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“It seemed like you might need this,” she said as she walked over to join him.
“Thanks.” He carefully took the glass from her hand and then got comfortable as she sat down beside him. “How was your night last night? Did you have dinner with Chloe?”
She nodded. “I did and it was…interesting.”
“Oh?”
“We sort of had a bit of a disagreement—something we haven’t done in ages—and we ended up talking until after midnight and then I made her sleep over because I knew she was tired.”
“What was the disagreement about?” When he noticed the small frown, he backpedaled. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
She took a sip of her wine before resting her head on his shoulder. “Chloe and I are total opposites. She’s the cheery one and I’m the ragey one.”
Laughing softly, he asked, “Ragey one?”
Nodding, she explained, “Definitely. Chloe tends to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and is a people pleaser whereas I am the one who gets mad, gets even first, and doesn’t give a damn what other people think. I’ve gotten myself into more than my share of trouble by lashing out before I think things through. It’s a terrible trait.”
You’re telling me…
“Anyway, we were talking and I got…well…bitchy with her and she called me out on it. And trust me, Chloe never calls anyone out on their behavior. So for her to do that to me, I knew I’d screwed up. But not before I stormed off to my room, slamming the door and everything. Ugh…it was awful.”
Now he desperately wanted to know what they were discussing, because if it had to do with the fire and maybe Ashlynn having something to do with it…
“Anyway,” she went on, “we worked it all out and it was a good night.”
“Oh, well…that’s great.” He took a sip of his own wine. “And what about today? Anything exciting going on?”
“Well, I’ve quit the coffee shop because I don’t want anyone coming in and giving Jade grief about me being there until all this Lavish Locks stuff is cleared up,” she said firmly, her head still on his shoulder. “Billie got off at noon today and we looked at all kinds of equipment for the salon and met with the general contractor who is going to be doing the bulk of the renovations on the shop. We had to walk through the space with him and tell him where we plan on putting everything. The architect should have plans for us next week.”
Twisting slightly, he kissed the top of her head. “That sounds very exciting.”
“It is.”
But he couldn’t tell by the tone of her voice.
Which is what he said to her.
“I’m just…” She sighed. “I’m just waiting for something bad to happen. Like every time I step outside, I’m waiting for Becky to be waiting there or for the cops to be there to arrest me.” Another sigh. “Honestly, Reid, I still can’t believe she’s trying to pin the fire on me.”
Then she straightened and her expression was full of hope.
“You can help clear me, can’t you? You can work with the inspectors or whoever it is heading up the investigation and tell them that I’m innocent, right?”
He didn’t respond right away and he watched helplessly as her expression fell.
“My captain knows you and I are dating so he’s already made it abundantly clear that I can’t be objective,” he said solemnly. “I tried talking to him last night, but…”
Holding up her hand, she put some space between them. “I get it,” she said quietly. “I don’t like it, but I understand. I’m sorry that you got put in the middle of this and it was wrong of me to even ask you to try to step in.”
There was a slight tremor in her voice and Reid took the wine from her hand and placed both their glasses on the coffee table before gently pulling her into his arms. “If it were up to me, there wouldn’t be any investigation and I certainly wouldn’t be standing by and only taking the word of one person.”
She pulled back again and looked up at him. “Is that what they’re doing? Are they simply taking her word on this and not even looking into this?” Now her voice was nearing hysteria and he knew he needed to put her mind at ease.
“Ash, no one would do something like that. Ever. It’s not ethical and it’s not the way the department works. They’re going to investigate this until they know exactly how and where the fire started.”
Then he maneuvered her back into his embrace.
“It’s not fair,” she whispered.
