Pete shifted in his seat, his mouth pulled into a thoughtful frown. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, his words showing how tired he was, emotionally and physically. “If something were to happen to you, Sadie . . .”
“But I’m in trouble of one kind or another everywhere I go anyway,” Sadie reminded him. “I can’t seem to avoid it, and I’m making things so hard for so many people. I don’t know how much longer I can do this—how much longer we can do this, really.”
Pete clenched his jaw but said nothing.
“Will you at least think about it?” They both needed time to absorb the option. “I don’t have to go back now. But, like you said, my name is now public record in Santa Fe, which makes me no safer here than I would be back home.”
“You can’t leave until your court date,” Pete said. “Unless we were convinced you weren’t safe here . . .” He shook his head. “I’ll think about Garrison after your court date is over.”
He let go of Sadie’s hand in order to make the turn onto Rex and Caro’s street, but as soon as the car stopped, she took off her seat belt and leaned across the middle console of his car to give him a kiss. She wasn’t convinced she was right, but she would rather face the threat than waste more time with this partiality of existence that, while not horrible, certainly wasn’t ideal. The last year had been full of difficulty and learning experiences. Sadie felt stronger now, more sure of herself, and ready to take whatever might come next. Or at least she thought she was ready.
She looked into his beautiful hazel eyes and reflected on how lucky she was to have a man like him in her life. “Thank you for coming,” she said. “I love you, Pete Cunningham.”
He smiled while shaking his head slightly. He placed his hand against her cheek. “So help me, Sarah Diane, I love you too.”
Chapter 11
Caro gave Sadie a big hug when she walked through the front door before peppering her with questions Sadie tried her best to answer. After a couple of minutes, Caro seemed to realize that Sadie was exhausted. Pete had driven all night and was dead on his feet too, so Caro encouraged them both to get some rest. Pete took the extra bedroom, and Sadie went to her apartment, took a hot shower, and then crawled into bed, pulling the super soft blanket to her chin, almost crying with relief of being here—safe and secure—with Pete only a few rooms away. She made sure to offer a prayer of gratitude before she drifted off to sleep.
It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon when Sadie woke up, horrified to have slept so much longer than she’d planned. Even so, she made sure to make herself presentable before she dared leave her apartment. She chose a mid-calf-length sundress she’d bought in Old Town and some red flip-flops to match. She wore her hair in a smooth bob, rather than her usual slightly messy “do,” and managed to hide the bruise on the side of her neck with some foundation. The knot she had on her head wasn’t visible, but she winced when she smoothed her hair one last time. Bright colors, subdued makeup, and conservative hair seemed a good start toward helping Pete forget everything about her appearance at the jail that morning.
Pete was at the kitchen table eating potato chips from the bag and reading something on his cell phone, but he stood up when he saw her, crossing the room to give her a hug before pulling back and looking her over. “Did you sleep well?”
“Better and longer than I’d expected to,” Sadie said with a gracious smile. As bad as she felt about the circumstances that had brought him here, it was so nice to be with him. “How about you?”
“I got up about an hour ago.” His cell phone vibrated on the table, and he looked at it with an expression of surrender and uncertainty. As he replied to the text message, Sadie noted how quiet the house was.
“Is Caro here?” Sadie asked as she headed toward the fridge to make Pete and herself some lunch. Potato chips were not a sufficient meal, and she was pretty sure Caro had everything for her delicious Cinco de Mayo chicken salad; she usually kept the chicken part mixed up and in the fridge so that the other ingredients could be easily thrown together.
“She had to go to work,” Pete said, still texting. “She tried to call in, but no one could cover for her. She said to tell you she’d be home around six thirty and not to worry about dinner, she’d pick something up.”
“That’s right, it’s Tuesday.” Caro only worked three days a week—eleven to six on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays—so Sadie made dinner on those three nights. While Sadie thought it was sweet for Caro to offer to pick something up for dinner, after Sadie’s time in lockup, she looked forward to embracing the freedom of making a meal. Sadie would simply text Caro to let her know—
She reached for her cell phone before remembering it was in the bag of personal effects the police had returned to her at the jail. Sadie was in no mood to go look for it right now; she had a man to feed!
“Could you text Caro for me and tell her thanks for the offer, but that I can do dinner?”
Pete looked up at her. “Are you sure?”
She gave him a don’t-you-know-who-I-am? look, and he chuckled before tapping away on his phone. She glanced at the clock and was gratified to know she had plenty of time to eat with Pete and still put together dinner in time for Rex and Caro to enjoy after they got home from work.
Since coming to Santa Fe, Sadie had learned how to make several wonderful recipes from Caro; it was fun to add new favorites to her Little Black Recipe Book, a journal she’d filled up with the very best recipes she’d found over the last thirty years. She’d choose one of those recipes to make tonight as a way to thank both Caro and Rex for their patience with her.
“How are things in Denver?” Sadie asked while putting the salad fixings on the counter. She broke up lettuce into a bowl she’d retrieved from a cupboard.
Pete blew out a breath and leaned back in his chair. “Rough. I have to be back in Denver tomorrow morning. I had hoped I could stay, I really don’t want to go, but . . .”
“That’s okay,” Sadie said, feeling horribly guilty again. “I’m sorry you had to leave in the first place. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll come back Sunday for the Balloon Fiesta,” Pete said. “Maybe by then we’ll both have an idea of what to do from here on out. Will you be extra careful in the meantime, though? If anything seems out of place, let me know or go directly to the police station. I don’t want to take any chances, but I don’t see any options other than keeping you here for now. I’ve got a guy in Garrison monitoring things very closely—if for any reason we think you’re in danger, he’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” she said, hating how much work she was for people. “I’ll be extremely careful for as long as I’m here.”
Pete returned a text message while Sadie added the chicken salad mixture to the lettuce and tossed it together. Once the lettuce was coated, she divided it between two plates and topped it with some of the crumbled bacon Caro stored in a Tupperware in the fridge. She wished she had time to fry the bacon a little bit, so that it was warm and crispy, but Pete would need to leave soon if he hoped to get back to Denver before midnight.
“Thank you,” Pete said when she slid the plate in front of him a few minutes later. “Is this Caro’s famous Mexican chicken salad?”
“The very same,” Sadie said. “But I added bacon to it. Everything’s better with bacon.”
“Of course,” he said, giving her a smile before savoring that first bite. Sadie loved watching people take the first bite of things she prepared. It was one of her most favorite experiences in the whole world.
After a few bites of his meal, his phone rang. He read the caller ID and excused himself for privacy, and Sadie was rinsing her dishes by the time he finished his call and returned to the kitchen. Pete came up behind her and snaked his arms around Sadie’s waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. Sadie closed her eyes and drank in the smell and feel of him, wondering when their lives would return to normal. Then again, what was normal for them? She’d m
et Pete during her first murder investigation—had their lives ever really been normal?
“Ah,” she said, turning to face him and wrapping her arms around his neck. “This must be my boyfriend you were telling me about.”
He kissed her ear and hugged her tighter.
“I’ve got to go,” he finally said quietly, sadly.
Sadie looked into his eyes, knowing she’d keep this image of his face in her mind until they saw each other next. “My returning to Garrison might put an end to this hiding once and for all,” she said, further supporting her campaign. “We can move on with our lives together.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Pete replied, smiling softly at her. “I don’t want to make a decision in my own best interest if it means putting you at risk.”
“I’m at risk everywhere I go, remember? You’ve said yourself that I can’t seem to keep myself out of trouble, and every time I end up in the middle of one of these situations, I’m at risk all over again.”
“I know,” Pete said. “I just keep hoping that whatever draws you to these things—”
“Or draws these things to me,” Sadie cut in. “I have not gone seeking them for a very long time.”
“Either way, I keep expecting that this disaster-streak is done. That last time was really the last time.”
“And yet, even if that were true, I’m still hiding.” She tightened her arms around him.
“I know,” he said, bending down to kiss her softly on the mouth. “But are you sure you’re ready? Living in Garrison felt overwhelming to you not too long ago.”
“I’ve made some good progress since then. I haven’t had a panic attack for months, and I feel like I’m ready to go back to my old life. I’m ready to go home and see what happens. I’m ready to see where this thing between you and me might go.”
He let out a deep breath but was unable to hide a smile. “I’ll think about it.”
She smiled and went up on her toes to kiss him again and seal the deal. “Good,” she said, pulling back slightly. “Now, you need to finish your salad. Can I also make you a sandwich for the road?”
Ten minutes later, Sadie walked Pete to his car and handed over two sandwiches, a bag of cookies from the freezer, and some string cheese in a paper bag. They lingered over the good-bye kiss, wanting the moment to last as long as possible.
Pete finally opened the car door, but before he got inside, he reached down and picked something up from the floor on the passenger side. He handed it toward Sadie. “You don’t want me taking this to Denver, do you?”
She immediately recognized the bag of her personal effects from the police station. “Thanks,” she said, taking the bag and imagining what a mess it would have been if he hadn’t found it until he got back to Denver.
He kissed her one more time—longer and harder than he usually allowed himself to—then, without saying anything else, he let her go and got into his car.
She recovered from that final kiss enough to tuck the bag under her arm and wave until his car disappeared, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. A year ago they had gone to Boston. It was supposed to have been a very different turning point for their relationship than it ended up being.
But she wasn’t giving up on them. Not now. Not ever.
Caro’s Cinco de Mayo Chicken Salad
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ cup picante sauce
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 cup diced celery
Bibb or leaf lettuce
4 crisply cooked bacon slices, crumbled
Cut chicken breasts into ½-inch cubes. Set aside. In a 10-inch skillet, combine picante sauce, cumin, and salt. Add chicken and cook about 4 minutes, stirring frequently until done. Transfer contents of skillet to large mixing bowl; cover and chill.
To serve, combine chicken mixture, sour cream, and mayonnaise; mix well. Add avocado and celery; mix lightly. Spoon chicken salad onto lettuce-lined salad plates or mix together with torn lettuce in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with bacon.
Serves 4.
Notes: In a pinch, you can use 8 ounces of canned chicken, skip the cooking, and mix up the salad immediately. Also, a handful of chopped green peppers add great flavor and texture. This salad is also great with tortilla chips or wrapped in a flour tortilla. Mmm!
Chapter 12
Sadie plugged her now-dead cell phone into the charger in her apartment and then headed back to the kitchen to start dinner. Within twenty minutes, she had everything she needed combined in a pan on the stove. She knew posole was one of Rex’s favorite meals; it was even his mother’s recipe and, although written as a slow-cooker recipe, it was easy to convert to a stove-top version. The flavors might not blend quite as well, but it wouldn’t be too different, so long as she used canned chicken, which she did. She was pouring corn bread batter into a baking dish when she heard the door from the garage open.
“Hi, Rex,” she said in an upbeat tone she hoped covered the discomfort that still lingered after what happened last night. She wanted to wait to explain until she could talk to him and Caro at the same time. As always, things felt a little strange with just Rex and Sadie together. “Dinner will be ready by the time Caro comes home.” She glanced at the clock, it wasn’t quite six. There was just enough time for her to bake the corn bread, finish the dishes, and set the table before Caro got there.
Rex busied himself with emptying out his lunch cooler. When he finished, Sadie expected him to head to the living room and turn on the TV, but he didn’t. When she looked up, he was watching her. Rex was tall and broad shouldered, with a square face and coarse dark hair cut into a crew cut left over from his years in the Army. Sadie tried not to be intimidated by him, but his usual posture was imposing, and right now it was even more so.
“Is everything okay?” Sadie asked.
“You made things difficult around here last night.”
“I know,” Sadie said, wishing she’d apologized before he brought it up. “And I’m really sorry about everything that happened. The police wouldn’t let me call anyone or I’d have called you guys first thing.” Well, first thing after she talked to Pete.
He continued as soon as she stopped speaking, giving the impression that he had not listened to any of her explanation. “Caro was about out of her head with worry until Pete called us, which wasn’t until after midnight. You didn’t even tell her where you were going.”
Sadie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of how to respond to his hostility other than with humility and truth. “I told her I was going to a bar with Margo,” she said calmly. “I had no idea that—”
Rex smacked the counter, and Sadie jumped back a step.
“She didn’t know where you were or where to look,” he nearly yelled, his face darkening as he released the rage she suspected he’d been holding back since entering the house. “But she was about ready to check every bar in town lookin’ for you. It caused a real ugly argument between the two of us.”
“I’m very sorry,” Sadie said again, careful this time. Rex had never been as warm as his wife, but Sadie had also never seen him angry. She felt he was overreacting, but didn’t want to be dismissive of her fault in this situation. “You have both been nothing but accommodating of me, and the last thing I wanted to do was cause this kind of . . . concern.” Was that the right word? Was he concerned? It felt different than that, bigger. Judging from the pinch around his eyes and the hard line of his jaw, her apology wasn’t making much headway. “It won’t happen again, Rex. I promise.”
He stared at her for a couple of seconds, but his expression did not soften. “It might be a good time for you to come up with somewhere else to stay.”
Sadie’s heart started pounding. “You want me to leave?” she asked quietly. Really? Just like that?
“I think it’s fo
r the best,” he said, sounding a little calmer now that he’d given her the ultimatum. “I’ve been a good sport about you stayin’ all this time, but I’ve hit my limit. It isn’t good for my wife to be so involved in this kinda thing. It’s causin’ trouble between us.”
Dueling perspectives wrestled in Sadie’s mind. Up until last night, she’d worked hard to be a very good guest. She cooked dinner as often as she could, paid rent for the apartment, and did her share, if not more, of the housework; all in the name of pulling her own weight and easing the burden. It didn’t seem fair that he would discount all of that. But then again she didn’t know how bad the argument had been between them last night or how worried Caro had been. In the end, dueling perspectives aside, she wasn’t going to stay where she wasn’t wanted.
“I’m certainly not about to overstay my welcome,” Sadie said tightly. She was tempted to try to explain again what had happened and insist he not treat her like a child. Yet, no matter how hard she tried to justify going on the defensive, she couldn’t skirt around the fact that she’d caused a great deal of trouble for two good people who had only ever wanted to help her.
“I’m glad to hear we’re on the same page, then,” he said. “It’d be better for Caro and me if she thought it was your idea to go sooner rather than later.”
Sadie pinched her lips together and inhaled through her nose. She was not okay with lying to Caro, but did she want to cause more trouble between the people who’d opened their home to her? She was suddenly itching to call Pete and get his opinion. However, Rex was waiting for her to agree; what should she say?
“I can get a hotel,” Sadie said, neatly sidestepping the issue without committing one way or another. She turned away from him to stir the posole. She lowered the heat, already packing in her mind.
“Caro wouldn’t understand if you left too soon. You can stay through the weekend, but I ’spect you to have something set up before Monday. ’Til then, we all go on like you and I didn’t have this talk.”
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