Whatever Remains by Lauren Gilley

Jade. You never stopped wanting him, and that’s hard to fight.”
                  She opened her mouth to respond, and the doorbell rang, tolling through the main floor, echoing off the hardwood.
                  “I’ll get it.” Jade unfolded her legs and hopped gratefully to her feet, glad to have this particular line of discussion interrupted. The possibility of Ben waiting on her front step was only half as terrifying as Jeremy’s pitying little smile.
                  Asher was the one on the porch, rain sheeting down in lamp-gilded silhouette behind him, hands in his jacket pockets. He looked bad: blotchy and lumpy and almost swollen. What she’d seen as sweetness and ease before had been transformed into stress and exhaustion. Last night had changed him more than she could have thought possible.
                  “Asher, hi –  ”
                  He moved past her into the foyer, raindrops shaking off the tail of his coat. Jade stepped back, startled, but held the door with one hand, keeping it open.
                  “What’s going on?”
                  He wiped a hand along his jaw and stared out through the open doorway. In the light, she could see the bags under his eyes. “Your – whatever he is,” he said. “Your detective. He pulled me in for questioning and jumped me.”
                  “Jumped…” Jade had a sudden vision of Ben slamming Asher up against a wall, fists balled in his shirtfront, Asher’s head snapping back against cinderblock. “Oh, shit, did he – ”
                  “He accused me of being…being some kinda pedophile or something.”
                  Her mind blanked out. “I’m sorry, what ?”
                  The scowl he turned on her was deeply wounded, like she’d hurt him on purpose. “Your ex wants to pin the murder on me. And he’s calling me a pervert.”
                  Dangerous …Jeremy had been right. “Shit,” she said, pulse doing a somersault. “Ash, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
                  He held up a hand, palm inches from her face. “Look, just save it, okay? I don’t have the energy for this.”
                  The odds had never been in their favor. She had a kid; he was terrified of horses; the chemistry had been so uncertain that they’d traded nothing more than a few hugs and chaste kisses. She was hardly shattered, but the idea of Ben setting out to ruin this – anything – for her…that was infuriating. That he would slap unshakeable labels on an innocent man was borderline evil.
                  “I’ll talk to him, “she said. The rain was falling hard, splattering across the terraced front steps, hissing through the leaves. “I’ll get him to back off; he can’t harass you like this. I’ll go to his captain if I have to.”
                  “No.” His face was heavy, voice resigned. “That’ll just set him off and I don’t want anything to do with that.”
                  Jade took a deep breath; she knew what was coming. “So does this mean…?”
                  “You’re a nice girl, Jade, really.” He glanced at her, a genuine sadness in his eyes, but he looked away again. “But you understand.”
                  She understood perfectly. Ben Haley wasn’t content with altering her future; he wanted to wreck it. “Yeah.” She forced a smile. “I’m afraid I do.”
                  They parted without touching; she watched the rain cut across his slumped shoulders before he disappeared down the lane of shadows around the bend in the sidewalk. She stood with the door open a long moment, listening to the farm soak up water, breathing in the clean, wet smell of it. You bastard , she thought to Ben, but it was an empty sentiment. She wasn’t even all that mad. Or