Page 45 of Thicker Than Water
“And what if I’m never ready?”
We both pull back a little, the question seeming to surprise Julia as much as it does me.
“You will be,” I promise, squeezing her hand.
She shakes her head, uncertain, then parts her lips before clamping them shut.
“What is it?” I ask, trying to suppress my impatience. “Say it.”
“It’s just— How do you know? You’ve never been ready with Wyatt. You cut him out completely.”
“That—that’s different.”
Heat charges into my cheeks, and I rub my jaw to mask my blush. I look toward my phone, wondering if I should answer it after all, but the screen is back to black.
“No, it’s not different—see?” Julia says. “You’re getting all pink. It’s been a year since you broke up and you still look like that whenever he comes up.”
“No, Jules, trust me, it’s different. You and Jason aremarried. You have a kid together. That’s so much more than me and Wyatt ever shared. So, yeah, I get it, he’s hurt you so bad, you can’t imagine ever being ready to speak to him about it, but youwillbe. You’ll work through this.”
She shakes her head again, and I nod emphatically, trying to cancel out her doubt. She and Jason can’t end up like me and Wyatt—because what would that mean for me and Jules? My throat tightensjust to wonder. Tears burn in the back of my eyes. Even though Jason’s the one who connected us, I always thought my bond with Julia transcended his involvement. We have jokes that don’t include him, shorthand he doesn’t share. But what would it look like if they weren’t together? How would I sit in my brother’s house, unable to hold my best friend’s hand? How would I stay close to Julia and to Jason without betraying them both?
“Excuse me,” someone says from the door.
I swivel to find Beck there, standing beside an officer in uniform.
“Jesus Christ,” I hiss. “What do you want? He was with Maeve Dorsey last Friday. If you don’t believe her or their emails, have her take a polygraph or something.”
Before he can respond, another person bustles into the room. Bald head, bristly mustache. It’s been years since I’ve seen him, but I recognize him instantly.
“Lou? What’s going on?”
He opens his mouth, but it’s Beck’s voice that booms toward me and Julia.
“We have a warrant to arrest Mr. Larkin,” he says, “for the murder of Gavin Reed.”
Julia’s hand goes slack in mine. Beck reaches into his suit jacket, pulls out a crisp piece of paper folded into thirds.
“Arresthim?” I volley my gaze between Beck and Lou. “He has an alibi!”
“Sienna,” Lou says. He puts up his hands like a crossing guard, like I might be stepping into danger. “The alibi’s no good.”
I let go of Julia’s hand to rake my fingers through my hair. I point my response at Beck: “I get that you can only take Maeve’s word for it, but why would she lie? She outed herself as a—as a fucking homewrecker by admitting she was with Jason!”
“It’s not that,” Lou says, moving a few inches so he’s blocking myview of Beck. “It turns out Ms. Dorsey’s statement still left a gap in Jason’s timeline.”
“What? How?”
“She said he left her house around ten thirty. And since Julia has previously stated that he arrived home around eleven thirty, that still leaves an hour unaccounted for.” He leans closer, lowers his voice. “Gavin Reed lives twelve minutes from Maeve’s house. Twenty from Jason’s.”
“So?” I fire back, leaning to the side to glare at Beck. “You really think Jason cheated on his wife, then immediately went and murdered his boss? That doesn’t makeanysense.”
Julia drops into a chair. I spare enough of a glance to ensure she hasn’t fainted or collapsed before I whirl back to Beck.
“Doesn’t it seem a lot more likely that Jason realized he’d fucked up in the biggest way, so he drove around trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do before going home?”
“I understand this is upsetting,” Beck says, “but we have evidence that corroborates his involvement in the murder.”
“Yeah, yeah, Gavin’s phone, the bloody knife, but it isn’t Gavin’s blood, it’s—”
