“Um, yeah. Yep! We definitely should.”
He held out a hand, indicating that I should go first, and I made my way down the aisle of the empty courtroom, wondering why all I wanted to do was turn off the lights.
Why I wanted to rewind the clock.
33
AVERY
I wasgrateful I had the transparent film to keep me busy when I got back to the house with Dane. We’d walked home from the town hall in silence, and I could only speak for myself in saying that I spent the entire time replaying what had happened between us, wishing Rosie hadn’t interrupted when she had.
And it wasn’t just my body talking, although there was definitely that. I’d been so close to release when Rosie burst in, and then I’d been too shocked and mortified to regret the aborted orgasm, but walking home in the dark with Dane by my side, it was all I could do not to pull him behind a tree and get back to business.
Beck and Noah were nowhere to be found when Dane and I got back to the house, which was just as well. I couldn’t explain what had happened between Dane and me to myself, let alone to the other two guys in the house I wanted to bang.
I hurried to my room instead, changing into pajamas and washing my face, trying to wash away the memory of what had happened and the feeling of doom that overcame me every time I remembered that Rosie was the one who’d caught me in such a compromising position with Dane.
Good thing I planned to sell the house and leave town, because my reputation was probably already in the gutter.
I was relieved to sit down with the films I’d taken from the town meeting. Taking them hadn’t been intentional. I’d just had them in my hand when Dane had pulled me out of the room, and the doors to the meeting room had been locked when Dane and I emerged from the site of our unexpected sexcapade.
I’d return the slides to the town Hall, or maybe to Sheriff Crowe.
Eventually.
First I wanted to see what was on the film.
Except holding the first one to the light didn’t do me much good. I could make out some lines and squiggles but not much else. Ditto for the second and third pieces of film. They weren’t designed to be viewed by the naked eye.
I needed a projector, not a fancy new projector that connected to a computer but one of the clunky ancient ones like the one that had been set up in the town meeting.
I replayed the meeting in my mind, turning over everything that had happened before Mayor Biscuit got loose. The problem was that the meeting had been chaotic even before that, the townspeople shouting out comments and accusations so fast I could barely keep up.
It didn’t help that I didn’t know everyone, although Ihadgotten a look at Victor Ames at least. Was he a murderer? I could see it. He was smarmy and confident and didn’t seem at all concerned with what the residents of Blackwell Hollow thought about him or the Hearthstone project.
But none of that meant he was a murderer. I wondered how everyone else on the town council felt about the project. Were they in danger too? Or had Harold been some kind of tiebreaker, his sudden absence helpful to Victor’s cause?
They’d been questions I’d hoped to get answered at the meeting, but thanks to Mayor Biscuit I hadn’t gotten that far. I thought about asking Rosie, but the prospect of facing her after her interruption in the courtroom wasn’t at all appealing.
“Burning the midnight oil?” I turned in my chair to find Beck standing in the doorway.
“It was open,” he said.
His inked chest was bare over jeans and I had a visceral memory: running my hands over his smooth skin as he plundered my mouth with his tongue, his fingers buried inside me.
“Was it?” I didn’t remember leaving my door open.
He grinned. “Half-open.”
Why did his smile have to be so sexy? Why did I want to run my fingers through his thick brown hair? And why oh why did he have to have dimples? It was criminal to be so casually sexy, and I had the sudden urge to pull him into my room, shut the door, take him to bed.
I blamed Rosie, for interrupting Dane and me in the courtroom, but a little voice inside called me a liar. I just wanted Beck.
I wanted all of them. Even Dane, who I couldn’t stand.
“Thanks for getting Lena out of there.” I knew Beck and Noah had gotten Lena out because I’d texted her as soon as Dane and I left the town hall.
It had been quiet by then, Blackwell Hollow’s residents dispersed to their homes, but I’d been worried about Lena.