Muffins & Murder (Sweet Bites Book 3) (Sweet Bites Mysteries) (24 page)

“You probably don’t see it as much because you all intimidate the heck out of him, but he’s so sweet with her. He adores her like any woman wants to be adored. He supports her dreams, and no matter what some people might say, her dreams are worthwhile and valuable just as they are, even if she weren’t successful as a painter—which she is. He’ll let her stretch her wings and become what she wants to be, do what she needs to do to be happy.” I saw the objections rising in her eyes and decided to cut her off at the pass. “If she wants to stay home and have six kids and put away her painting, he’ll let her. If she wants to have a family and squeeze in time for her painting, he’ll support that too, because her happiness is his first priority. Really.”

Melissa stared at me for a long moment. “You’re sure you don’t have feelings for him, beyond friendship?”

I chuckled. “I have no more feelings for him than Kat has for her brothers. Trust me, I’m thrilled that he and Kat are so happy. And that he’s finally gotten over his fears enough to make it all official. They’re so cute together when they don’t have disapproving parents burning glares into them.”

“Ah, now you’re taking me to task for letting my boys be so protective.” She didn’t seem mad at me for bringing it up.

“I’ve seen you with everyone. The guys think they run the show, but you really do. I’m not saying you control how they feel, and I like that they’re protective of Kat—a brother should be—but there’s a difference between being protective and being nasty and controlling.”

She nodded and turned toward the bar again, setting a leisurely pace. “We almost lost Kat to a bad sickness when she was a kid. We all worried she wouldn’t make it for several days before she started to respond to medication and got better. And she dated a couple of guys in school who were bad news. Nothing serious, mind you, just a couple of dates, but her brothers had to extract her from more than one bad situation because she didn’t realize what she was getting into. She’s always been pretty sweet and naive. I guess we don’t see how much she’s grown up and matured, and it’s hard to accept that your baby is a grown woman now, you know?”

“Yeah, but you have to at least try to get it through their heads that she’s made her decision. Now it’s their responsibility to accept it and be there for her if it
is
a mistake, not try to protect her from the decision. By the way, in case you haven’t figured it out,” I said as we reached the door and the noise poured out into the parking lot. “I don’t think she’s making a mistake.”

Melissa smiled. “I kinda picked up on that.”

We entered the cacophony and joined the others at the table they’d staked out. I went to the bar to order sodas all around, and a few minutes later we toasted Kat and Lenny then everyone but Melissa went out on the floor to line dance. We hit a couple of fast songs, and then things slowed down. I was returning to the tables with the others to glug down more of my Dr. Pepper when I felt a large hand on my arm.

“Can I have this dance?”

The voice made a shiver go down my spine. It was Shawn.

I hesitated for just a moment before accepting. I still didn’t know what to say to him about his new job. Or Jack. Or what I wanted. I consoled myself that at least I wouldn’t have to try to reason it out while faced with both Jack and Shawn.

He pulled me close and I slipped my hands up around his neck. “I thought you were too busy to see me tonight,” he said.

“I’m here on girl’s night, a sort of tame bachelorette party for Kat. Technically this is supposed to be a man-free activity. I didn’t think about how much you like this place.”

“Thanks for making an exception for me. I’m glad I happened to be here so I had a chance to see you alone for a minute.” His hand slid up my spine, then coasted back down to my waist again. “It seems like more than four months since I held you like this last,” he said in my ear. His voice was low and husky, making good shivers travel across my skin.

“It’s been a busy few months. When do you start work here?”

“After the Thanksgiving holidays. My parents are anxious for me to be home for a family meal for a change.”

“I’m sure they are. I bet your schedule isn’t as flexible as you’d like when it comes to major holidays.”

“Not even close.” We swayed for a moment before he broached a new subject. “Tingey said you were in an accident yesterday. I noticed you’re moving a little stiffly tonight.”

“Funny how rolling your vehicle can leave you stiff the next day,” I tried to make a joke of it, not wanting him to go all protective on me.

“I didn’t know when I saw you earlier. I’d ask why you didn’t mention it, but there was kind of a lot going on when I saw you.” His words were loaded with subtext.

I nodded, appreciating the delicate way he worded it. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“I didn’t realize you were seeing Jack.”

My chest felt tight but this was my chance to set everything straight. “We kind of just started dating. Like, this week. We’ve been circling around the issue for a while now and haven’t discussed our relationship or anything, but there’s something there.”

“So I’m too late? Just
barely
too late to have a chance with you?” His voice begged me to deny it.

His cologne held a deep, musky note that went straight to my stomach. “I don’t know, and I feel guilty about that because I have the funny feeling I was a large part of the reason why you took the job here.” I held my breath, waiting for the admission or denial, not sure which I wanted to hear.

“You were part of it, a nice fringe benefit, I guess,” he admitted. “Certainly not all of it. I could go back to the chief and tell him I changed my mind, it’s only been a few hours since I accepted if I wanted. I like Nogales and my friends and co-workers there, but I’m ready to be home again. I had to get out.” He paused for a moment, then continued grudgingly. “My grandpa’s health has gotten bad—he refuses to move out of his house, but he needs someone closer to check on him. It seemed like the perfect convergence of events. If things work out with you and me, well, that’s a really big dollop of whipped topping on the Oreo shake, you know?”

I was much more comfortable with that, so I was able to give him a genuine smile this time. “Whatever happens, I hope we can be friends.”

He shook his head, his gaze never leaving mine. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see you as just a friend.” He leaned in and kissed me, taking me by surprise. His lips feathered across mine, then moved in to mold them to his. The kiss lingered for a long moment before he lifted his head.

I had to gasp a moment to catch my breath. I wondered if he was right—maybe we wouldn’t be able to be friends if I ended up with Jack. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

“Not unless easy means you decide to go out with me instead of Jack,” he said. When I grimaced, he grinned. “Look, see what’s up with him. I wouldn’t mind if you dated both of us for a while, enough time to figure out what you want. Not for months and months, mind, but for a while. It beats the alternative of not getting a chance to convince you to pick me.”

I nodded, though my stomach was tied in knots.

“Anyway, considering you’ve got someone trying to kill you, you shouldn’t be surprised if I happen to be around the wedding tomorrow.” I must have shown a little worry because he grinned. “I can’t stay past Sunday, but if I’m around, I might as well make sure you’re safe.”

“You can’t shadow me everywhere I go like last time you were here,” I objected.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be more discreet—especially since Jack will be around too. I just don’t want to risk you getting hurt.” His hands stayed steady at my waist, but his thumbs stroked up along the bottom of my ribcage making me shiver.

The music ended and I nodded, knowing I wouldn’t talk him out of it, so I’d have to settle with his promise. “I’ll let you know what I decide about dating.”

He released me with some reluctance, and walked me over to the table where the other women sat.

“You ladies have a good evening, and don’t get into trouble.” He said this last with a grin before squeezing my elbow and walking back into the crowd.

“Wow, he’s seriously hot,” Jasie said, watching his retreat.

“Um, yeah.” I couldn’t argue about that.

“When did Shawn get to town?” Kat’s words were full of suspicion. “You didn’t seem surprised to see him.”

“You didn’t mention a word about him coming here,” Honey accused.

“He popped into the shop today, unannounced,” I admitted. “That’s part of why I’ve been so distracted tonight. Jack showed up while Shawn was giving me a hug hello.”

“Who’s Jack?” Melissa asked. Her eyes were lit with curiosity.

I sighed. “The guy I finally had my first official date with this week. I really like him.” I put my forehead in my hands. “I don’t know what to do about this. I’ve never had more than one guy interested in me at a time before this. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Too bad life isn’t so cut and dried, isn’t it?” Melissa asked. “And why aren’t you already married? You’re nice, successful, pretty, loyal.” She said the last bit with a wry twist in her voice.

I shrugged. “I figured I would be by now, but it never worked out. And now I don’t know what to think.”

“You’ll figure it out. Eventually. The course of true love never did run smooth,” Melissa quoted.

“The trouble is figuring out whether or not it really is true love,” I said, which made everyone laugh.

The band started playing
Fishin’ in the Dark
and Melissa stood. “I can’t miss this dance. Anyone coming with me?”

I chuckled and we all joined her on the floor. It was girl’s night. There’d be time to figure out my twisted love life later.

The scent of roses nearly overwhelmed me when I walked into the flower shop the next morning to pick up the wedding bouquet. Betsy Scofield greeted me with a big grin, “Tess, so glad you stopped in for the order this morning.”

“I figured the wedding would be nicer if we picked them up,” I quipped. I was still tired from staying up late with the girls last night, and even later with Honey after saying goodnight to the others, hashing out the conversations I’d had with Shawn and what I could say to Jack. Now, despite the fact that I didn’t get up early to bake at the shop, I was worn out—and still stiff from the accident.

“Funny. No, I meant because I heard you were trying to find Francine’s killer. Rumor has it she had a stalker. Besides Cole, may he rest in peace.”

“Yes, I’ve been checking around, and yes, but we’re still looking for him.” Or figuring out why Cole was killed—there had to be more to it than his delusion that there was something between himself and Francine.

“I was talking with Brenda—you know Brenda Joseph, of course.” She didn’t stop for me to verify, but since I’d been in her house with the collection of cats, I nodded. “We were talking last night and she said the only time anyone unusual came to Francine’s house was when I delivered the bouquet last month. I had totally forgotten, of course, but then it suddenly came to me that I had received a phone order for a big bouquet of red roses for Francine.

“The man gave me a name and a credit card to pay. So, this morning I dug through my paperwork and I found the order with the credit card number on it. I even wrote down the number he called from in case I had a question later or the credit card didn’t work. Oh, look,” she pointed out the window. “There’s the detective. I called dispatch a while ago to ask him to come by to look at this. I thought maybe it could be evidence.”

“That would be terrific.” Invaluable, actually, but I didn’t have time to look at the paperwork before Tingey walked in.

“Hello, Betsy, Tess.” He frowned when he saw me standing at the counter. “What are you doing here?”

I knew he wondered if Betsy called me. “I stopped in to pick up flowers for the wedding today. I know it’s unusual, but Kat had this crazy notion that a bouquet would be a nice variation from the usual ho-hum.” I didn’t stint on the sarcasm.

“Lucky timing.”

“I thought so too. Betsy just mentioned the flower purchase someone made for Francine.”

Betsy held out a photocopy. “I have to keep the original for my files, of course, but since it’s my handwriting anyway, I didn’t think it would matter if it was just a photocopy for you.”

He nodded and accepted the papers, looking over them. “I don’t know this name.”

“Maybe it’s an alias,” Betsy suggested, delight shining in her eyes.

“We’ll find out,” Tingey said noncommittally. He tucked the sheet into the binder he was carrying. “Anything specific you can remember about the caller?”

“It’s been a month,” Betsy said, holding her hand to her forehead. “I don’t know that I paid that much attention. He wasn’t old or young, probably thirties or forties. But I was surprised he didn’t just have me put his name on the card instead of having me sign it so cryptically.”

“What did it say?” I asked.

“
These aren’t lilacs, but I hope they’ll do. I’m watching over you. YPC.
It’s just weird. His initials weren’t YPC.” She shivered. “At the time I thought it was supposed to be reassuring, but with her having a stalker, it’s just plain creepy, isn’t it?”