“I’m afraid it is my business. According to Angela, her fiancé still harbors feelings for you and resented your mother for making you break up with him.”
“My mother didn’t make me break up; it was my idea,” Kim spat out.
“So, you were the one who broke up?” Sam raised his brows.
“Yes, but Adam agreed. He wasn’t really in love with me. We were just kids.”
“Apparently, he was still in love with you or obsessed, according to Angela. If you can offer some proof that he had no interest in you, perhaps…”
“How can I do that?” Kim asked.
“Begin by answering my question. Have you had sex with Adam since you got back? If so, who initiated it? According to Angela, Adam went to your house on Sunday morning and had sex with you. Apparently, getting exactly what he wanted by killing your mother. It got you back to Coulson and back into his bed.”
“I don’t want to discuss this anymore!” Kim shouted, standing up abruptly. “Adam Keller did not kill my mother! She was furious with me for not marrying him. There was no reason for Adam to enact any ridiculous retaliation on Mom. Good lord, it has been sixteen years! This is ridiculous.”
“Just because you believe your mother liked Adam or wanted you to marry him, that doesn’t change anything. As long as Adam believed she was responsible for the breakup, that part of Angela’s story is credible. I have no reason to believe she’s lying. The poor girl was heartbroken when she turned the gun in yesterday. She told me she found it under his bed and hoped it wasn’t the murder weapon, but considering what she knew about Adam and how he felt about Harrison and your mother, she had no other choice.
“Naturally,” the chief continued, “I don’t believe Adam planned to kill them both that day. I think he intended to kill Harrison, and when he found your mother with Harrison at his office, he seized the opportunity to get rid of the man who was trying to destroy his business and the woman responsible for separating him from you. Had he not already decided to kill Harrison, I don’t believe he would have gone after your mother. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances.”
“I want to go home now,” Kim told Nick, reaching for his hand.
Nick stood up.
“I’m going to take this as an admission you and Adam resumed your affair,” Sam said, still sitting behind his desk.
“We were not having an affair,” Kim insisted.
“I imagine the DA will be putting you on the stand when this comes to trial. Your history and current relationship with Adam Keller will come out. You might as well get it out now.”
Kim refused to admit anything, and by the time Nick got her in his truck, she began to cry. He said nothing as he drove her home. Nick insisted Kim lie down, so he walked her upstairs to Carol’s bedroom. She had finally stopped crying.
After kicking off her shoes, Kim climbed into the bed and pulled the covers over her. Nick disappeared for a moment and then returned with a box of tissues from the bathroom.
“Please don’t leave,” Kim asked him as she wiped her face with a tissue.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” Nick told her.
“No.” Kim looked up pitifully and pulled back the blanket and scooted to one side of the bed. “Please, hold me. Please,” she begged.
Nick looked down at Kim and thought for a moment that she was going to break his heart just as her mother broke his father’s. Without saying a word, Nick kicked off his shoes and climbed into the bed. He took Kim in his arms, holding her as she rested her head against his chest. They lay there together for about five minutes before Nick spoke.
“You still love him, don’t you?” Nick asked. She felt good in his arms.
“No,” Kim answered truthfully. “I mean, I’m not in love with him. But I do love him. We have a history, and I don’t believe he killed anyone.”
“How can you be so sure?” Nick felt her tense the moment he asked the question. He gave her a reassuring hug and kissed the top of her head. She seemed to relax.
“I… I just know. I know Adam. He’s not a perfect man, but he’s not a murderer. As much as he cared about the restaurant, he would never kill to keep it. He just isn’t made that way.”
“So, why is Angela saying he did it?” Nick asked.
“I think that is fairly obvious. I did have sex with him.” Kim felt Nick tense. “But—” Kim pulled away from Nick and turned so she was looking into his eyes. “—I think the better question is where did she get that gun?”
“You’ve got a point. If Adam didn’t do it, then she or someone she knows murdered your mother and Harrison.”
“Maybe she did it. Maybe she killed him to protect Adam. According to Adam, they broke up on Saturday. Or, as Adam described it, put their relationship on hold. Maybe she got pissed and decided to frame Adam for her crime,” Kim suggested.
“What about her father? Isn’t he the ex-police chief?”
“Yes. I first met him when I was in high school, on the student council. We did some fundraisers for the police department. He was always nice to me. Although, he wasn’t very friendly to me at Harrison’s funeral. He accused me of trying to break up Adam and his daughter. I know he’s always been tight with the Coulson family.”
“Maybe he is in someway involved?”
“I don’t see how. It makes more sense that Angela is framing Adam.”
“Well, I don’t know how you could prove that. Are you sure you aren’t still in love with him?”
“I’m sure,” Kim insisted, snuggling back down and giving Nick a hug. He felt good.
“Then, why did you have sex with him?” Nick asked, his arms wrapped around her.
“I’ve been asking myself the same question,” Kim answered, then paused a moment before asking, “Can I tell you something I’ve never told anyone?”
“Certainly.”
“I never enjoyed sex with Adam when we were in high school.” She couldn’t believe she’d finally said the words.
“Then why? Did he force himself on you?” Nick sat upright and looked down at Kim.
“No, nothing like that. I had this mad crush on Adam for so long. He never noticed me, and I knew nothing about how to attract a boy.”
Nick found that hard to believe. He could still recall the first time he got a glimpse of Kim; they were both in high school. He’d made friends with a girl name Susan Parker, who frequented the riding stables in Clement Falls. After she had invited him to a party, he had asked her if she knew someone named Kim Myers. As it turned out, Kim was at that party.
He had been surprised Kim was so attractive, and he wanted to meet her. While he never intended to tell her who he really was, he followed her down the hallway after telling Susan he was going to find the bathroom. But Kim slipped into a bedroom. He waited around, and when she finally came out, she was with Adam Keller. It was obvious what they had been doing.
“Adam and I were at this party, and he was so upset. His father had just been killed in the car accident. I was comforting him, and the next minute, he was kissing me. I couldn’t believe it. Adam Keller was kissing me, finally kissing me. When he put his hand in my blouse, I didn’t dare stop him because I didn’t want him to stop kissing me. When he pulled down my pants, I still didn’t stop him even though I was scared and really didn’t want to have sex.
“He asked me to go out again. I figured we’d already done it, and I loved him. Adam told me I was his girl, and I just wanted to make him happy. So, whenever he wanted to have sex, I just let him. But I don’t remember ever enjoying it. Boy, do I sound stupid.”
“No, you just sound like you were a very young, naïve girl.” Nick pulled her into his arms again, holding her. “Still doesn’t explain why you had sex with him the other day.”
“I know this may sound crazy, but I have always felt guilty about not enjoying sex with Adam.”
“Are you serious?” Nick asked.
“Yes, yes, I am. My mother was always a little weird abou
t sex, but considering what happened to her, I can understand. When I left Coulson, it was a few years before I started dating again. I was more mature by then, and the relationships more balanced. I’m not sure why I had sex with Adam. Maybe being vulnerable and sad, I fell back into my old pattern and simply did what he wanted. However, it wasn’t from some deep love. That ended long ago. Maybe I wanted to know what it felt like to be with him one time and actually enjoy it for the pure sex. I suppose I did, for a moment.”
“I could have gone all day without hearing the last part,” Nick grumbled.
Ignoring Nick’s complaint, Kim continued to explain. “What I mostly felt when it was over was regret. It was stupid.” Kim closed her eyes and told herself it was stupid in more ways than one. She wasn’t taking birth control and the last thing she needed at this point in her life was to get pregnant by a man she wasn’t in love with—and who didn’t love her. The only bright spot she could hold on to was the fact that she was fairly certain she was not ovulating; since her teen pregnancy, she had paid close attention to her body’s monthly cycles.
Nick didn’t say anything and just held Kim in his arms. He felt Kim shift her body as if she was trying to get comfortable until at last she stilled. Soon he heard her steady breathing and he knew she’d fallen asleep. Nick closed his eyes and tried not to think of Kim and Adam or about what happened in Carol’s kitchen. He almost wished he hadn’t tricked Kim into admitting the truth because each time he thought of Kim having sex with Adam, he felt sick in the pit of his stomach.
Nick dozed off for about thirty minutes but woke when Kim shifted and turned in her sleep, moving out of his arms. Resting on his side, he opened his eyes and found himself facing Kim’s back. She rolled over and opened her eyes sleepily, looking directly into his face. She seemed a bit startled at first, as if surprised to find him in her bed. She blinked several times as he silently watched her.
“Was I snoring?” Kim asked with a faint smile, her voice barely a whisper. Her hair was mussed and several errant strands fell over her eyes. In response to her question, Nick reached out with one hand and used his fingertips to brush the strands to the side of her face. He didn’t smile, and his intent gaze sent chills down Kim’s spine. She swallowed nervously, and for the first time since meeting Nick, she looked at him without remembering she once believed he was her half-brother.
“I want to kiss you,” Nick whispered as his fingertips brushed the side of her face ever so lightly. “I’ve wanted to since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
While Kim assumed he was talking about their chance meeting at the grocery store, Nick was actually referring to the time he saw her at the party when they had both been in high school.
Kim said nothing but lay there quietly looking into Nick’s eyes as he continued to trace the edges of her face with his fingertips. She did not pull away, nor did she lean toward him.
Kim realized in that moment that the sexual attraction she felt toward Nick was very different from what she felt for Adam. Adam was a comfortable, familiar safe harbor, and the sex she’d had with him was more about escaping for a moment from her sorrow and loneliness. With Nick, it was something else, and she knew instinctively that any intimacy they might share would be about her moving toward something as opposed to retreating or escaping.
Kim smiled softly and then wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his face toward hers. She closed her eyes and their lips touched. Ever so slowly, her lips parted, and she felt his tongue move into her mouth and begin its gentle exploration.
As he kissed her, her heart raced; a surge of warmth spread through her limbs. Nick wrapped his arms around Kim’s waist and rolled over, putting her body under his. Restless, Kim shifted her weight under Nick and found herself spreading her legs apart, allowing his lower body to settle erotically between her legs. She was wearing denims, yet she could feel the evidence of his erection pressing against her core.
Nick was breathing heavily as he whispered in her ear, “Don’t get mad at me, but I have a condom in my pocket.”
“You have a condom in your pocket?” she managed to say between kisses, and then she pushed him abruptly off her body and got off the mattress. He looked up at her, a bit dazed. Kim stood by the bed looking down at Nick, and for a moment, he thought she was going to kick him out. Then she began stripping off her clothes, first pulling off her blouse and tossing it to the floor as if she was in a great hurry.
“What are you waiting for? Get out that damn condom!” Kim laughed.
Nick did not have to be told twice. He rolled off the bed, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the small package. After flipping it on the bed, he pulled off his shirt and unzipped his pants.
When they both got back onto the mattress, they were only wearing their underwear. Unable to take his eyes off Kim, he pushed her back onto the pillows and looked down at her body as if he didn’t know where to begin.
She was breathing heavily, yet lay there silently as Nick’s gaze moved from her breasts to her belly and then back up again. Kim watched as he reached out and unfastened the front of her bra, freeing the soft globes from their restraints. He smiled and moved one hand over her nipples ever so lightly before moving down to her thong.
Kim lifted her hips off the mattress as Nick took hold of her thong, pulling it down her thighs and removing it from her body. She reached over and grabbed the condom package from the mattress and opened it. Boldly, her hand slipped into the flap of his boxers and took hold of his penis.
Both Nick and Kim were impatient, and within seconds, Kim was slipping the condom onto his swollen shaft while Nick’s hands explored her body. He was inside her a moment later and the only sound in the room was the steady and persistent squeaking of the mattress springs and the gentle rocking of the headboard as it hit the wall in a steady and rhythmic beat.
Thirty minutes later, Kim lay in Nick’s arms, enjoying the gentle way he traced random designs on her shoulder with the tip of his finger. Jake had been pawing at the door for about five minutes, wanting to get into the bedroom, yet they remained in the bed.
“He is a persistent little bugger.” Nick laughed. A few seconds later, Jake stopped pawing the door, and after several loud meows, he wandered off.
“We’ve done it now; he’s going to pout.” Kim laughed, and then added, “That was nice.”
“Yes, it was.” Nick gave her a light kiss.
“Do you always carry condoms in your pocket?” Kim asked with a chuckle.
“I’m an optimist. Since I first saw you the other day at the market, I wanted you in my bed. Call me a Boy Scout, but I like to be prepared.”
“Well, technically, this isn’t your bed,” Kim teased.
“I’m a liberated guy. It doesn’t have to be my bed.”
“I never asked, but I’m assuming you don’t have someone in your life.”
“You mean a wife or girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“I’m pretty sure I would have told you about a wife by now if I had one. And no, I haven’t been seeing anyone recently.”
“Have you ever been married before?” Kim realized that was a possibility. The information she found on the Internet was minimal. As far as she knew, he might have an ex-wife and ten kids somewhere.
“No marriage, no broken engagements. I did date one very nice lady for about three years.”
“Three years? When? What happened?”
“It was a few years after college, and I returned to Clement Falls to help Dad with Mom.”
“The breast cancer?”
“Yes. I think we broke up because we didn’t get to see each other as often as before and we just drifted apart. When we broke up, it wasn’t particularly dramatic or earth shattering. I stayed on after Mom died to help Dad run the business. By that time, he had been diagnosed with cancer.”
“I’m sorry about your father, Nick.”
“He’s actually doing pretty good. The doctors say he’s in remission
, but he has his good and bad days. He just gets really tired sometimes, but that might simply be his age.”
They remained in the bed for another thirty minutes just talking and sharing stories about their lives. Sometime during their intimate conversation, Kim realized she needed to use the bathroom, but she kept stalling, not wanting to end the moment. Unlike the sexual encounter with Adam, she did not regret having sex with Nick. Unfortunately, her regret over Adam increased, and she cursed herself for her foolish behavior.
When Kim finally got up from the bed to use the bathroom, Nick saw that as a cue to get dressed. He pulled on his pants and called out, “By the way, I put the ladder and flashlight in my truck. How about I grab them and see if I can find anything in the attic?”
After they both dressed, they went downstairs and Nick retrieved the ladder and flashlight from his truck. Instead of searching the attic immediately, they decided to get something to eat. Kim was ravenous and realized she had skipped breakfast and lunch. The intimacy shared in Carol’s bedroom encouraged the couple to linger over their first meal of the day.
By the time they searched the attic, it had been dark for several hours. Nick found two boxes shoved in a far corner of the small storage space. He passed them down to Kim, who stood on the ladder in the closet. They took them to the study and set them on the desk. To Kim’s frustration, they were locked.
“I suppose I could pry them open,” Kim suggested, looking down at the boxes.
“I tell you what, I really need to get back to Clement Falls. Can we do this tomorrow? I don’t have the right tools in my truck, and I’ll bring some back with me.”
“I suppose.” Kim sounded disappointed. “I really want to see what’s in here, but I guess I’ve waited this long. Plus, I’m kind of tired.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised, before giving her a kiss.
Chapter 18
“I thought the movers were arriving today,” Harrison Coulson said to his daughter-in-law, Shelly, as he wheeled himself into the morning room and found her reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of tea. “I expected to see suitcases and boxes lining the hallway.”
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