“He got her hooked; I think he did. Or someone there did. I think that’s when it started, but her dying… whoever it was, they got to her at his place, and Romano doesn’t know about it or even realize someone’s taking those girls from him.”
The pieces of the puzzle fall slowly into place, giving me the rough edges of a watered-down image someone doesn’t want me to see.
“It would be easy if it was Romano; he’s already a dead man.”
“As soon as this new cop is off our fucking backs, he’s dead,” I tell him, opening up the folder again to see Jennifer’s profile on top and Beth’s name listed as her only living relative staring back at me in black and white. “If Officer Cody Walsh doesn’t watch his step,” I say and lift my gaze from Beth’s name, where the tips of my fingers still linger to tell Seth, “he’s a dead man too.”
Bethany
The Coverless Book
Third Chapter
I’m pretending not to be tired. Like the weight and pull of sleep isn’t a constant battle tonight. Every day after seeing the doctor, it’s like this. Well, every day for the past five years except today. Today will be the exception, because of Jake. He makes me smile, and just smiling reminds me I still have so much left in me.
“I’m really happy you do this for me,” I tell Jake, pulling the blanket around my shoulders a little tighter. We’re having a picnic in the backyard overlooking the hill. The spring air brings a strong scent of lilac and I breathe it in. As much as I can, and for as long as I can.
This is what living feels like.
“The soups were perfect,” he comments and adds, “I didn’t know it’d get this cold at night.”
“The summer nights are warmer,” I tell him easily and then feel embarrassed. Of course they are, I think inwardly and my stomach stirs with nerves.
“We’ll have to do it again in summer then.”
The nerves turn to something else and they spread higher up to my chest at Jake’s words.
“I’d really like that.” I almost whisper the words and then have to clear my throat. As he picks two blades of glass, no doubt to whistle with them again like he showed me earlier, I take a chance.
“Maybe even before summer?” I ask him and lean close to nudge his shoulder with mine. Just a nudge, then I sit back upright, but he’s quick to nudge mine against his.
“Definitely before summer too.”
Time passes and the sun sets too quickly. I know time is almost up, and that’s so bittersweet.
“Are you really sick? Like… like, sick sick?” Jake’s question pulls the smile from my face in a single swoop. And the nerves settle back in my stomach. I pick two blades of grass, thinking maybe I could whistle too. But instead I let them fall, and the wind takes them.
“The doctor said I was sick years ago…” Instead of letting any bit show of what I felt that day Mama cried and cried in the car, I actually let out a small laugh. It’s only a huff of laughter. Even though I’d like to pretend I’m not affected by the pain of the memory, my eyes gloss over.
“Why are you laughing?” Jake sounds truly concerned, and I’m quick to put a reassuring hand over his. That small moves changes everything. The electric spark, the sudden heat. I’m quick to take my hand back.
“Sorry, it’s just a little joke I tell myself,” I explain, shaking off both the memories and the touch with a quick sip of water.
“What do you tell yourself?” he asks skeptically as I set the cup down. I can’t take my hand off of it as I nervously peek at him and answer, “That I’m invincible.”
His smirk is slow to form, but it grows quickly, turning into a grin. “I like that.”
His smile is contagious, and I find myself telling him, “I like that you like it.”
I’m still biting down on my bottom lip and hoping I’m not blushing too hard when he looks me in the eyes and responds, “I like you, Emmy. I think I more than like you.”
Three days came and went. I got lost in the pages of The Coverless Book, falling in love with both Emmy and Jake, rooting for them as he fell in love with her and she with him. I spent all of yesterday checking in with my patients at work before Aiden told me that wasn’t what my leave was for. I spent every waking hour trying to occupy my thoughts and time. All so I wouldn’t think about Jase Cross or my sister, and every moment in the months that I lost her.
Every moment I wish I could have changed.
Between the two, I thought about Jase the most. Because it felt better to think of him than her. Choosing pleasure over pain.