or mine, and curling up together, learning about each other.
Tonight, it meant silence. There were shows I wanted to watch and no desire to turn on my television. Books I had requested from the library with no inclination to pick them up and begin reading.
Why did they do it?
Nancy’s question wouldn’t stop racing through my mind, and I glared at my ceiling. A few floors away sat my answers to questions I hadn’t bothered asking.
Perhaps because I didn’t want to learn their answers.
“No, that’s not true. You’re terrified of them.” I shook my head and pushed off my chair. I was dressed to go for a walk even though it was dark and had snowed earlier. The sidewalks were slippery with salt and sand and probably turning to ice but sitting alone in my apartment would drive me insane. Or send me running to the top floor where I could pound on Hudson’s door before pounding my fists to his chest until he ached like I did.
Why?
I was tugging on a pair of sweatpants over my worn leggings in order to stay warm in the twenty-degree weather when a soft knock rattled my door.
I paused, sweatpants sitting at my hips, and debated. Three people knew where I lived. Hell, I barely knew more than three people and considering Angie wouldn’t show up announced, that left Hudson or Samaya.
Why?
Perhaps the time had come for me to get my answers. My balloon burst when I peeked through the peephole. Instead of a tall and muscled and handsome, scowling man I couldn’t stop thinking of, stood a pretty little, slightly crazy brunette who gave no shits about what anyone thought of her, and had treated me like a friend from the moment we met.
I unlocked the security chain and undid the deadbolt.
Jenna, dressed like she came straight from work at her law firm in a black suit and bright red silky shirt beneath, tapped her matching red heels to the floor.
“Hey. How are you?”
My brows climbed my forehead and I leaned against the doorframe. “You came all the way here to ask me that?”
“Sue me for caring.” She shrugged and tipped her head to the side. “They don’t know I’m here, talking to you. Well, that’s not true.” She held up an envelope. “I was supposed to drop this off, but they don’t know I came to talk to you… can we? Talk?”
In a way, it didn’t surprise me she was here. She wasn’t yet a Valentine. She hadn’t crafted a lie that took months to set in motion. She, for all purposes, was harmless and less threatening even if she’d gone along with it. She had to have known, though. Jenna and Brandon might not be married yet, but she was a part of their family. She would have known when photos started going missing when I showed up. Perhaps she knew my name.
And yet from that first day—she’d acted like someone I could have been friends with the moment she pulled me into a hug and was bickering with her fiancé, Brandon, over the correct garlic salt amounts.
“Did you know?” I asked, already stepping back and holding open the door for her to enter.
“Not as much as Brandon, which was still much less than David or Hudson. He mentioned your name once, before Melissa passed, and then I didn’t give it thought until Hudson and David said you were coming for dinner when I asked where her pictures were.”
The pictures. The secrets. I knew they’d hidden them.
She scanned my apartment, a soft grin lifting her lips. “This is really nice.”
“You can let Hudson know. It’s his building. But you already knew that, too, I assume?” I flinched from the rudeness in my voice. It couldn’t be helped. I needed to lash out at someone and she was in front of me.
Before I could summon an apology, she shrugged and gave another scan of my place. “I’ve never been inside, though. And it’s still nice. Suits you, with all the hard, brick walls.”
Anger spiked and climbed up my spine. “Do I not have a reason for them?”
She sighed then, like she had to expel the weight of the world in a breath. “I’m not saying you don’t. I’m just saying you have them, but really, I didn’t come to argue. I am sorry for going along with everything. Truly. And I really do like you.”
Her eyes looked like they belonged on a sad puppy. And while I appreciated what I hoped was