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“Andyouneed to stop calling me that. First ma’am, then Sprinkles. Can someone please just call me by my name?” She huffed.
“Fine,Whitney. You here to make your statement or just to give poor Kurt a hard time?”
We both glanced at Kurt. His eyes volleyed between us as if he were watching some sort of tennis match.
I masked my smile with my hand.
“I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me where my mother is.”
“Do you really care?”
Whitney’s eye’s widened infinitesimally. I knew that look. The “are you serious, Jack?” look that she would give me whenever I’d rile her up.
As much as I begged her over the years to not have her mother’s actions dictate her feelings, it ultimately was an argument I’d never won and would likely never win any time in the future. As much as Whitney pretended not to care about her mother, she couldn’t help it. She was too good a person not to.
“Come with me.” I turned on my heel and headed back down the corridor towards my office. I didn’t bother to see if Whitney followed behind me. I could feel her at my back, the faint scent of vanilla filling the air of the narrow corridor.
Holding open the door to my office, I waved her in. She barely crossed the threshold before stopping completely in her tracks. I wondered what she was thinking. The room didn’t boast much in the way of decor, just filing cabinets and a few photographs.
Some of which featured Whitney.
Most, actually.
“Take a seat.” I held the back of the single worn leather chair that sat across from my desk. Rather than taking my seat, I sat against the edge of the desk in front of her, crossing my arms in the process.
“I think you damn near gave my rookie a heart attack.”
Whitney laughed. “Then that’s on you. You should have trained him better.”
I thought I saw a hint of a smile before Whitney wiped all semblance of emotion from her face.
I clasped my hands in front of me. “You got here quicker than I expected. I figured I’d have to hog tie you and drag you down here to make your statement.”
“Har har.” Whitney rolled her eyes. “I’d just like to give you my statement, give my mother a piece of my mind, and then get the hell out of here if that’s alright with you. Or even if it’s not alright with you. I have a lot to sort out.”
“Like what?” I asked.
Whitney heaved a dramatic sigh. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I need to buy a house.”
I sat back a little. “Why do you need a house?” I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that. “You’re staying in Haver’s Creek?”
She glanced down at her nails. “Maybe.”
I let that settle over me for a second, my heart thumping in my chest. It felt right having her back in Haver’s Creek where she belonged.
What I still didn’t know was why she left in the first place. Over the years I had tried to pry it out of Savannah, but she never spilled the beans. As close as we were, Whitney was her flesh and blood, and she wouldn’t betray her like that.
Even if it would give me the one answer I had been begging to be answered for the past decade.
I wondered if she was in trouble. She had managed to stay away from Haver’s Creek for this long. What could have possibly drawn her back here?
And when she was in trouble, she always came to stay with me. Or she had at least, back in high school. Back before she left without a trace, throwing away our friendship like it was last week’s trash.
Despite my hurt feelings, I’d always have a place for her.
“Just come live with me. There’s plenty of space.”
Her skeptical expression stung. “Uh, yeah, that’s not happening.”
