AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Owen called her his girlfriend,” Nikki reminded her.
“That might have been the way he saw it, or wanted it to be. He might’ve even thought they were a couple or exclusive or whatever, but Ashley definitely didn’t. She had a ton of boyfriends. A ton.”
“Such as?” Nikki asked. She knew the crowd because her siblings had been in school with them.
“God, I can’t remember. Not really. Uh . . . let’s see. Jacob, she hung out with him a lot.”
“Jacob Channing?” Wasn’t that the name Margaret had mentioned?
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Jacob was a real jock and he was the richest kid in our class, well, next to Tyson.” She took another sip of her drink. “The Beaumonts. They had the most money. Everyone knew it. But Jacob was right up there, and he and Tyson were friends.”
“And both dated Ashley?”
“Not at the same time.” She wrinkled her nose. “But yeah.”
“While she was seeing Owen.”
“ ‘Seeing him’ isn’t what I’d call it. Did they hook up?” Brit thought about it a second. “I don’t know. She liked him, yeah. Owen held some weird fascination with her because he was different, I suppose, but . . . it was never serious. He wasn’t the kind of guy she went for, not in the long term anyway.” Brit shrugged as three women in their sixties climbed onto stools a couple of tables away. They were laughing and talking, hooking their purses over the back of their chairs and caught up in their conversation. Ashley leaned across the table and lowered her voice as if afraid the trio might overhear her. “If you want to know the truth, I was surprised that she was his alibi.”
“Why?”
“Because”—she let out her breath—“well, because it would get her into trouble, you know, with her parents, and it also kind of messed with her rep.”
“Her rep?”
“Reputation. It was one thing to be friends with Owen the outcast, you know, but to be his alibi, to be cast as the girl he’d been with that night, was weird. Ashley was always so worried about appearances: what she wore, who she hung with, her grades . . . everything.”
“You’re saying she’s lying?”
“No—I mean, I don’t think so.”
Which seemed to indicate she did.
Nikki asked, “Why would she lie if she was all about protecting her rep and staying out of trouble?”
“Exactly.” Brit frowned. “I mean, it doesn’t make sense, but then, what does?” She checked her watch again. “I really gotta go. I told you this was a busy day.” She climbed off her chair and, using both hands, tightened her ponytail. “I don’t know anything else.”
Before Nikki could ask another question or thank her, she was off, running, starting at a trot until she reached the street, then as the pedestrian light changed, she sprinted away across the street, her ponytail swinging side to side with her strides as she sped around a woman walking a dog and a cluster of teenagers vaping and talking, all the while scanning their cell phone screens.
Nikki texted Millie, asking for Ryan and Ashley Jefferson’s address on Tybee Island, then bought an iced coffee inside the shop before walking home.
She thought about calling her husband.
And tell him what? that naggy little voice in her head demanded.
Is that what you want, to always be reporting in?
To be one of those women on an oh-so-short leash?
Scowling, she reentered the park, deep in thought, hurrying past a woman pushing a stroller, looking at the baby swaddled beneath pink blankets, and her heart twisted a bit.
Someday, she thought, someday.
She wasn’t giving up. She had an appointment later in the day with Dr. Kasey and then she’d find out when they could try again. The sooner the better. She walked, moving quickly, rounding the fountain, when she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Sensing someone was watching, she glanced over her shoulder and saw a few people in the park. Was anyone following her? Someone suspicious?
No.
It was a warm day under clear skies, a breath of wind whispering through the trees in the park.
