“I have to help Terry if I can,” Willow said.
“Well, we made a pretty good team last time.”
Willow smiled in agreement and asked him what he thought about Linda. “The way she talked – it didn’t sound personal. It sounded matter-of-fact.”
“If she knew Kaitlin was going to die, maybe it was matter-of-fact for her.”
Willow nodded thoughtfully.
“Any other vegetables you want to check out? Or suspects? Either one you want to grill?”
“No,” Willow said, giving him a smile. “I’d like to go to dinner with you now. And I promise not to do any more investigating tonight.”
“Uh oh,” Willow said as they entered Tapped.
“What?” Griffin joked. “Are they out of one beer? Will we only have ninety-nine options to choose from?”
“No,” she said, scrunching her face up. “It’s that someone is here.”
She pointed across the bar to where Benny was talking to another man.
“Your ex,” Griffin teased. But then he said, “If you’re embarrassed, we don’t have to stay.”
“Part of the reason why I even went out with him was because I thought he might have been a suspect in Kaitlin’s death. Now, I think he might be again.”
Griffin crossed his arms and gave her a look. “Was our entire date an excuse to interrogate people?”
“No,” Willow said earnestly. “If I wanted you as backup, I would have just asked. I didn’t know Benny would be here. Admittedly, I did learn about this place from him. But I didn’t know he’d be here tonight.”
Benny must have noticed them when they came in because he walked over with his companion in tow.
“Griffin Maynard, what are the odds of seeing you here?” Benny asked, exuding charm. “Maybe it’s fate. Have you decided to take on my hotel project?”
“Well, um, it certainly is tempting,” Griffin said, casting a glance at Willow. “But I’m still deciding.”
Benny seemed to finally notice who was accompanying his potential contractor.
“Hello, Benny,” Willow said with a big smile.
“Hi,” Benny said, matching it. “You know, I’ve been meaning to message you. Sadly, I’ve been busy with work. It appears I might have missed my opportunity with you.”
“It’s a shame too. I did want to hear more about your poor dog, Rufus,” Willow said.
“Good old Rufus,” Benny said, placing a hand on his heart.
“Or was it Roscoe?” Willow asked, tapping her chin.
“I’m Griffin,” Griffin said quickly, extending his hand to the fourth member of their party.
“Curt,” was the response.
“Curt here is the concierge at the hotel I’m consulting with now,” Benny explained. “I’m pumping him for all the dirt on the place.”
Curt laughed.
“You’re a concierge?” Willow asked, turning her attention to him. “Do you run some sort of running concierge service?”
“She remembered. She’s a really good listener,” Benny said. Then, he leaned in towards Griffin and whispered, “Be careful with that.”
“I do run that service,” Curt said. “I lead the guests and some locals that like to join in on a jogging tour of some nearby scenic areas.”
“And Benny has been joining in?” Willow asked.
“Really careful,” Benny repeated quietly to Griffin after giving her a suspicious look.
“All week,” Curt said. “He’s been on all my tours.”
“I’ve been testing out the amenities offered,” Benny said. “I think that is a successful offering.”
“And you two have been together every morning?” Willow asked.
“Yes. He was there all morning—” Curt started to say.
“Hotel concierges are hired to be discreet,” Benny said, keeping his smile. “He’s not going to tell you if I had any late-night visitors.”
Willow laughed. “You caught me.”
“But I’m interested in this running concierge business,” Griffin said, trying to keep the conversation going. “Where do you run?”
“Different locations around here and the surrounding towns.”
“Do you ever go near Pineview?” Griffin asked. “That’s where I live. I might want to join in.”
“We go through Pineview somedays. Down Main Street.”
“Were you running there the day that lady was murdered?” Griffin asked as if the terrible idea had just occurred to him.
“That’s right!” Curt said. “It was a normal run day. Mr. Gene and I were going to lead a tour. We had to wait because a large family had signed up to join us and were running late. However, we did our run down Main Street. Then, we saw this woman walking her dog. She looked funny and started to fall over. Mr. Gene was the closet. He caught her, but it was too late for us to do anything. She was dead. An ambulance came. We thought it was a heart attack or something. It wasn’t until I read it in the local paper that I learned that she was killed with rat poison and the police were looking at it as a murder.”
“Discretion,” Benny repeated.
Curt looked abashed. “Sorry, Mr. Gene.”
Willow wanted to tell him not to be so hard on the concierge. He had just provided an alibi for Benny. If he was with the jogging group all week, he couldn’t have snuck away to poison Kaitlin’s coffee multiple mornings. It also would have been impossible for him to do it the day that she actually died because the run had started late.
“I wonder what’s going to happen to that bed-and-breakfast,” Griffin said. “I mean, I wonder if the new owner will need a contractor.”
“If you sign on with me for my hotel project, you can have the B&B one too,” Benny said. “If it’s local projects that you like.”
“You’re going to buy it?” Willow asked.
Benny nodded as if that were obvious. “I’ll put a bid in as soon as it goes on sale. I’d been interested in the property for a while. It might be difficult to overcome the murder in marketing, but it is a nice building. If we can’t keep dog owners coming there, we might be able to do some ghostly promotions in the fall. Something for Halloween.”
“It sounds like you’ve been thinking about this a lot,” Willow said.
“As soon as the ambulance took her away, I had the idea,” Benny said. “It’s a good one, isn’t it? I bet we could get some customers in the door if they think they might actually see something spooky.”
All Willow found creepy was how quickly Benny had been able to spin a woman’s death into something profitable. She wasn’t even cold in the ground. Her murder wasn’t even solved yet. Benny was clearly the heartless shark of a businessman she had pegged him as before their date.
Even though she had lost most of her appetite, she said that she and Griffin really needed to get some dinner. They asked to be seated and began looking over the large beer list.
“I hope that was helpful,” Griffin said, as he smiled at her over his menu.
“It was,” Willow said. “In more than one way.”
Even though she found his business practices despicable, Willow had ruled Benny out as a suspect in the murder. She had also never felt luckier to be out with an honest and genuinely nice man.
As she and Griffin made puns about the flavors of beer they could order, reminisced about high school days, and shared their suspicious, Willow couldn’t help thinking that this was her new favorite first date.
16
“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” Willow said. It was the afternoon after her wonderful date, and yet she and her sister were leaving her car and heading towards the building that housed Jack’s dating coach office.
“You think you’re such an expert in dating now that you don’t need any more help?” Wednesday challenged. “Did things go that well with Griffin? Are you off the market now?”
“No,” Willow said, holding her hands up. “I mean, like I told you, it was a great date.”
“Y
eah, yeah. You ruled out one suspect and became more suspicious of another,” Wednesday said, rolling her eyes. “Real romantic.”
“We had some great beer.”
Wednesday still looked unimpressed. Willow had given her sister the details of her date, but somehow couldn’t articulate how wonderful it had been. Being with Griffin, whether it was while tricking suspects into revealing information or just holding hands at the end of the night, felt right.
“You were the one who was rooting for us to get together,” Willow said.
“And I still want you to,” Wednesday said. “It just doesn’t sound like you’re really together yet. So, I think you should explore other options too.”
“You just want more pictures for your ‘Week in My Life.’”
“That’s an added plus,” she admitted.
“Speaking of your life,” Willow said, trying to make a segue. “Are there any pictures of you doing paperwork at your office in your roll? Maybe writing Dad’s bio?”
“Look, we’re here,” Wednesday said, neatly sidestepping the question and pointing to the door. “Do you want to take Jack up on his generous offer to give you another session free of charge? Or should we blow him off?”
Willow opened the door, indicating that they would go inside. Because Jack hadn’t asked to see her alone, she knew he most likely made the offer to meet with her again for the social media likes Wednesday could get him and not out of the kindness of his heart. However, Willow was okay with that. She planned on using this session to get some answers to some lingering questions she had about his relationship with Kaitlin.
“Ladies,” Jack said with arms open wide as they entered the room. He hugged Wednesday. Willow was surprised by this reaction. She was even more surprised when Jack hugged her as well. She awkwardly patted his back.
He released her and gave her an appraising look. “An awkward hugger. We’re going to have to work on that.”
“I’m not an awkward hugger,” Willow protested. “I just need to know the person I’m hugging.”
Jack shrugged as if he didn’t believe her. “Your sister is an excellent hugger. You should take some pointers from her.”
Willow opened her mouth to object again, but Wednesday beat her to it.
“You really think my hugs are excellent?” she asked.
He nodded, and then the two of them took some selfies demonstrating the art of the hug. Willow waited not-so-patiently.
“I’m glad I came in for my dating consult,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “My passion and enthusiasm get away from me sometimes. I won’t say that’s something to emulate all the time, but sometimes it does keep your partner interested.”
“It’s all right,” Willow said. “I’ve actually been doing well with dating recently.”
“Because of the advice I gave you?” Jack said, accepting the compliment before she gave it.
“Sure,” Willow said, to keep him in a good mood so he would want to answer her questions later.
“She’s been on two dates,” Wednesday reported.
“That’s right,” Willow said. “I set up a Tinder account.”
“With my help,” Wednesday said with a smile.
“And I matched with two people, and I went on dates with them. One was to a delicious restaurant. And on my other date, we went to a farmers’ market and to a bar with a hundred craft beers on tap.”
“And are you going to go on any second dates?” Jack asked.
“Well, I don’t want to see the first guy again,” Willow admitted. “Ever, if possible. And I haven’t made plans with the second guy yet.”
Jack dramatically hit his forehead. “You see what your mistake was, don’t you?” Willow paused. She actually did see what he was talking about. She hadn’t made future plans for a date with Griffin officially, but she was sure they planned on going out again. She thought that they would talk about it over one of their morning coffee chats. It was true they hadn’t had one that morning, but that was because he was going out to pick up some last-minute supplies for the house. He wanted to get some hinges that were slightly smaller for the office cabinets.
“You went to a place with a hundred types of beer, and you said you had a good time?” asked Jack.
“Yes.”
“You should have suggested that you go back there. I’m assuming that you didn’t try all one hundred of the different types. You could have said that you needed to try more of them. Perhaps it could have even become an activity for the two of you to try and taste all of them. It was the perfect in to continue seeing each other.”
“She has an in because he’s still finishing redoing her house,” Wednesday added.
“That’s an interesting in,” Jack said, nodding. “Well, I think this is decent progress.”
“She’s trying really hard,” Wednesday agreed.
Willow sighed. She didn’t think they meant to make fun of her, but they were making her feel inept. She wasn’t hopeless at dating. She had been married before even if that hadn’t worked out. She was still young. She was successful with her business. She’d been called cute before. Okay, yes, this was usually because people were amused to see a petite person like her working with Irish wolfhounds. Still, she was attractive enough.
She just needed to remind herself that she wasn’t really here to learn how to attract the opposite sex. She was here to learn about Jack and Kaitlin as a couple.
“Jack, do your first dates often lead to second ones?” she asked. “Or was Kaitlin a rare exception?”
“Kaitlin was an exception to everything,” he muttered. “But we’re here to focus on you. Let’s celebrate your progress.”
The celebration began by busting out a bottle of champagne, but the focus soon stopped being on her. Instead, it turned into a social media photo shoot.
Jack began by showing the “the proper” way to open a bottle of champagne. Then he gave examples of the best way to make a toast. He explained how the speaker should be entertaining and yet modest. His speech about Willow finding true love ended up being about his business. However, Wednesday seemed to think it was fun. They took pictures of the champagne shooting out, clinking glasses together, and short clips of their toasts.
In the mini clips, Jack suggested they drink to his business. Wednesday toasted to living life to the fullest. Willow said that she was thankful for the champagne.
After their drinks, they dropped into some chairs. After making sure that he would get plenty of likes with the photos, it seemed like Jack was ready to talk to Willow again.
“Now,” he said, “are you more interested in pursuing a single relationship? Or playing the field?”
Willow thought about it and decided to answer honestly. Maybe he would actually give some good advice. “I suppose I’d rather date one person I care about. But I want something casual at first.”
Jack nodded. “That’s tricky. You want compassion without commitment. You don’t want either extreme. You don’t want the consequences. Do you know how your beer-fan date feels about relationships?”
Willow set her jaw. Dating coach or not, she didn’t like discussing this. She didn’t know all the answers and, even if she did, she wasn’t sure she felt like sharing anymore.
“I’ll have to ask him on my next date,” Willow grumbled.
“Maybe we could double date this week?” Wednesday suggested. “I’m sure I could find a date, and it could make for a fun post.”
“Just remember the pointers I gave you at the picnic,” Jack said. “Not that you really have to work to attract a man’s attention.”
“Wait a second,” Willow said. “What picnic?”
“Didn’t you see my posts?” Wednesday asked, sounding a little hurt.
“I guess I stopped looking once I knew why you blew Dad and me off for dinner.”
“Okay,” Wednesday said, sounding a little abashed. “I don’t blame you for not seeing them. Jack crashed my picnic.”
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br /> “Is there something going on between you two?” Willow asked, looking back and forth between them.
“No way,” Wednesday said with a little laugh.
Jack also said no, but looked a tad affronted by Wednesday’s response.
“I just mean,” Wednesday said quickly, “that we met for a cross-marketing promotion. We wanted to reach more of an audience. If you get a chance, you should look at the post. It’s kind of adorable. We had reverse picnics for our pictures. I had a red cup and a white plate. His cup was white, and his plate was red. That sort of thing.”
“These pictures seem like they need a lot of planning,” Willow said.
“Not always,” Jack said. “I like to keep several picnic baskets ready to go when the weather is warm. It seems like a spontaneous romantic trip.”
“That you carefully calculated,” Willow said.
Jack shrugged. “I am an expert.”
“And it was fun,” Wednesday said.
“I did learn some interesting things there though,” Jack said. “I didn’t know that you were so close to Terry.”
Willow looked at her sister who mouthed the word “sorry.”
It was Willow’s turn to shrug. “I’m training her dog.”
“You know all about her past with Kaitlin?” Jack asked. “Because your friend is the person I’d put my money on as Kaitlin’s killer.”
“I don’t think she did it,” Willow said. “And I know all about her past with Kaitlin. I’m not so clear on yours with her.”
“We dated,” he said. “What else is there to know?”
“Maybe why you had to keep it a secret?” Willow said, locking eyes with him. “Or about her carrying your child?”
Jack stood up and walked to the other side of the room. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts. Finally, he walked back towards them.
“Look,” he said, “I’m not a monster. I wasn’t going to abandon her with the baby.”
“Even though you couldn’t have been the bachelor king anymore?” Willow asked, rising to her feet.
“It might not have been good for my brand,” he admitted. “But part of what I teach people is when they move from dating to a relationship there are responsibilities. I was going to be responsible. I loved her, you know.”
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