He waited for Megan.
But now the waiting was over.
Evan downed the rest of his drink, slamming the crystal rocks glass back on the bar.
“Dude, you okay in there?”
“Darren, I need you to go home.”
Darren crawled out from under the throw blanket, grabbed his snifter of brandy, and stumbled to the open doorway where his brother was standing.
“What are you going to do, Evan?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I do, and it’s not a good idea.”
“I just…” Evan paced back and forth. “I need to see her.”
“It’s been ten years. Get over it.”
Evan felt the heat building up in his fists. He wanted to slam his brother against the wall. He wanted to blame him for the guilt he felt, the guilt that only seemed to grow stronger every day.
“This is not something you just get over.” He growled.
“And you think you’re going to magically feel all better by confessing?”
He really didn’t know. It wasn’t as though he’d promised himself he would confess. He needed to take it one step at a time, and the first step was going to Megan. The first step was to find the girl who had run out of his Christmas party on the night that would forever change their fates.
“I just need to see her.” Evan swung around, but Darren swiftly threw his arm out to stop Evan’s movement. “Get off of me!” He grabbed his brother’s forearm, attempting to pull him off.
“I won’t. You need to stop and think.”
“And you need to get out of my fucking house.”
“What the hell happened to you?”
Evan stopped, catching his brother’s stare with his own. What kind of a question was that? He, better than anyone, knew exactly what had happened to him.
But what he didn’t understand was the emotional turmoil that happened to be attached to the whole event. Evan killed a man; specifically a man who had been a father figure to him, and then turned around and had it pinned on the one person who deserved it the least. No matter what he did to try to make up for his actions, nothing could fix his past.
“How can you ask me that?”
“Okay. Okay.” Darren lifted his hands to the sky, surrendering. “But Evan, it’s just you and me now, you can’t turn on me.”
Evan saw the sincerity in his face. He knew his brother was right. Their father had died only six months earlier from a heart attack. Without each other, they were truly alone.
But even with his brother there, Evan still felt alone, and he knew he would feel alone until he righted his wrongs.
The only way to do that was to settle his debts with Megan.
“I’m not turning on you. I just have to do this…for me.”
“What is this exactly?” Darren lowered his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“Evan, she’s out of prison. What more do you need?”
“You heard her. She’s going to find out what happened.” Evan gestured to the television.
“No. I heard her say she was going to find out. But what does that really mean? She’ll talk to the police, she’ll talk to a handful of people, and then the well will run dry.”
Evan shook his head. “You don’t know her like I do.”
“Evan,” Darren took his brother’s shoulders in his hands, bringing him closer. “You don’t know her either. You know that right? You knew a fifteen-year old girl. You don’t know the twenty-six year old woman.”
“She’s still the same.” Evan was steadfast on that fact.
“Are you?”
“What?”
Darren brought his voice down to a whisper. “Are you the same person you were eleven years ago?”
“No.”
“Right.”
Evan looked directly into his brother’s eyes. “But the things I’ve done…they’ve changed me.”
“She’s been locked up for nine years. Do you think that hasn’t changed her? What do you think she’s done?”
Nothing. To him, she was this perfect little time capsule of the beauty she was when he knew her. Nothing could change that. She was too strong to let the world affect her.
Or at least he hoped she was.
“It doesn’t matter.” Evan escaped his brother’s hold.
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“My hopes?”
“That she’ll throw her arms around you, tell you that you’re forgiven, what’s in the past should stay in the past, and all that romanticized bullshit.”
“I’m not asking for her forgiveness.” Evan poured himself another drink.
“Then what are you asking for?” Darren draped his fingers gently around his brother’s shoulder.
Evan shook his head. Darren couldn’t understand. This was his fight, and no one else’s. “I’ll know when I see her.”
He pulled himself from his brother’s grip, speeding through the hallway to the foyer. His hand wrapped around the cool brass doorknob and pulled it open. He went to take a step out of his house, but froze before his foot could reach the front porch.
It was all real, and it was all about to take shape.
“Darren,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m really going to need you to go home now!”
Standing in front of him, her hand reaching out to the doorbell, was his beautiful, strong, perfect little Megan.
CHAPTER NINE
“Megan.”
“Evan.”
They both stared at each other, neither knowing how to continue the conversation. While Evan had planned on finding Megan, he assumed he’d have more time to come up with an opening line. Though Megan had actively sought out Evan, actually finding him hadn’t crossed her mind.
“What are you doing here?” Evan finally spit out.
“I’m…I’m…” She couldn’t stop herself from stuttering.
She wanted to apologize. She wanted to swear to him that she had nothing to do with his uncle’s murder. She wanted him to believe her, to forgive her for the thing she didn’t do.
“Evan, I didn’t…”
“I know.” He cut her off.
Still, neither of them moved.
“I told you: I can’t go home.” Darren appeared on the other side of the doorway. “Whoa, Evan, it’s your girlfriend.”
Evan shot him a look.
“You know, I think I’m going to go home. It’s my house anyway.” He grabbed his coat and slipped between the two. “Megan, always a pleasure.”
Without stopping, he raced toward his car, and dashed down the driveway.
“You came here.”
“I had to.”
Evan looked past her. “I was coming to you.”
“What?”
“I just saw.” He awkwardly pointed in the direction of his television set, although there was no way she could have seen where he was pointing.
“You saw the TV?”
“With your…”
“With my interview.”
“Yes.”
“Evan, I meant that.”
She meant that she would find out who really murdered his uncle.
How could he tell her to drop it? How could he admit that the person she was looking for was actually standing in front of her? How could he tell her that the reason she was in prison for all those years was because he didn’t have the balls to confess the truth? He couldn’t.
“Megan, you don’t have to do that.”
“I do.”
Megan stared at the boy she had fallen for so many years ago. He seemed different, broken, but that wasn’t a bad thing. She was different, she was broken too. She had hoped that seeing him would bring back the good memories and that she could find a way to feel a sense of hope.
But…seeing him actually had more of an opposite effect. She felt angry, resentful, and insulted. What was she doing standing outside his door? Hadn’t nine years behind bars taught her anything? She didn�
�t belong. She wasn’t meant for his world. What was she doing trying to reclaim her place among his people?
“I shouldn’t have come.”
“Megan, stop.”
Evan threw out his hand, landing his palm on her shoulder. In that touch, he felt something different than he had ever felt with her. He felt guilt. He felt remorse. He felt himself needing to tell her everything.
He knew that couldn’t happen. His brother was right: he couldn’t implicate himself in the crime. In that moment, with his hand still on her shoulder, feeling her warmth, Evan made a promise to himself.
I can’t allow myself to get close to this girl. I can’t fall back in love with Megan Coulis.
“This was a mistake.”
“Come in. Please, Megan.”
“Evan.”
“You came all this way. Come inside.”
She gave in to his plea, nodded her head, and followed him through the doorway.
Megan looked around, taking in the home. It wasn’t as extravagant as the house he had grown up in, but it was still exquisite. It was darker, not as open, more confining, but somehow, was a perfect fit for Evan. Or at least, it was a perfect fit for him now. He wasn’t the same boy who had told her that she was the smartest person on the planet. He wasn’t the same boy who had stood in her doorway making up excuses to visit her.
But, then again, she wasn’t the same girl who had thought that GF stood for girlfriend.
“Your home is beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
He took her coat.
“This is a nice coat.”
“I’ve had it forever.”
They passed the kitchen.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.”
They walked down the darkened hallway.
“Seems as though a light blew.”
“It does seem that way.”
The hallway continued.
“This house has a lot of rooms.”
“Thirty-seven. Forty, if you include the basement.”
Megan followed Evan down the hallway just a little further until it opened into a spacious living room. It was dark outside, but the moonlight shone through the massive windows that took up the entire wall, giving light to the lake that was only a stone’s throw away from where she was standing.
“Wow.” It was all she could say.
“Beautiful.”
“Really is.”
But he wasn’t talking about the lake. He was staring at her.
He had seen her on the television, he had thought to himself that she hadn’t changed, but he was wrong. She was no longer the girl he had known. Her hair was just as dark, her skin just as light, and her eyes just as crystal blue, but her voice, her lips, her mannerisms…she was a woman. He reminded himself of his promise to not get close to her, but it didn’t make him stray from his path. His path was still to her. Physically close wasn’t the same as emotionally close.
Right?
“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here.” She turned back to him.
“Would it be odd if I said I wasn’t?”
Both of them spoke in a subdued whisper.
Megan stepped closer to him. “I never blamed you for me getting kicked out.”
“I never thought you did.”
“And yet…”
“And yet you refused to see me.”
“But only because I was hurt.”
“By me?” This time, he stepped into her.
“By the situation.”
“I could have helped you.”
“You reminded me of what I lost.”
“And then…”
Another step in. “Evan, you have to believe me.”
“I do.”
She looked away from him. “I got kicked out of a school I had only been at for one semester. It wasn’t life-changing.”
“And yet it was.”
She stepped in, turning her attention back to his eyes. “Not enough to kill someone.”
“It was your future.”
“And look what that got me.”
She dropped her arms to her sides, feeling her insides harden from the pain of the gone years.
“But you didn’t deserve it.” He placed his hand on her hip.
“I stole the midterm.” She straightened.
“You would never.” His voice became gruff.
“It’s what got me expelled.” She whispered.
“You didn’t need to.” His other hand moved to her other hip.
“And yet I did.” She arched her back, bringing her upper body to better face him.
The heat between them was there, and it was powerful. Neither could control it, and neither wanted to.
But to forget the past eleven years…to be the same people they were before their lives took the unlikely paths they did…neither could do that either.
“Megan…”
“Evan…”
They felt each other’s breath on their lips, and they were pushed over the edge. They succumbed to the wanting. Evan wrapped his hands around her lower back, bringing her body to his. Their mouths collided, their tongues taking hold of the passion. Megan’s fingers dug through Evan’s hair, pulling him even closer. She marveled at the power of him, the difference his kiss could be all these years later. He was full of fire, and it made her glow. It made her want more.
She lifted her chin as Evan’s lips moved to her neck and then up to her ear. He tickled her skin ever so lightly as he slowed his kisses. Then he whispered.
“I know what really happened the night of the party. I know you didn’t steal the test answers.”
Megan froze, immediately thrown back to her nightmare. She had never told anyone.
“You…you don’t know what you’re talking about.” She stumbled back, away from him.
“I’ve known for awhile.” He reached out to her, trying to bring her back in.
“Don’t touch me!” She threw her arms up, blocking him.
She felt dirty, violated, all the things she felt that night in Dr. Covington’s study. She needed to escape. She needed to forget…again.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to leave.”
“You don’t.”
“I…I…” She shook her head, trying to find her bearings.
“Megan, stop.” But she took off down the hallway.
Megan found her coat and closed her eyes as she placed her hand on the door.
“Megan, you don’t have to leave.” Evan begged. He truly hadn’t meant to drive her away.
“Thank you for having me.” She politely smiled. “And a promise is a promise. I will find out what really happened to your uncle.”
She slipped through the doorway without even a goodbye.
Evan stared at the closed door, letting her final words hit him.
And a promise is a promise. I will find out what really happened to your uncle.
He believed she would.
But that wasn’t something he could allow her to do.
CHAPTER TEN
“But Chief Davis, I was acquitted of all charges. My file says that.”
“You were still convicted of a felony.”
“For a crime in which I didn’t commit. And in which the state has agreed I didn’t commit.”
“Which I understand, but Miss Coulis, this is a small town. If we were to consider bringing you on, people would talk.”
“Who are these people?”
“Other police officers, for some.”
Megan rolled her neck, attempting to calm herself. It was a tactic she had taken up in prison, when she found that the other inmates had a talent for trying her patience. It eased her back into sanity…or at least, semi-sanity. It was the only thing that kept her from snapping.
She knew it was a long shot, landing herself a position at the local police station, but she felt as though her test scores would prove her worth. While she was in prison, she had done a great deal of studyi
ng, trying to prove her own innocence. She knew the justice system better than she knew her right hand from her left. Megan was also well aware that had her trial taken place outside of her small town, there was a very good chance that she would have been able to beat it. In no way was she proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Never was it addressed that she might have been set up, framed for the murder in question. In reality, not much was addressed at all.
While she had pleaded not guilty, no one dared to believe her. She had motive, as Dr. Covington had been the one who ultimately got her expelled from The Valley School; she had no alibi for the time of his murder, as she claimed to be home alone, reading; and found in her bedroom with a few drops of his dried blood on the handle not more than four hours after his body was found, was the murder weapon. She didn’t stand a chance. The man who was killed was powerful and wealthy, with many friends and allies. She was a poor kid from the wrong part of town, who didn’t fit in.
What chance did she really think she had of getting a job in the system that failed her?
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