by Tonya Kappes
“Just to clarify…” I started to say before he put his finger up to my lips to shut me up.
“We are going to hang out like we did. I’ll not even bring up marriage, but I do have to say my feelings have never changed for you since you turned me down.” He took his finger from my mouth. “To clarify for you, Lucy was just company. There was no sort of hanky-panky at all.”
“Was that on your end or hers?” I had to know.
“I just told you that I’ve never changed my feelings for you these past couple of months. I’m not going to say she’d didn’t want more or allude to anything more, but I kept her at arm’s length.” Mac had never, ever lied to me as far as I knew. Even with him knowing Richard’s secret all these years, which I never had asked about until I’d found out. Then he never lied to any of my questions. He might not have offered up any information, but that was not lying.
Still, the thought that Lucy Drake could somehow turn this whole situation around really bugged me.
“What about that piece of hummingbird cake?” He rubbed his belly.
“Alright.” I gestured my head toward my end of the street and waited for him to walk out of his gate to meet me, Buster, and Rowena.
“Hey girl.” He bent down and picked up the orange tabby. She purred in delight. She was such a flirt and loved him; well, she had a hankering for any man in general. But she always had the loudest purr for Mac.
“I have to know.” I gnawed on my bottom lip and hoped the night darkness didn’t give away my nervous facial features. “Why did Lucy take off?”
“She got a text that Simon Little’s autopsy came back that he’d overdosed, and he’d left a letter, stating something about this disease and being unable to live with it.” He carried Rowena all the way down the street and stopped briefly to fix the For Rent sign on the fence of the house next to mine.
It was his rental property, but it was kinda nice not having someone live next door. I guess living on the farm all those years had really settled into my soul, and it wasn’t something I’d thought about when I moved. I loved the convenience of living so close to everything, especially work, but I never in a million years thought I’d have to keep my blinds closed practically half the day.
Mac’s voice was a low hum in my head while he told me about what Lucy’s text had said and how she was going to get a jump on the story because she wanted big-time fame. But why would she think this would give her fame?
The questions began to formulate in my head. Mac’s voice was completely muted as my thoughts took over.
Had Simon Little really killed himself? He sure didn’t act like he was going to do that when I saw him in the doctor’s office. Then there was the certified letter. Is he the one who broke in to the post office? Did Angela Hafley get the security camera footage because the cameras around the building were never turned off?
Maybe Simon did break in to the post office, but why would he overdose when he had no idea what the patent said? Honestly, this didn’t make sense to me.
“Don’t you think?” Mac asked.
“Mmhhmmm.” I looked over at him, smiled, and agreed to whatever it was he’d said.
“Me too. Great idea. What about that cake?” He took a little giddyup over to my gate and opened it up for me and Buster. I let Buster off the leash and let him run around the yard.
Rowena was happiest inside where she liked to sit on the back of the chair in the front room and look out the window.
“You looked deep in thought out there.” Mac had always been good at reading my body language. “I’ve seen that look before, and I know you weren’t listening to me when you agreed to what I’d said because I said how about we knock your house and my rental down to build a big house so you and I could get married and have ten kids.”
“Oh.” My eyes grew wide. “You said that?”
“Yep.” His brows rose, and his forehead creased. “So, why don’t you sit down while I cut us a couple of big pieces of cake with some milk, and you tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”
This was exactly where me and Mac collided when it came to our differences in lifestyle. And this was the exact place I needed to tell him how I wasn’t going to change.
“You aren’t going to like this.” I eased down at my kitchen table and folded my hands, resting them on top.
He worked around the kitchen to get the plates, forks, and drinking glasses ready for our special we-are-kinda-back-together treat. I’m not sure how much longer we’d be celebrating us after I told him about the investigation in my head. We’d been down this road a couple of times. That road was bumpy with a few potholes. Did he really want to do this again?
“Simon Little.” His monotone laced response told me he already knew but wanted me to confirm. “Lucy told me how you were at the scene and was the one to call 911 when she heard it on the scanner, so I knew you’d already gotten involved. I think I’m safe to assume you don’t think Simon did this to himself.”
He poured the glasses of milk and put them on the table.
“Right.” I kept a close eye on Mac’s body language because in the past he had been dead set against me even thinking about snooping. That was another big issue we had.
“What are you thinking?” He calmly set the two plates on the table, handing me a fork, before sitting down. Instead of giving me the disapproving look he’d done before, he stuck his fork in the cake and scooped up a big bite.
“This is scaring me.” I knew from this point forward I had to be up-front and honest since I was the one who had actually kept a few secrets from him.
“What?” He shrugged. “How I’m totally enjoying this cake?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” I narrowed my eyes. “The last time you tried to really accept my gift for sleuthing…”
His head flew back as a burst of laughter escaped him.
“See. You don’t take me seriously.” I didn’t even want to take a bite of cake. I folded my arms across my chest.
“I am taking you seriously. You said you had a gift for sleuthing, and it tickled me. You’re cute.” His little grin made my heart swoop up into my throat. “I like how you say it’s a gift when you actually snoop around, collect clues, and try to put it together like a puzzle. That’s all.” He raked the edge of his fork along some of the icing that’d fallen from the cake. “Go on. I’m listening.”
“I had a certified letter to Simon. When I tried to deliver it after it’d been stuck in my mailbag on accident, Nick wasn’t too pleased when he’d noticed it was from the United States Patent Office.”
Mac looked at me intently. There was some interest in his eyes.
I continued, “Later that day, I saw Simon at the doctor’s office, and that’s when he told me about Dupuytren’s contracture.” I held my hands in the air to show him what Simon’s fingers looked like and briefly described what the disease was about and how it had affected Simon’s ability to work on any car. “That’s when he told me the letter was about the patent he’d filed online for this special motorcycle bike part that would generate him a lot of money so he could afford the surgery and not take money from his parents.”
“You gave him the letter.” Mac took a drink of his milk.
“No. The letter was at my house under that front entrance table, long story.” I decided it wasn’t worth going into detail how Buster had gotten it out when sniffing out the to-go box from Wallflower Diner. “I told him I’d give it to Gerome to be delivered the next day. Which was today. But I still had the letter at home, and the person who broke in to the post office only went through my locker and my bag.”
“Which meant someone wanted the letter. Possibly Simon if he was so desperate to see what the letter said. If he was in pain as you said he was, he had a prescription for the pain. Those were probably the pills Lucy said the autopsy indicated he overdosed with.” Mac had started to catch on to my little theory a little too eagerly, which made me suspicious.
Why
was he all of a sudden really into the whole sleuthing thing?
“Or Nick Kirby wanted to see what was in the letter, and he broke in to the post office to get it before or maybe after he killed Simon. Nick had approached him about the patent after Nick thought Simon was going to file it under both their names and even their company name.” It was a good theory to test on Mac and see if he was really on board with me continuing to be who I was going to be.
The possibilities ran through my head, and I was feeling pretty good about how far my sleuthing skills had come.
Then I realized Mac was silent.
“What?” I asked him. “You are looking at me funny. And it’s not the same look you gave me in the past when you told me how you didn’t want me to look into things.”
“I also have been without you a few months, and I have to say that I miss that quirky side of you.” There was sincerity in his voice and in his body language. He reached across the table and took the fork out of my hands, clasping his hands over mine. “I told myself this morning when I tried to talk to you at my office that if I ever got a chance to be with you again, like really be with you, that I had to embrace the strong woman you are.”
A lump started to form in my throat.
“You’ve been through so much and practically raised Grady on your own.” I knew he’d recognized how much Richard was “away on business” and how alone I really was. “You have fought through so many battles, that when we decided to be an us last year”—he squeezed my hands—“I wanted to take care of you. I wanted you to have everything you’ve always wanted, and I wanted to give that to you. But as we went on, I noticed how you thought I was changing you, and you were right.” He shrugged. “I don’t want to see anything happen to you if you do get in a killer’s way, but I also know that you are strong, smart, and you can handle yourself without any help from this guy.”
“Are you telling me that you really are okay with all this?” I slipped my hands out from underneath his, and my finger circled my body. “And all of this.” I patted my stomach. “Because my body is going through a whole lot right now, which means I’m not going to try to force myself to contort into those crazy yoga poses to look like you-know-who.”
I wasn’t going to say her name.
“She never appealed to me. You have to know that deep down.” He stood up and walked over to my chair. He bent down in front of me. “Now. I’ve been waiting for months. Can we seal the deal?”
“You do know that this is a binding deal once it’s sealed,” I warned with a teasing grin.
“This is the best deal I’ve ever made.” He leaned in, making good on his promise.
Chapter 10
The following morning, I awoke on cloud 9. Nothing was going to change the mood I was in.
At least, when I planted my feet on the floor, and even when I poured myself into those yoga pants that would fit Clara, I thought the day was going to be great.
“Did she call to say yoga was cancelled?” Iris had her nose pressed up against the Tranquility Spa door; the condensation from her breath appeared then disappeared. She shoved her rolled-up yoga mat in my arms. “Here. I’m going to go look around back.”
Iris left me right in time for Lucy Drake to show up. You guessed it. Fancy yoga outfit and all, looking good, but she wasn’t going to dampen my mood. I certainly wasn’t going to tell her about me and Mac. She’d find out when she saw us out and about or maybe Mac would tell her.
Regardless, I could see now how silly I’d been, and I blamed any out of character moments on my crazy hormones. In fact, I was having my own personal summer at that moment.
“What’s going on?” Lucy tugged on the door of the spa. She knocked. “Did you knock?”
“Of course, I knocked.” I wanted so bad to just let myself bask in my happiness about me and Mac. I wanted to blurt out how we are back together, and I might even have thought about spending my life with him. Legally. But I didn’t. “Iris went around back to see if the back door was open.”
I knew all the buildings had back doors, but I never knew if anyone used them. My parents had boarded up the back entrance of the diner years ago.
“I’m calling her.” Lucy pulled her cell phone from the waistband of her yoga pants and tapped the phone. Her long nails clicked along the screen before she put it up to her ear. “Peaches, honey, are we having yoga this morning?”
Her question was followed up with a lot of mmhmmm, alright, I see, and ummms. All of them drawn out in her Southern tone she liked to hum on the radio.
“Okay. I’ll tell Bernadette and Iris.” Lucy slid her glance over to the side of the building when we heard Iris coming back around. “Umkay,” she said, then hung up the phone, sticking it back in her yoga pants.
“No class today, but she wants to talk to Bernadette.” Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “I wonder if this has anything to do with Simon Little’s murder.”
“Murder?” Iris rolled her eyes. “Bernie found him. He wasn’t murdered.”
“I know Bernie found him. I tried to get her to talk to me about it, but her lips buttoned up tighter than the collar on Preacher Don’s shirt. But I’m willing to listen now that we don’t have yoga.” She put a hand on her hips and shifted her weight.
“Puhleeze.” Iris flipped her head. “Bernie has too much to do besides gossip about what’s going on.” She took her yoga mat from me. “Which means, not having yoga is good, so you can get on your mail carrier route quicker.”
“I… a… I…” Lucy Drake finally closed her mouth after she stammered to talk. She rolled back her shoulders and looked down her nose at me. “If you do decide to change your mind about talking to me about what you found yesterday morning, I’m more than willing to talk.”
She twisted around and walked down the sidewalk.
“I can’t believe you told her all that about Mac.” I let out a long sigh, catching out of the corner of my eye the lights inside of Tranquility Spa coming on. “And ‘my special surprise’?” My head tilted, and my brows rose. “You were taking it a bit too far with that big lie.”
“Who said I’m lying?” She had a faint grin that told me she knew something, and she knew I hated secrets or surprises.
“You better tell me right now if something is going on,” I demanded to know, only to be interrupted by Peaches, who popped open the door.
“Get in here.” Her head took a quick look to the left and right before she opened the door fully for us to walk in. “I’ve got a problem.”
“You look like you’ve got a problem.” Iris really should keep her thoughts to herself, even though she was right.
Peaches’s usual sunny disposition was drained from her face. I saw a bead of sweat gathered at her temple, which appeared to have its own little pulse today.
“Oh gosh.” Iris had furrowed brows, and her eyes were full of concern. “This calls for something sweet.” She gently touched Peaches’s arm and headed back toward the door. “I’ll be right back.”
Peaches burst into tears as soon as the door closed.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” I asked the young woman who appeared to be having a meltdown.
“I didn’t know who to turn to.” Her chest did that quick heaving up and down as she tried to get her breath. “I think the sheriff thinks I killed Simon.”
“Why on earth do you think that?” Was Lucy right? Was I right? Dang, I was getting really good at this sleuthing.
“Well, the package I asked you to take back.” She nodded and reached behind her on the counter to get a tissue from the box.
“The return to sender one.” Inwardly, I groaned when I realized I’d forgotten to pick it up.
“Yeah. Well, I couldn’t bear to let it sit here. Taunting me to open it. You know?” she asked, but really it was more of a statement than a question. I continued to nod and ignored Iris when she hurried back in with a cake box in her hand. “So, I took it to the post office and gave it to Monica.”
“What did I miss
?” Iris asked and took out her specialty sweet potato coffee cake.
My eyes swelled up and so did my pant size just looking at it. I tried to focus on Peaches, but my mouth watered at the sight and smell of the big piece of coffee cake Iris had put in front of me.
The drizzle of caramel icing on top looked like little rivers of brown sugar that oozed down the side.
“I really shouldn’t.” Peaches looked at the big piece of coffee cake. “I really have to watch what I eat, or I blow up like a big balloon.”
“Really, you should.” Iris pushed the plate closer across the counter to Peaches. “Especially if you’re going to the big house because all you’re going to get in there is tapioca pudding, and it’s fake.”
“Iris.” I gasped, my mouth flying open.
“I’m teasing her.” Iris snorted. “But really, you should.”
Peaches found a glimmer of a smile under her tears, and after the first bite, her tears dried up. It was a good time for us to eat our cake and let what Peaches was saying sink in.
“So, when Angela found the package from me at the scene, she came over to my house last night and asked me why I’d returned the package.” She wiped her finger across the plate to scoop up the excess caramel icing before licking it off.
“Why would she think you did it?” I questioned, then added, “Unless you broke in to the post office and got it back.”
“I did go back to the post office after I’d thought about what on earth could be inside of the package he sent because my mind started to get the better of me. So, I started drinking my bourbon.” Peaches’s story was getting worse by the minute. “But I didn’t go to the gas station. At least, I don’t think I did.”
“Did you get into the post office?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember. All I know is that I was drinking, and I woke up in the post office parking lot when Nick found me this morning.” Peaches blinked a few times and looked away with a shameful face. “Of course, when Angela Hafley contacted him, he told her about my relationship with Simon and how on edge it’s been the last couple of weeks.”