Page 81 of Until You

“Dusty.”

“What’s the story, brother?” Dusty asks.

“I have what you asked for. It took me a little longer than normal, but I think you might be surprised that I think you’re looking at the wrong guy.”

“No shit?”

“No shit.”

“The money trail leads to your suspect, but when you burrow down into the details, it seemed like it was too convenient. So I traced it backwards and found a few peculiar things.” I go on to explain to him what I’ve been chasing most nights.

Chasing, that is, until the girls are fast asleep and Tenny slides into my bed.

It’s then that I can forget the world outside.

It’s then that everything seems a little easier.

It’s then I can lose myself in a woman who feels like she is slowly becoming more than an infatuation and more like an addiction.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Tennyson

Something’s off with Crew.

Maybe if I hadn’t been living under his roof for the past two weeks, I wouldn’t have caught it. But it’s the subtle way he’s sitting back tonight. Observing rather than participating. The murmured answers instead of lively responses that always has at least one of us laughing. The comments about whether dinner is going to be another disaster as we may or may not have had a few more of those over the past week.

But tonight he’s reserved, pensive, preferring to be on the sidelines rather than in the middle of everything as per usual.

Does it have anything to do with his appointment today? The girls made a few comments in passing that allowed me to deduce it might have something to do with the department and getting cleared to go back to work.

And by his disengagement, I’m assuming he didn’t get the answers he wanted.

Worried about him and wanting to help but uncertain how, I slide glances his way as the girls chatter on about all the new friends they’ve made here in Redemption Falls. From Pheebs (aka Phoebe) who has three big dogs and two horses and swears they can come over whenever they want, to Gretchen who is the cool one with five thousand followers on her influencer account. Then there is Fernie, whose mom is the school principal, so she has the inside scoop on every kid in town, followed by Dani, short for Danielle, whose parents own the movie theater and who says they can get in to watch a movie anytime they want so long as they text her first.

“Wow. It seems like you guys have made a ton of friends here,” I say.

“So many,” Paige says, drawing the words out. “It’s like everyone wants to be our friend because we’re twins, and they’ve never met twins before.”

“I’m sure it has more to do with your sparkling personalities, good manners, and sense of humor,” I say, surprised Crew hasn’t jumped in to humble them as he normally would.

“That too.” Addy giggles.

“I’m glad you’re liking it here,” I say.

“Loving it. I mean, they have a dance team at their school here. Can you believe that? We don’t even have that in Chicago,” Addy says, eyes wide and grin crooked.

“That’s pretty awesome,” I say.

“Were you ever on a dance team?” she asks.

“Most dance teams don’t have ballerinas on them.” I chuckle. “I wanted to be, though. I may have begged and pleaded and tried to negotiate to get the chance, but my mom was adamant that school came first, ballet came second—sometimes even the other way around—and everything else came third.”

“Really? Dance came first?”

“Sometimes.”

“Wow.” Addy’s eyes grow wide as she studies me, trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth or not.