“Crazy.” Seb shook his head. “That’s the first murder Calla Bay has seen in what… like thirty years?”
“Thirty-five years. He pleaded not guilty. Judge denied bail.”
“Good. Fucking lunatic.”
I took a bite of my taco, not even tasting it. I thought the same thing. I still did. Mostly. I hated that I was second-guessing this. There wasn’t even any proof that what Wes said was true, but I’d known Wes a long time. I respected him, as a person and as an investigator.
“Wes thinks the kid is innocent. The family hired him to prove it.”
“Oh shit. That’s going to be awkward AF.”
“AF? What are you, a teenage girl?” I laughed.
“We all know I’m just cooler than you. You’ll get there eventually, just in time for it to not be cool anymore.”
The sound of laughter filled the space. It felt nice to lose the black cloud that had been over my head for the last few days.
“Yeah, well. It gets better. According to Wes, not only is Redmond innocent, but the Calla Bay police know that and are pressing murder charges against him anyway.” I kicked my feet up onto the couch. “Apparently, police corruption is rampant in our department. He stopped before he accused me, personally, of knowingly charging the wrong person, but just barely. He was asking questions about Monroe.”
“Monroe’s a douche.”
“He can be arrogant, but that doesn’t make him dirty.”
“Shit. That’s a lot on your plate. And now you’ll have Wes underfoot doing his own investigation.”
Seb sat back, patting his flat stomach like devouring a couple of tacos and some chips was making him lose his figure.
“You ready for the best part?” I asked.
“Lay it on me.”
“Jules is pregnant.” It may have been my tone—or more likely my demeanor—that tipped him off. We had always had that type of relationship where we could talk without words and read between the lines.
“Stop me if I’m saying the wrong thing here, but… congrat—”
“Nope.”
His eyes rounded in surprise. “Oh, shit.”
“She’s been screwing around with someone. It’s not mine,” I told him, rubbing the back of my neck where the kinks had taken up permanent residence.
“Luke, seriously. I’m sorry, man. That’s fucking awful. Do you know who?”
“No. She wouldn’t tell me. I could figure it out, but I haven’t. Papers are being drawn up as we speak.” Calling the lawyer this morning and officially starting the divorce process had hurt, but only five hours later, it was already feeling ordinary. Like this was inevitable. “She tried to blame me for her affair. Telling me I fell in love with someone else, and that’s why she strayed. Can you believe that? Like who does she think this elusive person is that holds my heart?”
“Um, Scarlett.”
“What?” My feet hit the floor, sitting up so I could shoot my incredulous glare at Seb with full force.
“Scarlett Hart.”
“I know who she is. What does Letty have to do with anything?”
“Seriously? You’re going to be obtuse about it?” He did the one-brow-raised move, leveling me with a challenging look. But I would take that challenge because I seriously didn’t know what the hell he was getting at.
“About what? Letty is one of my best friends, but I’m not in love with her. You think that Jules thinks that I’m in love with Letty?”
“I think you’re in love withLetty. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
