“That paints Nessa out to be the worst kind of monster. She’s basically the Don of the preppy mob.”
“Basically. So you can see where Blythe’s pretty little hands were tied. And she didn’t like it one bit.”
My mind whirls and twirls in every direction at once as Meg has us stand feet apart and touch one hand to the ground, the other to the ceiling.
I grunt to Vivian without meaning to. “So what exactly was Blythe’s role in the Sunday brunch?” I bet that will clear things right up.
“More like non-role. Landon and I had to Blythe sit. We took her to Echelon the night before to get her good and snockered, but Blythe doesn’t drink so there was no way to chemically numb the pain for her. She was livid. We took her to my place because it was furthest from the nest.” She waves it off. “Nessa liked to rent a bungalow outside of the Bismarck.”
The Bismarck Hotel is Vermont’s version of Chateau Marmont. About a million years ago, Hollywood’s elite would escape the big city lights and hang out among the maples while catching a little respite. So, they built a fancy hotel right here in Fallbrook.
What would she do with these men in a hotel?
“Oh my God,” I belt it out just as Meg announces that class is over. Nessa was far beyond power-hungry—she was boyfriend hungry, too. She wasn’t taking them to Sunday brunch—they were Sunday brunch! I’ve never said this before, but Nessa really had it coming.
Viv jumps to an upright position and rolls up her mat like a seasoned pro. “I guess I’ll see you both at the masquerade ball.”
“For sure,” I say as a panic brews in me at the thought of losing Vivian so soon. “Can I ask if Blythe and Nessa ever got along?”
Her thin lips curl at the tips. “Let’s just say that Blythe was the only one in our circle who was an exception to the rule.”
“Exception to what rule?”
“She didn’t have to pretend to like Nessa. Ryan would have ditched our circle, but Clay wouldn’t have it. Blythe hated her with a passion.” Her expression grows sour. “And now Nessa is dead.” She gives a fluttery-fingered wave. “Ta-ta for now!”
Vivian takes off, and Meg comes over wiping her face down with a hand towel.
“How’d it go? Is Viv your killer?”
I glance to Keelie as she struggles with our shedding mats.
“I don’t know, but I think I have to talk to Blythe.”
“Blythe? Sounds like the name of a mental institution where they ship you off and throw away the key,” my sister quips back.
“It does not. Blythe is totally sane, by the way. She’s the only one who hated Sunday brunch. I have a feeling she’ll be my favorite inmate of the Nessa St. James asylum.”
My phone chirps, and I pull it out.
“It’s a text from Everett.”
Both Meg and Keelie hover over the screen.
I think it’s time we talk.
Keelie inches back as if my phone morphed into a viper. “That sounds ominous.”
Meg is quick to blow it off. “Knowing that hot freak, it’s code for something sexual.”
But I agree with Keelie, and my stomach bottoms out at what this might mean.
Chapter 15
Jenson Becker stopped by the bakery while I was away on my mind and body-bending excursion and dropped off a paper bag full of Nessa’s sketches. Once I closed the shop that evening, I took my loot and headed straight home.
I texted Everett as soon as I received that ominous message this afternoon, and he said he would meet me back at the proverbial ranch. The sun has just set, and there’s still an ethereal glow over all of Country Cottage Lane. The spring air is warm, pulling the perfume right out of the night-blooming jasmine that lines the houses along the street, and the sweet, heady scent intoxicates me.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled up to my country chic home with its wraparound porch was the peachy glow emanating from inside and the fact the lights seemed to be flickering. I head up the walkway and note a familiar looking specter reclining in the rocker just outside my door.
“It’s about time you got here.” Max slaps his knee and jumps to his ghostly feet.
I’m about to say something when a female voice garbles out something from inside the house, and just as my curiosity hits its zenith, Greer Giles steps right through the wall and lands on the porch between Max and me.
“Oh, Lottie, just wait until you see what’s going on inside!” She’s got her slick dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, and she’s donned the familiar white ruched dress she was shot in, complete with a crimson stain over her chest and I’m assuming over her back as well.
“What is going on inside?” I let myself in to find the room lit warmly with candles on every free surface, pink rose petals are strewn around the floor, the fireplace is going, and there are at least two dozen long-stem blood red roses sitting on the dining room table in a gorgeous cut crystal vase. But the most staggering visual of all is what I find on the sofa—Everett and Noah seated at opposite ends of it, each with a beer in their hands. They hop to their feet as soon as they spot me.
Everett is still wearing his suit—most of it. His jacket is off, his sleeves are rolled up, and his tie is hastily loosened and it gives off that deconstructed prom vibe that all women seem to be such suckers for, me included. Noah’s gun is still strapped to his back, no jacket to hide it, and he, too, looks as if he stepped out of the station and into my living room.
“Am I interrupting something?” I ask as I land Nessa’s bag of sketches on the table. “Perhaps the most elaborate and frighteningly romantic former stepbrother reconciliation?”
Noah scowls, and his dimples press in. “He wishes. I thought you had an intruder, so I came over to make an arrest. I should have shot on sight.”
Everett lands his beer bottle on a coaster before heading my way and wrapping his arms around me, landing his warm lips over mine. He pulls back a notch, and if I didn’t know better, those day-glow blue peepers are smiling at me.
“See?” Greer screeches. “I told you so! Isn’t it something?”
“Hey?” Everett glances around. “Has she been here the entire time?”
Before I can answer, Pancake and Waffles come out in a processional as rose petals rise around them in their wake.
Noah picks up Waffles. “Shows what you know. These are boys. My boys.” Noah presses a kiss over Waffles’ forehead, and it warms my heart to no end. My cats are akin to my children, and I love how both Noah and Everett treat them as their own.
Both Everett and I know that he meant Greer. I suppose with his arms wrapped around me, he can still hear the dead.
“Both Max and Greer are present,” I whisper to Everett and wince as if I were unsure. “Is this the right time?” I say it lower than a whisper as I glance to Noah. I did tell Noah that I would tell him my secret as soon as the three of us were alone.
He glances back to Noah and shoots him the death rays as if he’d like to add another spook to the list.
“If that’s what you want, Lemon. I fully support you.”
Noah perks up. “What’s this? Have I inadvertently stumbled upon a breakup party?” Noah lifts a brow my way. “Say it’s so, Lottie. I’ll move us both to the north end of town and buy us a big house. We can forget all about this error in judgment.”
A deep rumble emits from Everett. “I wouldn’t question her judgment if I were you. But then, we make different moves. That’s why my arms are around her, and you’re holding a couple of boys.” He blinks a dry smile. “And a big house, huh? I suppose you’ll need it to store your surplus of women.”
“Oh stop, you two,” I say, taking Everett by the hand and leading him back to the sofa. “Noah, this isn’t how I envisioned this conversation happening, not with the candles and flowers and those roses, my God.” I turn to Everett and give his tie a tug my way. “Thank you. This is exceptionally beautiful,” I whisper. “This will just take a minute.” I nudge my head toward Noah.
<
br /> Noah steps over and lands on the ottoman between Everett and me.
“What is it, Lot?” He looks resigned to the fact he’s crashing a very private party. “What will just take a minute?”
Just hearing him repeat my words guts me.
Greer pops up next to him. Half her body is through the floorboards, and it’s an unnerving sight. “Oh, Lottie, he looks heartbroken.”
Max takes a seat on the coffee table—typically a strictly verboten move, but considering he’s missing a corporal form, I’m pretty sure the damage will be minimal.
“Listen, Lottie”—Max leans in just as I thread my fingers with Everett’s so he can listen in on the conversation—“I think you should take it easy on the poor guy. I was here before you came home, and they may not have been having any kind of a reconciliation, but Noah poured his heart out to Everett. This guy is in deep, and it’s a bottomless pit where he can’t stop falling—falling for you, Lottie. Those were his words.”
Everett expels a hard breath as if he couldn’t contest the conversation.
“Oh, Noah”—his name comes out more of a whimper—“I don’t know what to say.”
His eyes trace out my hand conjoined with Everett’s. “That’s okay. I think I’m getting the picture.” He starts to rise from his seat.
“No, no”—I push him back down—“I think this is a good time to have the talk.”
“The talk?” Noah lifts his head as he looks from Everett to me. “What talk?”
“The birds and the bees,” Everett grumbles. “We’ll demonstrate for you.” He shakes his head. “Lemon’s secret. What else would it be?”
Noah’s eyes enlarge the size of golf balls. “Really?” He jerks forward as if he were about to have the framework for the universe laid out for him.
“Really?” both Greer and Max chime in unison.
“Yes, really,” I say, looking to the two of them.
Greer moans out her disapproval, “Lottie, think about this. Once you reveal your big fat secret, who knows where this will lead?”
“It won’t lead anywhere,” I whisper to her, and Noah shifts his torso over a notch as if he had fallen out of my line of vision.
“Okay”—he blinks into the thought—“so it won’t lead anywhere. Lottie, you have to know your secret is safe with me.”
Max chortles out a laugh. “Until he can use it against you.”
“He’s not using it against me,” I say incredulously to the saucy specter.
Noah glances to Everett, confused. “Is this a part of it? She’s doing it again, isn’t she?”
My fingers fly to my lips. “Yes.” I swallow hard. “I’m doing it again.”
Greer shakes her head wildly at me and pretends to slit her throat. “Do not tell him tonight. You need to have an entire evening free to answer questions, to be with him. You can’t just kick him out on his ear so you and the judge can fornicate freely—romantic as it might be.” She swoons as she looks around at candles and the flowers.
I suck in a quick breath. “She’s right.” I look to Everett and close my eyes a very long time. “You’ve done so much, and I was about to ruin all of your effort.”
“You didn’t ruin anything.” Everett swipes his beer up and points the tip toward Noah. “He did.”
“Noah, I’m sorry, but I’ve changed my mind. I think I should have—”
“The night with Everett.” He leans back and folds his arms across his chest defiantly.
“No, that’s not what I was going to say. I think we need more time. We should do this here, but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow after work we can all meet here again?”
Everett flexes a dry smile his way. “It’s your date. That means you bring the candles.”
“Not happening.” Noah leans in once again. “Tell me tonight. I’ve waited months to know the answer to this puzzle, and it’s been killing me. Everett can wait another five minutes.”
“It’s not going to take five minutes, Noah.” My voice tenses just the way his did. “I can’t just leave you alone once you find out. You’ll have questions. We’ll make a night out of it. I’ll get a pizza from Mangia, and I’ll bake your favorite chocolate chip cookies.”
Everett rumbles with the idea of a laugh. “We’ll give you a nice tall glass of milk to enjoy them with and send you to bed.”
Noah shakes his head, his eyes growing darker as if his fury were piquing. “I don’t want pizza or cookies. I just want the truth. I’m a big boy, Lottie. I can handle whatever you tell me. If I have questions, I can save them for another time. Just blurt it out, and I’ll be on my way.”
“It’s not the kind of thing you blurt out.” It comes out louder than I anticipated, and if I were a stranger walking into the room, I’d think I just stepped into a shouting match. “And my secret deserves more time than some soundbite allows. So if you just cooperate with me and let me buy you a pizza and bake you cookies, this will be a heck of a lot easier on us all!”
“Oh yeah?” Noah jumps to his feet, his fury quickly melting away to disappointment. “Well, I’ll just be across the street then, waiting around for the two of you to finish whatever two adults do after they’ve been plied with roses and chocolate.”
I turn to Everett and gasp. “There’s chocolate?”
“Belgian.” He gives a sly wink.
I turn back to Noah. “Way to ruin the surprise.” I toss a pillow at him, and he catches it. A crooked grin comes and goes as he lands the pillow back gently next to Waffles.
“It’s okay that you’re angry with me, Lottie. In a twisted way, it makes me think that you still very much care for me.” He heads to the door. “I’ll be up late if you want to talk.” He leaves with a soft click of the door, and both Max and Greer give a sorrowful moan.
Everett cranes his neck in their direction. “Where exactly are they, so I can throw a pillow at them?”
I slide over onto his lap and hug his neck. “Why does this have to be so hard?”
Everett lands a careful kiss to my cheek. “I’m sorry this backfired. I should have asked him to leave before you ever got home.”
“This did not backfire.” I pull him in close by his tie and take in his thick spiced cologne. “Everett? Since this is a night embedded with secrets, would you mind telling me yours?”
He buries a half-smile into his cheek and looks cuttingly handsome in the process.
“I will. But first, I want to show you exactly how I feel about you.” His eyes ride over my features, slow and steady, as his lids grow heavy with lust. Everett procures a box of chocolates from the end table behind him and offers me one. I finger a milk chocolate square, and he lands it partially in his mouth and feeds it to me that way.
Everett is a master at just about everything. He knows how to make you feel things on levels that normal people usually don’t experience during their entire tenure on this planet.
Everett lands his mouth over mine, and it’s an explosion of every good thing. He takes me right there before flying us to the bedroom and then he takes me again. And there’s not a single word in the human language to convey the art form that Everett has created just using our bodies.
“You are—wow.” A bubbling laugh bounces from me. “Are you sure you’re human?” I roll over and rake my fingers through his glossy thick hair. “I’m beginning to think your secret revolves around the fact you’re an alien inspecting our planet for a takeover. And, believe me, if they’re all like you, the women of Earth would welcome the invasion.”
A dark chuckle rumbles through him. “That would be a heck of a lot better than what I have to say.” He expels a short breath as a look of sadness takes over his features. “About six years ago, a woman by the name of Harlow James”—his voice breaks when he says her name, and this alarms me—“she was carrying my baby when the car she was driving hit a patch of ice, and it went into a body of water below.” He shakes his head. His stony eyes remain unblinking. “They didn’t make it.”
“Oh my God, Everett.” I pull him close and land a tender kiss over his ear. “I’m so sorry.” I pull back to inspect him. “You loved her.” I shake my head as if it were all coming together.
“I thought I did.” His finger glides over my cheek. “Until I met you.” Everett’s cheek flickers with a dull smile. “The truth is, I didn’t know Harlow that long. We dated, we fooled around, it happened quickly. She let me know that she was late about a week before it happened. And in that short span of a week, I had started to envision a whole different life for myself, one as a husband and father. I was determined to do what I felt was the right thing.”
A ragged breath escapes me. “Oh, Everett. I cannot express how terrible I feel.”
“Don’t. It happened, and that’s what reality presented. I picked up, moved on as best I could, and one day you landed in my courtroom.” He dots his finger over my nose.
Tears stream down my cheeks as I pull his hand to my lips and kiss it.
“In that case, I’ve never been so happy to have been hauled to court.” It was small claims court, and Everett was filling in for the judge that usually runs that courtroom. “I’d like to think that fate had something to do with it.” I press my lips to his for a moment. “But you were hurt, Everett. First with Cormack, and then with this horrible tragedy. It’s no wonder that you’ve spent the interim entertaining girls in your bed, willy-nilly.”
His finger bounces to my chest. “Is that what this is? Willy-nilly?”
“That is definitely not what this is. What this is, Judge Baxter, is—”
His finger presses gently to my lips. “It’s love, Lottie.”
My mouth falls open despite his best efforts to secure otherwise.
“Did you just say my name?”
His lips curl with devilish delight. “I believe I said I love you, and I do. I love you, Lottie Lemon.”
Lethal Lemon Bars: MURDER IN THE MIX 9 Page 13