Page 26 of Now You See Him
“I-I must’ve missed it.”
Tina walked over to stand by his side. Maybe she wasn’t seeing whatever he was staring at. “What did you miss?”
His fingers trembled as he pointed to the basement door where she’d just entered. “I walked downstairs from the office, and asked you if you wanted to go to my mother’s house for dinner. Then I walked back towards my office, and I heard something. When I turned around, all the kitchen cabinets were open.”
“Oh?”
He turned to face her, and his hands came up, lightning fast, to grip her biceps. He squeezed the fleshy part of her arm until she yelped with pain.
“Logan!”
“You opened the cabinets,” he said, his tone accusatory. “You—they were already opened when I came down here. I just missed it when I went to the basement stairs. You opened them and then forgot and went down for laundry.”
Tina’s first thought was that she really was sick and twisted because Damien had made his presence known and that was thrilling. She was giddy.Excitedthat he was back. Her second thought was that Logan did not handle this information well. He obviously hadn’t experienced the level of paranormal encounters that she’d experienced.
And lastly, there was a messed up sense of appreciation that Damien was going after Logan. That he washurtinghim. And didn’t that just make her feel guilty? Why in the world would she want to hurt the man that she’d agreed to marry? This had to be some sort of side effect of encountering an evil spirit.
“Tina!” Logan’s voice edged on desperation.
“Yeah, I, ah, there was a strange smell coming from the cabinets. The fresh paint, maybe? I opened them all up to air it out.”
His grip relaxed, the relief so clear in his face that Tina had to hide a smile by turning her back towards him. She walkedaround the island, closing all the cabinets and drawers until the space was back to its original clean aesthetic.
“Why don’t we go get ready?” she said to Logan. “You know your mom. She likes it when everyone is dressed up.”
He didn’t say anything but managed to put one foot in front of the other and follow her out of the room.
“I just don’t understandwhy you won’t set a date,” Cynthia said as she sat at the head of her dining table, her hands folded in front of her empty plate. Her brassy brown hair was swept up in a chignon. She wore pearls, and her hair was unnaturally shiny. She was so desperate to show off to all of her friends that her only son was getting married that she couldn’t tell that same son was beet red and hated every moment of this conversation.
Out of kinship, affection after years of knowing him, Tina reached under the table and rested her hand on his thigh. He gave her a resolved, miserable half smile in acknowledgment.
“Let it go, Cynthia,” Tom said. His voice was bland, as if he’d already heard his wife’s complaints and was used to them. “They’re young. Let them decide when it’s right for them.”
“They’re in theirthirties, Tom,” Cynthia said. She sounded more and more desperate with each syllable. “It’s time to either shit or?—”
“Okay,” Tina said, standing from the table. She picked up her plate and her glass. “I’m just going to put these in the dishwasher, and I have to check my phone for a work…thing.”
She made her escape as quickly as she possibly could. The kitchen was less welcoming and classic than the one she had in her beautiful new home, but definitely more ostentatious. Marble waterfall island. Grecian-style cabinetry. Bamboohardwood floors. A restaurant-size fridge with custom paneling. Tina hated it.
After loading the dishwasher, she walked in the opposite direction of the dining room and went into the family room, which was less formal than the sitting room. She technically had enough space in her home to have two separate conversation spaces in addition to the great room. There was a part of her that knew Logan was interested in a similar setup, but after she told him the truth, after they figured out what Damien wanted, he was probably going to move out. Why would he want to stay with her after she cheated?
No, after she cheatedandfelt zero remorse?
Tina walked past the couches towards the wall of bookshelves. She’d kill some time, give the family space to talk at the table without her. As she scanned the photos of Logan from when he was a child through adulthood, her eyes stopped on a stack of yearbooks.
Smiling, she touched the one that was from Logan’s last year of high school and slipped it off the shelf. The book had a thick leather cover and gold-stamped lettering. Tina turned her back and leaned against the shelving unit as she began flipping through pages. There were mostly photos of high schoolers with arms draped over one another’s shoulders.
Because the school was small, Tina tried to find as many pictures of Logan as she could.
There he was on the debate team. On the lacrosse team.
Because of course he’d play lacrosse.
She flipped another page and froze, her blood icing over. She almost dropped the yearbook at the image staring back her.
In the center of the two-page spread featuring the award-winning football team stood the star quarterback and wide receiver.
Derrick and Damien Sutter. They were identical at first glance, but they’d both been inside her. She could tell the difference. Damien had a cockier, meaner smile. It said that he knew he was hurting you and expected you to enjoy it. His jaw also looked like it was drawn with sharp lines and hard edges. When she stared at it long enough, she could tell that it was more angular than Derrick’s. Meanwhile, Derrick had the sweeter expression, the one that she preferred. It was a genuine, warm curve of his lips. It was the kind of easy charm that had butterflies fluttering in her belly, especially since she knew that he could be just as mean as his brother in the sheets if he wanted to.
