Chapter 74

Matt

"That's how I got your number. I don't know why she had that, or what it means."

Memory shifted in my mind. Why we'd argued. The things we'd shouted at one another. The way I'd pleaded with her.

We can go on a date, eat out at a restaurant. Hell, I don't know. We could spend a lazy afternoon collecting seashells.

The breath seeped from my lungs. Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

After I'd left her under the pier that night, she'd done just that. She'd...collected shells. Christ. It had been an olive branch, and she'd died before I could ever have the opportunity to reach for it. Or she'd known she was going to die and left me this as a message. Either way, the whole situation sucked. Down to the nitty-gritty kind of suck.

I cleared my strangled throat. "It was something normal, one of the things I'd urged her to do. Collect shells." I tore my gaze from the bag to him. "That's why she had this."

His brows furrowed, understanding in his eyes. "You should keep it, then." His finger tapp