“You’re at MIT?” I asked.
Thomas looked at me as if I should have already known. “Oh, I forgot I didn’t tell you. Yes, I’m at MIT senior year right now. I skipped two grades and will be graduating this Spring.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said. “That you’re still here in Mass.”
“I know, so close to Harvard, anyways,” Thomas said. “I wanted to stay close to home in case Dad needed me.” He looked searchingly at my face as though he wanted to say something more.
“So close by me,” I said.
We looked at each other, both thinking how much time we wasted from them breaking up with me. We were so close to each other, yet so far away. Missing each other, yet not attempting to be with each other.
“What about you, Seb?” I asked. “What would you be doing wherever you are, if you didn’t come back to Keystone?”
Seb took a sip of his coffee and said, “I’d be working at one of Dad’s offices. I started working at the London office last summer and kept working part-time while I stayed in school at Cambridge University. That’s how I figured that something was up.”
“No girlfriend to keep you company in England?” I asked, almost dreading to hear his answer if it was yes.
Seb looked hard at me as though he couldn’t believe I had asked him that question. As though we were new acquaintances instead of ex-lovers.
Thomas and Ash both looked at him intently, waiting for his answer. They too wanted to know. After all, it was Seb who led them to believe I had betrayed them and they would be through with me.
Seb finally said in an anguished voice, “No. How could I, after you?”
It was something I wanted to hear, but I said, “You could have. You should have moved on. I would have. Two years, it would be a long wait.”
Thomas, Ash, and Seb couldn’t hide their jealousy. “I knew it,” Ash said. “A girl like Kaley…all the guys would be all over her, especially at Nerd Hall-verd.”
“I’m not saying,” I said, grateful that Gretchen was now bringing our orders to the table.
“We know about Sutton already,” Thomas said, his face frozen with anger and jealousy.
“Talk about the devil,” Seb said, looking as the door of the diner opened and in walked Sutton.
He didn’t see us at first since we were at the far corner of the diner. Gretchen asked if everything was fine and if we needed anything else, but we didn’t, so she left to greet Sutton at the door.
Damn. I tried to make myself smaller so he wouldn’t see me. Thomas and Ash looked like they wanted to punch him for just showing up. After all, he was the one who showed the fake video as evidence to Seb, causing all of the mess and misunderstanding between me and the Keystone brothers.
“I lost my appetite,” Thomas said.
“I haven’t,” Ash said. “Eat up. You’ll need your strength.”
Seb was already inhaling his meal, as though he was eating for strength.
I took a bite of my meatloaf and tossed my head back, savoring it. “This is the best meatloaf I’ve had in ages.”
The guys chuckled as I gobbled down my meal.
Thomas finally took a bite of his pot roast and said, “Wow. Who knew this was such a gem.”
“We knew,” Seb and I said.
We looked at each other feeling how in sync we were. Out of all of the brothers, Seb and I seemed to be on the same wavelength most of the time. In a way, even Mr. Keystone had compared me to Seb several times over the years.
As if we needed further proof, I said, “To top such a good dinner off, we need one more piece…”
Seb and I said, “Key lime pie.”
At the same time, Thomas joined in, too. “That’s it.”
All of our eyes lit up.
We brought our phones out to look at the Will.
“Now that there was a will, there would be a way. So where would I find the key to a pie that would show me the way to a childhood favorite?”
“The key lime pie,” I said.
“Of course,” Thomas said. “Dad and I always order it when we came here.”
“It was tradition,” Seb said. “It was the one thing we always ordered when we came here.”
“So let’s order it,” Ash said.
“It can’t be that simple,” Seb said.
“No, I agree,” Thomas said. “It says that Kaley holds the key to all of our shares. That means Kaley has to order it, let them know it’s the special one.”
“Okay,” I said, “That’s easy. I know where all of the pies are. I’ll just go find it.”
I stood up to go to the kitchen and noticed how all eyes were on me. Not just the guys at my table, but the ones from the few tables in the diner, including Sutton’s. We made eye contact, and I almost winced. I quickly walked away from the table towards the kitchen where Cook was.
“Compliments to the chef,” I said, patting Cook’s shoulder. “Not only did I love the meatloaf, these guys are the world’s pickiest eaters and they devoured their dishes as well! I must get the recipe for my mom. She’d kill me if I didn’t try to get it! You are such a gem, Cook. I’m surprised you’ve haven’t been snatched up by a five-star restaurant!”
Cook laughed. “Who said they didn’t try? Mr. Keystone tried. Offered me a job for his Boston Hotel. But I turned him down. Nah, this is where I want to be.”
“Talk about Mr. Keystone… did he ever mentioned anything about a special key lime pie he wanted me to pick up?”
Cook’s eyes widen as he almost exclaimed but quickly soften his voice into a whisper, “You figured it out. Follow me.” I walked with him to the large restaurant sized refrigerator in back where there were stacks of key lime pies. He brought one out that had a copper rim and handed it to me. “I hope you can get to the bottom of this case, Kaley. I really miss Clay and I know you do too. Something fishy about how Clay died. But be careful. When Clay asked me to keep the key safe, he told me a lot of people were after him. Dangerous people who would do anything to get what he had.”
I gulped. Seb’s theory about Mr. Keystone being murdered seemed true. That meant whoever had the Will and was named in the Will would be in danger.
I thanked Cook and told him to take care. He hugged me and said, “You’re like a daughter to me, Kaley. So please be careful, even with the Keystone sons. Clay had reservations about them sometimes, but he loved them still.”
“Okay,’ I said, walking out of the fridge at the back of the restaurant and heading out along the hallway and restroom area.
Immediately, a large hand grabbed me and went over my mouth. “Don’t scream,” a familiar voice said.
Sutton.
My heart froze. Last time I saw Sutton he was running after me in a field in a way that I thought was menacing. Dangerous. He was no longer the gentle sexy cop who gave me orgasm after orgasm, but a stalker who had his eyes on me for a while and had even lied to Seb to trick him into dumping me based on betrayal.
I bit his hand, causing him to remove it from my mouth. He swore and said, “Stop fighting me, Kaley. I need to talk to you.”