Right In Front Of You

Chapter 26 - Reprieve!

A few hours later;
Barry's POV;

I couldn't believe how hard it was proving to find one man. Everywhere we went there was no sign of him, all his usual haunts were deserted, all his friends hadn't seen or heard of him since Suzie had found him in their bed with another woman, in fact the majority of them heard that news for the first time from me.

Deano was getting more and more agitated with every negative result, the man was fierce when it came to the girls and he would do whatever he could to ensure he was there for them. Sure it had been a long time since he had been around but the man had lost his best friend, in fact they had been more like brothers than anything else, he had needed time to get his head around the loss and that was why he had taken off pretty much straight after the funeral.

I had met Deano once before the death of Suzie's Parent's, I had gone round to her house one Saturday, we were going to watch the game that was on; but had ended up hanging out with her Dad and this huge goliath of a man, who were working on the truck that had been parked in the driveway, which had ended up being handed down to Suzie.

I had been impressed by the man, he knew everything there was to know about motors for bikes and cars, he was like a walking encyclopedia of anything to do with motors. We had spent the day working on the truck and in the end we didn't even care that we had missed the game.

I had then met him again at the funeral where he had been so beside himself that he didn't even remember me and thought that I was Shaun because I had been the one who had held Suzie through the service, I had been the one at her side at the grave yard and I had been the one holding her hand throughout the wake as she tried to keep it together for her sisters.

"What do you say we head back to his house; that slippery little son of a bitch has to go home sometime?" Deano suggested as we exited the sleazy little bar that I knew Shaun frequented.

"Sounds like a plan to me my man," I admitted watching as he climbed on to his Harley and roared the bike to life.

I remembered him having this very same Harley when I was younger, in fact I remembered him picking Suzie up from school one day on it. And I remember the rumours that had started because of it, the other kids thought that she was having an affair with an older man...its funny how kids see things in a simple act.

"I'll meet you there then," He roared over the loud scream of the bike as he revved it a little harder.

"You got it!" I roared back before climbing in to my own truck and turning the engine over.

My mind ticked over as I drove the half hour drive back to Cameron. I didn't quite understand why Shaun would have been stupid enough to have cheated on Suzie, I had thought that he loved her, I thought that he was committed but clearly I was wrong and in a way I blamed myself for it. I should have known that something was wrong, I should have known that he was up to his old tricks.

Before he had met Suzie; he had been a cheater but at least back then there hadn't been the complications that came with adult life, there was no sex, there was no living together and it was just so much simpler. Now Suzie lay in pieces at home because he hadn't been able to keep it zipped in his pants.

Ever since Suzie and I had become friends; our friendship had bloomed without effort on either of our parts. What we shared was just a strong connection of friendship, it was something that I knew Shaun had struggled with for a while but he had finally come round and seen that there was never and would never be anything between us other than friendship. What I wouldn't do for her seemed limitless and if he thought that he was getting off light after his little visit tonight then he had another thing coming.