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“I’mglad you decided to join me,” I teased, as Whitney trailed a good ten feet in my wake. Clearly, my former best friend was still a little skittish when it came to me, but I’d change that soon.
“Over here we have my office.” I pointed to the small wood-lined room that sat just off the entryway. It held memorabilia, photos, and my collection of true crime novels. After my bedroom, I spent the bulk of my time here. The large window overlooked the street, which provided a weird sort of comfort to me. I enjoyed watching the families and making sure everyone was safe.
“Mmmmhmmm.” Whitney barely acknowledged the room before turning towards the staircase. “I assume we go up from here?”
“After you.” I waved. She swallowed before taking the stairs up to the next floor which housed two guest rooms and a bathroom. I couldn’t help but admire her ass as she took the stairs two at a time, no doubt trying to outrun me.
We walked by the green guest room to find Savannah lying in bed, the sheets covering her as she scrolled through her phone.
“Comfy?” I asked.
She looked up from the screen. “Yes, thank you, Jack.” She shot us both a friendly smile before returning to her phone. Savannah had visited a dozen or so times since I bought the place. She’d even spent the night on a couple of occasions when her heater went out in the middle of a winter storm. And sometimes, she’d come over to avoid her mom, who every once in a while, would hit her up for money. This always threw Savannah for a loop, sending her my way to have a safe place to hide.
It seems I never stopped being a boarding house for wayward Rose sisters.
I walked us past the bathroom and linen cabinet.
“This is your room.” I showed Whitney.
The room had been decorated in her favorite color: lilac. My coworkers mocked me relentlessly for the color choice years ago during my housewarming party, but I never minded the feminine color.
We’d watched a lot of HGTV back in high school and I’d often heard her describe what she would do when she eventually bought a house.
She once described her dream bedroom to me. It happened one night when we were lying on the floor staring at the ceiling of my room. She wished for a space of her own and described it in detail.
I’d also painstakingly applied wainscoting to the bottom half of the walls. Whitney had joked once that that was the sign that you’d made it.
I didn’t realize at the time what I was doing when I started buying supplies to decorate the room. Only later could I acknowledge that I wanted to create a safe retreat for Whitney should she ever need it. I stopped breathing as I watched her walk into the room, set down her stuff and run her fingers along the wall.
Whitney sucked in a quick breath as she made the connection.
I silently begged her to say something. Anything.
“It’s beautiful.” She looked at me with emotion in her eyes. What emotion exactly, I couldn’t decipher. But something that sent me staggering back.
She knew it. Whitney knew the room had been decorated with her in mind.
“I’m going to order us some food.” I stepped away from the door frame, rubbing my hand down my face.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Whitney’s reaction as I quickly changed into sweats and a T-shirt in my bedroom. I opened the door to the study to go order us some pizza, still trying to solve the puzzle that was Whitney’s reaction to the bedroom.
My phone rang just as I hung up with Poppy’s Pizzeria.
“This is Montgomery.”
A young male voice sounded from the other side of the line.
“Officer Montgomery, it’s me, Jeremy,” said the football player who had me investigating Haver’s Creek High School’s football coach.
I sat back in my chair so I could pull out the drawer directly underneath my desk to pull out a pen and pad of paper.
“What’s new, Jeremy?”
The young teen hesitated. “You told me to call if I had any information to share.”
I tapped the pen on the blank page in front of me.
“I remember. Is there something new you wanted to tell me?” I leaned forward, my forearms on the table, pen poised to write down any new information Jeremy had for me.
