“So who do you think our killer is?” he asked as he finished the final bite of his meal.
I savored the taste of the risotto on my tongue for the last time and set my fork down onto my plate. “I honestly don’t know. I thought Cherise for a while, but something about that always felt wrong. She didn’t sound guilty when we talked to her, but then again, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned or thrown over for a younger woman.”
He smiled. “She waited a long time to exact her revenge, if that’s what this was.”
“Then there’s Jessica, who very likely was poisoning her husband or trying to, but for what reason? Their messages make them seem to be in love, and she truly seems unhappy he’s gone. Plus, she gets nothing upon his death.”
“All true.”
“Then there’s Jason Drake, the cheating husband who might be willing to kill to keep his wife from finding out about his afternoon delights. He did lawyer up pretty quickly, but I don’t know if he’s really the killer type. He barely looks able to get himself dressed.”
Alex sighed. “People do strange things to protect their way of life and even stranger things for love. I’m inclined to say right now Jason Drake is our best suspect. I’ll check to see if any guns are registered to him, but I’m still bothered by what Lee Reynolds was doing every Thursday when he told his wife he was working late. Is there another woman out there we haven’t found out about yet?”
I took a sip of wine and tried to wrap my brain around the idea of Lee Reynolds cheating on his wife. He had remarried quickly after his divorce from Cherise, but if he’d been a cheater then, I still couldn’t see him doing that to Jessica. Nothing we’d found out so far pointed to that, especially with his texts.
“Wouldn’t we have found messages on his phone if that were the case?”
With a frown, Alex explained, “Cheating men make a point of being careful about letting their mistresses leave careless messages that can be found by their wives. No, she wouldn’t leave a text, but she very well might leave a voicemail.”
“When did the phone company say you’d get the voicemail transcripts?” I asked, eager to see those details.
Alex stood from the table and gathered up our plates to take to the sink. “They had some outage problem, but I hope to have them tomorrow. In them might be the key to the entire case and where we’ll find the guilty party.”
I lifted my glass to take one last drink of wine as my phone rang. Alex stopped dead at the sound, and I saw in his expression who he thought it was. I didn’t reach for my phone, but I knew too.
“Answer it. I’m sure he’s thinking you’re avoiding him and no man wants that after spending the night with a woman.”
Every ring echoed around us until my phone finally fell silent and we stared awkwardly at each other. Alex continued to the sink as I sat there unsure what to do.
“I guess I should go. It’s getting late and my father might need me to cover a bartender shift.”
The two of us knew that wasn’t the reason why I was leaving. Alex said nothing and continued clearing the table as I felt the compunction to fill the silence with words. I placed my wine glass on the counter in front of him and quietly said, “Thank you for a great meal, Alex.”
For a long moment, he stared into my eyes and I thought to myself that if things were different and we were more than partners, the next thing that would happen would be us leaning in to kiss one another sweetly and softly like two people whose worlds were so intertwined they couldn’t imagine living without one another.
We didn’t, though. He nodded and gave me a forced smile, and I thanked him for the risotto again. Worried that the phone call had harmed what I’d worked so hard to repair, I asked, “I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early at The Grounds, right?”
He smiled and even though I had a feeling he wanted to say something else, all he said was, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Poppy. Be careful driving home.”
I checked my phone when I got to my car and it had been Jack calling. As I drove away to meet him, all I could think of was how much I’d enjoyed dinner with Alex, though.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack’s voice sounded full of anticipation. “I was hoping we could get together again tonight. I’ve had a long day and could really go for spending time with you.”
As I sat in my car there in my driveway, a tiny part of me didn’t want to see him now. I liked him and thought I’d jump at any chance to have a repeat of our night together, but something had changed for me.
“I know what you mean about it being a long day,” I said in a forced weary voice. “It’s been a rough one.”
“So we both need some down time and what better way to do that than together?” he said with a chuckle.
The part of me that had lost interest grew slowly but steadily with every word uttered between us. I wasn’t in the mood to listen to more stories about his world travels tonight. I’d had a terrific home cooked meal and now I just wanted to light the fireplace in my living room and curl up on the couch. All I wanted to hear was the crackling of the fire and my own thoughts, which at the moment were focused on someone other than Jack.
“I don’t know, Jack. I think all I’m good for is relaxing and then going to bed.”
Damn! That didn’t come out like it should have. I wasn’t interested in sleeping with him again, but the way I said that made it seem like I was all about the sex between us.
“I mean, I’m just really tired. Can I take a rain check?”
The phone fell silent for a long moment and then he finally said, “I really need someone to talk to, Poppy. I’ve been dealing with Jessica and Cherise since I came back to town, and what I want more than anything now is to just talk to someone who isn’t grieving. I know that probably sounds terrible and I know everyone handles death in their own way, but…”
His words simply drifted off, like the strain of losing his brother and then comforting both of Lee’s wives had gotten to him. I understood how death could be stressful. That had been one of the most surprising things about losing my mother. The sadness from missing her I’d expected, but I’d never expected her death to make me angry one minute and depressed the next.
I couldn’t be heartless to Jack, no matter how I felt about him. If he needed a shoulder to cry on or just to lay his head on for a while, I could be that for him.
“I understand. I’ll be home all night, so come on over.”
“Thanks, Poppy. I knew you’d be there for me.”
The relief in his voice couldn’t have been clearer, and even though my mind was miles away at another house and with another man, I wanted to help Jack in his time of need.
“See you in a little bit, Jack.”
I pressed END on my screen and saw a message had come in while I’d been talking to him. A quick swipe and I saw it. A message from Alex that began with the words I wanted to tell you how. What did he want to tell me about? My heart pounding against my chest, I tapped my phone’s screen to open up the text and read his message.
I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed dinner tonight. I know you’re busy so you don’t have to answer this text. I just wanted to thank you for coming over. It felt good to cook my risotto again after so long. See you in the morning.
My eyes scanned the words over and over as my brain teased out the sadness woven into them. I didn’t know how I could have been so blind. All this time he didn’t dislike Jack. He wasn’t the problem. The problem was Alex liked me as something more than a partner.
And what made things even more complicated was I’d realized I had feelings for him months ago. I’d forced myself to stuff them down deep inside where he’d never see them and accept that we’d only be work partners because he didn’t feel the same for me.
Now he did, but should that change anything? If we acted on how we felt, would we endanger what we were as friends and partners and possibly ruin what we had now? Even before he began dating Bethany, that fear of losing the great rel
ationship that had grown between us had always stopped me from letting him know how much more I cared for him.
I didn’t know what to do. As much as I loved the idea of having more with Alex, the mere thought of losing what we were already made my chest hurt.
My phone went dark, so I turned it on again and read his text one more time. I didn’t want to leave him sitting there wondering if I received it, so I typed out a message to him as I admitted to myself I wasn’t sure about much of anything with him except that other than my father, nobody else in the world made me feel safe like he did.
Just got home and saw your message. Thank you for making me your world famous risotto. I see now why it has that name. See you tomorrow!
I clicked SEND and wished my words didn’t have such a sterility to them. If he only knew how much I cared for him.
Jack’s silhouette appeared in the window of my front door less than a half hour later. In that period of time, I’d thought of nothing but Alex, which made inviting a different man into my house feel odd. I couldn’t turn him away at my door, though, so I let Jack in and hoped I could be the sympathetic ear he needed tonight.
He kissed me on the cheek as he came through the door, and I forced a smile even as I hoped that would be the extent of our romance for the next few hours. His dirty blond hair and blue eyes were still as sexy as they’d been the night before, and his body in jeans and a t-shirt made me think of how incredible he’d felt next to me as we lay together in my bed. None of that had changed, but I wasn’t as interested anymore.
“You are such a sight for sore eyes,” he said with a sexy grin that told me my hopes were very likely going to run headlong into his far different hopes for our night.
As I closed the door, he headed into the living room. I followed and joked, “That’s quite a compliment coming from a photographer, I think.”
Already seated on my couch, he held his hand out for me take it. “I mean it. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you, Poppy.”
I accepted his silent invitation and sat next to him even as I was thinking of someone else. I didn’t want to be that kind of person—a woman who toyed with someone’s feelings because she didn’t know what to do instead. I’d always hated those kind of people, accusing them of being liars. All they had to do was tell the truth, I’d say to myself, but now that I was up to my ears in just the kind of situation that I’d so often condemned in the past, I saw that the truth wasn’t exactly as easy as I’d thought.
“I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with Lee’s death, Jack. I know how bad it can be. I wasn’t right for a long time after my mother died.”
I expected him to nod with a sad look and then tell me how bad the last few days had been, just like everyone who’d lost a loved one had ever acted, including myself. I’d given him carte blanche to consider me that sympathetic ear and intended to listen for as long as he needed me to.
His reaction was surprising, to say the least. No frown at the mention of his brother’s death. No tear in his eye. Instead of the sad look, what I saw was one of irritation.
In a voice filled with anger, he said, “I can deal with Lee being gone. What’s much harder is dealing with Jessica and Cherise.”
For a moment, I disliked Jack intensely. Both women were struggling with the death of a man they loved, and he didn’t like dealing with them? How selfish! Then I remembered that not everyone grieves the same, and whatever he was feeling he had a right to. Anger was part of the steps to acceptance. Even selfish anger that made someone look like a jackass.
“I’m sure it’s very hard for them. They both cared for him, I know.”
He hung his head and looked away. “You must think I’m a monster, don’t you?”
That I had for a moment made me feel like I was just as terrible as I thought he was. I took his hand in mine and gently squeezed it. “No, no. Don’t think that way. Grieving a loved one’s death is a very individual thing. Nobody expects you to be crying and sobbing all over the place.”
He turned to face me and smiled. “Thank you for being so understanding. I loved my brother. I did. The world’s not going to be the same without him, and maybe if it was just me getting to think back on all the good times we had together…”
Jack stopped talking and sighed. I squeezed his hand to let him know I understood. “I remember when my mother died. I felt like I had to take care of my father in addition to taking care of myself. It was hard for a while there. He was lost without her, so he needed me to hold him up while he fell apart.”
“You do understand. I don’t want you to think I’m unfeeling, but between Cherise and Jessica, I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of tears. That’s why I wanted to come over here tonight. I just need to be around someone who isn’t mourning Lee.”
“It’s only been a few days, Jack. They’ll likely be sad for a long time. They only got a few years with him. You got a lifetime.”
He looked into my eyes and smiled. “I’d never thought of it that way. Lee and I were never as close as other brothers were, but you’re right. He’s been in my life since the day I was born. My big brother showing me how things were done and setting the bar for me.”
Before I could continue talking, he leaned in toward me and softly pressed his lips to mine. It was a kiss filled with the expectation that there would be much more to come, and although I couldn’t deny the feelings Jack stirred inside me, I also couldn’t let go of how much I wished it was a different man sitting next to me on my living room couch.
His tip of his tongue teased mine for a moment, and then he slid his arm around me to firmly hold the back of my head. He wanted what I’d so willingly given him the night before, but I didn’t.
Then as all these thoughts about him and Alex jumbled in my brain, my nose caught a faint scent of something on Jack. Light and floral, it was women’s perfume. I recognized it, but I couldn’t remember from where. Different from the scent I wore, it made me wonder what he’d been up to that day and with whom.
I pushed my head against his hand to pull away and looked up at him. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe I was the only woman in his life, but the idea that he’d been with someone recently enough that her perfume still lingered on him made me feel way less special.
Even more, I couldn’t help but compare how I felt at that moment as I wondered who she was to how I’d felt a short time before as I sat in Alex’s kitchen while he made me homemade risotto.
“Is something wrong, Poppy? I thought since we were together last night that you liked me as much as I like you.”
I wasn’t sure if the tone that clung to each word meant he was hurt by my rejection or offended by it. Not wanting to make things worse, I smiled and quickly said, “Oh, I do like you, Jack. I just had a long day. I was just hoping we could hang out and talk for a bit.”
He forced a smile and said, “Okay, I know what you mean. I’ve been with Cherise all day, and I can tell you it’s been a long one.”
The memory of Cherise and her house raced through my mind, but it wasn’t on her that I’d smelled that perfume. Instantly, my brain switched to investigative mode. Hoping to be supportive while possibly learning something that could help the case, I asked, “How’s she holding up? I imagine she’s doing better than Jessica since she and Lee weren’t really close anymore.”
A frown settled into his features as he sighed. “I feel so badly for her. First, she gets tossed aside by my brother for a younger, more beautiful woman. Now, she has to deal with the fact that she never got closure from him. That’s a hard thing to handle.”
“What do you mean never got closure?” I asked, curious what she would need that for since they divorced years ago.
“My brother and Cherise were happily married. He told her every day he loved her and treated her like a queen. Then one day he just left her. No warning. No reason. Just that he’d met someone new and had fallen in love with her. Cherise never saw it coming, and it devastated her.”
“Really?”
I had a hard time reconciling that Lee Reynolds with the one who was so doting on Jessica in their text messages over the past few months. But then again, it sounded like Lee had been the same way with his first wife, and he’d discarded her like yesterday’s newspaper out on the curb.
Jack shook his head. “I never agreed with how he did that. Cherise was a great wife to Lee, and he knew it. He even told me when he first introduced me to Jessica that he wished he didn’t have to leave Cherise because she’d always been so wonderful to him.”
“Then why did he leave her? What did Jessica have that Cherise didn’t?”
For a moment, Jack said nothing, but then his expression morphed into a sneer and he answered, “Youth. He liked how young she was. I told him he should be with a woman his own age instead of stepping out with a woman my age. Don’t get me wrong. I liked Jessica from the minute I met her. She’s beautiful and sexy and I know what my brother saw in her. I just didn’t think it was right.”
I mentally filed all that he said away, but his attention had turned to romance once again. He cupped my cheeks and kissed me harder than before with an insistency that made it clear talking wasn’t what he’d come for.
“When I’m with you, I don’t want to think of any of that,” he whispered against my lips. “I just want to think of how perfect you feel against me and how great we are together.”
Just twenty-four hours ago, I would have swooned to hear him say that, but now his words fell flat. The problem was I didn’t know how to rebuff him without hurting his feelings. On top of that, he had intimate knowledge of people Alex and I still considered possible suspects. If I could get him talking, maybe I could learn something important to solving the case.
So even though I didn’t feel much for him anymore, I pretended I did to hopefully find out more about Lee’s two wives. Jack’s hands roamed over my back and down to just above my waist, his desire for me evident against my leg, but something in the way he sighed made me think his heart wasn’t in it.
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