New Corpse in Town (Secret Seal Isle Mysteries Book 1)
Page 17
“Hey,” he said, nodding at Hunter before turning those blue eyes on her. “Can I talk to you a sec?”
“Uh… sure,” she managed. Hunter took the hint and rose to his feet.
“I’ll be in my room if you need me,” her ex-partner told her as he turned to go, the words heavy with invitation. He brushed past Dylan without making contact, which was a welcome change, and disappeared into the inn.
“Sorry about that,” Dylan said as he took Hunter’s vacated seat. “Guess I interrupted something?”
Cookie had to think about that for a second, forcing her sluggish brain to shake off all her conflicting emotions so she could think clearly. “Maybe,” she finally admitted. “But I don’t think so.” She focused on the man in front of her right now. “What’s up?”
He glanced away as if uneasy, then resolutely faced her. “I’m sorry about being such a dick the other day,” he said. “I was worried about Daisy and angry at you for not telling me what was going on, but that’s no excuse.”
She shook her head. “It’s fine,” she assured him. “I get it. You were just looking out for her.”
“Yeah, well, seems so were you,” Dylan countered. “You were right about Stone and about going after him. And I know you were only doing what you had to with Daisy. I shouldn’t have been a jerk about it.”
Cookie wanted to assure him again that it wasn’t a problem but could see that wasn’t the reply he needed. Instead she just said, “Apology accepted,” and offered her hand.
That made him laugh. “That’s what I get now, a hearty handshake?” he asked with some of that mischievous gleam he’d had that first day they’d flirted right there on the same porch.
“What did you want?” she volleyed back. And held her breath, awaiting his reply.
He didn’t keep her in suspense. “As much as you’re prepared to give me,” he answered bluntly, his eyes intent on hers, his face serious but not stern. Just focused. And interested. Very interested.
“I…” Cookie tried to reply to that but found she didn’t know what to say. Crickets chirped in the night like a time bomb as she left her words hanging.
“It’s okay. I get it.” Dylan gestured toward the inn’s front door, the way Hunter had gone. “I know you’ve still got some other stuff going on. So I’m just going to put this out there.” He paused for a second then said, “I’m interested. In you. If you’re interested in me, let me know. But only if you’ve straightened everything else out first. I’m not the type of guy to go after somebody else’s girl or to get in the way of something that started before I got there.” He rose to his feet without a sound, nodded at her, and then turned and made his way just as silently off the porch and into the night.
Cookie watched him go, marveling at his stealth, his grace, and the way he threw her for a loop. Then she collapsed back into her seat with a moan. Even after moving out to the edge of the world, her life was never dull.
“What am I going to do?” she demanded a little while later. She was in Scarlett’s room, perched on her best friend’s bed, and the wall was hard against her back as she hugged her knees to her chest.
Sprawled beside her, Scarlett laughed. Cookie’s best friend had recovered from her pot break, though she was still a bit wiped out. “Do?” she asked now. “You mean about the two hot guys literally fighting over you, or about whether to stay on this crazy-ass little island or come back to civilization?”
“Both,” Cookie admitted. “I think they’re pretty much one and the same, don’t you?”
“I suppose.” Her friend propped herself up on one arm so she could stare Cookie in the face. “What do you want to do?”
“That’s the problem,” Cookie replied, groaning. “Part of me wants to say ‘to hell with all this’ and chuck it and head back to Philly. See if I can get reinstated, partner with Hunter again, pick up the pieces of my old life as best I can, and then soldier on.”
“And partner with Hunter in another way, too?” Scarlett asked, earning her a swat.
“But the other part of me,” Cookie continued, “says to stay here.” She glanced around the room and out the window at the view of the water. The moonlight made the waves sparkle like tiny diamonds as they reflected the beams. “It isn’t really all that bad, is it? There are some nice things about being here, and I’m not just talking about how the threat from the DeMasis has all but disappeared since we got here.” She sighed as she found she couldn’t stop watching the ocean. “And it is pretty.”
“It?” Scarlett shot back. “Or him?”
Cookie tried not to giggle as she broke free from the sea’s hypnotic trance, but the impish grin on her best friend’s face did her in. “I suppose,” she confessed. “It isn’t just that, though.”
“Good, because if it was, I’d have to slap you,” Scarlett warned. “You are not throwing your whole life away after some dude, no matter how hot. Decide what you want and where you’re more likely to get it.” She grinned. “Then go out and get it.”
After thinking about that for a minute, Cookie slid off the bed and rose to her feet.
“Where’re you going?” Scarlett called out as Cookie left the room.
“I’m going after what I want,” Cookie shouted back. Then she headed up the stairs toward her room—and the one other bedroom up there.
“Hey,” Hunter said as he opened the door to her knock. He was back to his morning run attire, the T-shirt and yoga pants clinging to his muscled frame in all the right places. Cookie had to force herself to drag her eyes back up to his face. “All better now?”
“Kind of,” she agreed. “I just needed to get a few things straight in my head.”
She studied her ex-partner once again. Hunter was good-looking, smart, sexy, confident, compassionate, competent—everything she could want in a guy. Except stable.
Because while he was totally into her right now, that wasn’t a sure thing. Hunter loved the thrill of the chase, but he didn’t have a lot of follow-through. And he definitely didn’t do entanglements and complications—or, as most people called them, relationships.
If she went back to Philly, she’d be right back in the same situation she and Hunter had had been in before she’d left. Both into each other but neither willing to commit, and Hunter not interested in anything long-term, while she wasn’t going to consider anything fleeting.
And that was something neither of them was willing to change. Which was why Cookie could now steel herself to say, “Thanks again for everything, Hunter. Have a safe trip back, okay?”
Then she turned on her heel and walked away. She only went as far as the first floor and then the porch. But once she was out there she pulled out her phone and dialed a number. Those crickets were still chirping, but instead of a ticking time bomb, they sounded more like the beat of her heart.
“Dylan?” she asked when he picked up. “It’s Cookie. I think I still owe you the second half of our first date.”
And she grinned, then laughed, as she listened to his response.
Yes, she could definitely get used to this.
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New Corpse in Town
Life in the Dead Lane
A Walk on the Dead Side
Any Way You Bury It
Death is in the Air
Signed, Sealed, Fatal I’m Yours
About the Author
Lucy Quinn is the brainchild of New York Times bestselling author Deanna Chase and USA Today bestselling author Violet Vaughn. Having met over a decade ago in a lampwork bead forum, the pair were first what they like to call “show wives” as they traveled the country together, selling their handmade glass beads. So when they both started writing fiction, it seemed only natural for the two friends to pair up with their hilarious, laugh-out-loud, cozy mysteries. At least they think so. Now they travel the country, meeting up in various cities to plan each new Lucy Quinn book while giggling madly at themselves and the ridiculous situations they force on their
characters. They very much hope you enjoy them as much as they do.
Deanna Chase, is a native Californian, transplanted to the slower paced lifestyle of southeastern Louisiana. When she isn’t writing, she is often goofing off with her husband in New Orleans, playing with her two shih tzu dogs, or making glass beads.
Violet Vaughn lives in coastal New Hampshire where she spends most mornings in the woods with her dogs, summer at the ocean, and winters skiing in the mountains of Maine.
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