Page 4 of All Autumn
No, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t so stupid I couldn’t add two and two. Something had happened to spoil her surprise, but what? Something so bad that she’d driven off the side of a freaking mountain. There was only one thing I could think of, and if my guess was right, as soon as I got her home, I was going to find Brian and do him bodily harm.
Jenn had told me a while back that she didn’t trust Brian. For one, according to Jenn, he had a tendency to check out her butt when he thought no one was looking. “What man about to get married checks out his girlfriend’s best friend’s butt?” she’d once asked. I didn’t have an answer, but after she’d told me that, I’d taken to watching him. The dude not only liked eyeing Jenn’s butt but any other hot woman’s ass who happened to walk into his line of sight.
I liked Brian as a guy, but after that, I’d never liked him as Autumn’s future husband. Jenn had tried to talk to Autumn about her concerns, but Autumn hadn’t wanted to hear it. Afraid she’d damage her relationship with her best friend if she persisted, Jenn had shut up about Brian.
“What happened when you surprised him?” I hoped I was wrong about my assumption.
“Ha! The surprise was on me.” Her lips trembled. “I caught him cheating on me, Connor. And the thing is, I don’t think it was the first time.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” When she started crying, I leaned across the console and wrapped my arms around her, giving her my shoulder.
My twin, Adam, and I had been tight with Autumn, Jenn and her twin Natalie—who’d died a few years ago—and Savannah since grade school. At different times, Adam and I had had fleeting crushes on one or the other of them throughout high school. Only Adam and Savannah had actually hooked up, though, and that hadn’t gone so well. Savannah had broken my brother’s heart when she’d taken off for New York to pursue her dream of becoming a model. But that was a whole other story.
Right now my friend was hurting, and my protective instincts were out in full force. There was one more thing I needed to know. “Autumn, were you trying to kill yourself when you went over the mountain?” If she was, then Jenn, Adam, and I needed to set up around-the-clock guard duty so we could keep an eye on her. We’d lost Natalie, and I wasn’t about to lose another from our group.
She reared back, looking at me as if I were crazy. “What? God, no. I was crying and my vision was blurry. I didn’t see you until the last minute. I guess I jerked the wheel too hard. Believe me, I’m not about to kill myself over that jackass.”
That was a relief. A silver Mustang pulled in front of us. “Here’s Dylan.”
“You go talk to him. I can’t face him right now. Tell him I just want to go home.”
“Sure.” I got out of my car. “Hey, Chief. Got a little situation here,” I said when I reached him.
“So I understand. Where’s her car?”
Dylan Conrad was a cool dude, a big-city cop come to a small town, searching for peace. He’d found it with Jenn. They were getting married in May, and I couldn’t be happier for Jenn. After suffering the crushing blow of losing her twin sister, she deserved some happiness in her life. I couldn’t imagine my life without my twin in it.
“Down there,” I said when we reached the edge of the drop-off.
Dylan whistled. “She was damn lucky.”
“Yeah. Are you going to have to write an accident report? She’s had a bad day and wants to go home.”
“How’d you know her car was down there? You see her go over?”
“Watched it happen in my rearview mirror.” I wasn’t going to add to her problems by telling him she’d almost hit me head-on. “Scared the shit out of me. Just knew she’d gone down the mountain.”
He glanced over at my car, where Autumn was sitting. “Jenny said she walked in on Brian with another woman. That makes me want to give him a piece of my mind.”
“Tell me about it. Can we make this easy on her? She said she’d tell Brian where he could come get the car.”
“I think I’d like to tell him in person. Get a feel for his intentions. If he wants to cause her trouble, maybe I can head him off.”
“You’re a good man, Chief.” That was one reason I liked Dylan Conrad. He didn’t see things only in black or white like a lot of cops. “I’m going to stay with Autumn for a while. Call me, let me know what he has to say.”
“Will do. Jenny might stop by later. Autumn told her not to, that she’d talk to her tomorrow. Doubt Jenny will stay away, though. Not when her best friend just had her world turned upside down. If Brain’s not still at the dealership, I’ll track him down. He shows up after you get her home, let me know.”
After he left, I returned to my car. “I can take you home now.” I glanced over at Autumn. She was sound asleep, tearstains creating vertical lines on her cheeks, making me wish I were the one going to see Brian instead. He wouldn’t like getting a visit from me.
“Let’s get you home, sweetheart,” I whispered.
3
~ Autumn ~
“Autumn, honey, wake up. You’re home.”
Connor’s voice was so tender as it penetrated my consciousness that I started crying again. I didn’t want to cry over Brian anymore, but here I was, doing just that. It made me angry. But I really wasn’t crying for him, was I? My heart was broken, so the tears were for me.
