“Of course,” I replied. I filled up the bath and added some lavender oil I had picked up in town. I helped her undress and then took my own clothes off. I was caring for a woman who meant more to me than I knew how to say. A woman who was slowly claiming every corner of my heart. I set two bath towels on the counter and slid into the bath first so she could lean on me.
“Thank you,” she said. “This feels really good.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I replied, taking a loofah and squeezing warm water on her chest.
“Hmm, that feels nice,” she moaned, and I could feel her relaxing beneath me.
“Do I still need to be worried about you running off and doing dangerous things?” I asked. I knew the timing was bad and she was just relaxing, but my insides were twisting with worry over what could’ve happened to her today.
She took in a deep breath. “Even before I saw Nico today, I wanted to put this whole thing to rest, but something was still eating at me. I felt like I gave up on all my dreams for Sophie. If I’d come this far, I had to give it one last shot,” she explained.
“I can’t believe Nico admitted to murdering that guy,” I said out loud. The story was crazy.
“You aren’t going to tell your father, are you?” she asked. “I know he committed murder.”
“He took justice into his own hands, which is wrong. But from the sounds of it he made sure not to leave any evidence. The Belleroses are very good at that. My father’s been chasing Marcel for too long. Becket thinks that this time the police will get them for good. That means Nico is going down too.”
“He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy,” Claire said, which put me on edge.
“He’s bad, Claire. He’s a criminal,” I said, my jaw so taut I thought it might snap.
“I know,” she agreed. “I just meant he had some sort of moral compass. Even if it was fuzzy. He got involved in the business to help his family, and I know what you’re going to say next, that he had a choice to work hard in school or at a business and make money the honest way, and I totally agree with you. It’s just from my research, I’ve seen these cases where good people are led to make bad decisions. It’s just sad.”
“I hear you on that,” I agreed. She wasn’t wrong. She had a soft, kind heart and that wasn’t something I was going to fault her for.
“My parents are going to be angry with me, but I don’t want to finish my thesis, which means I need to drop out of my master’s program.”
“From what you told me, your parents are loving and supportive people,” I responded.
“They are, but they begged me not to take criminology. My real passion had always been environmental science,” she explained.
I stilled behind her, my hands resting lightly at her waist beneath the warm water.
“Environmental science?” I repeated. “That’s... kind of a jump from criminology.”
She gave a soft, tired laugh. “Yeah. Everyone says that.”
The steam curled around us. She leaned back more fully against me, trusting her weight to me now.
“I used to spend hours outside when I was younger,” she said quietly. “Like... actually outside. Not just walking trails. I loved learning how ecosystems worked. Soil, water, plants, how everything connects.” She paused. “In high school I thought I’d work in conservation or land restoration. Something where I could help the environment instead of just writing papers about it.”
I listened to how animated she sounded the more she spoke. Even exhausted, there was a spark there I hadn’t heard when she talked about her thesis.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Sophie went missing,” she said simply. Sophie’s name settled heavy between us. “After she disappeared, it felt wrong to move on with my life when there were no answers. I switched directions. Started researching criminal cases. Thought if I understood how people went missing... I could find her.” She swallowed. “Then it just became my whole life.”
My hand moved slowly over her arm.
“You gave up something you loved,” I said.
She nodded.
“I miss working the land,” she admitted softly. “That’s part of why being here feels so good. The orchard... it’s grounding. Real. When I’m out there, checking soil moisture or watching how the trees respond to weather changes, my brain finally quiets down.”
I blinked. “You’ve been doing that?”
She laughed lightly. “You thought I was just picking apples?”