Sinfully Delicious

by Amanda M. Lee

  For some reason, the words — delivered with equal parts warmth and wonder — caused me to choke up. “Hey.” My voice was raspy, earning a sidelong stare from Hunter. He hadn’t said a word when Sebastian hurriedly crossed over to me. Now he looked sad.

  “It’s so good to see you.” Sebastian had always been the effusive type. That obviously hadn’t changed as he slid his arm around my shoulders and urged me toward the circle of people, one of whom was assembling a bonfire. “This is fortuitous. I was just telling Hunter that I thought we should invite you to our little group. He didn’t think it was a good idea and I was about to give up on it, but here you are.” His grin was infectious and I returned it.

  “Yeah, well, Hunter probably didn’t want me here because my grandfather is a suspect in a murder,” I offered.

  “That’s not true.” Hunter shook his head. “I just wasn’t sure you’d want to hang out with us. I’m guessing the charms of the country are lost on you now.”

  The statement grated. “I can like the country even though I’ve lived in the city.”

  “I didn’t say otherwise.”

  “That’s exactly what you said.”

  Sebastian arched an eyebrow and drew me closer to his side, his gaze speculative as he glanced between us. “The country is lovely,” he said after a moment. “It’s a quiet life and we all love it. I want to hear about your time in the city. I bet that was exciting.”

  I held Hunter’s gaze for a beat longer and then forced a smile for Sebastian. “It’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds. Besides, I didn’t spend much time in any one city. I think six months was my limit.”

  “Yes, you were always restless,” Sebastian agreed.

  “Always,” Hunter echoed, sighing as he sat in one of the nylon chairs next to the fire. “She couldn’t wait to get out of here she was so restless.”

  Sebastian ignored the statement and pulled me to a spot on the other side of the circle. “Do you remember everyone?”

  It shouldn’t have felt like a trick question, and yet it did. “Sure.” I smiled at the assembled faces in turn. “Matt, Olivia, Ben, Celia, Finn, and ... .” I trailed off as I furrowed my brow at the final face. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t remember you.” I felt like a bit of an ass. I’d graduated with only fifty-three people. I should’ve been able to remember all of them.

  “Oh, don’t feel bad,” Sebastian reassured me. “She’s new. She didn’t move to Shadow Hills until long after you were gone. In fact, she’s only been here about a year now.”

  That made me feel better. “I’m Stormy. It’s nice to meet you.” I extended my hand, which she took, but the look she shot Hunter sent my antennae up. If discomfort were a sweater, she’d fill it out fabulously.

  “I’m Monica Johnson,” she said.

  I froze. I recognized the name thanks to Phoebe.

  “She’s my girlfriend,” Hunter volunteered, stretching his long legs out in front of him as he held my gaze through the growing flames.

  I swallowed hard. I should’ve realized this was how my day would go. “It’s nice to meet you.” My voice was strong and clear, a small relief.

  “You too.” She said the words but there was no warmth in her eyes. She obviously knew who I was and wasn’t happy in the least that I’d invaded what looked to be an intimate affair.

  “Sit with me,” Sebastian instructed, as if reading my mind. “I want to hear all about your time away.”

  That sounded like pure torture. “Oh, well ... .”

  “I insist.” Sebastian’s gaze was pointed. He had no intention of letting me escape. “We have drinks and everything. You need to be reintroduced into our little society.”

  I was caught and I knew it. “That sounds great.”

  AN HOUR LATER, MOST OF THE DISCOMFORT I’d been feeling upon stumbling across the group had dissipated. Other than Monica, who was determined not to like me, I easily fell into old rhythms with the others. It was almost as if I hadn’t left.

  Almost.

  “I can’t believe you’re running the funeral home now,” I exclaimed, wide-eyed. I was three beers in and starting to feel the effects. After the previous evening with Alice, drinking probably wasn’t a good idea. My nerves refused to let me relax without liquid courage at the ready, though.

  “It’s a good living,” Sebastian protested.

  “Yeah, but you have to touch dead bodies.”

  He shrugged. “There are worse things. By the way, I have to dress them, too.”

  I dissolved into giggles at the thought of him dressing dead bodies. I kept picturing Barbie dolls. It seemed a hilarious notion. “I just ... it’s so gross.” I looked to Hunter for confirmation. “Don’t you think it’s gross?”

  He shrugged again. He didn’t exactly look relaxed, but he obviously wasn’t uncomfortable. His girlfriend, on the other hand, clung to his arm as if she expected him to throw himself on the fire in an effort to get closer to me. I did my best to avoid her gaze, even though I recognized that was probably making things worse.

  “I’m kind of used to it now,” Hunter supplied. “He’s been doing it for three years on his own. He apprenticed at the funeral home for three years before that.”

  I tried to picture Sebastian as an apprentice and shuddered. “Nope. I’m sorry. It’s weird. Who wants to date a guy who touches dead bodies all day?” The question was out of my mouth before I thought better about asking it.

  Hunter’s gaze immediately darkened and he sent me a small, almost imperceptible, shake of the head.

  “I’m not really in the dating frame of mind these days,” Sebastian said evasively, his eyes going to the fire. “If I ever am in that frame of mind, I would only want someone who accepts me for who I am.”

  My heart gave a little ping. I’d always suspected that Sebastian was gay. I’d never come right out and asked him, but there were hints when we were growing up. Coming out in a town as small as Shadow Hills was a daunting prospect. It was full of alpha males who would verbally abuse him, maybe worse. I was sure some already suspected.

  I swallowed hard, doing my best to backtrack. “I’m not in a dating mood either,” I offered, willingly opening myself up to ridicule — and speculation — to save Sebastian from embarrassment. “In fact, I’m thinking of becoming a nun. Do they still have that convent out on Grand Traverse Bay?”

  Hunter snorted, choking on his beer as he shook his head. “Oh, geez.” He tilted his chin up so he was looking at the stars as he cleared the liquid from his nose. “I forgot you were obsessed with that place when we were younger. You made me drive out there at least once a month to spy on the nuns.”

  “Hey, we all wanted to spy on the nuns,” Matt countered. “I was convinced they were really witches in disguise. I mean ... nuns? Who wants to be a nun?”

  “I think it’s a noble pursuit,” Monica countered, her eyes flashing as she glanced between Hunter and me. It was obvious she didn’t like trekking through memories to find a safe topic of conversation. “There’s nothing better than being closer to God, right?”

  “If you say so.” Sebastian made a face and retrieved two beers from the cooler, handing me one before cracking the tab on another. We were going old school and drinking our Bud Light from cans. “I can think of a million other jobs I would rather do.”

  “Like touching dead bodies for a living?” I asked.

  He laughed and elbowed my arm. “You need to get over that if you’re going to hang out with me. There’s nothing wrong with working in a funeral home. In fact, it’s one of the few jobs unlikely to be downsized or shipped overseas. People are always going to die.”

  “I guess.” He had a point. “Maybe I should’ve gone into the funeral home business. It’s probably preferable to where I ended up.”

  “I don’t think you ended up in a bad place,” Hunter argued, somber. “It’s not where you thought you would be at this point in your life, but it’s not as if you’re destitute.”

  “And you were
on television,” Sebastian enthused. “Who doesn’t want to be on television?”

  “Yeah, but because of that everybody knows I had to come back here a failure. I’m right back where I was when I was sixteen.”

  “Which is probably the worst thing in the world to you,” Hunter muttered. “Your life sucked back then, right?”

  The vitriol in his voice surprised me. “I ... no.” I shook my head, unsure how I was supposed to answer. “I look back on those years as the best in my life. It’s just ... I thought things would be different.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  Perhaps sensing trouble, Monica cleared her throat, forcing my gaze to her. “Do you want to leave again?” She looked hopeful. “Are you just back long enough to save money, maybe write another book and then head back out on the road?”

  I’d been wondering that myself. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that seemed unlikely. “I don’t know.” I opted for honesty. “I didn’t realize how much I missed Shadow Hills until I came back.” My eyes lingered on Hunter a moment and then moved back to the stars. “I would like to find some balance, maybe live in both worlds, but that’s probably not possible. I think my moment in the sun is over.”

  “It’s only over if you let it be over,” Hunter growled. “The Stormy I knew would’ve chased her dream no matter what. You act as if you’ve already given up.”

  “Not given up. I think I’m just coming back to reality.”

  “You can live your dreams in the real world,” he persisted. “It might not be what you always pictured, but it doesn’t have to be one thing or the other. You can live multiple lives.”

  It was a nice thought. “Maybe.” I took a long pull on my beer, working overtime to ignore the dark looks Monica cast in my direction. “Right now, I’m just happy to be back with old friends. Everyone needs to tell me what they’ve been up to. I want to get caught up.”

  “Oh, I’ll start.” Sebastian’s hand shot in the air. “I’ve got great gossip.”

  I arched an amused eyebrow. “About yourself?”

  “Is there any better kind?”

  8

  Eight

  I was drunk. Again.

  This was becoming a bad habit, and I regretted it the second I stood and realized I wasn’t completely steady on my feet.

  Sebastian laughed at the way I gripped my chair and immediately reached out to steady me. “Need help?”

  I shook my head. “I’m totally fine.”

  “Uh-huh.” He looked dubious. “Where are you going?”

  That was a delicate question. “Um ... over there.” I pointed toward a stand of trees. “Nature calls.” I laughed at my own lame attempt at a joke. “In this case, kind of literally.”

  “Ah.” Sebastian nodded in understanding. “Do you need someone to go with you?”

  “I think I can manage.” My eyes inadvertently went to Hunter as I straightened. As teenagers, he’d always stood guard when I had to relieve myself after a night of drinking in a field. He looked concerned, but didn’t get up to help, for which I was grateful. “I’ll be totally fine.”

  “You have three minutes,” Sebastian said. “After that, I’m coming looking for you. Don’t wander too far into the woods.”

  “I’ll be fine.” His concern was sweet but unnecessary. “I grew up in these woods.”

  “You haven’t been back in years. Be careful. And, seriously, don’t wander too far. If you get lost, you’ll never hear the end of it from your mother. We’ll have to call out search dogs and stuff. You’ll be on the news, and it won’t be as funny as that time Matt got lost when we were fifteen.”

  For his part, Matt didn’t look thrilled to be reminded of the event. “Oh, man. I still maintain that I knew exactly where I was.”

  “Which is why you walked around all night trying to find your way back to the road,” Sebastian countered.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  I smiled to myself as I picked my way through the chairs, doing my best to look sober even though I’d had one too many. Okay, maybe three too many. It was beer, though, and I used to be able to put a six-pack away. Apparently that was no longer the case.

  “Maybe she shouldn’t go alone,” Hunter said as I focused on my destination. If he thought I couldn’t hear him, he was wrong. But I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of admitting the walk in the dark — and what I had to do once I got there — held little appeal.

  “She’s fine,” Sebastian countered. “See. She’s walking ... mostly ... straight.”

  “Someone has to make sure she gets home okay,” Matt warned. “If she goes missing, Charlie won’t be happy. You know how he feels when his grandkids act out.”

  “That’s her problem,” Hunter shot back, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. He was an abrasive cuss when he wanted to be. “She shouldn’t have drunk so much. She’s a lightweight. Always has been.”

  “Yes, but before she had a knight in shining armor to walk her back,” Sebastian teased. “Maybe she forgot that little detail.”

  “That’s not my problem.”

  Thankfully their voices grew muffled the more I walked. Once on the other side of the trees, I looked for a convenient spot to do my business. I picked a tree to lean against and fumbled with the clasp on my jeans. That was another thing about the city. There was no lack of bathrooms. I forgot how undignified it was to have to relieve myself in the middle of a forest.

  It took longer than it probably should have to finish, and I was grossed out when I realized there was no toilet paper. When I finally settled myself, I knew that I would have to spend the next hour sobering up before heading home. I remembered the path back to the restaurant well ... as long as there was light to lead me. Unfortunately, the only light illuminating the path was the moon. Full the previous evening, it still offered some minimal comfort.

  I was about to stumble out of the bushes when I heard excitable chatter again. These voices were much closer. Monica and Hunter. They’d moved away from the group and were talking in low voices, but not so low that I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  “I think we should go.” There was a pout to her tone.

  “It’s still early,” Hunter argued. “Let’s stay another hour.”

  “Why?”

  “Why not?”

  He sounded annoyed and she sounded whiny. It might’ve been the beer talking, but it didn’t sound as if it made for a lasting relationship.

  “You know I hate hanging out in the woods like this,” she replied with an irksome sniffle. “We do it once a week. I don’t understand why you insist on hanging out with these people.”

  “They’re my friends,” Hunter replied evenly.

  “Things change.” Her tone was clipped. “You’re a police officer now. You could be running the department in a few years. Do you think police chiefs hang around in the woods drinking with their old high school buddies and telling the same ridiculous stories over and over again?”

  “I’m twenty-eight. I won’t be chief anytime soon.”

  “But you could be up for a promotion soon,” she persisted. “Do you want to lose out on that because one of your co-workers catches you drinking in the woods?”

  “Yeah, there is no advancement in Shadow Hills. You’re either chief or an officer. That’s it.”

  “The argument still stands.”

  I felt guilty listening to what was obviously meant to be a private conversation, but I continued soaking it in.

  “It really doesn’t,” Hunter shot back. “Nobody cares that we’re out here. In fact, everybody — and that includes the chief — knows that I come out here once a week. It’s not a big deal. Nobody drives. We’re all adults and we clean up after ourselves. It’s not as if we’re breaking the law.”

  “Yes, but it feels so ... high school.”

  “Then go.” Hunter was never one to hide his feelings. When he was annoyed, he let you know. Obviously Monica
wasn’t great at picking up on his moods.

  “We came together.”

  “So? You know the way back to the road. Your house is closer than mine. It will take you ten minutes to walk home.”

  “In the dark? Alone?”

  “You’re the one not having a good time.”

  They were silent for a long time. I took the opportunity to peer around the bush separating me from them. It took me a moment to make out their hazy shapes in the darkness. I quickly dropped my head to avoid being seen. They were standing in the dark staring at one another.

  “I’m not walking back alone,” she said, breaking the silence. The chill from Monica permeated me from feet away. “We came together and we’re leaving together.”

  “I’m not ready to leave.” Hunter was obstinate. He was worse when he felt his back was to the wall. “I’m having fun.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t see the eye roll, but it was obvious in Monica’s voice. “Maybe you don’t want to leave because of her.”

  I pursed my lips. She hadn’t used a name, but it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who “her” was.

  “What ‘her?’” Hunter asked blankly.

  “Oh, don’t do that,” Monica snapped. “Her. Your ex-girlfriend. The woman you’ve been staring at all night.”

  Hunter let out a hollow laugh. “I haven’t been staring at her. Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I’m not blind, Hunter. You haven’t been able to take your eyes off her.”

  “Has it ever occurred to you that she was sitting directly across from me? When I lift my head, she’s right there. I would have to strain myself to look away from her. I wasn’t staring.”

  “Why are you so defensive?”

  It was a fair question, and I was eager for his answer. Had he really been staring at me? I wouldn’t know because I’d been working overtime not to look at him. I didn’t want to give his girlfriend — who was even more insecure than warranted — a reason to hate me. It sounded as if she already did, though. Ah, well, it’s not as if we were going to be the best of friends. If she thought Phoebe was fun to hang around, we had absolutely nothing in common.