“Thank you, Mr. Larson.” Chance turned to Rory for the next move.
“We should let you finish your lunch,” she offered.
“Please,” he argued, “join me. My treat.”
It was lunchtime. Rory looked to Chance, who gave her a nod of agreement. “Thank you,” she said to Louis. “That would be very nice.”
Just maybe, they would learn something else.
Except she feared there was nothing to learn. Pete had no enemies. It was quite possibly time she admitted that his murder was not about him or his family. It was about her.
Jackson County Park
County Park Road
Scottsboro, 2:00 p.m.
Chance stood withher on the dock where she and Pete had held their ceremony.
His parents had been disappointed. They had wanted the ceremony in their backyard and, granted, it would have been beautiful, but Rory and Pete had known that if Eudora had control of the wedding on her home turf, it would have turned into something huge and complicated. They hadn’t wanted a big wedding or anything complicated. No fanfare. Just the opportunity to share the first step into their future with those closest to them.
The dress had been the most complex part of the wedding. It had been the perfect fairy-tale dress. The one she had always wanted. Handmade by her dear Aunt Lulu. Honestly, it had been too much for their small lakeside ceremony, but it had felt perfect. Rory would never forget that day.
It wasn’t until after dark that it turned into a nightmare.
“It’s peaceful here,” Chance said.
She nodded. “It is. My aunt used to bring my brother and me here all the time as kids. It was free, and there were all sorts of interesting places to explore.” She laughed. “Free always fit the budget.”
For a long while, they said nothing, just stared out over the calm water. Several emotions whirled inside Rory, but she didn’t want to think about any of that right now. She needed to clear her head. To put some distance between her and what she felt sure was the truth she so desperately wanted to deny.
“Did Eudora and Anthony seem at all happy during the ceremony?” Chance turned to her. “Or was the animosity obvious?”
“I’d just found out that week about the offer she’d made to try and dissuade Pete from marrying me. I could barely look at her.” She rolled her eyes. “What kind of mother does that?”
“You would be surprised.” Chance tucked his hands into his pockets. “From what you’ve told me, Pete was an easy-going guy. His mother had probably been in charge for most of his life—even his adult life, since he worked in the family business. Lived in the same town.”
“You know, I never considered how that must have stifled him. I can’t even imagine living under someone’s thumb like that.” Rory laughed. The abrupt sound just burst out of her when she considered the irony in what she’d related without thinking. “What am I saying? I just spent nearly two years in prison. I am very well aware of what it feels like to be stifled.”
Chance smiled. He had the nicest smile. Rory banished the thought that popped into her head every single time the man’s lips turned up. She had to stop looking at him that way. This was a business relationship. Her future depended on how this turned out. As desperately as she needed a hero like him, he wasn’t here to comfort her…only to help her find the truth and to support her efforts to prove her innocence.
“Any inkling that Anthony felt the same way as his wife?” Chance closed his eyes and turned his face up to the sun.
Rory started to do the same, but she got caught up in watching him relish the sunlight. “I never noticed anything.” She thought about the man that was her father-in-law for only a few hours. “He kept quiet as far as I know. I’m sure he was on her side. I mean, she was his wife. My impression was that Anthony wanted his wife to be happy. He didn’t do things to hinder that end.”
Chance looked at her then. “Makes his life more bearable, wouldn’t you think?”
“I suppose so.” She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun this time. The warmth felt so good. A week ago she would have given most anything to be standing close to the water enjoying the sun’s brilliance like this.
But how long would it last?
“What about your boyfriends before Pete?” he asked, drawing her attention back to him. “Any serious relationships? Maybe someone who didn’t want to let go?”
“Let’s sit,” she suggested, suddenly too weary to keep standing. Or maybe she just needed not to have this conversation in the sunlight, which suddenly felt too harsh.
Chance followed her back to the shore and to a grouping of shade trees where benches and picnic tables waited. Rory perched on one and set her gaze back on the water. Whispers from the past, her and Austin running around and laughing, sifted through her mind. Even after losing their parents, they had somehow managed to find happiness. There was that one time when they were playing and Lulu had been chatting with a friend. Austin had fallen off that very dock where Rory’s wedding ceremony took place. Without thought, she had jumped into the water and dragged her little brother to safety.
Rory shuddered at the memory. Now her little brother was attempting to rescue her. With effort, she pushed away the past and focused on the question Chance had asked.
