A Deep and Dark December(24)

“The smart thing.”

He sat his soda on the counter. “I’m not listening to this.” He turned to leave, but his mother’s next words stopped him in the doorway.

“I have proof.”

He kept his feet planted and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“But you need to. Don’t be a fool.”

“A fool?” He turned partially. “It’s too late for that.”

“Betty saw her meeting another man.”

“Mom, don’t.”

“She didn’t see who, but the timing is right enough to give me doubts.”

“I’m going to work,” Keith blurted. He started for the front door.

His mother got up and followed. “I raised you to be smart, but since you weren’t smart enough stay away from that whore, I’m going to make sure you don’t make an even worse mistake.”

“Don’t call her a whore!”

“Women who sleep around and get pregnant by God knows who are whores. Before you throw away your life on her and her bastard child you’re going to ask for a paternity test.”

Keith opened the front door and ran down the steps to his car.

“You hear me?” his mother called after him.

Keith jumped into his car, started it and peeled away from the curb, leaving his mother fuming on the porch, hands on her hips.

“Can’t keep it in his pants, just like his father,” she grumbled under her breath. She went back into the house, picked up the phone, and dialed. “Hello? This is Nancy Collins. I’m calling on behalf of my son. There’s something I think you should know—”

Erin sucked in a sharp breath suddenly back in her kitchen. Keith was pulling a pink bakery box out of her refrigerator. Her heart beat so hard the sound filled her head. Past or future? She couldn’t tell. There’d been nothing in the vision to indicate if what she saw was something that had happened or something that was going to happen. No calendar on the wall, no reference to events she could place. Keith’s hair had been longer like it was when they first started dating. She’d been after him to grow it out again. She gripped the edge of the table, trying to get her bearings.

Keith got a couple of forks from a drawer and sat in his seat. Struggling to make sense of what she’d just experienced, she pasted on a smile and tried to look normal.

He opened the cake box flat. “Should I get some plates?”

“That’s… o-okay.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No.” Her voice was higher than usual. She tried to pitch it lower. “Nothing’s wrong.”

He frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Are you sure?”

She grabbed a fork and pulled the cake toward her. “Mmm, this looks good.” She worked on being normal as she scooped up a bite and pushed it into her mouth.

Keith watched her for a moment, then dug into the cake on his side. “Maybe I should spend the night and look after you.”

“No,” she answered, too quickly. At his raised brows, she back-pedaled. “I’m just so tired, I don’t know what kind of company I’d be.”

“I like your company any way I can get it. I’ll stop by first thing in the morning then.”

“I have to finish giving my statement at the police station and go to work. I wouldn’t have any time.”

He hunched his shoulders and gave his attention to forking another bite of cake. She’d hurt him, pushed him back yet again.

“Are you seeing someone else?” she blurted out.

His head came up. “What? No. What kind of question is that?”

“I don’t know.”

He straightened in his chair and looked at her closely. “Are you?”

“No.”

He studied her so long she wondered what he could be thinking. “In this town, you’d know if I was seeing someone else.” He chuckled, but it sounded forced. “Right?”

“Right.”

“We haven’t talked about it. I mean I just assumed we were exclusive. There’s no one else I want to see.”

He looked at her expectantly, his earlier offer to go away together and what it would mean hanging in the air between them.

She thought of Graham and how she’d confided more in him than she’d ever confided in Keith. She shouldn’t compare them. Even if she found herself wishing it was Graham she’d agreed to go away with.

“Me either.”

He grinned and she couldn’t help but return it with a real smile this time. They finished off the cake and talked some more about little things, insignificant things. Not the deepest, darkest secret she carried. Not the horror she’d witnessed earlier. Nothing upsetting or out of the ordinary. It was all so normal, she could scream.

At the door Keith drew her into his arms and kissed her long and deep. He’d been holding out on her. When he lifted his head, she rocked forward on her toes into his chest, catching herself with handfuls of his shirt.

“Sure you don’t want me to spend the night?” he asked hopefully.

She didn’t have it in her to pretend anymore today. “Another night?”

He kissed her again, a lingering goodbye that had her sighing and leaning against the doorway as she watched him walk to his car. He really was cute and if he kept kissing her like that, she might forget she wasn’t attracted to him physically. He waved to her as he pulled away from the curb. She closed the door, grinning like a smitten teenager. Maybe the trip would be just what they needed.