“Stacia?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t have that in his past. It was the incident that defined them as a couple. Three weeks of dating culminating in a one-night stand. And she suspected she needed some closure on that, as well. “What did happen that night?”
“I don’t... Are you sure you want to talk about it?” he asked.
“Yes. I thought... Well, that doesn’t matter. I remember that you took me home and stayed until my roommate came back and then you left. What happened next?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long sip of his sparkling water before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I took a long walk around the campus. I didn’t want to go back to the frat house or the party. I needed to think.”
“What about?”
“You, Gabi. You were a freshman and I was a senior. My life was on track at that point. You know the draft was my next goal, but then you came along and things sort of changed.”
“How?”
“You were different and it made me think about something other than football for a while,” he said.
She wanted to believe him. There was no reason for him to lie to her at this moment, but if that was the truth, why had he been so cruel to her at the jailhouse?
“Yeah, right. Listen, we both know I was just some dewy-eyed coed that you saw as an easy score,” she said. “You don’t have to put a different spin on it. I was more than willing to go with you that night.”
“Believe what you will, but that night was special for me. You were different,” he said.
“Then why were you so mean when I came to visit you?” she asked. There had been no reason for that.
“I was protecting you. I had no clear memories of the night before. I only knew that I’d been found with Stacia and Hunter and that she had been killed. The cops were trying to implicate me in some sort of twisted sex game, and I wanted you as far from that as I could get you,” he said.
She swallowed hard. “Really?”
“Would I lie about that? I certainly didn’t leave you and go back to the party to kill Stacia.”
“What did happen? Do you know?”
“I don’t,” he said. “We’ve never found out anything other than they had no evidence to prosecute Hunter and me. Both of us can’t recall the night that clearly. What about you? Do you remember anything from that night?” he asked.
“Just being into you and around you,” she said. She tipped her head to the side to study him. Stacia’s death was still like a fresh wound to Kingsley. Gabi could tell by the way he was talking about it. Hear it in the anger in his voice.
“If you can remember anything from that night that seemed odd,” he said, “I’d like to know about it.”
“Why?”
“Hunter and I have been piecing together stories and memories of that night. Hunter and Stacia were serious about each other. He blames himself for her death.”
“Did he kill her?”
“No. He didn’t,” Kingsley said. “Enough about that. Tell me about your business. How did you go from college to being a nanny?”
She put her hand on his and squeezed it. That knot of anger that had been deep inside her since the moment she’d woken to hear that her lover had been arrested for killing another woman eased. It had been a long time in coming, but she finally felt as if she was seeing Kingsley as the man he could be.
She didn’t trust herself. Didn’t know if she ever would be able to again, but there was a little bit of hope inside her now.
Talking about the night Stacia died always made Kingsley feel anger and resentment. He’d had it all until then. He’d felt untouchable—in part thanks to his family’s money. School had come easily to him and he’d been on the dean’s list every semester. He hadn’t won the Heisman Trophy, but he had been mentioned as a first-round draft pick. His life had been, well, charmed, and he’d taken it for granted.
He’d slept with Gabi, knowing that she came from a good family. He had imagined she’d be the perfect accoutrement for the idyllic life he pictured for himself. One where he outshone his older brother, where after he’d won the Super Bowl he’d retire and have the perfect family. He figured he’d play hard and when Gabi graduated he’d think about settling down with her.
But after the arrest those plans had disappeared. He’d been shocked that he hadn’t been able to talk the cops out of arresting both him and Hunter. It had been inconceivable that anyone would think Hunter would have killed Stacia. Despite his name, Hunter didn’t really have a killer instinct. Which is how they’d ended up being labeled the Frat House Killers.
Sitting in the sun with Gabi just reinforced his need for revenge. To find out who had killed Stacia and make them pay for the plans they’d interrupted, for the life they’d taken. And the years they’d lived with the stigma of being murderers.
Gabi pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head and leaned forward.
“You look scary. Is that your don’t-sack-me face?”
He forced a smile because he could tell that was what she wanted, but this lunch simply reinforced all he’d lost. If he hadn’t been accused of murder, maybe he would have married better. Maybe Conner’s mother would still be alive if he hadn’t been so...uninterested in anything except making enough money so he could go after his revenge.
“Yeah. You’d be amazed at what it takes to stop a three-hundred-pound linebacker.”
“I shudder to think of facing someone like that. I’m sorry I brought up Stacia. I can tell that it still bothers you,” she said.
“Her killer was never brought to justice. Someone thought that Hunter and I would take the fall for them. They were wrong,” he said.
“Maybe the cops will find that person,” Gabi said.
Doubtful. Especially since most of them believed he and Hunter had gotten off because of their family money. But he didn’t want to get into that with Gabi. He needed to know if she remembered anything else about that night. Hunter thought someone might have drugged them before Stacia was killed. Gabi was still on campus after the party, so she might have heard something along those lines. But for right now he wanted to enjoy this lunch.
He’d had some hot dreams about Gabi last night. Maybe it was the fact that they’d only had that one night together or maybe it was because she was under his roof again, but he wanted her. He wanted to see if the kiss, the sex he remembered with her had been real. Or just another illusion that would be shattered by reality.
“You’re staring again.”
“I’m wondering what it would be like to kiss you,” he said.
She flushed under her tan and licked her lips. Her mouth had fascinated him from the first moment he’d met her. Her lips were full and lush. She’d never worn lipstick in college and now she wore something that made her lips shimmer but didn’t add color to them.
“Well, stop wondering. I’m in your house to be a nanny, not to assuage your curiosity.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Assuage?”
“Yes, got a problem with it?”
“Not at all. It’s just that I figured since you worked with kids—”
“I’d talk like a toddler?” she asked.
He