Murder in the Elfth Degree: A Camellia Cove Cozy Mystery Book 2 (A Camellia Cove Mystery)
Page 9
Kim gave him a kiss on the cheek. Betts stared at them. Then she stood up and took an extra cookie from the plate. “I can see it’s time for me to be going.”
“You’re not running out on me, are you?” Kim asked.
Betts headed for the door. “I know when you’ve got more important things to do than hang out with me. I'll see you later—or maybe I won't.”
Kim called after her. “Hey! Where are you going? We’re just getting started here.”
Betts didn’t answer. The door swung shut, and Kim caught sight of her walking down the sidewalk with her cookie between her teeth. She turned around to find Aaron smiling at her. “Good old Betts. She’s a true friend.”
Kim frowned. “You two didn’t plan this, did you?”
“We didn’t plan anything,” Aaron replied. “She just knows better than to make a third wheel of herself.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kim asked.
Aaron took her hand and drew her down next to him on the couch. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to spend some time alone with you.”
“Haven’t you been busy with the Simon Cox case?” Kim asked.
“I have been,” he replied. “But now that Tanya is pleading guilty with exceptional circumstances, there’s not a lot left for me to do.”
“What will happen to her?” Kim asked.
“She’ll make a statement in front of a judge about her experience with Simon in high school,” Aaron replied. “She’ll explain how he took advantage of his position, and how he tried to push himself on Tanya in the locker room at the mall.”
“She won’t get away with murdering him, will she?” Kim asked. “She ought to serve some time for that.”
“She won’t get away with it,” he told her. “But she could get off with a very light sentence. She didn’t kill him in cold blood, anyway. I'm relieved about that, to tell you the truth. It's always a relief to find out someone's really a decent person who got caught in exceptional circumstances. I can't tell you what a relief it is that she didn't plan and execute a premeditated murder for some ridiculous motive like money.”
“I feel the same way,” Kim replied. “I feel a lot sorrier for Tanya than I do for Simon. He was a predator, and he got exactly what he deserved. He might have gotten off easy dying the way he did.”
“Don’t tell Betts that,” Aaron told her. “Nothing in the world will convince her Simon wasn’t God's gift to high school girls.”
“I won’t tell her,” Kim replied. “Anyway, I don’t think she wants to think about Simon anymore. She wants to put this whole case behind her.”
“Good idea.” Aaron put his arm around Kim’s shoulders. “Let's do the same thing.”
She turned toward him, and her heartbeat quickened. “Can you forgive me for pushing you away?”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he told her. “You did what you felt you had to do, and so did I. It’s over now, and we're not thinking about that anymore.”
He kissed her, and Kim let her lips linger on his. “You’re very forgiving.”
“Hey, that’s what love is for, isn’t it?” He kissed her again.
Kim stared up into his eyes as their lips drifted apart. “Love, huh?”
“Sure,” he exclaimed. “I love you, and you love me.”
Kim didn’t answer.
He studied her at close range. “You do love me, don’t you?”
Kim blushed. “Yes.”
He burst into a radiant smile. “Wonderful.” He settled deeper into the couch and hugged her closer.
Kim laughed. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Love me,” he replied. “That’s all I want.”
She let him kiss her again. “What’s going to happen to us?”
He gasped out loud. “What’s going to happen to us? I'll tell you what's going to happen to us. We're going to set a new world record for kissing, and everyone in Camellia Cove will hold us up as a shining example of love. People will get sick at the sight of us walking together down the street, and we'll get married and have five dogs and several cats and live happily ever after.”
“I just can’t stop thinking about the way I treated you.” She held up her hand to stop him from interrupting. “I wish I hadn’t done that. I wish I could go back in time and change the last two weeks.”
He stroked her cheek. “Don’t. We're together now, and what you did and said and what we experienced together through this only made us stronger. I'm forgetting it, and I want you to forget it, too.”
“I can’t forget it,” Kim replied. “But I can put it aside if you tell me to.”
“I’m telling you to,” he told her. “As an officer of the law, I’m ordering you to.”
Kim relaxed into his embrace. “Thanks.”
Aaron pulled her against his chest. “Consider it my Christmas gift to you.”
The End.
A letter from the Author
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