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“Why the hell would she be grieving when she no longer has to hide in the woods with Toby, who died yesterday? So, if Carly is grieving anyone, it’s Toby, not a mean drunk.”
As Cole spoke, I observed Ryan. His eyes became hard, and I couldn’t help but think that if Jim were here, he would have killed Jim. “Here you go, Ryan, I said as I set his omelet in front of him.”
Patty looked at the omelet, rubbing her hands together. “Oh, that looks good. Can I have one?” Ryan stood up, got a plate and fork, and split the omelet with her.
Mike got up and started cleaning the counters. “Damn, it was great seeing Carly. I haven’t seen her since I attended her book signing two years ago. She is a big star now. I would have asked her out if she didn’t have a thing for Ryan when we were growing up.” Mike glanced at Ryan as he finished speaking. I think he was trying to push Ryan’s buttons and succeeding.
Ryan left the room and walked outside, and Patty stayed behind to finish his half of the omelet. Cole got up to follow him when we heard a loud noise outside. Mike noticed this and winked at me, and I couldn’t help but smile, realizing that Ryan still had feelings for Carly. While Jase chatted with Patty, I helped Mike with the cleaning.
As we cleaned, Mike started talking, “So tell me about yourself.”
“I’m not particularly exciting,” I replied, “I’ve been on the move for the past few years because I didn’t know who was stalking me. Now that I know who he might be, I just want to kill him.”
“I’m sorry about your sister,” Mike said, “That’s truly horrible, and she was so young. I know when we thought Cole was dead, it was the worst time of our lives since our parents died. Ryan might be the oldest, but Cole has always been the one to make us do things we didn’t want to do.”
I chuckled, “I can totally believe that. I’m living proof. I’m a chef, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to cook while I’m here. What do you do?”
Mike looked at me, and cocked his head, “I’m a football player. Don’t you recognize me?”
I confessed, “I’m sorry, I don’t follow football. Why aren’t you working right now?”
Mike shrugged his shoulders, I got injured, so they made me take the entire season off. I’ll return to the team soon; I’m waiting for their call. Honestly, I don’t know how you can say nothing is exciting about your life. My God, you’ve had more excitement in your life than most the people I know.”
I glanced at Mike, “I feel like I spend most of my time hiding. I’ll be relieved when we find Donnie Turner; I’m going to kill him for murdering my sister.”
“Why don’t you let Cole take care of him,” Mike said, I noticed I was making him uneasy talking about killing someone. I must have sounded like a crazy person.
“I’m glad you can cook. We eat here when someone feels like cooking, which isn’t too often.” Mike said.
“While I’m here, we’ll all eat at the table; that way, you can share your day with everyone. Jackie and I always ate together; that’s how we talked about our day together.”
5
Viper
I approached Ryan as I followed him outside, “Did you hurt your hand?” I said, walking up behind him.
Ryan looked ready to kill someone, “Why the hell didn’t she say something?” he talked as he chopped wood, “I would have taken her away from that bastard. I didn’t even know she kept Toby all these years; it must have been hard on her when Toby died.”
I narrowed my eyes, “Do you still have feelings for Carly?”
Ryan admitted, “I’ll always have feelings for Carly. It’s been eight years since I’ve seen her close up. She came to the house when they said you had died, but I wasn’t here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You live in the same community as Carly. How have you not seen her? But what about Patty? How can you be with Patty and still have feelings for Carly?”
“Patty is safe, and she’s undemanding. I think she knows it’s over between us; we haven’t had sex in months. I needed a distraction from Carly, or I would have taken her from that bastard. I knew Carly would never forgive me when she saw me with Doreen that time I came home from freelancing. I missed up, and I knew it in my gut. The truth is Carly is too good for me.”
“Hell, Ryan, we all know that. You need to end things with Patty and talk to Carly. She’s a grown woman now. You should talk to her. She’s the same person she was at nineteen, only smarter. She’s still damn hot,” The way Ryan looked at me I knew he didn’t like me saying Carly was a hot.
Ryan took a deep breath, “I’ll talk to Carly tonight.” An hour had passed before Allison came home.
“Where’s Carly?” Ryan asked as she sat down next to him on the sofa.
Allison glanced over at him, “She’s gone; Carly said she had things to take care of, so she left. Seeing you again upset her. She told me she didn’t know how much it would bring back the pain of you having all those girlfriends. She’s gone. I think she’s gone for good. She’s a writer; she can live anywhere in the world she wants to live .”
Ryan was surprised, “What? Why do you think that?”
Allison looked at him and shook her head, “She’s been on that mountain for a while, and you didn’t even go say hello. Why do you care about how she is now?”
