A High-End Finish(70)

“I’ll bet Penny likes those boots, though,” Jennifer continued snidely. “The two of them were pretty tight at the gym the other night. I even saw them hugging.” She gave Whitney a knowing look. “I think Shannon might like girls better than boys.”

I should’ve kept walking, but she was so infuriating, I had to stop and turn around. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but isn’t it time you learned to shut your mouth?”

“Ooh, defensive,” Jennifer said.

“You think she likes girls?” Whitney asked, egging her on.

“It makes sense,” Jennifer reasoned. “The only man she’s dated since Tommy dumped her back in high school is Jerry Saxton, and we all know what happened to him.”

I cocked my head to study her. “Will you ever grow up?”

“I don’t know,” Jennifer taunted. “Will you ever go to jail for killing Jerry?”

My eyes went wide. Where had that come from? I didn’t know how to respond, it was so offensive.

Whitney snorted with laughter.

I found my tongue and said in an innocent voice, “But gosh, Jennifer. I saw you hugging Penny, too. Maybe what I’m hearing from you is a little bit of . . . jealousy?”

Whitney roared with laughter and elbowed her friend. “Snap! She got you there.”

Jennifer’s eyes were narrow slits of fury as she jabbed her finger at me. “Everyone knows you killed Jerry because you were jealous of him sleeping with Penny.”

I was taken aback. “Jerry was sleeping with Penny?” I thought about the conversations I’d had with Penny. “I don’t believe it.”

“Shows you what you know.” Jennifer’s laughter sounded forced, but she didn’t back down. “It’s all true.”

“No, it’s not.” I met Whitney’s gaze and caught her aiming a look of pure contempt at her so-called friend. Wow. Things weren’t exactly perfect between Whitney and Jennifer.

Finished here, I turned and walked to my truck, leaving them to face off with each other.

But as I drove away, I was more confused than ever. Was Jennifer telling the truth? Had Penny slept with that jerk Jerry Saxton? It was impossible. Penny despised him as much as I did. Jennifer was lying just to annoy me. Or was she? Who knew what was going on in her spiteful little mind?

At this point I was certain of only one thing: I really couldn’t stand Jennifer Bailey.



Ten minutes later, I was driving home. But as I approached the turnoff for the Boyers’ house, I decided on a whim to go back to the job site instead. It was a little after four o’clock and I figured I could squeeze in another hour of work before going home.

After dealing with Jennifer and Whitney, I needed a distraction. I was still fuming over our bizarre confrontation and figured it would be better for me to work on something tangible and practical at the job site than to have to face my own four walls in this rotten mood.

I parked the truck in the Boyer’s treelined driveway, grabbed my bag and toolbox, and walked up to the house. The guys had all gone home for the day. I decided to continue Todd’s work of lining up the newly painted balusters for the porch railing. He had dropped everything when I called him to come to Whitney’s house, so the least I could do was pick up where he’d left off. It was easy but time-consuming, a matter of fitting the new decorative baluster into the groove in the bottom railing that the guys had built last week.

The best part of the job was that it was mindless. I had already finished a third of one side of the porch when my cell phone rang.

This time I answered it eagerly. “Dad! Where are you?”

“I’m heading home. Wanted to give you a heads-up.”

“I’m so glad.”

I told him I was still at the Boyers’ house and asked how his fishing trip had gone. We made plans to walk down to the pub for dinner later. After I ended the call, my mood was completely lifted. I would finish this portion of the railing and then pack up and go home.

The sun was just starting to slide below the horizon when I trudged back to my truck to pack up my tools. Despite feeling good about my father’s return, I realized that the earlier confrontation with Jennifer had exhausted me. There was nothing I could do about the woman, so I would have to learn to let go of the frustration and negativity I walked away with every time I had to deal with her.

I turned and gazed out at the horizon and took a moment to appreciate the deep blue ocean and the vivid colors of the crisp fall sky. I could smell leaves burning somewhere nearby. I waited until the last bit of sun disappeared into the ocean before I turned and pulled the tailgate down to slide my toolbox into the truck bed. It took a minute to secure it to the side of the truck and then I slammed the tailgate closed.

The soft snap of a tree branch behind me was my only warning. Something brutally heavy slammed into my temple and everything went bright before it all turned to darkness.

? ? ?

I awoke slowly. My vision was splintered; my head throbbed in pain. I couldn’t quite swim out of the blackness. I had to remind myself to keep breathing, but even the act of sucking in air was difficult. Every little movement was like a power drill boring a hole into the side of my head. I had to ignore the pain, try to revive myself in order to track down whoever had done this to me.

I was wasting precious time while that person was getting away, but I couldn’t be too impatient with myself, since I was incapable of sitting up. I blinked again and realized I couldn’t see. Am I blind now? Oh, my God. I started to panic.