Page 57 of Making Home with You

After I’m done, I swing by the station to pick her up.The train is still five minutes away, so rather than freezing my ass off on the platform, I sit in my car, Googling Carla’s name in an attempt to find out how far she’s been spreading these lies about me.

It looks like it’s only the one article, but I can’t help but wonder if this is just the beginning.Just as I close the app, my phone pings out with a new email.Opening it, I see Detective Greenwood has responded.

It’s not illegal, but it’s hardly appropriate.Thanks, I’ll look into it.

I exhale at his response, knowing there’s not much more I can do seeing as I’m not involved with the case.But it’s hard not to feel completely fucking useless in all of this, especially when it feels like I could sort everything out if Carla and I could just sit down and talk to each other.But I know that’s never going to happen, so I just have to accept that this is out of my hands and trust that Detective Ian Greenwood knows what the fuck he’s doing.

My head is pounding with all the things I can’t do by the time the train pulls into the station.Trying to ignore the stabbing pain behind my right eye, I slide my phone into my pocket, get out of the car, and head toward the platform.

“Hey,” I say, smiling as she steps into my arms.“You okay?”

Sarah smiles as she looks up at me.“I am now,” she replies, pressing a kiss to my lips.

I pull her close and together we walk back to my car.

“How was your day?”I ask as I open her door.

She glances at me quickly, before looking away.“Okay,” she replies.“Do we have time for me to change before dinner?”she asks, changing the subject.

“Of course,” I reply, not bothering to look at the time.

The drive back to my place is mostly quiet, neither of us elaborating on our day.It’s an easy silence though, despite everything that’s running through my head, all the things I don’t want to burden Sarah with.

By the time we get to Pop’s place, we’re a few minutes late.Beck and Kelsey are already there and it’s Beck who greets us at the front door.

“Hey,” he says, kissing Sarah on the cheek before giving me a slap on the back and a half hug.

We head inside and both my dad and Kelsey greet us before Kelsey drags Sarah off to discuss the work she’s doing for her and how well it’s been going.Despite the exhaustion I can see on her face, Sarah’s eyes light up when they start talking.

“Kels loves all the things she’s done for her,” Beck says, as we both watch them talk.“She’s really good at it.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” I say.

“We should think about getting her help with the pub,” he adds.

I turn to look at him.“Yeah?”

Beck nods.“Yeah, absolutely, you should see the stuff she’s done for the inn,” he repeats.

It occurs to me as Beck says this, that I have no idea what Sarah has done or is capable of.All I know is she’d told me marketing and PR was her thing, but I’ve never actually asked to see any of her stuff, even knowing she was helping Kelsey out.It kinda makes me feel like a dick.

“Food’s up,” Pop suddenly shouts, and Beck and I can’t help but laugh, knowing it’s Kelsey who made dinner and dad who just carries it to the table.

Just as we make our way over, Beck stops me, a hand on my arm.“Can we talk after dinner?”he asks.“Privately?”

I nod not bothering to ask why, even as a sinking feeling creeps in.There’s only one reason.

Dinner is light and easy and mostly filled with talk about Beck and Kelsey’s upcoming wedding.It’s hard to believe it’s finally happening.After all the years and all the shit they’d been through, I’m not sure anyone expected them to finally get to this point, even if it’s exactly where they always should have been.

Beck reminds me of a final fitting we have for our suits, before telling the girls and Pop we’ll clean up so they can relax in front of the TV.

“So, I got a visit from a Detective Greenwood today,” Beck says as soon as we’re alone in the kitchen.

My head immediately starts pounding again, my body tensing as any sense of relaxation I was finally starting to feel instantly evaporates.“And?”

Beck stares across the kitchen island at me, his face unreadable.“And it seems this thing is getting pretty serious,” he states.

I shrug.“It’s not ideal, no.”