Once he was sure she was comfortable, he closed her door before going around to the driver’s side. This car was his baby. He adored it so much, Caitlin claimed she was the other woman who came between them when they finally divorced.

She wasn't too far off. Lucas spared a light caress along the front of her bumper and patted the hood. That done, he slipped inside.

Tess immediately stretched her seatbelt across her body. It snagged on her breasts, the fit too tight. Fiddling with the buckle, she noticed that the doctor was watching her closely. Their eyes locked for a beat, he coughed, then turned away. Without him watching, she finally managed to loosen the belt and snap it into place.

He waited until she was settled. Looking in his rearview to make sure no one else was in the lot—and, okay, to keep from ogling his passenger—Lucas strapped himself into his seat and started the car before coasting out of his parking spot.

“So, what did the sheriff want to talk to you about?” he asked, speeding down the road. Over the years, he’d driven down this straightaway so many times, he could navigate it with his eyes closed. Same as with most of Hamlet's streets. His Mustang took the curves easily.

Tess grit her teeth, grateful it wasn't raining.

Because the alternative was freaking out over just how fast he was driving, she thought about his question. Interesting way to start the conversation. It seemed as if the good doctor didn’t want to acknowledge that she caught him staring at her boobs.

“She told me you released Jack’s body. She wanted to know what I wanted to do.” She folded her hands in her lap. There was a small bruise on her knuckle. Her thumb whispered absently over the purple mark. “I’m going to have him cremated. I don’t know if that’s what he wanted. He never said. I never asked. But the sheriff, she said I had to decide because I’m his next of kin.” Bewildered, she added, “I’m his only kin.”

Lucas turned off of Main, heading toward First. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her unfold her hands as she reached to check the fit on her seatbelt. He eased off the gas a little. “No family?”

“Neither of us had any. My parents died when I was just a kid, one after the other. Jack… he never knew his. He grew up in foster care, going from house to house until the system kicked him out at eighteen. When we met, we just clicked. I guess we both knew what it was to be alone. And now—” Her voice shook, then grew thick as the fact that she was alone again slammed into her like a truck. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Like, I know he’s dead, but I somehow manage to forget for a few minutes. And then, of course, it hurts even more when I remember. I agreed to burn my husband today, but it just doesn’t seem real. I don’t think I really understand he’s gone, you know?”

“You will,” Lucas told her. He never expected her to be so talkative considering the shocky state she’d been in inside the station, but if she wanted to confide in him, he was more than willing to offer advice—even if it wasn’t the sort a trauma survivor wanted to hear. “Let me tell you something. Nothing can bring your husband back. It’s hard to wrap your head around that now because I bet you’re willing to do anything to prove me wrong. But I’m not wrong. And when you accept that he’s gone, it’ll be even worse.”

Tessa recoiled in her seat, as if he’d reached out and physically slapped her. He felt a small twinge of pity but continued because he had to. This was important.

“It’ll suck, trust me,” he told her. “But that’s how you start to heal. And you go on because, as much as the world seemed to end for you this morning, it hasn’t. Not really. Sun comes up, sun goes down. World turns. It’s just turning without Jack Sullivan now.”

“Wow.” Tess blinked, stunned. He wasn’t wrong. Sure, he could have put it a little gentler, a little nicer. Didn’t make him any less right. And because it sounded like the doctor was intimately familiar

with the cycle of numbness, disbelief, bargaining and denial she’d been drowning in since she found Jack murdered, she didn’t say another word.

He slanted a look to his right. “Ah, jeez, I didn’t mean half of that. Okay, no, I did—but I didn’t mean to be so harsh. My patients knock me for my bedside manner all the time. I guess, if you’re looking for someone to pretty this whole tragedy up for you, you should’ve gone with the deputy.”

“No.”

“No?” His lip curled. “What's the matter, Tessa? Not a fan of the deputy?”

“It's not that— I mean, he was nice enough. But I had to get out of there. The sheriff, the deputies… the questions. My head was so full before. Hazy. I couldn't think. They wouldn't let me.”

She also didn’t think she could spend another second with Deputy Walsh right now. As kind as he was, the man hovered, like she was two seconds away from a breakdown. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew she was teetering on the edge. If she didn’t get the chance to process this all in her own way, if she couldn’t get a moment to freaking breathe, then that might be the push it took to send her spiraling into the abyss.

Tess took in a deep breath, shuddering it out on the next exhale. She bowed her head, tucking her chin into her chest as she admitted, “Your honesty is kind of refreshing. I think I needed to hear all that. It still hurts so, so bad, but my head feels a little lighter now. The sheriff couldn't get through to me. Mason, neither. But now… I'm starting to understand what happened.”

Mason. Since when did she call Walsh Mason? “And what happened?”

“Jack’s dead.” Tessa said the words with conviction. And, this time, she thought she might believe them. “So, thanks.”

Lucas blinked. “Oh. Well, in that case, I’m happy to help.”

10

The only indication that the house Lucas drove up to was a cozy bed & breakfast was the decorative O Maria painted on her door when she first opened two summers ago.

There used to be a matching sign. That was gone now. Lucas pulled it out personally after what happened to her.

The way he looked at it, without a sign advertising the place, no outsider could find it and cause his sister any more trouble. He tried not to acknowledge the hypocrisy in the fact that he was actually driving one over himself.

With Caitlin breathing down his neck at the office earlier, he barely had any time to prepare Maria for the trouble he was bringing with him. His sister, always willing to help, agreed without any questions.

He was sure she had some now. Wonderful.

Tags: Jessica Lynch Hamlet Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net