Lucas nodded. "Yes, she has. And I think it"s time to find out exactly why. What went on between you and Melody back then, Keith? Why does she dislike you so much?"
"Lucas, I really can"t tell you that, man." Keith chuckled. "Because I don"t know. She never liked me from the beginning. You meet up with people like that from time to time. You don"t always know why they don"t like you. You just accept it."
"I"m gonna ask you straight out, man." Lucas shifted. "Did you and Melody ever have something going on?"
Keith guffawed. "Lucas!"
"I"m dead serious, Keith."
"No, man! You know how much I love Sarah! She"s all I"ve ever wanted. And you"re my friend! I wouldn"t mess around with Melody like that! You"ve known me for years. How could you accuse me of something like that?"
"How come I don"t believe you?"
"h.e.l.l, I don"t know! I guess I got one of those faces that makes me look guilty."
"Do I look like I"m in the mood for jokes, Keith? I want to know what"s going on! Why was Melody at your place the night she was raped? Answer me!"
"I told you she came over there to talk!"
"To you? Keith, Melody hates you, or so she claims! But I"m beginning to wonder why. Were you stringing Melody along while being with Sarah?"
"Luke!"
"Were you?"
"Man, f.u.c.k this! See what she"s doing? She tried to break me up from Sarah; now she"s messing up our friendship!"
"Keith, something is going on here. I want to know what it is!"
"You want to know so badly, then go ask your little girlfriend!" He stomped to the door. "Just remember that it all started with her. Everything has always been her fault! You keep that in mind! I don"t need to be second-guessed by you, Lucas. If you and Melody are having problems, then take it up with her!"
"Did you ever sleep with Melody?" Lucas bellowed.
Keith slammed the door.
"h.e.l.lo, Sarah. Glad you could make it." Lucas stood by his door later that night. Sarah sashayed in. She overlooked the comfortable decor. She smiled. Lucas politely took her purse. She couldn"t help noticing the lines running through his bothered face.
"Please, sit down. Would you like a snack or something to drink? My maid just picked up a refrigerator of groceries."
They sat on the couch.
"No, thank you." Sarah looked around the room a second time. "Uh, is everything all right? I found your invite strange since you asked me not to mention it to Keith or Melody." She crossed her legs. "Is something wrong?"
"Look, Sarah, I"m not gonna beat around the bush, okay? I want to talk about Keith and Melody." She nodded. "I think there is a lot we both don"t know. Something is going on, and I intend on finding out what as soon as possible."
"You"re angry?"
"I"m sad and confused and hurt because of what happened to Melody. I"m also sick and tired of being led by the nose. Sarah, this just isn"t right. Keith claims Melody has no cause to distrust him or not like him, but you don"t hate someone the way she hates Keith unless they"ve done something to you. Melody hates Keith with a pa.s.sion and would do anything to get him out of both of your lives. I can"t believe it"s just on Melody"s doing."
"What are you saying exactly?" She didn"t want to hear this. She decided to entertain Lucas since he loved Melody so much. She didn"t know why they were having this conversation. So, Melody didn"t like Keith. Is it really that big of a deal? Lucas curved his fingers into a reddish fist. Suddenly, Sarah understood that it had been.
"I"m saying that we have to get to the bottom of things, Sarah. Well, probably, mainly, you do. Keith, hasn"t been exactly honest with you."
She scoffed. "And how do you know this?"
"Did he tell you that Melody was at his house the night she was raped?"
"What?" She stared at him.
Lucas shrugged. "He didn"t tell you that, did he?" Sarah felt like someone had kicked her in the head with steel-toed shoes. "He hid it from you, which makes that lying in my book."
"You must have been mistaken. Keith would have told me if Melody had been to his place that night. Especially on that night. He tells me everything."
"You can"t say that now, Sarah. He tried to hide it because he made a slip. He said Melody was upset and that in time, he knew she"d heal. I caught the slip and he admitted that she was at his place. I accused him of having an affair with Melody."
"That"s insane, Lucas! Melody wouldn"t do a thing like that to me!"
"I know she wouldn"t. But at that moment I was so hurt by Keith lying that I thought I needed to ask him about it. He of course grinned and pretended it was the most insane thing he"d ever heard."
"That"s because I"m sure it is! Lucas, what are you getting at? Why am I really here? And if you have doubts, why didn"t you talk to Melody about all this?"
"Because we both know Melody wouldn"t have opened up about it. She"s gone for months not disclosing why she feels the way she does about Keith. Why would she tell me something now? Sarah, this secrecy can"t go on. Something happened between them and we need to find out what it is!"
"It"s nothing, Lucas!" She flipped her hair off her shoulder. "Look, it"s been a weird time and I know you"re stressed because of Melody being raped. But this is insane. You have doubts about Keith, someone you"ve known for four years?"
"That"s just it, Sarah. Do I really know Keith? In all this time, I still don"t know even the most common things about him. Don"t you think that"s strange?"
She walked around with her arms crossed. "You know a lot about him, Lucas. You know he has a brother. You know..."
"No, for us to be friends for this long, Sarah, I don"t know enough!" She turned away from him. "I don"t know about his family. And what about his brother? I"ve never even seen the guy! I"ve been to Keith"s house many times! What"s that about?"
"So what, huh? You think Keith made up a brother, now? Lucas, you know him! He"s your friend. Why are you turning on him like this?"
He sighed. "I don"t mean to, but Sarah..." He stood. "Sometimes it takes another person to point out that you don"t know someone as well as you may think. For me, that"s been Melody. She knows something about Keith that we don"t. Sarah, you mean to say you don"t have any doubts? You don"t wonder why he doesn"t share all he can with you?"
"He shares enough." She rolled her eyes.
"I think you just don"t want to see what"s going on here. I think you"re scared."
She pounded her chest. "Look, I love Keith, okay? I love him and I trust him, Lucas!"
"Do you trust your sister?" Sarah shut her eyes. "Sarah, please think about what I"m saying. Something isn"t right. I think everything going on with Melody is connected to Keith. He couldn"t even lie straight when I confronted him this morning."
"Maybe he wasn"t trying to lie! Maybe he was shocked that one of his dearest friends has decided to give him a hard time!"
"Listen to me!" He shook her. "I know you got doubts, too. If you love Melody you"ll find out all you can about why she hates Keith so much!" She broke from his grasp. "Sarah, we both know he tried to hide that Melody was at his house when she was raped. Why?"
"When she said Valley Road, I...I knew it was near Keith"s." She rubbed her head. "But this doesn"t make any sense. Why are you coming to me with this now? I"m trying to help Melody through this. Lucas, I got enough to deal with! I don"t need this on my shoulders, too."
"I never wanted to make things hard for you, Sarah. But I love your sister. I"ll do all I can to make things easier for her. You aren"t stupid, Sarah." She turned away from him. "You know in your heart that something is going on." He turned her toward him. "Don"t you think it"s time you faced it?"
"Lucas, I..."
He nodded. "Sarah, you"re probably the only one Keith would be completely honest with. Sarah, he is in love with you. He"d probably tell you just about anything."
She sighed. "So you want me to investigate my own boyfriend, now?"
"If he loves you as much as he says he does, he should have no problem with that. Don"t you want to know why he didn"t tell you Melody was at his place that night? Why did he hide it from you, unless he felt it needed to be hidden? And what was she doing there in the first place? Sarah, we have all of these questions and no answers! At least not any that fit. It doesn"t make sense to me. Sarah, it may be hard but you gotta talk to him. You know you do."
"Uh, I gotta go, Lucas." She grabbed her purse from the coat rack by the door.
"Sarah."
"Good night." She left.
Lucas leaned against the door. "Do the right thing before it"s too late, Sarah. Because you"re probably the only one who can," he whispered.
Chapter Seventeen.
"Oh, h.e.l.lo, Sarah." Jeff Williamson greeted Sarah at Keith"s office door at Caper the next morning. She straightened her tan suit and skirt that hugged her voluptuous hips. Pa.s.sing men gawked at her magnificent shape. Jeff smiled brightly. She got the feeling that Jeff had a crush on her. She remembered when Keith first introduced her to Jeff. He"d been so nervous he dropped his soda.
She figured he"d jump to help her if he could. For some reason, Keith took to Jeff. She knew he probably told Jeff things he hadn"t told Lucas. Keith probably found Jeff to be a "safe" friend-one you could confide in, but they weren"t so close that they"d go blabbing all your business. Sometimes she"d surprise Keith at work to find he and Jeff in mysterious conversations.
Sarah figured Jeff had the information she needed. In that case, it didn"t hurt if he wanted her. She could use that to her advantage.
"Hi, Jeff."
"You look beautiful," he panted. She looked away from his gaze. "Uh, how are you?"
"Fine."
"It"s Keith"s off day, you know?"
"Yes, I know." She smiled. "I, uh, came to talk to you."
"Me?" He rubbed his curly brunette hair. He blushed. "Why would you want to talk to me, Sarah?"
"Can we go to your office?"
"Sure. It"s right this way." They walked six doors down to his office. He shut the door for privacy. Sarah wondered how they could get so much work done with people constantly hanging around in the halls. Jeff sat at his desk. "What can I do for you, Sarah?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Keith. But, could you keep this between us?"
He stared at the tiny spot of cleavage peeking from her blouse.
"Jeff?"
"Huh?" He ran his eyes down her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Oh yeah, you want to ask me something about Keith? Sure, that"s fine." He smiled. "Boy, he"s lucky to have a woman like you." She smiled. "Especially after all the trouble he went through to get you."
"What are you talking about?"
He chuckled. "Well, he just knew you were made for him the first time he saw you. He came to work with glowing eyes, skipping over clouds." He laughed. "Man, I don"t think anything flips Keith"s world like you do."
"We met in a coffee shop." She shrugged. "It was nice for me too but nothing that would cause that much of a scene."
"Oh, the shop by your job, right? Oh yeah." He grinned. "He used to go there every day during lunchtime, and believe me, it wasn"t for the coffee. He always said that was the only time he could watch you and not feel guilty. He said that watching and wanting you without you knowing was incredibly exciting."
"Uh." She chuckled. "Are you saying that Keith knew me before we met at the coffee shop?"
"Oh, absolutely! I"d say probably a year before he got the guts to talk to you." Sarah"s mouth dropped. "He never told you this?" She shook her head. "Sarah, he knew where you lived even before he knew where you worked."
"What?" she gasped.
"Well, he was determined to find out your address." Jeff grinned. "We dared him that he couldn"t do it. Said he followed you home one night and soon he was driving over there quite often. We told him it would look strange and he"d scare you off, but Keith always goes by his own methods."
Sarah gripped her chest. She felt like her heart would drop from her body.
"He never told me any of this. I don"t believe this. He was stalking me."
"No, Sarah, look..."
"No, you can"t call it anything else, Jeff! He followed me home! He knew where I worked? He approached me like it was an accident but it wasn"t like that at all! He planned this entire thing?"
"Sarah, most women would be flattered that a guy like Keith would go through so much trouble to meet them."
"Flattered? It"s insane, Jeff! Keith is not some high school kid who followed the cheerleader to the game! He"s a man who knew me, knew things about me, watched me before I even knew his name. I can"t believe this." She shook her head. "This entire thing has been a lie."
"f.u.c.k." Jeff walled his eyes. "Boy, is Keith gonna fry my a.s.s. Sarah, look, it"s not that big of a deal. He just didn"t know enough about you and that was his way of finding things out."
"Jeff, you ask people things if you want to get to know them. You don"t follow them home or to the coffee shop! And all this time I had no indication that he"d done this." She shook her head. "It"s not normal, Jeff. I thought I knew him. I don"t know him at all."
"Sarah, uh, do you remember getting any flowers or gifts at any time that you didn"t know where they came from?" He bit his lip.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Please don"t tell me Keith..." He nodded. "Oh." She guffawed from shock. "Oh G.o.d, this can"t be happening!" She laughed.
"Sarah, are you okay?"
"Melody was right." She shook her head. "She was right and Lucas was right." Jeff stared. "All this time, Melody told me he was hiding something. It may not have even been this but now I know it"s something." She stood.
"Sarah, I didn"t mean to cause trouble between you and Keith. He loves you so much. You"re a beautiful woman. Honestly, I can"t blame him. What man wouldn"t go after you? Granted he should have picked a better way but he wanted to make you fall in love with him, and you did. If you love him now, then it shouldn"t matter."