Hey Jude (Lennox Valley Chronicles #1)

Unable to sit still any longer, I head outside with Murphy and lock up.

Settling us into the truck, I buckle my seatbelt and a small, petty part of my brain reminds me none of this would have happened if Olena and I had managed not to get involved in the first place. See? You put your heart on the line again, and this is what you get. I blow out a long breath. This is exactly the kind of complicated mess I was hoping to avoid. But this thing with Olena… I shake my head and look up at the sky through the dirt-dusted windshield. I must have been fucking kidding myself for thinking there had ever been a hope in hell of us keeping things professional.

My mind circles around from worry to anger and back again until I can’t put off going to work any longer and I reluctantly start the truck. Knowing I will have to face her at the job-site pulls at me, twisting my stomach into a tight knot.

I drive there in a fog, pulling in only to see that her car—for the first time in a week—isn’t parked in the driveway. I look at the house. Murphy’s dog bed sits neatly at one corner of the porch.

An emptiness I wasn’t expecting descends over me. Where is she?

40

OLENA

My hand slips on the rocks and my elbow scrapes against the rough boulder as I jerk down, almost losing my grip.

“Ow, shit,” I mutter under my breath as the pain from my elbow reaches my awareness. I shift my weight so I can shake out my hand. Maybe rock climbing today wasn’t the best idea. I dig my toes in and try again, the fingers of my other hand white with the strain of holding on. My arms feel weak. I’m not doing great up here.

Nat calls up from the ground, tightening up the slack in the top rope. “You good, Len?”

The late afternoon sun shines on my back, but there’s not much warmth to it at this hour. I managed to convince Nat to blow off work a bit early so we could climb together. I needed to get out of my head and out of the house after spending most of the day shut in my bedroom. I’d cried a good long while before it slowly dawned on me that beating myself up wasn’t making any sense. I realized with painful clarity that this isn’t just me messing everything up. The problem isn’t me. No, the real problem here… is Sean.

Sure, I should have told Jude what was going on sooner, but was I that unreasonable for expecting Sean to leave me alone? My relationship with Jude is—or was—still pretty new, even if it had been toe-curlingly intense in that short time. Sean had started contacting me before I’d even met Jude, after all.

Realizing Sean has wrecked my life yet again fills me with nothing but cold, festering resentment. I can’t believe he weaseled himself between me and Jude like this. I can’t believe he’s had the nerve to harass and threaten me, and to get into my head in a way that’s ruined something that could have been beautiful with Jude.

I still haven’t told Nat everything because I’m worried I’ll fall apart if I try to voice how I’m feeling. I want to punch something. Or someone.

Heaving myself at last to the top of the climbing route, I exhale harshly. I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. My arms are shaking and my legs are heavy with exhaustion. Nat tightens the rope again.

I call down to make sure Nat is ready for me, then push off the edge, repelling off the rocks as she belays me back down.

“Hey, are you sure you’re up for this?” she asks as I land on the ground beside her. She glances at me as she unclips the belay device from her harness. “You looked a bit shaky.”

“That’s because I am a bit fucking shaky,” I grouse at her, clenching my fists.

She raises her eyebrows at me.

I sigh. “Sorry, I’ve been up since five,” I explain, softening my tone. “And that was just the beginning,” I add, shaking my head, getting irritated all over again. “Then Jude walked out on me and I blew off work like an asshole.” Seeing her eyes widen with caution, I apologize again, scowling. “I’m all over the place, sorry. I’m just pissed.”

“You still haven’t told me what happened with Jude. And, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, I’ve been patiently waiting for the story.” Nat raises her eyebrows at me, the unspoken out with it painted on her face.

“Ugh, fine.” I untie my rope and drop the end, letting it dangle from the anchor point above us. “I had another nightmare this morning.”

“That explains the five am thing, okay…” Nat narrows her eyes in partial understanding.

“And Jude was with me and…” I look away from her, feeling the tears threatening again. I take a deep breath, feeling sick of my own shit. I refuse to keep blubbering pathetically at every turn. Again, the anger at Sean rises in my throat. I fight it down, struggling for composure.

“It’s okay. Take your time.” She reaches out and rubs my shoulder.

“I told him about Sean contacting me,” I say finally, looking back at her.

“Yeah. Okay, so… wait, Sean texted you a while back, right? Am I missing something? Why did Jude walk out?”

I wrinkle my nose, cringing. Nat doesn’t know about the phone calls. “There’s been more than that one text,” I confess, frowning.

“What the fuck?” Nat’s incredulous voice comes out loudly.

I tell her about Sean’s angry phone calls—and his threat yesterday. I relay Jude’s reaction when he’d found out: how he’d left early this morning, how I’d cleaned up the Faulkners’ place alone, how I’d poured the coffee he had made me down the sink in tears. How I’d dropped Carol and Charles’ keys in the mailbox before driving home, gutted and afraid. And, finally, about how I’d realized the obvious: that Sean had caused all of this.