The Wife (35 page)

“And what is it that I’m looking at?” I say with a mixture of confusion and excitement.

“That’s a car that belongs to Bob Stevens.” He sits back again, proud of himself, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

“Is he the man you think shot me?” I ask, not expecting such an unfamiliar name would fill me with such fear. The more I hear, the more I wish I had asked Jamie or Lee to come here with me.

He ignores my question. “The car pulled in to the parking lot approximately twenty minutes before we determine the shooting occurred. Here, look at the time on this picture.” He pulls out a zoomed-in picture, revealing two grainy figures talking by the car, and my heart thumps with anticipation. “The car comes back exactly two minutes after the time of the shooting and was speeding like a madman. He stopped and took something from none other than that man and sped away.” He pulls one last picture to reveal a face I knew.

“Mark Paulson,” I say in disbelief. I recognized his pictures from the many times his name had been brought up before because he was one of the men that Mike confessed to owing money to for a business deal gone wrong.

“After digging a little more, we found out what was really going on between the Paulsons and your ex-husband.” Detective James places more pictures in front of me but I only listen to his words. “The Paulsons suspected your husband was stealing from them, and had proof that he laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars from them on several contracts they worked on together over the years.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Even if Mike was stealing from them, we already decided that there was no way for them to have known and planned for my location that night the way they did.”

“That’s because they didn’t plan to kill you. They planned to kill your husband that night.” He remembers I have no memory at all of the night and fills in the blanks. “It was raining the night you were shot, probably the worst storm we’d had in years. It was nighttime. You were wearing Mike’s clothing. Your head was covered with a hoodie. All of these factors—the bad visibility, the adrenaline rush—made it nearly impossible to know he was shooting you and not your husband.”

I sat silent for a moment, trying to process everything I’ve just learned. “Now what?”

“I wanted to be sure I was right before I called you in. We brought Bob Stevens in last night and told him everything we had on him, and possibly told him we had things we didn’t really have on him.” He takes my hand. “He confessed to everything. We have his statement and he’s behind bars, where I have no doubt he’ll stay for a very long time.”

“What about Mark—” Before I can continue, Detective James cuts me off.

“We picked him up this morning and charged him with accessory to attempted murder, among many other things that will keep him locked up—possibly even longer than Bob.”

“So it’s over,” I say in disbelief.

“I have no doubt we have our men. They’re sure to fight it, and the shit end of this is you’re most likely going to have to testify, but we’ll do everything we can to get you through this as quickly and painless as possible.”

“Thank you,” I say in a daze and walk out of his office, in shock over what I heard.

I didn’t realize how scared I still was that the person who did this to me was still out there. Knowing they can no longer hurt me brings such an overwhelming feeling of relief that I burst into tears the second I get into my car.

The first thing I do is pick up my phone and send a message to Jamie.

Me: It’s over

It takes a second for him to respond.

Jamie: Stay there.

Me: I’m coming to you. I need to see you.

I jump when a shadow comes up to my window.

“Jamie,” I say in disbelief when he opens my car door and pulls me out of the car and into his arms. “You’re here?” I say, freefalling in his loving green eyes.

“Did you really think I’d let you do this all alone?” He brushes my tears from my face with his thumb.

I look up at him and let my heart guide me. I lift up on my toes and press my lips to his for the first time in fifteen years, and the feeling takes my breath away. It’s as if this one kiss is the final missing piece to my broken heart. “I love you.”

He looks down at me. “A stór. Nothing has ever sounded sweeter.” This time he kisses me and I let him, taking in the pleasure he fills me with. He smiles down at me after a moment of me in his arms. “Is this a one-time thing, or am I allowed to kiss you all the time now? Because if this is a one-time thing…”

I laugh and cut him off with a kiss, showing him rather than answer.

W
hen Lex kissed me today, it was as if the heavens opened and all of my dreams came true. I loved Lex longer than I’ve loved anyone, and now that she’s ready to move forward, and I’m getting the second chance I’ve always hoped for, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure she knows how loved and cherished she is.

For so long I tried to control love as a way to protect others and myself from the pain that comes with heartbreak. Only, I wasn’t protecting anyone from anything. If anything, I muted the happiness that my heart was screaming for. I’ve learned you can’t control the heart. The heart is more powerful than any thought or any other muscle in our bodies. By ignoring the heart, we ignore any chance of happiness.

Although I wanted to take Lex home and make the dreams that have kept me up many sleepless nights a reality, I had the opening of our restaurant to prepare for. Yes, I said our restaurant because nothing I have is worth anything without Lex and her boys in it. I’d waited outside the police station for an hour and spent another hour listening to the twisted web that Lex got herself caught up in because of Mike’s selfishness.

Nothing matters more to me tonight than making it perfect for Lex. This place will always hold a special place in our hearts, but the opening is more than just another business starting up. It’s a symbol for Lex and I, starting over, and finding each other again.

The past six months have been harder than any of the others I spent with her in California for the simple fact that I agreed to give her time and space to get her life back on track. I know she loves me. I know she wants me in her future. And knowing that and not being able to do anything about it has been about the closest thing to torture that I’ve ever experienced. Every night I went to bed thinking of her and every morning I woke up with a reminder that she’s all I dream about. When she kissed me today, I was pretty sure I would have lost everything right there in the parking lot if I didn’t have one piece of self-control hidden away for a moment like that. If being inside her again feels half as good as her lips on mine did, I’m in trouble.

I burst through the door of Rising Moon to see Lee and Frank ordering people around, as Tommy is behind the bar taking inventory. “She loves me,” I proclaim. They all look at me as if I’m a jackass.

“Duh.” Lee walks over to me and puts a menu in my hand. “Now get over here and taste the dishes to make sure they’re what you want for tonight.”

I stop her. “She kissed me.” I’m shocked that no one finds this news as exciting as me. “Do you know what that means?” I look between Frank and Tommy.

“That you’ll stop jerking off every time she leaves,” Frank says sarcastically, making them all laugh.

“Seriously, Jamie, that’s great and all, but I’ve been working here all day while you’ve been making out with my best friend. I’m not even getting paid.”

“I’ll pay you later, baby,” Frank jokes again.

“You all suck.” I throw the menu at Frank, not letting their sarcasm ruin my mood.

“Why’d you run out of here anyway?” Tommy asks.

“They caught Lex’s shooter.” They all freeze.

Lee and Frank start barking out orders as they pull me back into the kitchen and I spend the next half hour filling them in on everything I knew, which I’m sure wasn’t the half of it, while we sampled the delicious food for the night and planned my surprise.

I asked Lex to come as soon as she could so that I could show her the finished product of the mind-child that her assistants I hired after the accident followed to a T. She calls me when she arrives in the parking lot, just as I asked, allowing me to give her my first surprise.

I walk out the doors just as she’s getting out of her car and she takes my breath away. Her silhouette against the sunset on the ocean behind her made this moment seem more like my dreams than reality. She is wearing a bright blue flowing sundress that matches her eyes perfectly, and her long brown hair wildly waves in the evening breeze. I hardly notice the scars on her face anymore, and remind her every day how beautiful she is, and I mean it. She’s beautiful inside and out, and nothing will ever change that for me. When she walks up to me and I take her in my arms, kissing her gently, it feels like the most natural thing in the world. Inside, I’m wishing she chose any other night than tonight to let me kiss her for the first time, because I can’t get enough of her.

“Hello.” I nip at her lip.

“Hey.” Her face flushes red, letting me know our kiss affected her the same way it has me.

We smile at each other as if we have a secret and I take her hand in mine to lead her inside. The walls are all lined with driftwood and gray accents, giving a feeling of her shore life back home that she captured expertly. Her eyes followed all the details of the waiting room, and I can almost see the mental checklist I know she is going through in her head. This is as much her baby as it is mine. I know she sees my first surprise when her eyes are drawn to something that makes her pause.