Page 20 of Little Dark Deeds (Georgiana Germaine #12)

“I was wondering when I’d see you,” Chad said. “It’s been a while.”

He’d aged well since the last time I saw him, looking a lot more muscular and well-dressed than I remembered. As I looked him over, I noticed a gash on his right hand, and I wondered how he got it.

“I was just at Tiffany’s house,” I said, “and a few of the older women who live on the same street described a man who was dating Tiffany several months ago. The man they described reminded me of you.”

“Uh, yeah, it was me. Tiffany didn’t tell you?”

“She didn’t, and I’m trying to figure out why.”

Chad glanced around the furniture showroom, lowering his voice. “Can we talk somewhere else?”

“Sure, when do you get off work?”

“Not for another four hours. I haven’t taken my break yet today, though. Let me speak to the manager. I’ll meet you out front in a few minutes.”

I nodded and walked to my car, leaning against it as I waited.

Six minutes later, Chad exited the store, his hands shoved into his pockets as he approached me. “I have fifteen minutes.”

“Not a long break.”

“We’re short-staffed today. I was lucky to get anything.”

“You have a sizable cut on your hand. What happened?”

“I was in a hurry the other day when I was opening boxes in the back room of the store, and ... well, I lost a fight with a boxcutter.”

It seemed like a logical explanation.

But was it?

“I saw a wall of plaques when I entered the store,” I said. “You’re the employee of the month. Well done.”

He looked down, sighing as he kicked a few pebbles around. “You don’t have to be polite, and you don’t have to pretend, not with me.”

“The compliment was genuine.”

“I know you’ve never approved of me. And hey, I get it. You wanted the best for Tiffany, and in your mind, I wasn’t it.”

“What makes you think I didn’t approve? Did Tiffany say something to you?”

“I never knew all her reasons for breaking up with me the first time,” he said. “When we met up again, she admitted you felt she could do a lot better than me.”

It was something I’d said in confidence—girl talk. Or so I thought.

“I never knew she’d said anything to you,” I said. “How could I? She didn’t even tell me you’d started dating again.”

“She didn’t want to keep it from you, and just so you know, I advised her to tell you.”

“Why?”

“She felt bad keeping it a secret.”

I wished she had felt confident enough to tell me.

My advice, had she asked for it a second time, may have been a lot different.

“When did you start dating again, and which one of you reached out first?” I asked.

“About nine months ago, I pulled into a gas station, and there she was, standing out front, sipping on a giant, blue slushy drink. We made eye contact, and the next thing I knew, we’d decided to go for a drive. It ended up being one of the best, most honest conversations we’d ever had.”

“What did you talk about?”

He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I do.”

“She said she’d been under a lot of stress the first time we dated. She was still getting over the last guy. She wasn’t in the right headspace to give our relationship what it needed to thrive. That was part of the reason she called it quits.”

“And the other part?”

He looked away, going quiet, giving me an idea of the “other part,”— me .

“You’re the other part,” he said. “You told her you thought she was better off with someone who was goal-driven and motivated, like her.”

Hearing my words coming back at me, I felt awful about having said them. But I deserved to hear it.

“Tiffany asked me for my honest opinion,” I said. “Some things I mentioned were favorable, and others were not. I never suggested she should break up with you.”

“I don’t think you realize just how much she looked up to you. Your approval meant everything.”

“Tiffany didn’t need my approval, and she knew it. She was the best of us, a much better person than I’ll ever be. Look, I’m sorry.”

“Is that why you came here, to apologize? I don’t need your apology. We’ve both just lost someone who meant a lot to each of us, and I’d rather not stand here reminiscing.”

Talking with him now, I had such a different impression of him than I had before. He was mature and well-spoken. I supposed I’d missed it because I’d never spent much time with him. In fact, this was the first one-on-one conversation we’d ever had.

“What happened after the night you reconnected at the gas station?” I asked.

“I asked if she was single. She said yes, and I asked her on a date. She didn’t commit at first. About a week later, after a bad day at work, she texted me and invited me over.”

“Did she tell you what happened at work that day?”

“She’d taken on a big divorce case and was doing everything in her power to ensure her client, the soon-to-be ex-wife, got everything she deserved in the divorce settlement.

The husband’s lawyers were relentless, coming at Tiffany with everything they had.

It was a lot of pressure, and she was struggling to deal with it. ”

I remembered the case.

The husband was worth billions.

He’d hired not one, not two, but three lawyers, which may have had something to do with the multiple affairs he’d had during the marriage.

“She worked with her colleague, Everett, on that case,” I said. “And they won it, just a few weeks ago. I’d never seen her more relieved to be finished with a case in her life.”

He crossed his arms. “She was relieved, at first, until her client’s husband cornered her as they were both leaving the gym. He threatened to ruin her life because she’d ruined his.”

“Tiffany told me they’d had a run-in, but I didn’t know he threatened her. Did he follow up on the threat in any way?”

“I don’t know. To be honest, I hadn’t heard much from her after we broke up the second time.”

“Then how do you know about her run-in with the husband?”

“She texted me and told me about it. Then she apologized for texting me and said she shouldn’t have because she was in a relationship with someone else.”

I found it curious that she’d texted him.

At the same time, Chad had a softness about him. After their first breakup, Tiffany described him as the one guy you knew you could always lean on, telling your deepest, darkest secrets to, and he would never paint you in a negative light. I figured it was the reason she’d given him another shot.

“Tell me about the second time you dated,” I said.

“After we got together at her house, we saw each other almost every day for a while. I’d almost forgotten how intoxicating she could be—her laugh, her positivity, her love of life.”

“Her laugh was timeless. I can still hear it.”

“Me, too. When I was given a second chance, I spent a lot of time in those first several weeks thinking about why things hadn’t worked out the first time. I was determined to make sure it didn’t happen again.”

“I wish I would have known.”

He let out a short, dry laugh—more scoff than amusement—dripping with sarcasm as he shook his head. “I don’t.”

“No, you don’t understand. My advice would have been different.

It’s just, when you dated the first time, I was going through a lot in my life.

It’s possible I projected some of my feelings onto her, even though I was unaware I was doing it back then.

I see that now. All I would have wanted was her happiness. ”

He nodded, and I hoped he believed me.

“Tiffany told me you lost your daughter, and then you quit your job, split from your husband, and left town,” he said. “You went through a lot, and I’m sure she told you, but she was so proud of you.”

I stared down at my hands.

They were clenched into tight fists, pushing down the emotions creeping up inside me.

“I can’t imagine why she was proud of me,” I said. “I was a tornado in heels.”

“You may have seen yourself that way, but she saw a woman who pushed through her past, got her life back together, and started dating a man she’d cared for since college.”

“We just got married.”

“I’m happy for you.”

And I was sad for him.

It was obvious how much he cared for Tiffany, and how hopeful he had been for a life they would never have.

“Why didn’t it work the second time?” I asked.

“ He showed up.”

“Tyler?”

“Yep, the guy ruined everything. One minute we were fine; the next, she was questioning our future again. The breakup was hard the first time. The second ... well, I suppose I felt the same way you did, a tornado in tennis shoes.”

He was pained.

I could see it on his face.

Talking about her was difficult for him, even now.

Chad didn’t seem like the murdering type, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t.

“How did the relationship end?” I asked.

“She told me she’d started having feelings for her realtor, feelings she wanted to explore, and she thought it was best to be honest with me about it. I tried to fight for what we were rebuilding, but once he entered the picture, I didn’t stand a chance.”

“Whenever Tiffany told me about a new man in her life, I always did my homework,” I said.

“Oh, I know.”

“With Tyler, I was in full wedding-planning mode, and I’m sorry to say, I didn’t look into him. If I had, I would have found out he was married.”

Chad let out a long, frustrated sigh. “He’s married ?”

“Yeah, and maybe if I had known, if I had told her, I could have saved her life somehow.”

“You can’t say that.”

“I just did. I’ve spent the last few days treating myself like an emotional punching bag. She needed me, and I wasn’t there.”

“What happened isn’t your fault.”

I knew that, and yet, no matter how many times someone said it to me, I couldn’t shake the feeling.

He glanced at the cell phone in his hand, checking the time. “I need to go in a minute.”

“I understand. Aside from the message Tiffany sent, telling you about the confrontation with her client’s husband, did you ever hear from her again?”

“No, but in that same message, she was full of apologies for shutting me out of her life like she did.”

A short, middle-aged woman pushed the store door open and tipped her head toward Chad. “We need ya back on the floor.”

“Be right there,” he said.

She nodded and slid back inside.

Chad started for the door, then turned. “You’re not the only one carrying around guilt. Hearing from her that night just added to the pain I was already going through, so I decided to block her number. I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.”