahead, where the pine forest lines the street, is the sign for Ocean Pines. Denny glances over at me. “Do you want me to evict him for you? I can knock on his door today and give him sixty days. I doubt you’ll be able to give him thirty, legally, but sixty is fair.”
“I’m not going to evict him,” I reply quietly.
“What?”
“I don’t know if he even wants to stay now,” I explain and stare out the window as the town I’ve grown to love—despite the fact that right now I feel like everything about Maine has done nothing but beat me down—blurs by.
Denny turns to stare at me. He has on his mirrored aviators because the sun is glinting off the snow banks everywhere, so I can’t see his eyes, but it’s clear from his tone he’s stunned he has to spell this out for me. “You’re going to let him continue to live there? Under your roof? And…date him?”
“I’m overwhelmed, Denny. I don’t know.” I feel so guilty admitting that. But it’s the truth. I don’t know how to keep dating Logan, but I don’t know how to let him go either. “Like I said, I don’t want to do anything but curl up in a ball and hide from all of this. From everything.”
“Damnit I wish I had been closer when it happened,” he says and pounds the dash with his fist, which has me jumping. “If I’d been closer, I could have taken control of the situation instead of Paul. If I’d already graduated the police academy, I would have had contacts who could have informed me about all of this. I would have known about his involvement. I could have told you.”
“But it didn’t happen that way,” I reply and unlock my seatbelt because he’s pulled into my driveway. Logan’s car isn’t in the driveway. I saw him load up Chewie and a bag after our conversation while I was on the phone with Denny, and I’m guessing he’s going to stay somewhere else. “We need to let that go and find a way to move on.”
“Your way is to get him out of your life, Chloe,” Denny says, his voice resolute.
“For who? It won’t bring Jackson back,” I whisper hoarsely. “Denny, I know you’re upset but I can’t do this right now. Just like I told Logan, I need time to think.”
I get out of the car and close the passenger door. I can’t. I won’t make any promises to anyone right now. I just can’t. My life is ripped apart at the seams, and I truly have no idea what parts to sew back together. I don’t know if I have the willpower to do it at all.
I hear him swear in frustration at my non-answer, and he drives away before I have my key in the door. Inside, I lock the door, leave my boots and coat in a heap on the floor, and pick up the dogs from where they lay in their beds by the fireplace. I climb the stairs and crawl into bed.
I don’t sleep. I just cry.
28
Logan
