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

Chapter 20

WHAT DID I DO? PLEASE TELL ME. Jamie had texted me. He even tried calling me twice, and had left voicemails both times.

"Delilah, I am really hurt by what happened today. Please call me when you get the chance. Ok, bye," Jamie said in one message. Then said in the other in a more panicked, shaky voice nearly hollering, "Why won't you talk to me? Please, I just got you back in my life. Don't treat me like this. I am worried sick about you. Call me. Bye."

I had let Janice listen to them, and she shook her head. "I cannot believe him. He did the same to me, you know. I blew him off for a while because I caught him flirting with one of the other nurses when we were seeing each other. Granted we weren't exclusive or anything. It still pissed me off because he was all about me. Chasing me around like he's chasing you right now. But, when I cut him off after...that night. He left me alone. He knew what he did was wrong."

The sick feeling I had about Jamie returned to me. "Don't worry. I won't be calling or seeing him ever again," I said, deleting his voicemails and text messages.

"Hopefully he stops. Because, I am telling you, girl, once Jamie obsesses over something, he doesn't stop," she said and frowned. "You know that."

"I know."

The hound dogs started howling outside, startling us. We hadn't been there ten minutes from the funeral, and already someone was there. I had this fear, this worry that it might be someone we don't want to see. It might be Jamie.

"Oh my god. Who is that?" Janice asked.

Janice rushed to the window and pulled the curtain aside when my phone vibrated in my hand.

"Oh my god. You are not going to believe this," she said. "It's Theo."

"Hi. I'd like to talk to you more about that article. Come outside, if you're here." It was a text from Theo.

I jumped to the window next to her and saw his big, black Jeep there at the gate with its headlights on.

"Who the hell is that?" I heard Janice's dad ask from downstairs.

"Oh, no. This is not going to go well," Janice said to me. "He's going to have to leave or my daddy will shoot him."

"What?" I jolted and followed Janice down the stairs with my phone in my hand.

"Y'all expectin' company?" Janice's dad asked us when we hit the first floor and ran to the door.

"Coming," I texted Theo quickly and grabbed the door handle.

"Don't let him through the gate," Janice said. "Or he'll be trespassing."

"Who the hell is it?" Janice's dad asked again, standing next to a shotgun propped against the wall next to the door.

"It's no one, daddy. Just one of Delilah's friends," Janice said to him as I slipped out the front door.

Rufus and Jojo did circles around me, barking and howling as I made my way down Janice's driveway to the gate. I shooed both dogs to keep them from following me, but it didn't do any good.

As soon as I saw Theo in the driver's seat of his Jeep, my heart raced wildly in my chest. He leaned over and propped open the passenger side door for me. It took me a good leap to get into the front passenger seat, but I made it. I shut the door and immediately caught an aromatic scent. It smelled like Theo with a hint of leather and Marlboro reds.

Theo's wide brown eyes greeted me, as he held onto the steering wheel. "Hi," he said deeply.

"Hi," I said, tucking my hair behind my ears bashfully, finding it hard to look at him directly. "What are you doing here?"