Free Disturbed Mind (A Grace Ellery Romantic Suspense Series Book 2) by Charlotte Raine Page A

about. Her rejection of my proposal. But I can’t help my resentment. I try to be a better person, but sometimes that doesn’t work.
    “I need to sleep,” she says. “It felt like today would never end. How much longer are you going to be working?”
    “Just an hour, maybe an hour and a half,” I tell her. She nods before retreating into the bedroom. I sit back down at the table, reorganizing all of the papers and photographs. I stare at the images of John Doe’s destroyed face. Nobody could do that much damage to someone if they had known them well. There has to be another reason that the killer would go through such efforts to hide the man’s identity.

Chapter Nineteen

Sam, 2015
    ( V alentine’s Day ; Sam’s House, Murray, Virginia)
    I’VE NEVER BEEN GOOD at Valentine’s Day. It involves romance, expressed feelings, and the simple act of remembering the fact that it’s Valentine’s Day. So, of course, I forget until it’s nearly five o’clock. Luckily, Grace needed to be at the university until six, so I stopped by the dollar store and bought every object with a heart on it and some red and white roses.
    By the time Grace gets home, I’ve put baked macaroni and cheese—the only recipe I know how to make—into the oven, place the roses in a vase, and set them onto the table. She smiles as she sees the roses and kisses me on the cheek. She hands me a tiny box, wrapped in shiny red paper.
    “Happy Valentine’s Day,” she whispers in my ear, her breath tickling my skin.
    “Happy Valentine’s Day,” I murmur back. She wraps her arms around my waist and her lips touch the nape of my neck. I turn around to face her, putting my hands on her hips and pulling her close to me. I kiss her, tasting the cherry flavor of her lip balm. She steps back and hands me the box.
    “I hope you like it,” she says. “I found it a few months ago.”
    My phone vibrates, but I ignore it.
    “I…”
    “—don’t have anything,” she finishes, but I’m relieved to see that she’s smiling. “I know you, Samuel Meadows. It’s fine. You’re letting me stay at your home. That’s more than I could ever ask for.”
    “We’ve been together for almost five months,” I say. “I think by now you might have been moved in…”
    “I might have,” she says. “Maybe, maybe not. It’s still generous that you let me stay here. Thank you.”
    I know she means everything she says as a compliment, but I can’t help but hear the insinuation that our relationship wouldn’t have developed this far if she hadn’t been forced to live with me because of the Schneiders’ bad attitudes.
    The oven beeps as the timer goes off. I set down her present, slide on some oven mitts, and take out the baked macaroni and cheese.
    “Are you going to open it?” she asks.
    “Maybe. I just need some time to think about it,” I say, sarcasm rippling under my voice. She stares at me and folds her arms over her chest.
    “Why don’t you just come out and say what you want to say?” she asks. “You’re mad because I said I wanted to wait to get married. You’re mad because you had expectations that I didn’t meet.”
    “I’m not mad because you said you wanted to wait to get married. I’m mad because you rejected my proposal. If you had said yes, but wanted to wait to do the wedding, I would have been happy with that. But the fact that you outright rejected my proposal means that you don’t really see a future between us.”
    “I’m still here, aren’t I?” she demands.
    “You have nowhere else to go!” I shout.
    Her whole face reddens.
    “There are other places I could go,” she says, her voice low. “Don’t you dare think that I’m here because there is nowhere else to go. I could have stayed in my brother’s house. I could have gone to Kevin’s.”
    I shake my head. “Forget I said that. Let’s just eat.”
    “No, Sam,” she says. “We need to talk about this. You can’t just ignore a problem and hope it goes