Redemption(20)

Easing myself down, I looked up to find him smiling like a Cheshire cat. “This is not funny, Dean,” I whispered towards him, turning to Belinda.

“Jessica, so nice to see you. Who’s your friend?” She looked Dean up and down and smiled in the most perverted way possible. She was practically making love to him with her eyes.

Cow!

I cleared my throat. “Belinda, this is an old friend of mine, Dean Scozzari. Dean, this is Belinda Mahoney. She lives a little further down the street.”

Belinda smiled and held out her hand. “Number fifty-five twenty…if you ever want to come and visit.” She practically purred the words.

Dean took her hand for a quick shake. “Thank you for your invitation, Belinda, but there’s only one girl I want to visit here.”

Belinda’s cheeks flushed. I could tell she was pissed, but I could also tell she was turned on at his voice. All he had to do was open his mouth and the entire female population would open their legs.

“Well,” she said, waving her hand. “If you ever change your mind…” She turned to me. “Where’s Evan these days? I thought I saw him leaving your house a couple days ago. He did stay over, didn’t he?”

If I thought she couldn’t get bitchier, she did. The problem was I deserved it. I was supposed to be with someone, yet I was practically humping another man in broad daylight outside my house.

I immediately felt Dean stiffen behind me. “He’s at work.”

Belinda nodded with an evil smirk. “Poor Evan. He’s always working hard. Give him my regards, won’t you?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

Belinda winked at Dean, then turned to walk back to her house. Once she was out of earshot, Dean started laughing.

“This is not funny. She’s the worst gossip in this town. No doubt the whole fucking neighborhood will know this happened, and then it will get back to Evan.”

Dean shrugged. “Good. He needs to know, Tyler. It’s only fair. You shouldn’t string him along.”

Angry, I closed my eyes for a moment. “Don’t you fucking get on your high horse with me, Dean. After what you did, you can’t preach to me!”

His smile faded as he hung his head. “I know. I’m sorry. I just can’t help myself when I’m around you.”

I sighed, walked up to my door and unlocked it. “Please leave me alone, Dean. And stop following me.” I shut the door, hearing the word never come from outside.







Later on that evening, after speaking with Jeremy on the phone, I was getting ready to go out with Tara. I was in the middle of putting on some gloss when my phone rang.

“Tyler, how’s my baby?”

It was Evan. The pang of guilt came again when I thought about what had happened today. No doubt Belinda would be itching to tell him. I guess I would have to do it first. It would be better coming from me. I owed him that much.

“I’m fine, Evan. How are you?”

Evan blew out a breath. “There’s some weird shit going on today. You know that phone call I had?”

“Yeah?” I knew all too well.

“Well, it turned out to be nothing. No one knew who this Mr. Bundy was, but that’s not the strangest part. Once I got there, I was told I had a package. When I opened it, I saw a book entitled The Ten Worst Serial Killers in History. There was no name, no return address. You don’t know anything about this, do you?”

I placed my hand over my mouth and shook my head. Dean was determined to make me sweat. “It certainly wasn’t from me, Evan. I would have no reason to send you a book like that.”

I heard him sigh. “That’s what I thought. It just seemed strange that a Mr. Bundy called, then I get a book like this. One of them is even Ted Bundy.”

I suppressed a laugh and closed my eyes. “That does sound strange. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“Have you heard from Dean? I’m just wondering. Could he be doing this?”

He is the one doing this, I thought. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that now. Not like this. It was actually a good thing we were going out for a meal tomorrow. I needed to lay it on the line. Get things off my chest.

“No, nothing as of yet.” I paused a moment, then sighed. “Listen, Evan, Tara will be around in a couple of minutes and I’ve got to get dressed. I’ll speak to you tomorrow, though.”

“Okay. I’ll miss you. Please be good tonight.”

I laughed. “I will.”

After hanging up, I slipped into a figure-hugging black dress, and put my red heels on. I finished glossing my lips and was ready just in time to hear the doorbell ring.