She just nods, and we leave the basket in the middle of the store and walk out to my truck. My head is spinning. Why is a detective calling her? Why was the blonde shaking like a leaf? Why the fuck did Kallie really come home? I get in the truck and make my way back to my mother’s house, neither of us saying anything. Pulling into her driveway, I turn off the truck. She reaches to the handle of the truck, and I finally say something. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that life was finally good,” she tells me. “People were finally forgetting about what happened.”

“You think what you did in there helped anything at all?” I ask, and she looks down. “She was your best friend.”

“And now she isn’t.” She wipes away a tear. “I have you, and I have my grandson.”

“Mom.” She looks up at me. “Don’t do that again.”

“Jacob, you can’t be serious.” She shakes her head. “You still love her.”

“As much as I hate her,” I say, looking out my window at the house I grew up in, “a piece of me will always love her.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. “Can you get Ethan for me?”

“Of course,” she says. “Why don’t you do what you need to do and then come have dinner here?”

I nod, and she gets out of the truck. I pull out, and my car makes its way to Kallie’s house. I’m just doing my job, I tell myself. I’m just keeping my town safe. My stomach is in my throat the whole time I’m on my way there.

Pulling into the driveway, I ignore all the memories that come crashing back. I block them out just as fast as they came in, and when I get out of the truck, the crunch of the rocks under my feet alerts them I’m here. I ring the bell and brace myself for what is to come.

When I hear the locks turn, I wait for it, and I’m not surprised when I see Casey with his shotgun in his hand. I know he’d love nothing more than to shoot me in the ass, but he wouldn’t answer the door with it in his hand. Something is definitely going on.

“Not today,” he says, and he tries to shut the door, but my hand comes out, and I block it from slamming.