He grins. “Yeah, I get that.”
My mind goes back to the background reports. “Is there anything in the background checks I should know about? Can any of it come back to hurt Lucy?”
He doesn’t respond right away. “I don’t think she’s in danger, but I’ll send you the report to review.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“And how are things going with Lucy?”
I run my hand through my hair. “At the moment, not good.”
I tell him everything, including how I left and how I reacted when she asked her father to help her with Ted.
“She’s not interested in talking to me. I’ve tried everything I can think of. I’m hoping after she grieves, she’ll talk to me.”
“You triedeverything?” Hawthorne asks, raising a brow.
“Yes.”
“You called and texted her, and that is ‘everything’? I guess she doesn’t mean as much as I thought she did.”
“Asshole, I’m not creative.”
Hawthorne leans forward. “This isn’t about being creative. This is about how bad you want her. How bad do you want a life with her? Because from her perspective, so far, she’s only worth a text.”
He’s right. She needs more. She needs to know I’m here for good and I’ll never leave her again. But if all she sees is some lame-ass effort, why would she give me a chance?
I purse my lips in thought. “I need to do something big.”
“Yes,” he agrees.
I stare down at my desk. The biggest thing I’d ever done was look at rings when I was eighteen. I never told Lucy. But we had discussed getting married after college. It was what I wanted.
I glance up, and Hawthorne is staring at me.
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
“I have no idea.”
CHAPTER36
Lucy
The university gaveme a week off to deal with everything. Part of me wanted to go in and teach, but another part of me knew I might get emotional and breakdown in class.
It wasn’t just my father’s death I was processing. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I’d learned about Ted.
When I went into the police station to answer questions, I had plenty of my own. The officer couldn’t answer everything, but what he could still has me in disbelief. Even telling Connie, it sounds unreal.
“Ted was the one who tried to frame Cody for murder, not your dad? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, that’s what the officer said. I think I’m still in shock about it though.”
Connie sits across from me. She insisted we go out to a bar; I think she’s tired of sitting on my couch and consoling me like she has every night this week.
“Ted knew your uncle,” she muses. “Maybe he knew your dad, and they were working together.”
“The officer said there was enough evidence in Ted’s apartment to be certain it was him. There was also a letter addressed to me on his kitchen table.”
