by Mary Stone
The smile slid from her face. “He was a little bit of a disappointment, to say the least. But I guess I didn’t expect very much to begin with. I’ve got closure now. Things are good. Really good. My mother’s going to give me away at the wedding. I’m happy.”
He stood up and rubbed her shoulder in a very fatherly way. Really, he’d been more of a dad to her in the past months than her father ever had. “I’m glad. And you’re right. It’s slow around here. Let’s blow this joint. Lunch is on me.”
She clapped her hands excitedly. “Let me just check on my mom. She’s dating someone now.”
Kylie thought she’d done a good job of hiding her phone conversations from her boss, but apparently not, because he grumbled, “Should I make reservations for two hours from now?”
Rolling her eyes at him, she picked up her cell phone and dialed her mom. Her mother had gone back to the house a couple of days after the incident at the farmhouse. She’d been smiling a great deal, even more than usual, and Kylie attributed it to one person: Dr. Jerry Phillips.
He was in her life constantly now, always making sure she was okay, taking her out on little dates, and generally being a knight in shining armor. Apparently, their rough start had done nothing to drive him away. And Kylie was gradually coming to accept it. She liked Jerry a lot, but what she loved was seeing her mother’s eyes glow in a way they never had before. He was good for her.
Her mother answered on the second ring. “Hello!” Rhonda Hatfield sounded positively spirited. Well, she always had spirit, but now, she sounded like a firework getting ready to go off.
“Hi, Mom. How are you?”
“Oh, fine. How is my daughter and her lovely fiancé?”
“We’re great,” Kylie said. “But I want to know how you are. I didn’t have a chance to find out yesterday because you were too busy running off.”
“Oh, yes. I know! I have a busy social calendar now. Everything’s fine.”
“You still good about the divorce?”
“I’m fine. You were right. It was good to see Adam…William…again. To get that closure. I guess I always wondered, deep down, if I’d done something wrong. It’s good to not have that in my head anymore.”
Kylie smiled. “Yeah. It was good. I’m trying to decide if I should write him in prison.”
“Yeah. Well. Only if you want. You don’t owe him a thing.” She lowered her voice. “Honey, I’ve got to go. Jerry’s coming over. He’s taking me to see a movie. When was the last time I went to the movies?”
Kylie grinned. Her mother had always considered movies to be a waste of money. When Kylie was a child, she used to scrimp to take the two of them, and they’d never go to the snack stand. They’d always have to sneak candy in. But it made Kylie happy to think Rhonda was having fun. “Cool. Enjoy.”
Kylie hung up, still smiling, about to tell Greg that she was ready for their lunch date. She bit her tongue when she heard his gruff voice and realized he must’ve gotten a call while she was talking to her mother. He sounded a little on edge. He scribbled a few notes on a pad. “Yeah. Yeah. Right away.” When he hung up, he looked at her as he punched his pen down on his desk.
Kylie frowned. “Are you cancelling our lunch date?”
He shrugged. “Unfortunately.”
She stuck out her lower lip. “Okay. Raincheck. Where are you off to now?”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile as he lifted a sheet of paper and pointed his pen at it. “Not me, short stuff. You. This has your name all over it. Your name, and the name of that ever so dreamy fiancé of yours.”
She raised an eyebrow. “For what…?”
“Pack your bags, sweetheart. There’s a SAR volunteer down in Georgia who went missing during a search yesterday, and her team hasn’t had any luck finding her.”
Kylie’s eyes widened. “Georgia? Why Georgia? Don’t you think that’s a little out of our—”
“That was the missing woman’s husband. He’s convinced there’s more to it than meets the eye. Possible foul play, and it could get pretty ugly.”
Kylie’s ears pricked up. “Ugly?”
“Annnnd he asked for you and Linc specifically,” he said, spinning in his chair. “I figured it sounded like it was right up your alley. So, are you game?”
Kylie straightened in her chair. She felt like a famous detective, being requested by name based on her “body of work.” Just call her Sherlock, or Hercule Poirot. She was moving up in the world. Getting married, advancing her career, becoming a real adult instead of just playing at it.
And the possibility of foul play? Hell, yes. That was all she needed to hear. Those mere words sent a shiver of excitement down her spine. As much as her husband-to-be wanted to play it safe, and she respected that, she also loved that he respected her. She lived for all kinds of play, but the foul kind? It happened to be her favorite.
“Yeah,” she said, jumping up and grabbing her phone to call her fiancé and fill him in. “I’m game.”
The End
To be continued…
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Kylie Hatfield Series
Deadly Act (Kylie Hatfield Series Book One)
Deadly Lies (Kylie Hatfield Series Book Two)
Deadly Dreams - Coming Soon
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Acknowledgments
How does one properly thank everyone involved in taking a dream and making it a reality? Here goes.
In addition to our families, whose unending support provided the foundation for us to find the time and energy to put these thoughts on paper, we want to thank the editors who polished our words and made them shine.
Many thanks to our publisher for risking taking on two newbies and giving us the confidence to become bona fide authors.
More than anyone, we want to thank you, our readers, for clicking on a couple of nobodies and sharing your most important asset, your time, with this book. We hope with all our hearts we made it worthwhile.
Much love,
Mary & Bella
About the Author
Mary Stone lives among the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains of East Tennessee with her two dogs, four cats, a couple of energetic boys, and a very patient husband.
As a young girl, she would go to bed every night, wondering what type of creature might be lurking underneath. It wasn’t until she was older that she learned that the creatures she needed to most fear were human.
Today, she creates vivid stories with courageous, strong heroines and dastardly villains. She invites you to enter her world of serial killers, FBI agents but never damsels in distress. Her female characters can handle themselves, going toe-to-toe with any male character, protagonist or antagonist.
Discover more about Mary Stone on her website.
www.authormarystone.com
Bella Cross spent the past fifteen years teaching bored teenagers all about the Dewey Decimal System while inhaling the dust from the library books she loves so much. With each book she read, a little voice in her head would say, "You can do that too." So, she did.
A thousand heart palpitations later, she is thrilled to release her first novel with the support of her husband, twin girls, and the gigantic Newfoundland she rescued warming her feet.
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