Page 81 of All the Missing Pieces

Ridley had been living with me for two weeks now. Two weeks of that burnt-orange scent bleeding into my space. Two weeks of her tilted smiles and amazing meals. Two weeks of seeing her put her all into this case.

A case that should’ve had my full attention but didn’t. Because I was too distracted by tracing those damned tank tops she wore with my eyes. The countless straps that crisscrossed in designs I could never figure out but sure as hell lost hours trying to. The same way I lost hours trying to figure out how she twisted those tanned legs into a pretzel as she perched on a chair at my dining table.

My thoughts were so full of Ridley and her beautiful chaos that I couldn’t get my head where it needed to be. So today, I’d walked away. Taken a break from hours at that dining roomtable just breathing Ridley in. I’d gone to the one place that would remind me where my focus should be.

I headed up the porch steps, taking in all the new flowers in bloom. I didn’t know their names, but I could appreciate their color and beauty just the same. Before I could knock, the door to the house opened and Emerson filled the entryway. She beamed at me. “Where the heck have you been hiding?”

Guilt swept through me like a flash flood. I was one of two people Emerson let into her space with ease, and I hadn’t seen her in over a week. I was a dick. “Sorry, Em. Things have been…” My words trailed off, but my sister stepped in.

“Interesting?”

My lips twitched. “That’s one word for it.”

Bear pushed past his owner to greet me. I gave him a good scratch and then moved toward the door, Emerson welcoming me in. There was a new art piece decorating a hallway wall. Oil paint, if I wasn’t mistaken. A sunset over the mountains. Something Em hadn’t seen in person in years. But she’d painted it as if she’d just laid eyes on it yesterday.

“Impressive,” I said, nodding my head toward the work of art.

Emerson just shrugged and kept walking toward the kitchen as two smaller dogs ran out of the living room to follow her. Cheddar was a pug-chihuahua mix that looked like he needed his daily food intake cut in half. Saber was the tiniest Yorkie I’d ever seen. He had a single snaggletooth, which Em said reminded her of a saber-toothed tiger.

The moment we reached the kitchen, Emerson opened the fridge. “I’ve got lemonade, soda, sparkling water. I’d offer something harder, but it seems a little early for that.”

“I’m good,” I said, settling into a chair at her kitchen table. The same table we’d grown up around. It'd made all the sense in the world for Em to get the house after Mom died. It was the onlyplace in the world she’d ever felt safe. But some small piece of me wondered if her staying here was part of what hindered her.

Emerson grabbed a sparkling water and sat opposite me. She looked like she was fighting a smile, her eyes glittering with amusement.

“What?” I asked. “Why do you look so weird?”

Em rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

“You know what I mean. You’re all smiley.”

She laughed, twisting the top off her water. “I’m just wondering how things are going with your houseguest.”

I stiffened. “Fucking Trey.”

I hadn’t told Emerson that Ridley was staying with me because I hadn’t wanted her to feel pressured to talk to Ridley. Hadn’t wanted her to know just how deep I’d gotten into the cases Ridley had pulled together.

Em only laughed harder. “I need to be up-to-date on town gossip somehow.”

I cursed. “Thanks to Trey the town crier.”

She leaned back in her chair and took me in. “So? How is it? What’s she like?”

I worried the inside of my cheek with my molars, trying to think of the best way to describe all that Ridley was. “She’s not what I thought she was,” I admitted.

“Shocking,” Em said playfully. “You mean she’s not a con artist out to ruin everyone in Shady Cove?”

My eyes narrowed on my sister. “Don’t be a dick.”

She only grinned. “I think this is good for you. An exercise in learning and growing. My big brother finally admitting he was wrong.”

I shifted in my chair. I had been wrong. So incredibly wrong. And I’d hurt a good woman in the process. A woman I was coming to respect more than anyone I’d ever met.

The smile slipped from Emerson’s face. “What is it?”

I swallowed, my throat sticking on the action. “She’s been through a lot. I didn’t see that at first.”

Em’s form stiffened, her hand tightening around the glass bottle. “What happened to her?”

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