There was a gap in the arrangement, too, a place where a picture was obviously missing. When she glanced around, she saw one more matching frame on the counter, but there wasn’t a picture in it.
She heard Pierce get out of bed and went into his kitchen to make coffee.
“That smells great,” he said when he appeared, tugging a dark T-shirt over his head.
“Another of my limited culinary skills.” She smiled up at Pierce as he came to give her a kiss. “But this is the last one.” He wrapped his arms around her and backed her into the counter, heating her to her toes as if she hadn’t been with him in a week.
“Okay?” he asked when he lifted his head, his gaze searching.
“More than okay,” she said. “Isn’t this the part where Farah turns up? We’re always being interrupted.”
He lifted a brow. “I think we’re even on that one. The first two times were my past calling...”
“And the second two times were me saying no,” Jacquie acknowledged with a wince. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You were honest with me, and that was the most seductive choice of all.” He got down two mugs and poured coffee, putting cream in both of them before offering one to her. “I want to show this to you,” he said, picking up an envelope from the other end of the counter.
“What is it?”
“A prop for the story you wanted.” He smiled a little, looking nervous, which was amazing in itself. “I need all the help I can get.”
Before she could comment or try to encourage him, Pierce removed a pair of photographs from the envelope. One was large and in color, and the other was smaller, in black and white. It was the same image, and she realized he’d had this one resized for that last frame. “I wasn’t sure about adding this one,” he admitted. “But you’re right. Drew is one of my ghosts and he should be here.” He handed her the larger picture.
It showed a couple, a boy and a girl obviously dressed for their senior prom. The girl had a corsage on her wrist and was very pretty. The boy—a young man, really—was blond and handsome. He looked like a jock and his smile was confident.
“Drew,” she guessed, meeting Pierce’s gaze.
“About eight hours before he died.”
Jacquie blinked. She watched Pierce’s throat work and waited, knowing he planned to tell her this story, the one she’d requested. She was humbled by his trust and admired his desire to change.
This man, this incredible, honorable, strong and principled man, loved her. Her chest was tight with the truth of it.
“Everything always went right for Drew,” Pierce began, leaning against the counter and wrapping his hands around his coffee mug. “He was lucky and always landed on his feet. He had this conviction that nothing would ever go wrong, and it was learned. Anything he wanted seemed to fall into his hands.”
“Not so much for you?”
Pierce’s smile was rueful. “I was always testing the limits, so no, things didn’t go so perfectly for me. I learned to expect disaster, so I was always ready to bail. It became a habit of assessing a situation and knowing how best to get out of it, just in case.”
“Exit strategy,” Jacquie said.
Pierce nodded. “Drew never had an exit strategy for anything.”
Jacquie waited and sipped her coffee, dreading the next part of his story.
“You see the car behind them? That was my father’s new Cadillac, his pride and joy. He would never have let me drive it, even if I’d been old enough, but he gave Drew the keys for his prom night date. Drew loved to drive and he loved to drive fast. I’ll guess that he was showing off for Jenny. I know it was late and they must have been coming home. The coroner said he’d had a drink or two. However it happened, that car ended up in the river. Drew lost control and they went right over the bank, fast, and sank.”
Jacquie caught her breath.
Pierce met her gaze. “Do you know how to get out of a sinking car?”
“No. But I haven’t had a car in years.”
“You have to anticipate the water and the weight of it. You don’t have a lot of time. You need to unfasten your seatbelt and put down the window in your door as soon as you know the car is going in. If you can’t lower the window, you have to break it. Do you know how to break a car window?”
Jacquie shook her head.
“Either with a glass hammer, which you might have on a car escape tool, or you pull out the headrest and use the spikes to break the glass. You have a much better chance of breaking the glass in the door than the windshield. You won’t be able to open the door until the car is completely submerged because of the weight of the water, and by then, you might be out of air. So, you break the window, free yourself from constraint, and wait.”
Jacquie shivered.
“When the water rises, you hold your breath, wait for it to fill the car, then swim out the window and to the surface. The key is to have a plan and not panic.”
“Drew didn’t know that,” she guessed.
Pierce shook his head. “The car had power windows and locks. It sank with them sealed inside and they both drowned. My parents were never the same.”
Jacquie remembered how they’d responded in their grief and knew that Pierce had never been the same either. She thought of her own kids and though she didn’t have a favorite, she hoped they knew that. She appreciated each one of them for their special gifts and characters.
