A Coldwater Warm Hearts Wedding

by Lexi Eddings

  “Keep a good count,” her father said. “I want to put it in the log.”

  “Oh, and slip on a jacket. There should be a couple hanging by the door,” her mother said as she began clearing the table. “It’s getting cold out there.”

  “I can see that resistance is futile,” Skyler said with a grin as he followed Heather to bundle up and slip out back. He latched the door softly behind them.

  The deck on the back of the ranch house was perched over a ravine, a dark chasm that wound past the home and into the hills. It was occasionally filled with runoff when there was a hard rain, but now each sage brush and blade of grass was edged with frost, glinting silver in the starlight. Her parents’ home was perfectly situated for stargazing, far enough from civilization that there was no light pollution to mar the view. Since there was a new moon that night, the Milky Way spilled in a bright cloudy mass across the dark vault.

  Skyler loosed a low whistle. “I’d forgotten how many stars there are out here. You can’t see any but the brightest of them in Boston. The sky always seems bigger here, too.” He walked to the edge of the deck and leaned on the railing. “So where are we supposed to look for these meteors?”

  Heather joined him to overlook the ravine. “They can show up anywhere, but will most likely seem to come from the area around Taurus, the Bull.”

  “OK, I’ll say it. Where’s the beef?”

  Heather chuckled and pointed upward. “Taurus is between Orion and the Seven Sisters, just there.” She traced Orion’s Belt with the tip of her finger before drawing an invisible circle on the sky around the tiny dipper-like collection of stars most people called the Pleiades. Her dad always said they were a group of sisters huddled together in the sky, hiding behind the bull for protection from the Hunter, Orion, so that’s how Heather liked to think of them, too. “See that bright star.”

  Skyler squinted upward. “Mmm-hmm.”

  “That’s Aldebaran. It’s the tip of the bull’s left horn. Notice how the stars form a V.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “That’s the face of Taurus.”

  At that moment, a spark streaked across the sky, flaming to nothingness. Heather suddenly wished it was Michael beside her instead of Skyler. If there was magic in the night sky, it was Mike she wanted to share it with.

  Half a dozen more meteorites slashed the night. Skyler made appreciative noises.

  Or maybe it’s just the idea of Michael I want. Her chest constricted. He wasn’t really the man she’d thought he was. At every turn, some new secret popped out, most of them surprisingly good, but this last one so heinous, it overshadowed the positive things and made them seem shallow and unimportant.

  The sky went quiet for several minutes, the stars softly pulsing but no more dropping from the heavens. That was how meteor showers went—it was either feasting or fasting. Sort of like her relationship with Michael. It was either bountifully wonderful or soul-suckingly awful. And there was no warning either. It just tipped one way or the other.

  “That was amazing,” Skyler said softly, and reached for her hand.

  Heather pulled away gently. “Look, I’m sorry about the way my folks have thrown us together. They mean well, but I don’t want you to feel pressured to spend any time with me while you’re here in town.”

  “What if I want to? I’d hate to miss a chance to be with a Walker girl. You remind me of Jess, you know.”

  Well, that couldn’t be creepier or more untrue.

  “Skyler, I . . .” She turned away from him. “I’m kind of off men for a while.”

  “Really?” His tone hardened. “I’d heard you were into Michael Evans.”

  “I was. I am.” She met his gaze. “It’s complicated.”

  “Yeah. It always is with Mike. Want to talk about it?”

  She almost said no, but who besides Skyler would understand? He and Michael had been best friends back in the day. He’d loved Jessica. Besides, he deserved to know that Mike had been with her at the end.

  So she told him about Dr. Hildebrand and most of the sordid details her investigation had turned up. Heather decided not to bring up the pregnancy. If Skyler wasn’t the father, it would only make him despise her sister.

  “So you see why I can’t be with Michael, even if I want to more than”—More than I want to keep breathing, she stopped herself from adding. But she couldn’t get past the truth. “He was there, Skyler. He watched her die.”

  “But you love him.” It wasn’t a question.

  A tear slipped out and streaked her cheek. “God help me.”

  Skyler sighed deeply. “Listen. What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this deck. Can I count on your discretion?”

  She nodded.

  “Michael didn’t watch Jess die. He tried to get her out.” Skyler leaned again on the split-rail fence that ringed the deck. Stars began falling overhead once more, but he only seemed able to stare at the ground that fell away sharply beneath their feet. “You don’t have the whole story.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because Michael wasn’t in the car with Jess that night.” He drew a shaky breath. “That was me.”

  Chapter 28

  Don’t be afraid, sissy.

  If it’s not dark, you can’t see the stars.

  —Jessica Walker, when her twin was too chicken

  to slip out of bed to stargaze without their dad

  Heather put her hand over Skyler’s where it gripped the rail. “Tell me.”

  “I’m a fool to do this, but Mike’s my friend. I owe him. And I’ve hated myself over this for years.” He sucked in a deep breath. “But I don’t think I could bear it if you hate me too.”

  Heather was silent with foreboding at what he might say. She couldn’t promise she wouldn’t hate him.

  “I remember you and Jess had been arguing about something that last week, but she never would tell me what it was about,” she prompted.

  Skyler nodded. “We couldn’t agree on how to handle a problem.”

  Suddenly, it seemed there’d been so many secrets that no one could ever get to the heart of what really happened. Heather decided to lay it all out. Nothing could hurt Jessica now. “That problem wouldn’t have been that she was pregnant, would it?”

  His gaze jerked to her sharply. “I didn’t know you knew.”

  “I didn’t. Not until a few days ago. I wish she’d confided in me.”

  “We’d agreed not to say anything to anyone. This was something that needed to be handled . . . judiciously,” he said, choosing his words like a lawyer instead of the scared kid he’d probably been. “You have to understand, Heather. I was headed for Harvard that fall. She was off to Brown, but we’d be close enough to see each other on weekends. We were going places. We had a life, or at least a five-year plan. But she wouldn’t agree to . . . to end the pregnancy.”

  Thank God. That squared with everything she thought she knew about her sister. Jessica wasn’t the sort to make someone else pay for her actions.

  “So I decided to end our relationship,” Skyler said.

  Heather’s insides did a slow burn. “I do hate you a bit now.”

  “It’s OK. I guess I deserve it. I hate me a little, too, but I had good intentions. I wanted to let her down easy. So I was going to take her for a drive so we could talk, but when I met up with her, she wanted to show me the car your folks had given her, so I let her drive.” He pounded the rail with his fist. “I’d give anything if I’d been behind the wheel that night.”

  “I’d give anything if you’d been man enough to step up and take responsibility for the child you created.”

  “We were children ourselves, can’t you see that?”

  “You’re still a child.” A spoiled baby in a bespoke suit.

  He shrugged. “I won’t argue. First thing I learned in law school was how to pick my cases, and I wouldn’t win that one,” he said softly. “Anyway, I tried to explain to Jess that we couldn’t have a baby then. How could w
e have a kid and a normal college experience at the same time? I mean, who brings a diaper bag to a kegger? Where do you go for spring break with a stroller in tow? A baby would ruin everything.”

  Skyler was worried about how being a father would mess up his frat life. Heather hated him more than a little at that moment, but she stayed silent so Skyler would keep talking.

  “Anyway, Jess was getting more and more upset, and she wasn’t watching the road like she should have been.” The muscle in his cheek jerked. “When the car jumped the curb, I’ll always believe she hit the accelerator by accident. It was a new car. She wasn’t used to it yet. I think she was going for the brake.”

  Heather wanted to believe that, too. The idea that her sister might have intentionally driven her car into the lake made her feel ill. “And then what?”

  “It all happened so fast. And at the same time, it seemed like slow motion. We whizzed by the gazebo and the car flew off the rock and hit the water, but we didn’t sink immediately. I tried to get the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. My window was halfway down and as the car settled, water started pouring in. I . . . I panicked.”

  “You said Michael was there.”

  “Yeah, he was waiting for me in the gazebo. We’d planned to meet up later and TP all the trees in the park. It was almost graduation, and we wanted to leave the town something to remember us by.”

  “Mission accomplished,” Heather said under her breath. Jessica’s death had been sudden and senseless, a life full of promise snipped off before it had really begun. No one in the county would ever forget it.

  “Anyway, Michael was suddenly splashing into the lake after us, and he showed up by my side of the car. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me out of the half-open window before I knew what was what. Guess I was pretty skinny back then.”

  “What about Jess?” Heather demanded with impatience.

  He hung his head. “She wouldn’t stop screaming. I tried to help her before Mike pulled me out. Honest, I did, but we couldn’t get her seat belt unfastened. I swam to shore and dialed 911. By some miracle, my phone still worked. I yelled at Mike to tell him the emergency crew was on its way, but he wouldn’t leave the car. He broke out the window and dived through it. I heard later that he cut himself up pretty bad on the jagged glass.”

  “Why didn’t you help him?”

  “What could I do?” Skyler gave an involuntary shudder. “The water was just so cold. It takes your breath away. If I’d gone back in, I don’t think I’d have come out.”

  “So Michael was with her at the end, just like he said.” But he was trying to save her. He’d done everything he could. He was a hero, and Heather had treated him like he’d done something wrong. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Her hand went involuntarily to her chest.

  “Yeah, there was really only room for one of us anyway,” Skyler said, totally oblivious to Heather’s distress. She wasn’t sure her knees would hold her up and leaned heavily on the rail. “And Michael had a pocketknife. He was sawing at the seat belt as the car kept sinking. Even after it was completely submerged, he went down again and again.”

  “And where were you during all this?” she said through clenched teeth.

  Skyler wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Well, I’d called 911 and Michael was there to tell them what happened. Once when he came up for air, he told me to get out of there. No need for both of us to take the blame, so I . . . I ran off.” He glanced at her, and then an expression that looked like shame drew his features taut. His gaze darted away. That shame was the only thing that kept Heather from ripping off the top rail and whacking him over the head. “You’ve got to understand. There was nothing I could do to help Jess. It was better for Michael to get caught up in that mess by the cops. He could take the heat. He wasn’t going anywhere anyway.”

  That mess. Jessica’s death was just a bump on the road for Skyler. She didn’t think she’d ever hated anyone, ever been tempted to do someone violence so much in her entire life. Heather squeezed her eyes shut and prayed. For Skyler and for his continued ability to breathe. She wanted him to live a long time with his cowardice.

  “Hey, it was kind of a repayment, if you think about it. Mike wouldn’t have even graduated if it weren’t for me,” he said defensively. “I did all his English homework that last year. Did you know that?”

  “Yeah, you’re a real humanitarian.”

  “Well, just so you get it. We agreed between us that he’d take the blame if things came to light. Michael had nothing to lose and I did.”

  “What about my sister? She lost everything.”

  “It wasn’t my fault. Nobody could have saved her. Even Michael couldn’t. He told me later that he accidentally dropped the knife while he was trying to cut her free.”

  And that knife was how the sheriff’s office had connected her sister’s death to Michael. As Dr. Hildebrand had said, Mike’s father must have used all his influence to keep him out of trouble, and if Mr. Evans had learned Jess was pregnant, he might have suspected Michael was responsible for that as well. It might explain why he’d sent Michael away.

  “Mike should have told his side of the story at the time,” Heather said. It seemed clear now that Jessica’s death had been an accident. But if Skyler had come clean, he would have been the one who looked guilty. She supposed that sort of scandal had a way of following a guy if he was bucking for partner in a big-name law firm. Instead, it had opened up a bigger schism between Michael and his father than the ravine behind her parents’ house.

  “Mike swore he wouldn’t tell. And when Mike swears to something, he sticks with it. Besides, like I said, I’m the one who had plenty to lose. Michael wasn’t headed for college. He didn’t have any expectations to live up to and he wouldn’t have even made it through high school without me. I figured he owed me.”

  Heather was silent for a few moments. There was no fixing this. Nothing would bring her sister back. But her parents didn’t need the pain of reliving it all again. If Dr. Hildebrand sold her story to some network, her version of Jessica’s death would be plastered all over TV. At the very least, she’d post it on You Tube and hope it went viral.

  “But I guess I owe Mike, too. That’s why I told you all this, but please don’t tell your parents,” Skyler said. “I can’t lose another client.”

  Heather arched a brow at him.

  “OK, you may as well know the truth. I’m not a partner. I’m barely a junior associate, and if I don’t make a little rain soon, my head’s on the block. I need your dad and the deal he wants me to make for him. If I negotiate a sweet enough agreement, maybe I can persuade your father to move the Walker accounts to my firm. I’ve convinced the partners he’s a whale and I’ll be doing more work for his company in the future. So, please, Heather, not a word.”

  “I see. But it may not matter if I tell the folks the truth about Jess or not. They’re going to hear a version of it anyway.” She reminded him about the reality show producer and her plan to go public with an exposé about Michael and his supposed part in Jessica’s death. This time she didn’t leave out the part about Jessica’s pregnancy coming to light. “Wouldn’t it be better for the truth to come out now? All of it?”

  “No,” Skyler said. “It would be better if I put the fear of God into this Dr. Hildebrand with a cease-and-desist order. And if she goes ahead with her exposé, I’ll sue her six ways from Sunday. She’ll wish she never set foot in Coldwater Cove.”

  “You think that’ll work?”

  “Watch me,” he said, his legal game face firmly in place. “Nothing scares the pants off the media quicker than the threat of litigation. With a cloud of legal trouble hanging over her head, nobody’s going to touch this Dr. Hildebrand or her story. Besides, you said the way she gathered some of her information was questionable.”

  “More than questionable. Hacking into sealed court records and old hospital charts—that’s got to be against the law.”

  “It is,” Skyler said, getting more ex
cited by the minute. “In fact, since Dr. Hildebrand intends to profit from her hacking, that raises the ante. It’s no longer a misdemeanor. It’s a felony. Argued before the right judge, she could get five years.” Skyler caught up both of Heather’s hands. “So, if I make this thing with Mike and the bad doctor go away, are we good? You won’t mess up the deal I’m doing for your dad?”

  “All right, I’ll keep quiet on two conditions,” Heather said. “You fix this thing with Dr. Hildebrand—and I mean squash it, quickly and quietly.”

  “Yes, yes, consider it done. What else?”

  “You tell Mike’s dad the whole truth.”

  “Heather, I can’t.”

  “You can and you will.” She checked her watch. “Make whatever excuse you want to my folks and head back into town right now. You’d better text me from the Evanses’ front door by nine or I’m marching back into that house and you’ll be out of a ‘whale’ of a client before the night’s over.”

  * * *

  “I must say, I’m surprised that Skyler had to leave so suddenly,” Heather’s mom said as she put his piece of peach pie back into the refrigerator.

  “Don’t worry, Mom. You’ll be seeing plenty of him in the future.”

  Her mother arched a brow at her. “Something I should know? Will you be seeing him again?”

  “No, no, nothing like that.” Not if Skyler were the last skeevy lawyer on earth! “I just mean he’ll likely be working for Dad quite a bit down the road. Skyler seems to be under the impression that Walker Enterprises will be moving all its legal business to his firm.”

  Her mother shrugged. “Your father handles that sort of thing, but I doubt he’d ever leave Evans and Farley. He’s only using Skyler for this deal because Farley advised going with an East Coast firm for the negotiations. Then when Skyler presents his deal, they’ll help us decide if it’s what we really want to do. Evans and Farley are our trustees. They know everything about our business. When the time comes and you inherit all this, you can count on them.”