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Tyler

“You didn’t kill her, Tyler,” Bella blurts as if she is reading my mind.

I glance over at her. “I did my part.”

“Should you have gotten involved with an employee?” she asks, setting her pint down. “No. Does it happen? All the time and no one dies. You’re human.”

“And she’s dead.”

“Because she chose to get involved with your father. Because he chose to kill her. You were not a party to the decisions that lead to her death.”

“I started the cycle.”

“Did you? Because there are rumors that she dated him before you and then went back to him.”

The idea punches me in the gut for reasons I can’t even let myself identify right now. “That’s not true.”

“How do you know?”

I set the ice cream down, reach for the journal and lift it. “Because she wrote about it all. Because the police say so. Becauseshesaid so.”

Bella curls her fingers around the blanket and eases back into the chair again. “How long has it been since you dated her?’

“Over a year.”

“That’s a long time, Tyler. Too long for you to wrap yourself in the blame game."

I set the journal on the table beside the ice cream, taunting us both with its presence. “If you read her words, you’d hate me.”

“You try to make me hate you most days at work, and you still don’t succeed. I’m not easily manipulated. Relationships always have two subjective sides, and I have no business inside yours. Neither did your father. He tried to demean your role at Hawk Legal every chance he got. He was getting old, and he wasn’t ready to let you be the king of the castle. No doubt, he wanted what you have. Youth, success, and her. He did this, not you. Remember that.Please.”

I pick up the ice cream pint again, wondering how she’d react if I mixed a shot in with it.

She scoots forward and grabs the remote to the television. Instinctively, I set down the ice cream and reach out and grab her hand. She sucks in a breath. I hold one in, a muscle in my jaw pulsing. I’ve made the mistake of removing the contact barrier and now that I’ve touched her, I want to keep touching her.

Her eyes lift to mine, and she clears her throat. “If you don’t want to watch TV—”

I force myself to let her go, not pull her to me, dropping her hand before I lose the resolve to do so. “I don’t want to watch the news. The media can’t seem to talk about anything but my family.”

“I was thinking about torturing you with a chick flick. I saw on my listings earlier that Dirty Dancing is showing. Patrick Swayze.” She sighs and thumps her chest with her fist. “Be still my heart.” She indicates the remote. “Can I?”

“I’ve never watched a chick flick in my life. Somehow today doesn’t seem like that day.”

Her eyes go wide. “Never?”

“Never.”

She does this delicate little grunt thing and says, “Just one of the many reasons you’re single at thirty-four.”

That comment shouldn’t jab as badly as it does, but mixed with Allison’s words in the journal, it downright stings. “Bychoice,” I assure her, and considering I’m more than a little curious about her love life, I add, “And you’re single as well.”

“By choice,” she assures me, offering me not even a tease about her personal life. “And I’m twenty-seven, not thirty-four.” She gives me this little chin tilt, as if it celebrates the perfection of her comeback reply, then adds, “I really thought something warmhearted rather than murderous was a good idea right about now.”

She’s not wrong. I motion to the remote. “Turn on your damn chick flick.”

She smiles, and it lights up the room, and I swear even a tiny spot in my black heart, right along with it. She turns on the television, and before the news can begin to play, punches in the station of choice. Patrick Swayze fills the screen. I finish off my ice cream, every last bite, and Bella does the same. I gather two additional pints and carry them to the fridge. When I return, her eyes are shut. I sit back down and find myself staring at her. Just staring at her, spellbound by her beauty, which is more than her looks, which are obviously stunning. Bella’s beauty radiates from within.

Thunder claps like heavy hands above and while I jolt with the impact, she does not. She feels safe here with me, and I can’t figure out why. But then, maybe she knows more about me than me, because when I should be stripping her naked and pulling her onto my lap, I am not. Just as I should wake her up and send her on her way.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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