Bootscootin' and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-6)

by Scott, D. D.

  “I hate it when you make me be nice,” Roxy pouted. “Damn though, she’d look good in my designs.”

  “My thinking too. So suck it up, slugger. Who knows? You might like her when you get to know her.”

  “Don’t push it,” Roxy hissed but with a twinge of intrigue minimizing her sinister tone.

  Joining Audrey and Sienna, their arms already full of goodies for Sienna to try on, Jules needed to find out what Sienna had to tell her that was so important she’d tracked her down at Raeve.

  “So what can I help you with, Sienna?”

  Sienna took a deep breath as if having second thoughts about finding her. “I need to talk to you about Cody.”

  Jules swallowed hard. Not the topic she’d considered dealing with today. She’d wanted to talk to Sienna about Cody but only after she’d come up with an approach she was comfortable with. On the fly troubleshooting had never been her forte. For business — sure. Not for personal matters.

  “I still love him,” Sienna said, not noticing Jules hadn’t invited her to continue their conversation.

  Jules’ heart plummeted into a disastrous vortex as if Sienna had pummeled her through Raeve’s hardwood floors. Her throat constricted. She couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air and control.

  “What do you mean you still love him? You’re getting married in two weeks. To another man for Christ’s sake!”

  “Trust me. I’m well aware of that. But I realize now what a fool I was to let Cody go. No one has ever treated me as well as he did. He loved me. And I blew it big time.”

  Sienna dropped onto the dressing chair in the fitting room, lowering her head between her knees.

  “Are you in love with him, Sienna?”

  Jules surprised herself with the ferocity coating her words. There wasn’t one Buddhist bit of loving kindness in her tone. She’d like to choke the beautiful witch herself. At the same time, she wanted to curl up on the floor and dissolve into a fit of delirium.

  “I don’t know, Jules. I don’t think I know what in love is,” Sienna wailed like a spoiled brat not getting her way at a toy store.

  “Well I do know, Sienna Cruz. And I do love Cody. With everything I am.” Jules could hear her voice getting louder and louder but had no control to stop it. “Do you really think he’d take you back after what you did to him?”

  Jules was shaking. Her body filled with tremors rattling the core of the decent person she thought she was. Her knees wobbled as if she were a human Fisher Price weeble.

  Once thinking she wasn’t capable of hating anything or anyone, she now knew, without a doubt, she hated this woman.

  And to think she’d wanted to reach out to her, befriend her.

  You slut. You wicked whore. She hissed the horrible words in the silent void she tumbled through like Alice in Wonderland on one of her wild rides down the rabbit hole.

  Sienna’s words chilled her shaking raw, overheated nerves.

  Sienna looked at her, her gigantic brown eyes wide with shock, mirroring the same horror rocketing Jules’ system.

  “Being sexy, Sienna, is about being authentic. Living your truth. Not faking it. For cameras. For lucrative contracts. Or for fame.”

  Jules was powerless to quiet her mouth or her soul. She was determined to make Sienna see how much she’d hurt the man Jules wasn’t about to give back to her to crush again.

  “Sexy is being genuine and real. You don’t know anything about that, do you?”

  “Jules, Honey, stop.”

  Audrey’s sweet voice cloaked Jules’ heart with a protective shield of understanding and comfort.

  “It’s okay, Audrey.” Sienna stood, pulling herself tall with the picture perfect posture of the top model she could be instead of the sex tape queen she was. “I deserve everything Jules is giving me.”

  She came over to Jules and placed a trembling hand on her arm. “You’re right. I’ve never been genuine or real with anyone in my life. I don’t know how I could have done what I did to that decent man. I don’t even know what or who I am. But I do get how much you love Cody. And I won’t stand in your way. He’s a lucky man to have you.”

  Even after hearing Sienna’s words, Jules couldn’t comprehend or trust their meaning. Her body still felt as if every cylinder had fired, leaving a thick dark cloud covering her sanity. She was fighting for the light but saw nothing but black shadows. She felt as if she were suffocating, losing her spirit inside a blind rage.

  With each click of Sienna’s retreating heels to wood, Jules’ nerves twitched.

  Roxy hugged her, holding her tight, rocking her like Jules remembered her mother doing when she was a little girl.

  “It’s okay, Jules. She’s gone. And so help me if that selfish bitch is bluffing about backing off Cody, I’ll so be on her gigantic, disproportionately large ass.”

  With each profanity, Roxy rubbed Jules’ back with a firmer hand, almost to the point it made Jules uncomfortable.

  “Audrey’s taking care of the witch for now. And she sooo better appreciate human decency while she’s getting it. I won’t be a tenth as accommodating. In the mean time, I’m right here for you, Sweetheart.”

  Roxy wiped the tears still rolling down Jules’ burning cheeks.

  “How could I have not realized how much I loved Cody ‘til today? When I could lose him.”

  Jules let Roxy keep wiping away her tears, too worn out to move.

  “I’ve never been afraid to say what I like, what I don’t like, what I need or who I am. Why couldn’t I do that for Cody?”

  “Well — I think you’re good with that now,” Roxy said letting a small giggle escape. “Sorry. Nothing about this is remotely funny. But, Girlfriend, you sooo owned that moment with Sienna. Damn, I’m so proud.”

  “It sure didn’t feel like something to be proud of. I’ve never been so out of control.”

  Jules still couldn’t recall everything she’d said. She just remembered her heart imploding at Sienna’s revelation she still loved Cody.

  “You led with and fought for your heart, Girlfriend. There’s nothing wrong with that. And because of that you will have it all.”

  “Then why does it hurt so much?”

  Jules’ heart hadn’t ached like this since she’d watched her parents’ caskets being lowered into the fresh-dug earth.

  “Because Cody’s the one thing in your life you can’t stand to lose.”

  Roxy said it so easy, as if it were a simple concept. And she was right. Loving someone with all you are is that simple.

  Jules had lived the pain of loss. She’d do everything in her power to save her and Cody’s love.

  Not that she thought she could cheat death. But she could live the time she was given full of love, in the moment and with the love of her life beside her.

  • • •

  For anxiety, there were cinnamon chip scones.

  For catastrophes and hotter-than-hot sex, there was chocolate. And lots of it.

  Scones meant times were tough in Jules’ world.

  A kitchen turned into a chocolatier’s Willy Wonka Wonderland indicated a full-fledged meltdown or an Aunt Tulip-style orgy.

  And after yesterday’s events, Jules was far, far away from planning an orgy.

  Pastry chefs usually used sugar first then chocolate as their most-used ingredients. But today, every damn thing Jules took a bite out of had to ooze ganache.

  Some people preferred chocolate to love.

  Jules used chocolate to deal with love.

  While waiting for her pots de crème ramekins to chill in the frig, Jules dunked dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies into a mug of her mother’s secret recipe hot cocoa.

  The cookies, warm and dripping from the cocoa, melted on her tongue then slid down her throat.

  All she could think was give me more. More calories. More fat. More sugar. More chocolate.

  What the heck. No. What the hell. She corrected her attempt at pleasantry.

  Since another woman was
pining for her man, she’d pine for chocolate.

  Besides, she’d chosen dark chocolate so she was increasing her antioxidant levels as well as stimulating her brain for emotional euphoria.

  Oh, she was euphoric. Way, waayyyy euphoric. So fuck moderation. That’s right, Aunt Tulip, she thought. ‘Fuck’ was the word of the day.

  Foul words for foul moods.

  With a flourless cake ready to pop in the oven, she considered whipping up a triple chocolate ice cream pie using the double chocolate sauce simmering in a small saucepan on the stove. Or she could do the chocolate truffles and chocolate-covered pretzels.

  And what she couldn’t eat, she’d have no problem selling.

  Giving up on sleep, she’d gotten out of bed at two that morning and come to the bakery. Ever since Sienna’s declaration of love for Cody, Jules hadn’t quit shaking. The parts of her that didn’t hurt like hell, even though she’d buried herself deep inside her thermal blanket trying to warm her muscles out of their cramping pain, were still numb and trembling.

  She could hardly function. Her hands just wouldn’t steady without a concentrated effort.

  Every attempt she’d made at plating anything she’d whipped up had ended in complete disaster. So there she sat with a kitchen full of un-plated, chocolate you-name-it-and-it-was-there-somewhere desserts.

  Surveying the damage, she accounted for chocolate fried pies with milk chocolate bourbon flan, bittersweet chocolate tortes with mini whoopee pies, spiced brownies with ancho chile, ginger and cinnamon, dark chocolate mousse tortes with chocolate Grand Marnier sauce, chocolate tarts with hazelnut brittle and bananas, madras curry and chocolate palette with raspberry gelee, plus a bittersweet chocolate layer cake with braised cherries and nougatine.

  She didn’t feel like a person any more. She truly felt like one, super bad ass, Willy Wonka Wonder Woman.

  She felt as if she were a disembodied spirit floating through a bad, bad dream in a cocoa-based purgatory — a lost soul destined for nowhere — drowning in a vicious riptide of dread, swirling and lost in the strong currents of a ganache-filled, chocolate River Styx.

  She tried to convince herself she’d get over all the drama soon enough.

  It wasn’t as if Sienna hadn’t said she’d stay away from Cody and respect Jules’ feelings.

  But was that fair to Cody?

  Shouldn’t he know how Sienna felt then choose for himself who he wanted?

  Until being smacked up against the retaining wall of Sienna’s hell, Jules had no idea how devastating it would feel to experience her emotional shields once again going back up. She was about to crush everything she’d finally opened herself up to. Maybe she really hadn’t made it out from underneath that old, familiar weight of unrealized dreams.

  She’d been close. But she was about to be denied her final passage into freedom.

  She didn’t know who she was anymore, but she sure had a biting recollection of who’d she’d once been.

  She’d given Cody her heart. And more than anything, she feared paying the ultimate price of getting it handed back to her.

  He’d always have her love, because she’d meant every word she’d promised him in Cabo. Every act of love and kindness she’d shown him came from her soul. She’d always be there for him. Always be committed to him.

  But would he choose to be there for her?

  And yes, she was taking responsibility for how pathetic her fears made her — but that was her truth.

  She didn’t believe in the empty words of many people’s ‘I love you’s’. But she believed in Cody and his ‘I love you.’ Too bad sentiments of that kind spoken to her seemed to have a harsh way of being taken from her almost as fast as they’d arrived. At least that had been her experience ever since the age of five.

  If she lost Cody, her heart would never be the same. She knew, without a doubt, she’d never love again.

  Instead of following the light of their love and a promising future, maybe she should have given into the dark side of her fears.

  But it wasn’t in her to trade in her spiritual journey to hide behind her doubts. Although how she could heal a hurt and potential loss she didn’t understand was worthy of a fourth cookie and a second cup of cocoa.

  Submerging into the steaming mug of cocoa a huge dark-chocolate chunk sticking out the edge of her cookie, she inhaled the spicy heat of Cody’s cologne then felt his strong hands massaging her shoulders.

  “I thought I’d find you here.”

  He kissed the back of her neck, sending through her body the first real feeling she’d had since Sienna’s knock-out words.

  “Tulip told me what happened with Sienna yesterday. Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been calling you for hours and have worried myself sick.”

  “Tulip should have kept her meddling mouth shut,” Jules said, not able to stop the tears filling her tired eyes. “I didn’t want to put a huge damper in your excitement about getting the building for your market. It truly is the perfect location.”

  “I don’t give a shit about that building! Or the market. What I care about is you. When are you going to accept that?!”

  Cody put his hands on each of her arms then leaned down so his face was level with hers.

  The intensity of his gaze searched for answers Jules wasn’t sure of.

  Tulip had no doubt already provided all the horrid details of yesterday’s events, leaving Jules to interpret the ramifications.

  Cody pulled out a stool from under the worktable and sat beside her.

  “Okay. Since you’re soooo insistent on shutting me out, here are my comments about our situation.”

  He locked her knees between his so she couldn’t budge, leaving her no where to go except into his arms, then continued his thoughts.

  “I love you. I am still in love with you. And unless you give me a reason, that will not change. And just so you know, I don’t anticipate any changes in that regard.”

  He took a cookie out of the container on the worktable and dunked it into her cocoa.

  “Since my attention has been focused on you, our relationship, and the constantly growing love I feel for you, I have not given much effort to fixing my past with Sienna.”

  So he still had feelings for her? Jules’ insides kicked her hard, fighting her to let out her emotions and give them a chance to have at him.

  “How could you love her when she never honored you? Never gave you love. Never protected your soul?”

  “Wait a minute. I didn’t say I loved her. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  Cody’s eyes held a fiercely intent demand Jules had never seen in him, a look that shut her up quick and stilled her rioting ego long enough to hear him out.

  “I need to feel that I gave everything to putting that pain behind me. Due to my preoccupation with you, I haven’t done that. There’s no right or wrong way to get my past out of my system. My heart just needs to know I’ve got Sienna out of my life. And I don’t mean her so much as the scars she left inside me. I will never be everything you need or deserve until I feel I’ve made a true effort to let go of my past. I want no baggage between us. You don’t deserve that.”

  “What are you telling me, Sweet Man?”

  Jules honestly had no clue what the hell he was saying. In one sentence, he said he didn’t love Sienna. The next, he said he was still preoccupied with her — or wait — was he referring to her disastrous actions?

  Hell, she was so confused.

  “I love you too, Cody, but I’m not getting this.”

  Cody ruffled his hair with his hands, evidently feeling her frustration mixed with his own.

  “You drive me nuts, JuJuBee. And yes, I know, you’re paying me back.”

  “Maybe. Perhaps.”

  He rolled his eyes then nodded his head, a sarcastic smirk setting his mouth.

  Even in the midst of their current hell, Jules couldn’t ignore the safety and love she felt in the playful banter that came natural to them.

 
“We can’t change the love we have for each other, Jules. It’s there. It’s strong. We don’t have control over it. There’s either love or not. We can’t make it happen,” he said taking a deep breath and slumping his shoulders.

  Jules felt like continuing to cry at the same time she wanted to punch the hell out of him for being so stupid.

  “How could you choose Sienna when none of her motives are pure and true? All she cares about is herself.”

  Cody grabbed a hold of her arms and squeezed them firm between his hands.

  “Please listen to what the hell I’ve conveyed to you. I am not dumping you. Get off that shit! Not at all Buddhist, I know. And against Tulip’s foul mouth policy. But so be it. Nothing will replace you, Jules. Our love can never be taken from us. I don’t want anyone or anything but you. You’re stuck with my dumb ass.”

  “Well why didn’t you say so?!”

  Jules wanted to jump off her stool and throw herself around him but his knees still had her locked-in tight. She leaned into him and buried her head into his chest.

  “I’ve been trying to say that. Jesus I’ve been trying.” He wrapped his arms around her upper body and squeezed her ‘til she thought she’d pop.

  His pulse quivered under his shirt in hit-or-miss jolts, letting her know his world had been rocked just as hard as hers.

  “All I’m saying is I want it to be just you and me, JuJuBee. Forever. And as much as I want to give you the kind of public commitment I about did for Sienna, I don’t know if I could go through that again,” he said, fidgeting with a chocolate-stained towel.

  “Marriage?! Who said anything about that?”

  Smelling something burning, besides the hot twinge of regret that she may never take that proverbial walk down the aisle, Jules tapped Cody’s legs to loosen around her so she could get off her stool.

  “Shit! I forgot the double chocolate sauce.”

  She ran over to the stove and pulled the saucepan off the burner, stirring the slightly overdone contents. “Oops.”

  She tasted a bite off the tip of her stir spoon. “I think it’s salvageable.”