by Marika Ray
“Yo, T!” I hollered as soon as I turned the corner outside and stepped off the blacktop onto the dirt.
Titus swiped the sweat from his forehead with his bulging bicep. His face lit up in an easy smile when he saw me. “Hey, Lia. Almost done here.”
I sauntered over, not looking where I was going. “Yeah, I see that.”
There was a bead of sweat sliding down right between his pecs. A fascinating journey of bumps and valleys.
A throat clearing had me looking up. Titus had a playful look in his eye, his mouth tugging into a smile. “Are you eye fucking me right now, Amelia Waldo?”
Shit. I guess I was, but he didn’t have to call me out like that. “Are you kidding me? You can’t walk around half-naked and then blame a girl for looking. If I was half-naked, wouldn’t you be looking at me?”
Titus took a giant step forward and flicked the collar of my shirt. He didn’t even touch me, but I could feel it all the way to the tips of my toes.
“Fuck, yeah, I would. I’d ogle you until my eyes bled.” His gaze flicked down the length of my body and suddenly I needed to practice my Kegels.
“Are we actually doing this? We’re flirting? You and me?” I whispered it, afraid to say it too loud. Like the volume of my voice would make it something real I couldn’t take back.
Titus shrugged slow and lazy, his eyes heating further. That finger still toyed with my shirt. If he didn’t stop, I might melt into a puddle at his feet.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t. You’re hot, I’m hot. Kind of makes sense to flirt.”
I smirked. “Wow. Nice ego you got there.” I studied him seriously. “You don’t worry about harming our friendship?”
Titus’s eyelids slid down and I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. He had to be a good kisser after kissing the entire female population of Auburn Hill.
“Sometimes friends make the best lov—”
A thump from inside the window had me jumping back. My heart rate spiked like I’d been caught doing something wrong. And maybe I had. I flicked a glance at the window to see Crystal backing away sheepishly.
“My front desk girl seems to find you quite attractive. Maybe you should ask her out.” I sniffed and changed the subject, refusing to address why the thought of that gave me the start of an ulcer. “Besides, I came here to tell you about my exciting discovery.”
Titus continued to stare at me for a moment before blinking and backing up. He tilted away from me and grabbed his shirt off the top of an upside-down orange construction bucket. He pulled it on and I got a front-row seat to all those muscles flexing and moving. I stood up taller despite my heels sinking into the dirt and willed myself to keep it under control. Flirting with Titus? Bad idea. So, so very bad.
“Don’t you even want to know my exciting discovery?”
Titus let out a huff. “I’m sure you’ll tell me whether I want to know or not. I’m just multitasking.”
He gathered his tools and dumped them in his toolbox, kicking the empty water bottles into the pile of junk. I put my hands on my hips, not at all pleased with his lack of enthusiasm. But he was not wrong. I’d be telling him anyway simply because I couldn’t keep it to myself much longer.
I huffed dramatically and then got on with it. “So, you remember the woman who checked in? The one I think you-know-who is having an affair with? Well, I did some digging.” That got his attention. He stopped working and speared me with a look. “Don’t worry. Just internet searches, nothing dangerous. She checks in under the name M. Smith. Pretty vague, right? There could be a million M. Smiths in America right now. So, I looked at when she checked into Hell Hotel. And wouldn’t you know? All three times have been right before one of the mayor’s business projects got greenlit. The first was before Lucy opened her sperm bank. The second was the privately owned prison, and the third was before the Hardware Store came to town. So, the question is, what business is going to sprout up now that she’s here a fourth time?”
I rocked back on my heels, a bad idea given the dirt situation, and leveled Titus with a smug look of satisfaction. I was a goddamn Nancy Drew.
Titus studied me for a moment, mulling over my detective skills. “Could be coincidence, but you’re right. It is suspicious. Maybe you ought to involve your father at this point. Let the police get involved.”
I scrunched up my face, shocked he’d suggest such a thing. “Hell no, I’m gonna keep digging until I figure this thing out. My dad goes after burglaries and drunken brawls, not possible…well, whatever it is that the mayor’s doing. Would that be extortion? Favoritism? I’m not sure what’s illegal about it, but it seems fishy and I’m going to solve the mystery. Just you wait.”
I twirled around, energized by my righteous indignation. My left heel didn’t want to leave the dirt, so I had to give it a couple tugs, but once I got it out, I marched off with all the dignity of the Queen of England. Tell my dad? No way. This was my time to shine.
The cabinet behind the front desk held my next move in the form of the vinyl lettering I used every week to create the sign out front of the hotel. I had a new phrase in mind. One that was sure to attract some attention. Best way to shake loose the truth was to expose the untruthful. I sorted through the letters, ignoring Crystal as she quizzed me on Titus’s relationship status. I may joke about him asking her out, but there was no way in hell I’d encourage it. Not when the thought of them together made my stomach revolt.
“I’ll be back, Crystal. I have a sign to change out.” My smile held all the deviousness I was known for.
“Amelia, what are you up to now, darlin’?” Dad’s voice didn’t hold any surprise, only a worn-out curiosity I’d heard a lot in my lifetime.
I pressed the cell phone to my head to hear him over the couple talking animatedly with Crystal about a local hiking trail they just had to check out. Hikers. What a bunch of weirdos. Let’s hike to the top of a hill risking life and limb among the wilderness animals just to turn around and go back the same way! Dumb, I tell you.
“I’m up to nothing, Dad,” I answered innocently. I checked my watch. Took him three and a half hours to call me about my sign. Must be a busy day of handing out traffic tickets.
“Meet me at Coffee in fifteen.”
He hung up in typical gruff-dad style. He sounded scary, but he was a teddy bear underneath that badge. All five of us Waldo girls had him wrapped around our little fingers.
I made sure Crystal would be fine without me for an hour or so, changed into flats, and then headed over on foot to Coffee, waving to neighbors as they drove by.
“I love the sign, dearie!” Yedda called to me as she drove by in her aqua Lincoln from the seventies. I smiled and waved back, nearly falling off the sidewalk when her car backfired and scared the shit out of me.
“Oh, excuse me!” she trilled out the window, like her car passing gas was her fault.
By the time I made it to the coffee shop, I could tell my sign was having an impact. I mean, they always did. I didn’t post anything boring like prices or how many rooms were vacant. I always put something up to make people stop and think, or laugh, or spit out their drink. Today’s was probably my finest: Have your next affair here!
“Wicked sign, dude.” Lukas, Lenora’s brother, gave me a fist bump before taking my order. I ordered a frappaccino for Dad, thinking the sugar might smooth over anything he might have to say.
“Don’t think you can bribe your way into my good graces, young lady,” Dad said from behind me.
I spun around and gave him a big hug. “Wow, Dad, you’re really light on your feet. Didn’t even hear you walk up.”
After I let go, he patted his overextended belly. “False compliments won’t work either.”
I plastered on a smile and moved aside to grab our drinks from the huge counter our friend Charlie had made a few years back. I snagged a table in the corner and had a seat, strategizing the best way to get my dad off my back.
He didn’t wait to launch i
n. “You need to take that sign down. I already got a call from Pastor Murphy. You know I love your spunk, but that’s going too far.”
I leaned in, not liking how bunched up his bushy eyebrows had gotten. “Daddy, I need your help.” I’d figured out a way to get him on my side, despite what I’d told Titus earlier. A smart woman knows when to regroup and try a new approach. “I have a mystery on my hands that needs solving and that sign is just the way to stir things up enough to discover the truth.”
Dad tapped his thumb against the side of his drink cup. “What are you going on about, honey?”
I leaned in so far the table would leave a bruise on my ribs. “I caught the mayor leaving the hotel room of a woman who is not his wife. And the night prior, I heard some pretty weird sounds coming from that room. I won’t even tell you what I found the next day when the woman checked out and I had to clean the room. Our good mayor is up to something and I intend to find out what that is.” I finished in a rush, my voice barely above a whisper.
Dad sucked in his gut and leaned in too, his badge flashing brightly in the overhead lights. “Listen real good. You need to drop this. Right now. Whatever the mayor has going on is none of your business. If it’s illegal, I’ll look into it. But if it’s cheating on his wife, that is his concern. Not yours.”
I reared my head back. “Daddy! You taught us girls to always stand up for what’s right, even when it’s hard. This goes beyond cheating on his wife. I think he’s in cahoots with this woman, which affects all of us in this town. She has visited exactly three times before, and within a month of each of those visits, new construction was started here in town. I think he’s putting his—ahem, libido—before good business decisions. I don’t think you should be sleeping with the woman who owns the construction companies you hire with town money. I don’t know if she’s with the construction companies, but that’s where I need your help.”
Dad swiped a hand over his face, looking frustrated. But I knew my dad. There was a light in his eyes that meant I’d piqued his interest. “All you’ve got there is a bunch of unfounded gossip.”
“I know. That’s where you come in. We need to prove it.” My heart pounded as I waited for him to gobble the juicy bait I’d just left him. There was no doubt in my mind I was onto something. I could feel it in my bones. I may only be a hotel manager, but I was born the daughter of a cop. I knew when something was off. It was in my blood.
Dad took a long sip of his frozen coffee, his gaze never leaving my face. He had a mean poker face, but I’d learned from the best. I’d give as good as I got. The sounds of the busy coffee shop faded into the background as the stare continued. I held my breath, which wasn’t the best idea given the sudden dizziness from lack of oxygen.
He popped his drink back on the tabletop, rattling it with the force. “Fine. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open if you promise to not go after him yourself. While I have to work with the guy due to our positions in this town, I don’t particularly trust him.”
I squealed and stood up to wrap my arms around his neck. “Thank you, Daddy.” I was so excited to have someone else in on my quest for truth. Dad could look into things a normal citizen couldn’t. Sure, he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about it, and maybe I’d crossed my fingers under the table when I accepted his condition—there was no way in Hell I was giving up my own investigation—but I knew he’d look into it. Dad was like a dog with a bone when it came to uncovering the truth. Where do you think I got it from?
“Another thing,” he continued. I sat back down and folded my hands in my lap while he laid out more conditions I’d agree to, probably with my fingers crossed. “You need to come on home for family dinner. Soon. Your mother and I miss you.”
He stood abruptly, fast on his feet despite the paunch us girls always teased him about. “Oh, and bring Titus with you, would you?”
A fluttering that shouldn’t even be there started up in my chest. I didn’t have to cross my fingers and lie about this one. Of course I’d bring Titus. He’d sat around my family’s dinner table more times than I could count over the years. Maybe not in recent times, but frequently enough that it didn’t take a special invitation from my father.
Dad’s knuckle tapped the tabletop while he stood there looking over my head at the wall behind me. “Just arrested Dom again right before I came over here to meet you. I suspect Titus will be getting a call right about now to come bail him out again.” He shook his head. “Funny how two people can be raised just the same and turn out totally different.”
With that philosophical thought dump, he spun and walked out, waving to everyone who said hello as he passed. That fluttering in my chest finally petered out to leave me with another weird sensation. Gut-clenching empathy. Titus hated dealing with Dom.
Maybe I should send him some funny memes tonight to snap him out of the self-loathing that always came after dealing with his brother’s messes.
Or maybe a racy selfie…
With that novel idea floating through my brain and egging me on to danger, I went back to work.
9
Titus
She was killing me.
First the flirting yesterday, and then the picture of her ample cleavage in a barely there tank top with the text “to cheer you up after dealing with your own Douchebag.” Maybe it was just my wishful thinking, but it seemed like maybe Amelia was more into the idea of us taking things beyond friendship than she let on. But then again, I’d had my hopes up for years and had been let down every single time.
I should probably talk to my guy friends and get their opinion on the matter. Lord knew I wasn’t objective enough to understand what was going on. Amelia could ask for a glass of water and my brain would get carried away thinking she was parched due to her unending love for me. I groaned out loud and pulled on a flannel over my T-shirt. What was I thinking? There was no way I could talk to any of my guy friends about Amelia. They’d give me shit for the rest of my life.
We planned to all meet down at the beach tonight for a little bonfire to celebrate Hazel’s birthday. With the weather turning chilly at night, I hoped to use that as an excuse to cuddle up to Amelia. I could picture her showing up in her standard cut-off shorts and a shirt that left her belly exposed to the night air. She’d have a sweatshirt with her, but even that wouldn’t keep her warm enough. We’d been doing these bonfires for more than a decade. You’d think she’d learn to wear jeans or a heavier jacket by now. Her shortsightedness was my gain. I was tired of waiting for her to make the first move. Tired of swallowing what I really wanted to say. Sick of pretending like I didn’t envision an entire life together with her: married, kids, the two matching rocking chairs on the front porch. The whole damn thing.
Tonight, I’d grab life by the balls and make my move.
“Rip, you comin’ with me?” I yelled out into the living room as I looked around for my keys and wallet in the mess that was my bedroom. I really needed to clean it up sometime soon or I’d be out of clean clothes shortly.
Rip didn’t answer me until I came out of my room, sitting on the couch with his cell phone in hand. He didn’t even look up at me, so enthralled by whatever he was looking at. I’d have to talk to the guys at the bonfire and see if we could stage an intervention. Rip was getting quieter and more sullen by the hour.
“Nah, I’m going to swing by a little later.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Okay, sounds good.”
He and Hazel didn’t exactly get along, so I could understand why he wasn’t enthusiastic about the bonfire. I shook my head and left. Another thing I never understood about Rip. He and Hazel had been really tight at the beginning of high school, much like me and Amelia. And then one day they hated each other and refused to speak about it. We all figured they had a falling-out, but would patch things up eventually. Now, a decade later, they still hadn’t worked it out.
By the time I got to the bonfire, it was in full swing. All five of the Waldo sisters were there, w
hich surprised me. Normally Amelia tried to have her own space without her siblings stealing her spotlight. Other than her sisters, the normal crew was there: Lucy and Bain, Lenora and Jayden, Charlie and Finnie, the birthday girl herself, Lukas and several of his friends who always tagged along. Lenora swore inviting the boys kept her brother out of trouble.
I grabbed a beer and headed straight for Hazel, pulling her up off her blanket and into a bear hug that had her giggling.
“Happy birthday, tiny human,” I said before giving her a big, wet kiss on her cheek.
She squealed and I let her go. “I’m not tiny, you’re just huge!”
I shrugged and winked. “Maybe by next birthday you’ll have grown out of the kids’ sizes.”
She punched me in the shoulder. “One can only hope,” she whispered.
Hazel wasn’t that small, but compared to me, she seemed tiny. And I never let her forget it. She was like the little sister I never had, stumbling her way through life and making me cringe. She had a heart of gold, but not necessarily the best decision-making skills.
I left Hazel and moved to take a seat right next to Amelia on her blanket. She bumped my shoulder, already in her sweatshirt, her bare legs drawn up under her, covered in goose bumps. I couldn’t hide the little smile. As much as Amelia remained unpredictable when it came to big things in life, she was completely predictable with the little things.
“How you doin’, beautiful?” I asked, wrapping my arm around her neck and pulling her into me so I could kiss the top of her head.
She came willingly, snuggling up against me with a laugh. “Freezing!”
I snorted, leaving my arm over her shoulders and taking a swig of beer before answering. “Never fear, Titus’s body heat is here.”
“Ooh, I’ll take some of that!” Vee, Amelia’s youngest sister, plopped down on my other side and burrowed her way under my arm.
“Get your own man meat, Vee!” Amelia slapped her sister’s hand, the one that had already snaked across my chest in a bold move for someone barely legal.
