I stood there for a minute and watched the street, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. Now I understood why people do stupid things while they’re dating. It was almost intoxicating, the feeling that someone likes you.
But would he really like me if he knew who I was and some of the things I had done in the past? I doubted it. No sane person would.
Chapter 29
Shelly
I danced in place as I held the phone to my ear, listening to it ring over and over. Finally, a man answered, breathing heavily. “Hello,” he said gruffly.
“Mal?” I asked. Mal was Mason’s best friend. And his wife Aubrey was Lynn’s best friend. And I kind of needed Lynn’s best friend since I didn’t have any friends and Lynn was out of town, trying to stay safe.
“Lynn?” he asked. He must have confused our voices.
“No,” I said. “It’s Shelly.”
Click. He promptly hung up on me. Fuck. That bastard. I dialed the phone again, trying to say calm. Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring…
“Hello,” he said again.
“Mal,” I said quickly, “don’t hang up, you motherfucker!”
I could hear him sucking his teeth on the other end of the line. It was a grating, irritating sound, and he did it in person too, but it had never seemed quite so annoying in person. “What do you want, Shelly?”
“Is Aubrey there?”
His tone was crisp and curt. “Why do you want to know?”
“I…” I stopped and took a breath, wincing inwardly as I tried to figure out how to say it. “I need some advice, and Lynn is out of town, and I don’t have anybody else to ask.”
“Aubrey’s not here, and she wouldn’t help you anyway.”
“She’s still not over it, huh?” I asked. Many years ago, Aubrey had made some disparaging remarks about Mason and Lynn in public, and I really wanted her to go away, so I took her away. I pretended to be Lynn so she would get in the car with me, and then I took her deep into the forest and shoved her out of the ca
r. She lived, but she had been pissed at me ever since, even though I had apologized to her face when I was in therapy. She’d accepted. But she still hated my guts apparently.
“Over it? You tried to kill her!”
I scoffed, making a noise low in my throat. “You and I both know that if I’d wanted to kill her, I would have.” He said nothing. Dead silence on his part, but I could hear him breathing. “She survived, damn it!”
“No thanks to you,” he corrected.
“Well, if she were to catch fire in front of me now, I would put her out.” That sounded perfectly logical until it came out of my mouth.
“You’d piss on her and put her out, huh?”
“Oh, I totally would,” I said, and then I realized that that didn’t sound any better than dumping her in the forest did. “I’d help her, I should say.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked.
“Because…” I couldn’t answer.
“Because why, Shelly?” His words were clipped but strong.
“Because she’s important to Lynn. And Mason. And their baby. And she’s important to you. And she’s a mom and she has kids she has to protect. And they might need her. So if she were to suddenly burst into flames in front of me, I’d totally piss on her if I couldn’t find a water hose. Or a bottle of water. Or something else.”
“You’re such a giver, Shelly,” he groused.
“I do try, Mal.” I took a breath. “So, can I talk to her?”