Till Death(8)

“Why in the world are you apologizing?” She frowned as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t your fault unless you got up in the middle of the night and did this to your own car. If so, then we do need to talk.”

Despite what happened, my lips twitched into a grin. “It wasn’t me,” I replied dryly. “But I really wished I’d thought to park it in the carriage house.”

“Why would you have thought that?” She folded an arm around my shoulders. “We don’t have a problem with theft and vandalism here. In other parts of the town, yes, but nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Of course, with my outstanding luck, the very first night back home, some douchebag would vandalize my car.

I stepped away from my mom as I reached up and tucked a strand of hair that had slipped free behind my ear. Part of me wanted to pick up one of the landscaping rocks and throw it at the car out of pure frustration. I had insurance, but this wasn’t on my list of things to deal with today.

It was a damn good thing I hadn’t picked up a rock and thrown it, because I caught sight of the white-and-blue cruiser coming up the driveway. Probably wouldn’t look good if the city police officer caught me lobbing a rock at the car.

“I hope the officer is cute,” Mom said.

I whipped around, brows raised as I stared at her.

“What?” She smoothed her hand over her wavy hair as she grinned. “I do love a man in a uniform.”

“Mom.” My eyes widened.

“And if I remember correctly, you also had a thing for the boys in blue,” she continued as she tugged the sides of her cardigan together, and my eyeballs about fell out of my head. Oh my God, did Mom seriously just go there? She rose on the tips of her toes, eyeing the cruiser as it coasted to a stop behind my car. “So maybe you’ll have a thing for this one.”

I was going to die.

“I can only hope. I’d love to see you happily married before I’m six feet under,” she went on.

Heat crept into my cheeks as I gaped at her. Was she now drinking in the mornings?

“Oh.” Disappointment rang out in Mom’s voice. “He’s very attractive, but a little young. Well, I guess you could always date younger. I mean, that’s in style, isn’t it? He—”

“Mom,” I whispered, eyes narrowing.

A look of innocence crossed her face, and I took a deep breath, turned around, and saw the police officer. My jaw unhinged once again.

Surprise flickered over the cop’s face on his approach. His steps slowed as my heart lurched in my chest. The cop . . . he looked so much like the boy from econ class—the guy who my mom had referenced only a few seconds before.

It couldn’t be him, but . . .

The resemblance was uncanny.

Same light brown hair buzzed close to the skull on the sides of the head and styled into a trimmed fade. Broad shoulders—door-busting shoulders. Even with the dark blue uniform and vest, I knew there was a defined chest hidden underneath. Same exact build, down to the tapered waist and muscular thighs.

The similarity went beyond the body. Those eyes—oh my God—those pale blue eyes were a blast from the past and the square jaw was only a little gentler.

He looked so much like Cole Landis.

I took a step back as my heart kicked around in my chest. I almost couldn’t do it—couldn’t look at him, because all I saw was Cole.

But it wasn’t him. This cop was too young, and Cole had been two years older than me when we met at the tail end of my freshman year. He had to be thirty-two now, and this guy was barely pushing twenty-five.

The police officer glanced at the car as he walked past it. “Mrs. Keeton?”

“That would be me.” Mom stepped forward, smiling as she let go of her cardigan. “I was the one who called this morning, but the car belongs to my daughter, Sasha.”

Confirmation replaced the look on the officer’s handsome face. “Sasha Keeton?”

I stiffened as if invisible strings grabbed my spine. I now understood the surprised expression he wore. Even though this cop had to have been in high school when everything had gone down, everyone in this town who was breathing back then knew who I was.

Because I was the one, the only one, who’d escaped.

Panic blossomed in the pit of my belly, rising through me so swiftly acid churned in my stomach. Newspaper headlines flashed before me. The Bride Who Lived. The One Who Brought Down the Groom.

I shouldn’t have come back here.

Instinct kicked in, and instead of spinning around and hiding in my room like I wanted to, I took a deep breath like my therapist had instructed many, many times before. Pushing the panic down, I lifted my chin. I was not going to run. I had nothing to hide. Not when I’d spent the last ten years hiding and losing all this time with my mom.

I could do this.

Second by second, the panic eased off, relaxing the vise circling my neck until I was able to speak. “Guess you know who I am, but you have me at a disadvantage. I don’t know who you are.”

The officer opened his mouth and then closed it. A moment passed. “I’m Officer Derek Bradshaw,” he said, turning his chin to the right. “And I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you didn’t do this to your car.”

Some of the tension seeped out of my shoulders as I shook my head. “Nah. I sort of liked the windows in my car.”