They kept walking, kept dodging rocks and poop.
And some footprints.
They weren’t Nicky’s, either. That sent a tingle of alarm through her until she reminded herself that it could be prints from one of the hands. It could mean nothing, and she had enough trouble in her life without borrowing more. Still, she sent a text to Gina to tell her that she’d not only found Belle but that she should keep close watch on Kaylee.
“I need to go see this niece,” Belle said a few seconds later. “And the man’s wife. I need to tell her I had nothing to do with this.”
According to Candy, the wife was in a nursing home and had dementia so a visit probably wasn’t a wise idea, but she doubted Belle would want to hear that right now. So, they just kept walking while Belle continued to declare her innocence. When they made it to Nicky’s SUV, she helped her inside and started back down the trail toward the ranch house.
“Oh, my,” Belle said. “The party you’re giving. It’s in just three days.”
“We can cancel it. Don’t worry. I can take care of that.” Gladly take care of it since the dinner had snowballed way past the thank-you stage and was now just something she wished she’d never thought up in the first place.
“Lord, no. Canceling is the worst thing you can do. Then, everyone will be certain I’m guilty, that I have something to hide.”
Nicky wanted to point out that Belle wasn’t in any shape for a party, but she held her tongue. Maybe Sophie could better deal with this. And speaking of Sophie, Nicky spotted her on the front porch the moment she pulled into the driveway. Sophie hurried out to them.
And Garrett was right behind her.
“I didn’t do this,” Belle said when she got out.
“Of course you didn’t,” Sophie assured her. She put her arm around her mother and got her moving to the house. “Everyone knows that.”
Belle’s shoulders slumped with relief, and the relief got a little better when Garrett made it to them and hugged her, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have called you. I should have waited until I was here to tell you.”
Nicky could see that he was beating himself up about that. But he’d had a good reason for what he’d done. Candy hadn’t exactly seemed like a woman who was going to keep any of this a secret, and she might have called Belle herself. This wasn’t news that Belle would have wanted to hear, period, but it would have been harder coming from a stranger. Especially a stranger who was accusing her of something like this.
Nicky texted Gina again to let her know where she was and that Belle was safe and sound, and then she went to Garrett, to tell him that she’d be at the Widows’ House if he wanted to talk. However, he looped his arm around her and started inside, following along behind Sophie and his mom. After she made sure everyone was okay, Nicky would say goodbye in an effort to give them some privacy to deal with this.
“Thank you for finding her,” he said.
“I just happened to see her when I got back to Z.T.’s. She was on the ranch trail that runs by the house. Is Clay inside?”
Garrett shook his head. “He went back to the station. He thought maybe it’d be best to delay questioning my mother until morning.”
It would be. Especially since Clay had mentioned needing to fingerprint Belle to see if she was a match to a partial print that had been on the gas receipt.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
He looked at her, closing the front door behind them once they were all in the foyer. “I don’t like my mother going through this.”
“I meant because of Meredith.”
Garrett’s eyebrow lifted. “Actually, I didn’t even think of her. I was more worried about how this would affect my mother. And you.”
Nicky might not have believed that if he hadn’t kissed her. Well, it wasn’t really a kiss. More like a peck, but it was enough to convince her that this hadn’t brought back the bad memories as Belle and she had feared.
“Why don’t you wait for me in my office? I can get my mom settled,” he said. “And then we can talk.” But he didn’t move. Garrett just stood there, looking at her. “I’ve thought about your offer, and yes, I want to have sex with you.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
GARRETT WAS SOMEWHAT out of practice when it came to romance, but he was pretty sure what he’d said to Nicky had been a major bust. Yes, she’d offered him sex, and they’d carried through on that.
More or less.
But he’d wanted more. Lots more. In hindsight though, he could have tweaked the way he accepted her offer. Tweaked the timing, too, because it had clearly stunned Nicky. When he’d walked away from her, her mouth had been open, her forehead bunched up, and she’d looked as if someone had just shot her with a Taser.
Definitely not the reaction he’d wanted.
Garrett had wanted a dreamy look in her eyes. Maybe even for her to return the kiss with a little body-to-body contact, but he’d obviously sprung this on her the wrong way. To Nicky this probably seemed like some kind of knee-jerk reaction. After all, he’d just learned the dead guy’s niece thought his mother had been having an affair with him.
It wasn’t true.
Garrett had no doubts about that.
And no, he didn’t feel that way just because he thought his mother incapable of something like that or because she was totally devoted to his father. His father had been a jerk, and his mother was human. But if she’d decided to have an affair, it wouldn’t have been in Z.T.’s place. The spiders and dust alone would have put her off that notion. No, there was something else going on with the dead guy, but Garrett knew he wouldn’t get any answers about that from his mom.
“Drink,” he told his mother, and he handed her the glass of whiskey.
He’d flavored it with enough honey to make it go down easier, but she still made a face when she drank it. Garrett immediately fixed her another one. He didn’t want her drunk, but he did want her relaxed enough so she could go to sleep. And, no, he didn’t want that solely so he could go and see Nicky. His mother needed to get some rest, and maybe in the morning she’d have a better perspective on this.
“Those busybodies from the Garden Club are probably stitching a scarlet letter for me right now,” Belle said. She had vacillated between what people were thinking and doing to what she wanted to be doing.
And what she wanted was to confront Candy and her aunt.
Then confront anyone who’d known Matilda.
Then hire Vita to talk to the spirits and sort this all out.
Garrett was positive that Vita was not the way to go. Neither was a visit to Felix’s wife. Their best course of action was to let Clay do his job.
If his mother’s fingerprint matched the one on the receipt, then things were going to get even more complicated. That still wouldn’t mean she’d had an affair with the man, but she could be covering for someone. Or hell, maybe she’d just touched the receipt and the touching had nothing to do with anything else. But it might not look that way to Clay. Belle was his soon-to-be mother-in-law, but as chief of police, he still had to do his job.
Sophie helped their mother into bed, fluffing up the pillows behind her neck and back. His sister looked ready for Belle to nod off, too, but then they’d been at this for what felt like six years. It’d only been a couple of hours, but his mother had a way of stopping time.
“I don’t want this to spoil the widows’ dinner,” Belle went on. She turned to Garrett. “Make sure Nicky doesn’t try to cancel.”
He was hoping that canceling was exactly what she had in mind. No way did Nicky, Sophie or he want to sit through a dinner where his mother was a juicy morsel of gossip.
“Drink,” Garrett reminded her, and with some wincing and face making, his mother finished off the second whiskey.
&
nbsp; “I also don’t want this to affect either of you,” Belle went on. “Sophie, you should go through with your wedding plans as if nothing happened. Because nothing has. And Garrett, you should keep on seeing Nicky. She was all torn up about this. I could tell.”
Hell. His timing had sucked even more than he’d realized. Of course, this would affect her.
“Oh, the poor thing,” his mother went on. “I could just see it on Nicky’s face. I’m sure this made her think about her own husband cheating on her.”
Garrett was about to get another wave of feeling like shit, but then something hit him. “How’d you know Nicky’s husband had cheated on her?”
“Meredith,” his mother said on a sigh. “She called a while back. I’m sure she’s still trying to get in your pants, by the way. My advice is to keep your zipper shut tight around her. Woo.” She touched her fingers to her head. “Boy howdy, I’m sure feeling those drinks now.”
“Uh, how would Meredith have known about Nicky’s husband?” Sophie asked.
Belle shrugged. But Garrett knew the answer. She almost certainly got it from pillow talk with Kyle.
“Meredith thought because Garrett and Nicky have similar histories, that it would draw Garrett to Nicky,” Belle went on. “Meredith didn’t want Nicky to be hurt again.”
Wrong. She didn’t give a rat’s ass about Nicky being hurt. She only wanted to drive a wedge between Nicky and him. Well, it wouldn’t work.
Except tonight there was a different wedge.
Garrett didn’t doubt that his mother had truly seen an upset look in Nicky’s eyes, and he certainly hadn’t improved things with her. He needed to fix that. And ask her about that date.
“Go ahead,” Sophie said to him. “I’ll stay with Mom until she falls asleep.”
Garrett hadn’t said a word about seeing Nicky, but his sister wasn’t stupid. She must have known what was going on. He thanked her, kissed his mother on the cheek and went to his office. He threw open the door, expecting Nicky to be there.
She wasn’t.
But there was a note on the center of his desk. “I went back to Z.T.’s to put Kaylee to bed. Come over if you’re feeling up to it. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Well, at least she didn’t sound upset. In fact, the note sounded almost casual. Definitely no teardrop stains or any signs that she was troubled by what had gone on.
And then he looked in the trash can.
There were at least a dozen pieces of notepaper, all crumpled up into tight little balls. He unwadded one of them and saw a different version of the note that Nicky had left for him.
“I had to go. Needed some time to—”
That was it. Garrett took out the others, opening each of them, and it showed him the pattern of a woman who was tied up in just as many knots as he was.
Are you sure about what you said?
You probably need some alone time...
Did I really offer you sex? LOL. In hindsight, that was way too forward...
Hugs for the mess with your mother. I’m here if you need me.
And the final one: “Garrett,”
Nothing followed his name but that comma which meant she’d intended to say something but had changed her mind. Obviously, Nicky wasn’t feeling as casual as she sounded in the message she actually left on his desk.
Garrett considered just texting her to let her know he’d see her tomorrow. But he dismissed it just as quickly. He started for the door and purposely didn’t grab a condom from his desk drawer. Condoms he’d bought on his business trip. Having one of those in his pocket would be just too much temptation, considering Nicky definitely wasn’t convinced that sex was the way to go. Yes, she’d been the one to offer sex, but those discarded notes he’d found told him that she might be having second thoughts about that.
Since it was dark and starting to rain, Garrett took his truck rather than walk, but he turned off his headlights as he approached the house. No need to announce to all the widows he was there even though he was dead certain that someone would see him and gossip about it. That was another reason to make this visit short and sweet. Of course, then the gossip would be speculation that he had “premature” issues.
He parked behind the line of vehicles and made his way to the front door. Locked. A surprise since it was barely 9:00 p.m., but then the women probably did that automatically since most were used to living in the city. He went to the back door, found that it was locked, too, and was about to text Nicky when the door flew open.
And there she was.
“I saw you drive up,” she said in a whisper, and she stepped back so he could come inside.
“Is everyone already in bed?” he asked.
“Either that or in their rooms. All but Lady, who’s on a date. You got my note,” she added.
He didn’t mention that he’d read all of them. Instead, he nodded. He also put his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t be tempted to touch her. She certainly looked good enough to touch in her pale yellow pj’s. He’d never considered pj’s to be especially hot, but they were on her.
“I can’t stay,” he said right off. What he meant, though, was that he wouldn’t stay. “Mom told me you got upset, that the cheating brought up bad memories for you. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have said to you what I did. And I’d like for us to go to a movie or something.”
Garrett winced. He should have put some pauses in there and not run all of that together. He sounded like a fumbling teenager.
“I was upset because I thought the reminder of cheating would upset you,” she said.
He looked at her to make sure this wasn’t another attempt like the discarded notes, something she was saying to try to make him feel better. But while he was looking, Nicky clarified things for him.
She hooked her fingers over his belt buckle, pulled him closer and kissed him.
All right. That was pretty clear.
And Garrett took things from there. He snapped her to him and kissed her right back.
Garrett knew he wasn’t thinking straight right now. One kiss from Nicky could do that to him. But he really hoped this wasn’t some kind of extreme reaction to the crappy day they’d had.
He pulled back, just to give her a chance to stop, but she still had her hand on his rodeo buckle and used that to yank him right back to her. All in all, it wasn’t a bad place to be.
Until he remembered he hadn’t brought that condom with him.
Clearly, he wouldn’t qualify for the Boy Scouts since he was never prepared when it came to Nicky.
Garrett tried to tell her about the condom problem, but it was hard to talk with the tongue play that was going on. The moving, too. At first Garrett thought Nicky was responsible for that, but then he realized he was the one doing it. He inched her away from the door and out of the kitchen.
He suddenly got a jolt of déjà vu. On the night he’d taken Nicky’s virginity, the kissing had started in the kitchen, and they’d kissed their way to the library. Exactly what they were doing now. The difference was back then they were young and stupid, and he’d had a condom.
Nicky broke the kiss when they made it to the foyer and the stairs, and she glanced around again, as if making sure they didn’t have an audience. There wasn’t anyone that he could see, but Garrett’s vision was a little blurred thanks to the way Nicky kept brushing her body against his.
Since the kissing and body touching were driving him crazy and slowing them down, Garrett scooped her up. Just to cool things down, he considered taking her upstairs to her bedroom, but he wasn’t sure if Kaylee was asleep in that same room. So, he let his homing-pigeon senses lead him to the library. The moment he stood Nicky on the floor, she shut the door, locked it and hauled him right back to her.
She wasn’t giving him any time to think. No tim
e for her to think, either. And he wanted to do something to make sure she had thought about this and that it was the right thing for her to do. Then, his hand landed on her butt, and he forgot all about the need to think. Hell, he forgot how to breathe.
Garrett just went with it. He kissed her the way he’d been dreaming of kissing her. Long, slow and deep. Actually, that was the way he’d been dreaming of having sex with her, too, and with that reminder every part of his body started getting ready to fulfill that dream.
Except it couldn’t happen.
“No condom,” he said.
“I have one.” She patted the pocket on her pajama top. “I got it from Lady’s room.”
He’d never wanted to kiss the nympho tow truck owner, but Garrett would have had she been there. Then, he would have promptly told her to get lost because it was time for him to do something that he hoped Nicky didn’t regret when she came to her senses.
The lights were off, and he kept it that way. Even though he would have loved to see her naked, he didn’t want to risk the scar playing into this. Didn’t want to risk any old memories of the pain she’d had on that chaise, either. That didn’t leave many options. A desk, a spindly-looking chair, the floor or the wall.
He chose the floor.
Still kissing her, Garrett dragged her down, and the foreplay went into serious overdrive. Her hands were all over the place while she tried to unbutton his shirt and unzip him. She bumped into his hands, nearly kneed him in the groin, all the while continuing the kisses.
As she’d done in his truck, her mouth went to his neck, and he would have enjoyed it a whole lot more if she hadn’t been fumbling with his zipper. Plain and simple, she was awful at that, and rather than risk things ending by accidental hand job, Garrett turned her on her back, pinning both her hands so that he could shove up her top.
She wasn’t wearing a bra, but since he felt her tense a little, he kept her breasts covered. For the most part anyway. He did do a tongue flick on one of her nipples before he kissed her stomach and shimmied down her pajama bottoms and panties. He had to let go of her hands to finish that, but she was apparently done with the fumbling because she was reacting to the stomach kisses.
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