“Yes you will,” I said.
He shook his head violently like a child disagreeing with a parent. “No way, dude. I’m finished with them.”
“Then who are you gonna root for?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the Devil Rays. They don’t have any fans.”
I sat down in my chair. “Whatever.”
He clicked the TV off with the remote and dropped it in his lap. “Where you been?”
“That is a loaded question,” I said, not sure where to begin.
Carter studied me for a moment, leaned over the edge of the bed. “You were with Emily again.”
“No I wasn’t.”
“Yeah you were. I can tell.”
“What?”
“You had sex.”
“How can you tell that?”
He pointed to my head. “Those lines in your forehead are gone.”
“That means nothing.”
He leaned back in his bed. “Does too.”
“I haven’t seen Emily,” I said.
“Well, you did something with somebody,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
We stared at each other for a minute, neither of us blinking.
His eyebrows rose up slowly, and the rest of his face broke into a look of horror. “No.”
“Afraid so.”
He shook his head slowly. “No. No way.”
“Yup.”
“The Ice Queen?”
A big grin was my only response.
He dropped his head dramatically back onto his pillow. “I’m in here for a couple of days and you start making decisions like someone stole your brain.”
“I’m not here to argue about this with you,” I said.
“Well, somebody’s gotta argue it because being with her ain’t right.”
“Isn’t that a country song?”
“Shut up, Noah,” he said, raising his head up again. “Were you completely ripped? Or maybe in a coma?”
I showed him my middle finger, but smiled. “No.”
He looked at me, then waved his hand in the air. “I don’t wanna talk about this right now. My heart can’t take it.”
“You weren’t shot in the heart.”
“Whatever. Where else have you been?”
I told him about my trip to Los Angeles to see Charlotte.
He whistled when I finished. “Randall just can’t seem to do the right thing.”
“I know.”
“But you don’t think she had anything to do with Kate?”
“She’s clean,” I told him. “She’s a pistol, for sure. But she was pretty honest about the whole deal. Didn’t blame Randall for any of it.”
“Maybe that’s what she wanted you to think.”
“I don’t think so, but I left Liz a message about her anyway.”
Carter winced at Liz’s name. Then he shivered like he had goosebumps.
“I need to ask him about this other woman,” I said. “She may be just like Charlotte, but I want to talk to her.”
“Yeah, I agree,” he said.
I thought about another loose end. “Do you have that key Emily gave me?” I asked. “I gave it to you right before…”
“…you got me shot,” he finished. He looked over to the small dresser sitting under the television. “Top drawer. It’s with my wallet and watch.”
I walked over and opened the drawer. The key was resting on top of his wallet. I turned back to him.
“Charlie Stratton,” he said, anticipating my question. “He has a kiosk in Clairemont Square, by the theater. Makes keys on the spot.” He nodded at the key in my hand. “He’ll know.”
I put the key in my pocket. “Okay. You alright here tonight? You want anything?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m not feeling so good anyway.”
I walked over to the bed. “Why? What’s wrong?”
He leaned forward, clutching his stomach. “Oh, God.”
I grabbed the blue, half-moon-shaped tray off the shelf next to his bed and slid it onto his lap.
He flopped back, waving it away. “Never mind. I guess it was just the thought of you and the Ice Queen again.”
I flipped the tray at his head. “I gotta go.”
He ducked. “Where?”
“See Emily.”
“Jesus. Aren’t we the sexual deviant?”
“No,” I said, frowning, walking toward the door. “I need to set things straight.”
“Noah?”
I opened the door and turned back to him. “What?”
“Last night,” he said. “With Liz. Seriously. You feel good about it?”
“As good as I’ve felt about anything this week,” I said.
He nodded solemnly, cracked a small smile in my direction, then doubled over, retching loudly.
51
I pulled into Emily’s condo community in Del Mar and parked in front of her stairs. I wasn’t looking forward to the conversation, but I knew I needed to clear the air. The longer I let it go, the more difficult it would be for me to see her, something that was going to happen if I was going to figure out what happened to Kate.
I walked up the steps to her door and knocked. I waited a minute, then knocked again. Still no answer.
I ran back to my car, scribbled a quick note, and ran it up to her door. I knew that I was getting off easy, but I tried to convince myself that leaving a note was at least pushing the issue.
As I drove down PCH, the sun was starting to dip and I decided to pull off and walk the beach at Torrey Pines State Beach. I knew I couldn’t make it to Clairemont Square in time to talk with Carter’s friend about the key, and I’d found that walking the sand at dusk does wonders to organize my thoughts.
I’d walked a couple hundred yards to the south, just to the edge of the bluffs, and was kicking myself for not having my board in the rental car when I recognized a familiar face walking in my direction.
Emily smiled at me as we met. “Hey, stranger.”
“Hi. I was actually just up at your place.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“Got that. I left a note.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Sounds serious.”
“Sort of,” I said, a mixture of relief and dread coursing through me in anticipation of our impending conversation.
She tugged on the hem of her gray T-shirt. “Noah, last night-”
I held up my hand. “Let’s not apologize or do any of that stuff. That’s what I wanted to talk about.”
She motioned toward the rocks at the base of the cliff, and we walked over to them and sat down.
“I didn’t know he was coming over,” she said before I could say anything. “I hadn’t seen him in a couple of months. Things just kind of went nuts.” She paused. “But I told him that last night was one night. That’s it.”
I nodded. “You don’t have to explain anything to me, Em. Really.”
“I know. But it was awkward.”
“Yeah, it was.” We watched the water for a minute before I spoke again. “Emily, I just don’t think this is a good idea.”
She looked surprised. “What? You and me?”
I nodded. “There’s too much going on right now. With both of us.”
She bit her bottom lip, her gaze now riveted on the surf. “Okay.”
My stomach dropped further. “I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, Em. I really don’t. I’m trying to make Kate’s death a priority and starting a relationship with you at the same time…it just doesn’t feel right.”
“Fine,” she said, her voice a dull monotone.
“And we’re gonna be around each other,” I said before I lost the courage to keep talking about it. “I need to be able to talk to you without feeling weird around you. And if something’s going on with us, I don’t think that’s gonna work.”
“I get it,” she said, but still didn’t look at me.
We sat there in silence. The sun sunk further, turning the ocean from a dark blue to more of a metallic hue. The waves got smaller, long lines of foam washing easily to the shore.
“This feels like it’s about last night,” she said finally, hugging her knees to her chest.
“It’s not,” I said. “I promise. Maybe last night made it clearer to me. I don’t know. But this is about you and me-nothing else.”
She turned to look at me. No tears in her eyes. I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe a little anger, maybe a little sadness. But her expression was blank.