Isabella doesn’t recognize the voice and asks forcefully, “Who’s this?”
“It’s Don. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Uh, well, No! Of course not!”
She sits up straight and neatens her clothes, as if he’s sitting right there in the room with her. She’s not sure whether to be mad at him for not calling her or beg for his attention.
“Don, why are you calling? I mean, did something happen? Am I in more trouble? I saw the newspapers today and--”
“Isabella, slow down. Take a breath and relax. I just wondered if you had dinner plans. I thought I could introduce you to one of my favorite places; but if you’re busy, then we can do it another time.”
“No! No, I mean Yes! I mean no. I don’t have any dinner plans. I would love to go to dinner.”
“Good, then it’s settled. How about if I pick you up at say 7:00? Will that work?”
“Yes! That’s perfect. What should I wear? Is it casual or should I dress up?”
“Will you dress up for me?”
Now she really is caught speechless. She could say so many things right now but all she can muster is, “Yes, I will.”
“See you then, Isabella. Goodbye.”
“Hey…wait a minute. Don’t you need to know where I live?”
“I already know your address. We detectives have our ways.”
She laughs and says, “Okay. See you soon.” When she hangs up the phone, she notices her hands are shaking. She feels a sense of relief and wonderful anticipation about where Don is going to take her. Everything is different now. The depression has lifted and she’s excited again. Oh my God, I’ve got to get ready! He’ll be here in an hour. Off she goes, spinning like a banshee, moving from her bedroom and the bathroom, putting on her best for him.
*******
At just before seven, her doorbell rings and she peeks outside to see her detective standing in the doorway with a small wrapped box in his hand. She opens the door and says, “It’s so great to see you again. Come in.”
“You look beautiful tonight, Isabella. You’re wearing that dress I like.”
“Thank you. You look very handsome.”
He comes in and offers her the box, while giving her a small peck on the cheek. She acts surprised and asks, “What’s this?”
“It’s my way of saying I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me for how I was the last time we were together.”
“Oh, don’t think anything of it. I understand,” she answers, trying to act like it meant nothing to her.
“Have a seat on the sofa while I unwrap this wonderful present,” she says. “Whatever could it be?”
He tells her, “I really love your house. When was it built?”
“In 1942.” When she opens the present, she’s speechless. He has given her two train tickets on a vintage Pullman sleeper car to San Simeon, where they will be taken to Hearst castle for a behind the scenes’ tour, culminating in a catered gourmet dinner by the castle’s famous Greek pool.
Her face is frozen and she can’t open her mouth.
He asks, “Are you going to say anything?”
“This is so perfect.”
“I know how much you like trains.”
“Will you be coming with me?”
“Of course, silly.”
“This is the best present I’ve ever been given. I absolutely love it!”
“Maybe someday I’ll be able to give you a trip on the Orient Express.”
Isabella lets out a gasp and says, “Just like my bathtub fantasy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you want to come in my bathtub and find out?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
###
The End
Thank you for reading our romance novel, Watchin’ the Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance. If you liked what you read, would you kindly rate our book at your retailer? Thank you.
The sequel to this novel is called Honeymoon in New Orleans. It is available now as an eBook at your favorite on-line bookstores. For an excerpt of the first chapters, please read below:
Chapter One
A handsome man who looks like Don Draper from “Mad Men” and a full-figured redhead are on their way to New Orleans to get married. The lovers, Don and Isabella, are taking the red-eye. Their plane touches down in New Orleans at 4:00 in the morning. There is a light rain falling as the taxi drives to the French Quarter. When they reach “The Quarter”, they love all of the buildings and the way the lights are reflected in the rainy street. There isn’t a tourist to be found, and all of the streets are deserted except for a teenage African-American boy dressed like Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” who is playing a trumpet in the shelter of a doorway on Royal Street.
Don says, “Listen to him. I think he’s playing ‘Stardust’ by Louis Armstrong.”
“How wonderful!” his fiancée says.
They are staying on the outer edge of the French Quarter on Esplanade Avenue at The Lamothe House. It was built by a wealthy sugar cane planter in 1839. It has two Corinthian columns at its entrance and the entire building stands out in the neighborhood because it is painted pink. The taxi drops them off and they ring the doorbell. A night clerk opens the door, looking like he’s just been woken up. The couple immediately falls in love with the hotel, once he lets them inside. The first thing they notice is the wonderful scent of roses from a large vase in the foyer. The clerk leads them to the suite upstairs. Isabella says, “It smells heavenly in here.”
Yes, ma’am,” the clerk says.
Isabella asks, “Does this hotel have ghosts?”
“Why yes, I believe it does,” the night clerk answers. “Some of our guests have reported seeing a woman in red walking the hallways looking for her baby that died.”
“Oh, you don’t believe that. Do you?” Don asks.
“Who am I to say? This is New Orleans and there are many things here that you may find hard to believe,” the night clerk answers.
He shows them to their rooms and tells them, “Watch out for the red woman’s ghost. We haven’t seen her for a while. You never know when she’ll return.”
“So much for catching up on our sleep,” Isabella says.
“You’ll be fine, honey,” the clerk says. “Just be sure to lock your door.”
After he leaves and they are unpacking, Isabella says, “That guy kind of gives me the creeps.”
Don looks out of their upstairs’ window and sees the city starting to wake up. “Come look,” he tells her.
“How beautiful it is here,” she says.
They hear a calliope playing in the distance. “That must be the riverboat. I can’t wait to take a ride on the Creole Queen,” she tells him.
He puts his arm around her and says, “Let’s go to bed.”
Chapter Two
Later that morning, they dress and go to the dining room for breakfast. There are other guests sitting around a large antique table. The concierge introduces herself as Madeline, and tells them the names of the other guests. She tells the other diners, “Don and Isabella are getting married at St. Louis Cathedral this week.”
“Do you have a date set?” the concierge asks Isabella.
“The day after tomorrow.”
“How romantic!” a middle-aged woman with a heavy Southern accent says. “So, how did you two meet?”
Don and Isabella look at each other, wondering which one of them is going to speak first, and Don says, “We met at a murder mystery dinner.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to one of those,” Madeline answers.
Don says, “Well, you probably wouldn’t have wanted to go to the one we were at because someone really did get murdered.”
“You’re kidding?” Madeline says.
“No. I’m dead serious. A man was shot while he was watching the show.”
“Wow!” one of the male diners says.
“How thrilling!” the middle-aged lady says.
; Isabella says, “Don was the investigating detective. The first time he met me, I was one of the diners at the mystery dinner. He interviewed me like I was a suspect.”
Don corrects her, “Now, Isabella. You know that I never thought you had a hand in it. You were a witness.”
“Was it love at first sight?” the Southern lady, who’s clearly attracted to Don, asks Isabella.
She replies, “Are you kidding? Just look at this gorgeous man,” she says, possessively putting her arm around him in his chair. “Would it be anything but ‘love at first sight’?”
“I bet it was!” all of the ladies at the table acknowledge.
Don replies, “And, look at this gorgeous, hot redhead. Would it be anything other than ‘love at first sight’ for me either?”
The men sitting around the table all nod their heads. One of them says to Isabella, “You look a lot like Joan on Mad Men.”
She answers, “I’ve heard that before. In fact, that was the first thing Don ever said to me.”
Don answers, “She definitely stuck out in the crowd. I made a beeline for her first thing, out of a whole room full of people.”
Madeline gushes, “What a romantic story!” She’s temporarily lost in a daydream and then comes back down to earth by saying, “Good grief! Where are my manners? Would you two like some chicory coffee? It’s a long-standing tradition in New Orleans,” she says, clearly back in her concierge role.
“We’d love to try it,” Isabella says.
Madeline pours their coffee and says, “Louisiana began to add chicory root to their coffee during the Civil War when Union blockades cut off the port of New Orleans. Y’all must come back for tea later this afternoon. We’ll be having king cake--a New Orleans tradition. Are y’all familiar with the Feast of the Epiphany?”
Isabella says, “It has something to do with the Wise Men coming to visit the Baby Jesus.”
“Right you are. We think of them as ‘the three kings’.”
One of the diners chimes in, “We don’t have a feast that day. Do you eat a lot of food?”
Madeline says, “We give out presents and have king cake. The cake has a little plastic Baby Jesus inside. And whoever gets the slice with Baby Jesus inside has to provide the king cake next time.”
Don says that New Orleans has some great traditions.
Madeline asks him, “So where are y’all planning to have dinner?”
Isabella says, “We were thinking of going to Brennan’s.”
“Don’t go there--that’s where all of the tourists go,” Madeline says.
“But we are tourists,” Don replies.
“Well, I’m just saying that you can go to the Gumbo Shop and have the same wonderful dishes for half the price.”
“Thank you for the tip,” Don says.
Madeline asks, “What are your plans for today?”
Isabella says, “We are planning to go see Oak Alley.”
“Oh, you’ll just love it. The tunnel of oak trees that lead up to the plantation is a sight you won’t forget.”
Isabella says, “I heard that the tour guides dress up like Scarlett O’Hara—hoop skirts and all.”
“They do dress like that. You will love it,” Madeline says and everyone around the table agrees.
Isabella says, “Well, I guess we better be taking off if we hope to make the tour bus to Oak Alley. It was nice meeting y’all.”
“Bye, everybody,” Don says.
Other Books by Louise Hathaway:
Death among the Stacks: The Body in the Law Library
The Tustin Chronicles: A Detective Santy Mystery
The Murder at the Abbey: A Detective Santy Mystery
Honeymoon in Savannah: A Detective Santy Mystery
The Body on Ortega Highway: A Detective Santy Mystery
England in the Footsteps of its Literary Giants
Chasing My Roots: New World Finally Meets Old World
The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968
The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Ghost in the Plantation: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Stolen Mask: A Nancy Keene Mystery
The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice
I have also written three literary essays:
Nags, Sluts, and a Deep-Breasted Soulmate from the Shining City: Thomas Wolfe’s Women in “The Web and the Rock”
Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
The Oedipus Complex in D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers
Please visit our blog at: http://louisehathaway.blogspot.com
About Louise Hathaway:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lhathaway
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