Killing Me Softly: A Thriller Romance Novel [FIRST DRAFT]

Chapter 18

The community center was packed from table to table, wall to wall. Local restaurant owners had collaborated with Mary Jo's church to provide food for all of these people. Even after half of them had gone home after the burial service, it was still fully packed. Janice and I got in line to get some food.

"Did you ladies hear?" An older lady from behind said to us.

"Hear what?" Janice turned and asked.

"Somebody said they saw her husband, Theo, pull into the parking lot, but he won't come inside. He's probably afraid her brother Donnie will try and kill him again. Social things like this aren't really Theo's thing, though, being a psychopath and all. So, he can stay out in the parking lot or leave, for all I care."

Theo's not a psychopath, I wanted to defend his honor but kept my mouth shut.

Janice changed the subject and conversed with the woman along with a couple of other people I didn't know. I just stood back and let them talk while I thought about Theo and how everyone in this town probably thought of him as a "psychopath" like that woman did.

I couldn't eat a thing. All I could think about was going outside to look for Theo, to see if I could locate him, just to see if he's okay. I always took it upon my heart to worry about him, probably more than most.

"Hey, I'll be right back," I said to Janice at the table while she conversed with a few people she knew, folks I had never met before.

"Where are you going?" She immediately asked and skimmed the room.

"Don't worry. I've seen no signs of Jamie. Besides, we're surrounded. I don't think he could do anything if he wanted to," I told her.

She nodded solemnly. "Ok. Just don't be too long. Alright?"

I nodded and headed out of the event space and into the foyer where there were noisy clusters of chitter-chatter going on.

There was a line going all the way out of the women's bathroom, and I walked past, thinking to check back later when something caught my eye.

There was another part to the community center, another side with a long corridor of closed doors. As I approached the doors, the smell of cigarette smoke hit my nose. I walked further down as the smell got stronger and stronger.

I opened the door and found Theo all by himself with a foot propped up on the back of a chair as he held his head back against a wall and smoked. Startled, he immediately dropped his foot and glared wide-eyed at me with the cigarette between his long fingers.

"Oh, sorry," I said and quickly turned to leave.

"Wait," I heard him say, and I stopped in my tracks as I turned to see him put his cigarette out in a red Solo cup. It fizzled in his drink, and he hopped from the wall. "Delilah? Delilah Morrison? That's you, isn't it?" He asked with a slight grin to his beautiful lips.

His voice was just as deep and captivating as I remembered it to be. Chills went through me.

To hear him say my name both paralyzed and thrilled me. My legs stiffened after I stepped back into the room, and he approached me.

"From AP Biology. I remember," Theo said, wagging a finger at me with a weak smile and a weathered face.

I could tell it took a lot of effort for him to attempt a smile. Seeing him there, here and now, in a black suit with a white shirt and black single-windsor tie stunned me. My tongue instantly swelled up, and my throat tightened at the very sight of him.

Poor Theo. He looked more haggard up close than he did from afar, and I saw the scar Janice had told me about under his left eyebrow, the one Mary Jo had given him. But, he still possessed the same rugged good looks that could bring me to my knees.