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I grab everything and turn toward our table when the stranger whispers, "Bye, Lilly."
The hairs on my neck stand in all directions.
I settleinto my chair across from Denielle and chance a peek at my best friend. Her face is expressionless. She seems to have missed my exchange with the creep at the bar, and I have no desire to rehash it.
"What’s with the casual outfit?" I’m genuinely curious.
My friend looks down at herself and back up at me, shrugging. "Kelly gave it to me for Christmas. I spent the night at Charlie’s since he’s leaving tomorrow. I thought I’d wear it."
I plaster an exaggerated grin on my face and touch my hand to my chest. "Awww, you went against your every instinct to make your future mother-in-law happy."
She grumbles, "Shut up," but she can’t keep a straight face either.
"So, how was the trip?" I try to draw out the inevitable conversation with her for a little longer.
Her right eye twitches ever so slightly as she crosses her arms over her chest. I’m stalling, and she knows it. The question is, will she play along?
After a moment of deliberation, she smirks. "It was great. I wish you would’veactuallybeen there, but we had a good time. It’s probably better you didn’t have to share the room with Charlie and me." She winks. "Oh, and you should’ve seen Wes face-plant into the snow the first day. Oh my gosh, I haven’t laughed that hard in forever."
She digs in her purse, followed by sliding her phone across the table. A picture of Wes is on the display. He’sliterallysticking headfirst in the snow, his neon-green snowboard pants and matching board up in the air. She makes a hand motion, and I swipe. The next picture is Wes flipping Denielle off, his entire head covered in snow. I crack up, and Denielle joins in. We both laugh until tears run down our faces, and I realize how much I’ve missed my friend these last few weeks. Until now, I wasn’t sure what I would tell her, but sitting here with her, I feel lighter already.
Den and I have a special connection. We understand each other, similar to what Rhys and I had in the past—have again? Telling her is the right decision.
I exhale slowly. "What I am going to tell you can never leave this table. You cannot tell anyone. Not Charlie. No one."
Denielle stares at me, almost like she’s trying to figure out if I’m messing with her. "Babe, I’ve watched you the last few weeks. I know some serious shit is going on. You’ve not been yourself, and then, out of the blue, you make upandtake off with the enemy. What the fuck is going on?"
My pulse feels like it’s somewhere in the one-eighty range, and I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, my entire rehearsed speech forgotten. "Rhys is not my brother."
Den’s eyes widen. "Excuse me?"
Stalling, I take a sip of my tea. Setting the cup down, I chuckle at the absurdity of this entire situation. "And that’s not even the biggest piece of news." I snort.
My gaze is met with a blank stare. "Umm...o-kay?"
Another sip. "It all started with our journalism assignment."
She frowns at me. "The criminal case one you got the A for?"
I nod.
"Lilly McGuire, that wasbeforeThanksgiving! Are you telling me you’ve been carrying whatever this is around for the past six weeks?"
She’s fuming.I didn’t anticipate that, which was bad judgment on my part. I should’ve known she’d be disappointed with me. I nod again, not looking at her.
"Go on," she orders in a cool tone.
Crap.
A flush creeps across my cheeks, and I dip my chin. "So...uh, my paper was about a string of kidnappings. Little girls that have been kidnapped all over the country and then turn up a few weeks later at random hospitals. It’s been going on for over ten years, and I stumbled across the most recent victim when I was looking for a topic. It caught my interest, so I kept looking up the other victims. I read every article I could find, and I..." God, this is harder than I thought. Deep breath. "I started getting this feeling."
I finally make eye contact, and she just nods at me to continue. I wipe my palms on my pants.
"The more I researched, the stronger the feeling got, and then I started, uh...I started remembering."
She inhales sharply but still doesn’t say anything. She lets me get it all out, and I’m grateful for that.
"At the time, I didn’t know I was remembering. I thought I was losing my mind. Eventually, Rhys noticed that something was off and confronted me."
