Chapter 8
Howie had asked the guys to excuse him for a few moments as he went upstairs to his office to make a few phone calls. What he really needed was a moment to take in all that they had discussed and the possibility that this girl looked an awful lot like Kristina.
He thought about Kristina every day, how he failed her and how she died without him holding her hand. It opened the old wounds of Caroline’s death as well and now, once again, someone he cared deeply for had passed, only this time he felt as though he could have prevented it from happening.
Laying his head on the back of his chair, he thought about the excuses she gave him as to why they couldn’t be together in the beginning of their relationship and how she refused to give up her phone number. Then, when she had showed up on his doorstep with her suitcases in hand, he hadn’t even questioned her. He just took her in, falling deeper in love with her with every breath she took. She received mysterious phone calls and when he asked her about them, she would hush him with kisses, loving him with those bright blue eyes of hers and he would forget. How he loved her eyes. They held the key to her very soul, but he got completely lost in their beauty and didn’t delve deeper to unlock the answers. And the way she would bite his lip playfully when she wanted something and he would simply give in without hesitating. She probably could have asked for the moon and he would have given it to her. The only thing he could give her now was justice.
Her mother had been so distraught over Kristina’s death that his heart ached for her. It didn’t seem final until she took him to Kristina’s graveside and it was there that he had promised that he would have his private investigator work to find the creep that did this to her. Stephen was on the run, but Howie had his picture, his alia and all of his personal information. He vowed that if it took ten years, he would personally see that Stephen was prosecuted for her death.
Sitting in his office, alone and tired, he needed to see the girl that Kevin believed was Kristina. He needed to see if there truly was a resemblance, even though he knew there had to be or Kevin wouldn’t have risked upsetting him by calling him into town. Kevin knew the heartache Howie had felt when she left, so he knew that this girl must be eerily similar to the woman who stole his heart and took it to the grave with her. He had nothing to gain by meeting this girl and didn’t know why he needed to see her so badly, but he did. Maybe it was pure curiosity. But whatever the reason, tonight would be the night and his head was filled with more emotions than he was capable of processing.