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I supposed any of those could’ve been the reason, yet none of them felt right. To me, the strangest part of the entire thing was Fox disappearing. He was the type of man who dealt with things head-on, rather than taking off and avoiding an argument. While I was relieved he was okay—I’d been thinking the worst there for a while—an uneasy feeling sat in the pit of my stomach for the next several hours.
Around noon, I went to use the bathroom. When I came back, Porter’s truck was next door in the driveway. He walked out of Fox’s house just as I made it to the front door.
Porter pulled the door shut behind him and headed my way. “Had to pull over twice on the drive home from the courthouse so he could puke his guts up. He’s going to feel like shit today. Maybe tomorrow, too. But he’ll be fine.”
“What the heck happened?”
“Sheriff said he got called to the Crow’s Nest at two AM. Bartender had cut Fox off at twelve thirty. Fox got pissed and tried to reach over the bar and take a swing at him, but he lost his balance and fell off the stool. A couple of locals helped him up and over to a booth. Fox conked out for a little while. They woke him up when it was almost closing time, figuring they would put him in a cab home. But when he got up, he started a fight with Ray Langone.”
“My uncle?”
“Bartender said Ray didn’t say a word to him. Fox just stumbled over from the booth, and when he saw Ray, he clocked him.”
“Is Ray okay?”
Porter nodded. “Sheriff said he’ll have a good shiner, but drunks never seem to get hurt too bad.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t even know what set him off.”
“You two have a fight or something?”
“Not really. At least I didn’t think we did. We had a really great weekend. About seven last night, I wanted to go look for a duck that got injured a while back. I thought she might be on the little island in the middle of the lake. Anyway, Fox definitely didn’t want to go with me, but he did. We went out on his kayak, and about thirty feet out, it started to take on water. The kayak sank, and we swam back. I thought it was funny, but Fox seemed upset by the whole thing. We were never at risk for drowning or anything, so I don’t know why he would be so shaken.”
“Oh shit.” Porter nodded. “Well, it makes sense now.”
“What makes sense?”
“Fox hasn’t gone in that lake for years.”
“I noticed that, but why not?”
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“How his fiancée died?”
“I thought she died in an accident?”
“She did.” He pointed toward the yard. “On that lake.”
CHAPTER 31
A Lifetime Ago
Fox
Three-and-a-half years ago
I’d missed my early-morning flight on purpose.
I’d been in Minnesota for two days for an off-season appearance with a bunch of my teammates at a charity event, one of the things I was normally anxious to get back home from. Though not this time, not after talking to a slurring Evie last night.
I rolled over in bed and grabbed my buzzing phone from the nightstand without opening my eyes. I knew it was safe to swipe without checking the screen because there was no way in hell Evie would be out of bed before late this afternoon.
A ray of sun slashed across my face. I threw an arm across my eyes to block it and brought my cell to my ear.
“Hello?”
