“I saw you guys come in and figured I’d get your usual for you,” she said with a broad grin. “Let me tell Alex so he doesn’t have to stand in that line.”
As she hurried away, I spun the Styrofoam cups around and saw the telltale shorthand written in black marker on each that indicated which one was mine and which was Alex’s. On the cup in my right hand was written FR 4C 4S, my French Roast with four creams and four sugars. On the other cup all she’d written was B for the black coffee Alex enjoyed.
I pushed his coffee to the other side of the table and looked up to see him and Pam coming back. The expression on his face seemed to be a mixture of relief and confusion.
She pointed toward the empty chair and in a motherly tone said, “Sit, sit. I got you your usual, so there’s no need to stand in line.”
Unused to the special treatment, Alex looked over at me and quietly thanked her as he sat down. “That’s very nice of you, Pam. Thanks.”
“Yes, thank you, Pam. You’ve really got a line out the door this morning,” I said with a smile.
She waved off the thanks, shaking her head. “It’s nothing. I wanted to talk to you two anyway, so it’s nothing. Now how are the wedding plans going? Is everything set?”
Pam focused her complete attention on me as I tried to come up with an answer that didn’t give away how utterly unprepared we actually were for our wedding just about a month away from that moment. She didn’t need to know that, though.
“Just about,” I chirped in my most chipper voice. “You know how these things go. You do everything you thought you had to do and then a half dozen things crop up and you have to take care of them. But don’t worry. It’s going to be great.”
She waved her hand as if to indicate she had complete confidence that our wedding would be everything she’d made it out to be in her mind. “Of course! I can’t wait! Even Gerald is excited. He’s going to wear his black suit, even though he might roast in it if the weather suddenly gets hot like it’s wont to do in late May here. Gerald looks so good in a suit, but I can never get him to put it on, so this is a good reason for him to dress up. And I’m going to wear my green print dress I got last year for the Founder’s Day dance. But listen to me talking all about what we’re going to wear, mere guests, when the star of the show is you. Tell me all about your dress!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alex twist his expression into the grimace that came whenever someone in town stopped to talk to us about the wedding. What I considered neighborly interest he saw as intrusive, and in the past few weeks, more and more Sunset Ridge folks had done just what Pam was doing whenever we were out in public.
Knowing this, I politely begged off talking about my dress, even though I desperately wanted to brag about it, and used the old superstition of the groom not supposed to see the gown before the wedding to get out of the conversation.
I made my eyes wide and pointed at Alex. “I can’t say much because the groom is right here, but I can say I went for white and it’s gorgeous! Just wait until you see it!”
My ploy worked instantly, and the concern that he might know something that could jinx our wedding day stopped Pam cold. Worry settled into her features, and she nodded knowingly.
“Oh, I understand. I wouldn’t want to do anything to ruin the big day for either of you. I just know you’ll make a beautiful bride, Poppy. It’s going to be such a wonderful day.”
She turned to look at Alex, who at the moment appeared as comfortable as someone about to go in for a root canal. “And I know you’re going to make a dashing groom too, Alex.”
He forced a smile that barely made the corners of his mouth creep up. “I’m going to do my best. Poppy’s the real focus of attention, though. It’s all about the bride.”
Pam beamed at me and nodded. “It sure is. I’m so happy for you two. Okay, I better get back there or that girl will have the line out the door and down the block. I’ll see you later!”
I watched her trot back to the counter and offer to help the next customer in line. Pam’s enthusiasm mirrored what I’d experienced pretty much since the day the engagement announcement appeared in The Eagle’s society section. From that point on, anytime people saw me, there was a good chance they wanted to talk about the wedding, with some even calling it the wedding of the year.
That seemed a bit much, but there was no denying that our fellow Sunset Ridge citizens were happy about our impending nuptials. Alex, on the other hand, didn’t seem nearly as happy with their constant need to talk about it with us.
I looked over at him and saw the unhappiness in his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
Not that I didn’t already know the answer to that question.
“Nothing,” he answered, clearly a lie.
“I know you don’t like when people do things like that, like Pam just did, but it’s only them being happy for us. They don’t mean any harm.”
“I guess.”
I took a sip of coffee and let it slide down my throat, hoping he’d continue the conversation, but that wasn’t Alex’s style. He definitely lived up to the description of a man of few words. I obviously was the polar opposite of that, so I continued the conversation, needing to make sure our fellow citizens’ interest in our wedding wasn’t ruining it for him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, wishing above all else that he would say yes.
But the scowl he wore whenever anyone came up to us lately told me the answer definitely would be something else.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m fine. It’s nothing, Poppy,” he said, diverting his gaze from mine and looking past me toward the front windows of the coffee shop.
“It doesn’t sound like nothing, Alex. Talk to me. Or at least look at me.”
He did as I wanted and focused on me across from him. “I’m just not used to an entire town full of people involved in my business. That’s all.”
The way he said that told me that wasn’t a small thing to him and he’d added the that’s all onto the end of his statement for my benefit.
“But this is how Sunset Ridge is, Alex. It’s been like this since we began working together.”
He winced. “I guess, but this feels different somehow.”
“Are you unhappy?”
Alex reached across the table and took my hand in his, shaking his head. “No, not at all. Don’t think that, Poppy. Never. I’m just used to having my private life, well, private. But as you say, this is Sunset Ridge.”
Hearing he wasn’t unhappy made me smile, but I wondered if this was all having an effect on him. This would be his second wedding, so I suspected he didn’t put as much emphasis on the whole big day idea as I and everyone else around us did.
“I think most of this is because of me, to be honest,” I admitted. “You’re marrying the one woman everyone thought would be single forever. It’s made me a local celebrity in some ways.”
Alex rolled his eyes in disgust, just like he did whenever I mentioned what the locals had thought of me for so long. “You’re the brightest, most beautiful woman in this town, and these yahoos tagged you with the Old Maid label. Sometimes I wonder where I’m living, Poppy.”
Before I could swoon over how much I loved it when he said things like that, I saw my editor from The Eagle walking toward our table. Just as he reached us, Alex muttered in disgust, “Another county heard from.”
Looking up at my boss, I pasted a smile on my face. “Hi, Howard. What’s new?”
A large man with a bulbous head that reminded me of some cartoon character who’d unfortunately had someone attach an air pump to his head and inflated it until it was close to exploding, he always appeared on the verge of blowing up at whoever he spoke to. Almost completely bald, he had little tufts of hair just above his ears that made a ring around his head and made it look like a fleshy Saturn sitting atop his neck.
Howard looked over at Alex but didn’t say a word to him before turning his head to face me. “The Samuel Morrow murder is going to be ful
l page news this afternoon. Is there anything you can give me that will make it the best reporting it can be?”
Always the leader in charm, Howard seemed particularly crass today.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a look of utter contempt come over Alex’s face. Wincing, I said, “It’s an active investigation, Howard, so I don’t think there’s anything I can add to help the reporters at this point. I can say I knew Samuel Morrow and thought very highly of him. Everyone in town loved him.”
Howard let out a grunt like a pig. “Ugh. That kind of tripe doesn’t sell papers, Poppy. You know better than that. You need to get rid of that sappy side if you ever want to get a byline with The Eagle.”
He stormed away to the counter to get his coffee, and I looked across the table to see Alex’s eyebrows up in his forehead and a pained look on his face. Suddenly, I felt the need to say something overcome me.
“I guess you think he’s a monster. He is, but…”
“But what, Poppy? You don’t have to defend him. You’re too good for that newspaper anyway.”
“Not according to Howard. I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to do anything more than what I do now. And he wonders why I try to be out investigating with you as often as I can.”
Howard’s visit made my stomach roil once again that morning. His disregard for the loss of another human life sickened me. As I fought the bile creeping up into my throat, Alex reached across the table and squeezed my hand.
“Hey, don’t let him get to you.”
Almost instinctively, I forced a smile. “I know. He’s just a ridiculously insensitive man with suits that hang strangely on him because his weight keeps yo-yoing. That he’s my boss and editor is just something I have to deal with.”
Alex smiled at my description of Howard. “Yeah, what is going with those suits of his? Last month, he looked like a ten pound sausage stuffed into a five pound casing in one of them I saw him in at the grocery store, and today he’s swimming in his clothes.”
I chuckled at his folksy description of Howard in his chubby period last month. “He’s been doing some lemon juice and maple syrup diet, but as soon as he stops it, he binges on food and blows up again. At this point, I don’t know who to expect on any given day I have to see him, skinny Howard or the blown up version. But what’s weird is his head never seems to lose any of that weight.”
Smiling sweetly, Alex jabbed at Howard a little more. “His head can’t shrink because it’s full of hot air.”
Sometimes I wanted to kiss that man of mine right there in public for all the world to see how much I loved him.
“Thanks.”
“You know, you haven’t told me a thing about our victim’s wife yet. I’m depending on you for all the dirt, Poppy,” he said with a wink.
Until that moment, I’d completely forgotten the reason we’d come here, other than our coffee addiction. “That’s right. Well, the biddies thought Eliza got herself a sugar daddy when she married Samuel because he’s quite a bit older than she is. They suspected something nefarious in her wanting him.”
Before I could continue, Howard called my name on his way out the door and said, “I want you to get me something on that Morrow story as soon as you can.”
Alex cringed and lifted his cup to his mouth to drink the last of his coffee before tossing the cup in the garbage nearby. “Incurable romantics those ladies are. Let’s get back to the station and see what Craig’s got.”
“You don’t want to hear any more of the gossip?”
“Save it for later. I’m not in the mood for local nastiness right now.”
I finished my coffee and threw away the cup on our way out the door, following Alex across the street to the station. He stopped right before we went into the station and turned to face me with a look so serious on his face.
“You know, Poppy, when we get married, if you don’t want to continue working for Howard at The Eagle, you can quit at any time. Don’t think you need to stay there a minute longer than you want to.”
His words stunned me for a moment, and I just stood there in front of the police station like a deer caught in headlights. Quit my job? The thought had never occurred to me. Well, not the idea of quitting because I was married and didn’t have to work anymore. I’d considered quitting the newspaper many times over Howard’s nastiness and ignorance, but this was different.
Did Alex expect me to not work after we married? Was that what he meant by that?
I opened my mouth to ask him just those questions, but before I could get the words out, he simply walked into the building. Still surprised by his offer, I followed him in and found him just as he got to his office.
He sat down behind his desk and began typing on his laptop like usual, but nothing felt normal as I stood there with those questions filling my head. He didn’t act like anything he’d said should make me wonder, but I needed to get to the bottom of this right now.
“Alex, what did you mean—”
Just then, Craig walked in, interrupting me. “Hi guys. The fingerprint guys said their report shouldn’t take too long, and Donny called to say he wanted us all to meet early tomorrow morning. I guess he thinks we all work Sundays like he does.”
Alex looked up at him and nodded. “Okay. Good work. Is there something else going on tomorrow morning that means you can’t be here to meet with him?”
“Katy and I go to church at nine. I just worried that might conflict with Donny’s plans,” Craig said quietly.
For a moment, Alex sat silently. He would never tell anyone not to attend church services, even though he wasn’t a churchgoing man, but a meeting with the coroner might be important enough to miss services one Sunday.
“I’ll tell you what. You handle telling Samuel Morrow’s widow the news and I’ll bring you up to speed on what Donny had to report later tomorrow. Sound good?”
Craig nodded and smiled. “Sure, but I thought you did that already.”
“No, she’s out of town until around dinnertime, so I’d suggest stopping by around five tonight. We don’t want her hearing anything from anyone in town before we speak to her.”
“Okay. Sounds good!” Craig said before leaving us alone.
I sat down in front of Alex’s desk in my usual seat intent on finding out the answers to my questions but curious as to why he wanted Craig to inform Eliza Morrow of Samuel’s death. Never before had Alex pushed that off on a fellow officer.
“Why do you want Craig to tell her instead of us?” I asked as he typed away on his computer.
He stopped and looked over the desk at me. “He needs practice with that facet of the job too. That’s all.”
“Really? What if she’s a suspect?”
“If she’s a suspect, we’ll find out. Craig needs to be able to learn that part of the job because he won’t always be working with me on cases like this.”
What did he mean by that? That was the third thing he’d said that I wasn’t sure about, but I chalked that comment up to the reality that Craig and Alex wouldn’t always be partnered.
After sitting for a few minutes in silence as Alex caught up on paperwork, I decided it was time to broach the subject that had surprised me just a few minutes ago.
“So can we talk about what you said outside?”
Without missing a beat, he continued to work and asked, “What about it?”
“Well, what you said stopped me in my tracks, to be honest. What did you mean that I can quit my job if I want to? Don’t you expect me to work after we get married? Because I’m not sure I’m the stay-at-home type of woman, to be honest, Alex.”
His fingers stilled on the keyboard for a moment, and he looked over at me with a confused expression. “What are you talking about? All I said was that if you don’t want to work at the newspaper, you don’t have to. I didn’t say you had to quit. Just that I wouldn’t have a problem with it if you did.”
“But that’s not the way it sounded. It sounded like you were thinking I might
be a stay-at-home wife, and now I’m wondering if that means I won’t be working with you on cases anymore.”
A sweet smile spread across his lips, lighting up his face. Shaking his head, he said, “No, that’s not what I meant at all, Poppy. As far as I’m concerned, everything you do now can continue as long as you want it to. I just wanted you to know that if working for that boss of yours gets to a point where it’s too much, you don’t have to work for him anymore. I’m fine with whatever you want to do. I promise I don’t plan to be the type of husband you’re thinking of.”
“Really? Because I don’t want anything to change once we’re married. We’ll still be the same people we’ve always been, right?”
Alex nodded. “Right. As far as I’m concerned, the only time I’d want you to stop doing anything with me on cases is once children come. Until then, I don’t see why anything should change.”
For the second time in less than an hour, Alex’s words stunned me. Once children come? We’d never actually discussed having children. I had always just assumed if we were blessed with a child, then we’d have one. But now that he’d mentioned it in the same breath as it being a reason that we wouldn’t work together anymore, I wasn’t sure I wanted a child as soon as he might.
Children.
Suddenly, everything felt like it was changing.
Chapter Four
After staring at the TV for an hour but not really watching anything, I looked over at my phone on the nightstand and saw it was only 10:03. Alex lay sleeping next to me, blissfully unaware of how difficult he’d made my day and now my night with his casual comments that morning. I’d wanted to discuss more about both of them all day, but between work and wedding business that seemed to crop up every day, by the time I got the chance to broach the subject, he’d already fallen fast asleep, leaving me to stew about what he’d said all on my own.
I couldn’t just lay there pretending to watch some show I didn’t care about, so I slid out from under the covers and headed downstairs to get a drink of water. Maybe that would help me get to sleep.
The Finest Hour Page 3