Finding Our Reality (The Reality Duet #2)

Chapter 16

ELLA

I crawl across the floor on my hands and knees. Grazing my nose across the bare skin of his torso, I playfully nibble on his stomach.

He squeals in delight, pumping his hands and feet in the air.

Anna bends over her baby brother, tickling his nose with her hair. “Ty, is Smelly Ellie tickling you?” He immediately wraps a tiny fist around her damp hair and tries to pull it into his mouth. “No, no.” She gingerly pulls her hair from his grasp and runs back over to Uncle Ray, crawling onto his lap and secretly stealing a sip of his soda. Ray and Teresa already gave her a bath and had her brush her teeth, so Raylee would reprimand them if she saw her daughter drinking a Coke.

Raylee rounds the corner. “Mom, I threw Ty’s onesie in the washer. I have no idea how that kid manages to pee on everything he wears. No one told me that changing a little boy’s diaper is like a fireman trying to wrangle a hose.”

Holt props his feet on the coffee table. “Just wait until he’s a teenager.”

Raylee smacks her brother upside the head. “Shut up.”

Anna gasps, tattle-telling to Aunt Teresa. “Mimi…”

Smiling, she fake scolds her children. “Raylee, don’t tell your brother to shut up. Holt, don’t aggravate your sister.”

Tyson grunts and wiggles around on the soft blanket I spread out across the living room rug. “Come on, Ty. Let’s work those muscles.” I roll him onto his stomach, encouraging him to push up with his arms.

Will joins us, sitting next to Raylee on the couch. He offered to do clean-up duty from tonight’s family dinner. Flopping onto my back, I pick up Ty and lay him across my chest. I smile, watching his little face contort into a gummy grin as his tries to bite my chin. Instead, he drools all over my face.

When Aunt Teresa called me last night to say she wanted to have a family dinner, I was worried I wouldn’t make it back in time from my out-of-town work. But they waited on me. My wonderful and sweet family—whom I am still completely mad at—waited on me. Dinner was supposed to be at six. I didn’t pull up into the driveway until seven and found them all sitting around the kitchen table, waiting on me.

“Where’d you go, Ella?”

I peer around Ty’s head, looking at Will. “Huntsville. It was a pre-interview for a television show.”

“What happened?”

“This woman had two sisters. Twenty years ago, one sister killed the other. Poisoned her. She did it slowly over a year’s time. Then, when she was in prison, she was so distraught, she hung herself. I met with the surviving sister, asked her some questions. I have to make an interview format for the producers.”

Raylee tosses me a spit rag so I can wipe my face. “Plus, she’s older so they wanted to make sure her house would be a suitable filming location. Then, I met with some others—the defense attorney, the prosecutor, some of the police, family friends. The local university there has a really nice conference room in their library. They should be able to film all the other interviews there.”

Holt cocks his head. “Interview formats. I had people do those on me before I had to give big interviews.”

“Yeah, it just helps the flow.”

Will shrugs. “What do you mean?”

“Well, everyone talks in a different manner. When you ask someone to tell a story, some people start in the beginning, some people start at the end, and some people start in the middle. When you watch these crime shows on TV, they usually start with a little information about the crime itself. You know, what makes it so horrific to human nature, and then they have to wind back around and tell the story from start to finish. If I can figure out how the subject talks, tells her story, how she likes to answer questions, how much information she elaborates on, then I can come up with a plan for what all the producers need to ask and in what order they need to ask it. It definitely makes the editing process easier in the end.”

“Honey, that’s so amazing. I must say, when you became obsessed with all that true crime stuff after Carrie disappeared, I became more than a little concerned. I can’t believe you’ve actually turned it into a career.”

I smile upside down at Aunt Teresa. “I can’t believe it either. I love what I do. Just think, if I followed Mom and Dad’s path, I would’ve been an architect. Don’t get me wrong, that’s an amazing profession, just not for me.”

Uncle Ray clears his throat. Anna is still sitting on his lap, but she’s curled up against his chest, losing the battle to keep her eyes open as he softly scratches her back. “Speaking of Carrie, how are things going? I heard you went to interview Crutch’s brother on Monday before you left town.”

“And which little spy did you hear that from? Marcum or Holt?”

“Crutch.”

My ears snap to attention. “Excuse me? For someone who said he didn’t hardly see or speak to the man, you sure seem to be talking to him a lot lately.”

A small shred of shame slices away at my heart, knowing that I shouldn’t make such comments. If anyone deserves to be spied on, I guess it should be me. I did keep the fact that Carrie was selling and using drugs from my family. We haven’t really talked about it, but I knew I had to apologize. I barely had the words, ‘I’m sorry’ out of my mouth before they all forgave me.

I guess I should take a lesson from my own family.

Unfazed by my attitude, Uncle Ray answers, “A couple of cars got broken into at the factory. Crutch and Leary stopped by when they heard it over the radio.”

“And?” I wrap my arms around Ty and clamber into a sitting position.

“And…I asked him how things were going between the two of you.”

I narrow my eyes. “Why not just ask me?”

Holt snorts. “Some could say you’re a little defensive when it comes to questions about Crutch. Or offensive, depending on how you look at it, I guess.”

I blow air from my mouth, which makes Ty grunt in excitement. “I only call it like I see it when it comes to him.”

Raylee leans forward. “And how do you see it? After all these years?”

I could lie. Tell them that everything between me and Ry is completely dead. That we’re consummate professionals and nothing more, but this is my family we’re talking about. Not my parents. Not my in-laws. Not my stuck-up society peers. My real family. They deserve the truth.

Especially after what I already hid from them.

“It’s complicated to see past the cobwebs. I’m so angry with him. I don’t know if I’ll ever stop being angry. Sometimes just being in the same room with him makes me wanna scream and cry and punch him in the face.”

“And other times?”

“Other times…” My voice trails off in thought. I close my eyes, picturing Ry’s sexy smile, imagining what it would feel like to have his muscular arms wrap me in a hug. His frame is larger now than it was back then. Firmer. Solid. Masculine and mature. What would it feel like to be pressed against him? With nothing separating us but a thin sheen of sweat. “Other times, and don’t get me wrong, it’s only a small—very small—portion of the time, but I feel like I finally found my best friend again, the person who makes living life better.”

“Have you gotten any closure, any clarity?” she asks.

I kiss my baby cousin’s nose, making him yawn. “I don’t think I’ll ever get closure.”

“Well, you definitely won’t if you never tell him.”

***

“So, Caleb’s secretary refused to give me his cell phone number or personal email address. But she did talk to him, told him I was trying to get ahold of him. He told her to schedule me on his calendar for the first day he’s back in the office.”

Ry opens a fresh bottle of water and sets it in front of me. “So, he’s working a six-month stint out of the country?”

I nod. “Sweden. He and his family left mid-December. They’ll be back in Atlanta in June. He’s taking a week off work and then he’ll be starting back at the local office. We can meet with him then. He doesn’t do social media, his wife does. I could reach out to him that way, but I really think we need to have the conversation with him in person and not over the phone, from half a world away.”

I wait for him to ask if I’ll even be around in June. He completely bypasses that comment. “Yeah, asking someone if they got their ex-girlfriend pregnant before she mysteriously disappeared is probably something best to do in person. What did you tell the secretary?”

“Just that he and my sister were best friends for many years, and I am working on a book about her and wanted to interview him. See him again.”

Ry licks his perfectly brown-pink lips, causing a flutter in my stomach. “A book? Is that part real?”

“Maybe one day.” I shrug. “I’d love to write in-depth about a case. They say to write about what you know. There’s nothing I know more about than my sister. Plus, it’s not like I can write about one of my hired cases. I have standard language in my contract that says I will not pursue any outside activity from anything I’m hired to work on.”

He stares into my eyes, causing me to sit up straighter. “Well,” his voice purrs over his words, “let’s hope we can give the book a proper ending. Closure.”

Closure. There’s that damn word again.

Focusing back on my computer screen, I ask, “Any luck in finding Tyler, Holly, or James.”

“I’ve got the information on Holly, figured we could meet with her tomorrow. Based on what I’ve read, I’m thinking a surprise visit while her kids are at school may be the best route. I’m still waiting on address information for Tyler and a contact phone number for James. He lives in Dallas now, works in accounting at a big oil office.”

“And Christina knows we’re coming today?”

“Yeah, she seems to be in a really good place. Turned her life around. She married several years ago, and her husband owns an insurance company.”

“That’s good. Let’s just hope she’s willing to be forthcoming.”

Ry leans back in his chair. “Meaning?”

I stare into his pale green eyes. “Maybe she hasn’t told her husband all the gory details about her past. Most husbands don’t exactly enjoy hearing about their wife’s past indiscretions.”

His voice lowers to a whisper. “Did Hudson hear about yours?”

The blood stops circulating in my body. Even at my angriest, I would never refer to Ry as an indiscretion. He used to be my everything. Making love to him was never a poor choice. I had no choice. If I wanted to keep breathing, I had to be with him.

At least, that’s the way it felt.

Hindsight could call it misguided, I guess. He left me. Obviously, I was freakin’ misguided.

My voice chokes in my throat. “I never talked to Hudson about you.”

“Never? He didn’t ask?”

I nearly burst out laughing. “Oh, he asked.” Every single time we fought. Every single time I acted indifferent. Every single time I refused to let him touch me. Every single time I reacted nonchalantly to the news he had a new mistress. “I just didn’t comply.”

Ry sucks in a breath. “Why?”

Lie. Lie. Lie. Like an idiot, I tell the truth. “Because he didn’t deserve to hear about us.”

“Just like he didn’t deserve to see the real you? Did you keep hiding from him? Even after you married him?” Ry leans forward, dragging his hand across his clean-shaven jaw. “Lulu, how the hell could you marry that asshole?”

Fortunately, I don’t have to answer. There’s a knock on the conference room door, and Colson peeks his head around the corner. “Hey, Ella, sorry to interrupt.” He nods his head to Ry. “We’re up, Crutch. Have to respond to a call.”

A low growl rumbles in his chest. He grabs his cell phone and slams his laptop shut. “I’ll be back to pick you up about one.” Pausing in the doorway, he looks over his shoulder. “Christina never talked about your legs, right? I don’t have a mini skirt to worry about?”

I bite my lip. “No. She’s always been a breast woman.”

Chuckling, Ry closes the door, and I swear I hear him mumble something like, “Yeah, me too.”