Fate Actually: Moonstone Cove Book Two

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  “Seriously?” Toni could feel the woman’s embarrassment and deep-seated shame. “That’s messed up. What a shitty thing for him to do.”

  Pamela shrugged, but Toni could tell it bothered her. “I’m not like that.” She turned to Jackie. “You know me. I’m not. I may not have the best track record, but I steer clear of married men. Engaged ones too.”

  Jackie reached across the table as the server appeared with her wine. “I know that.”

  “Besides” —Pamela held out her glass as Jackie poured the wine— “I met Angela Calvo once, and trust me, I would never try to poach on that woman’s fiancé. Crossing her seemed like a good way to ruin your life.”

  Chapter 18

  Megan, Katherine, and Baxter followed Toni at a polite distance as they walked up the gravel driveway toward her brother’s sprawling ranch house on top of the hill overlooking the dunes and the Pacific Ocean.

  “Your brother’s property is beautiful,” Baxter said. “Has he lived here a long time?”

  “It’s a family house,” Toni said. “This is actually where I grew up.”

  She’d been a country kid, running on dirt roads, playing in the creek, and rolling down hills on her bike when she was barely old enough to walk. Her parents had been old-fashioned: little to no TV and don’t bother Mom in the kitchen unless you were helping cook.

  Toni had run wild on the hill and the small family farm her father and uncles managed, munching on figs and tomatoes in the garden and learning from her uncle Martin how to take apart an engine when she was only ten years old. She’d hated school but had been utterly fascinated with how mechanical things worked.

  Within a few years, she was taking apart anything her mother didn’t nail down, and Rose Lanza Dusi begged her husband to take the little girl with the freckles and the dark brown curls to the car shop they ran in town.

  At fifteen, Toni rebuilt her first engine. At eighteen, she started working for her dad and her uncle. And at twenty-one, she stood at the front of the church as her brother married her sister-in-law, Jackie, and Toni got to breathe a sigh of relief.

  Jackie was awesome, and even better from Toni’s perspective, she wanted a bunch of kids, she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, and she wanted to host all the holidays at her house.

  Which let Toni off the hook.

  Jackie and Frank moved into the house a few years later, Luna and Toni having little to no interest in it, and promptly started filling it with numerous small Dusi grandchildren. Rose and Bobby moved into town, closer to the beach and the bocce ball club where they liked to hang out with their friends.

  “So” —Toni finished a short summary of the house just as they reached the driveway— “it was kind of understood that whoever had kids first got the house if they wanted it. Which we were all fine with. Luna and her husband Rani always lived in Monterey, so it was just me and Frank, and he has four kids so…” Toni shrugged. “There’re a couple of extra little houses on the property. Like guest cottages, you know? If anyone in the family needs a place to stay, they stay here.”

  “That’s so lovely,” Katherine said. “I think large families like yours are fascinating.”

  “I can’t lie,” Megan said. “It makes me miss all my cousins back east.”

  “And I can’t lie.” Toni turned and paused before they walked in. “With my empathy, big parties like this are getting harder and harder for me to do. So we may not be able to stay long. Jackie said she managed to get Fairfield’s accountant here as a guest, so our priority is questioning him and seeing what he knows about Fairfield’s death, the blackmail stuff, and why Fairfield was so determined to screw with Nico.”

  “Understood.” Katherine looked around. “Is Henry coming?”

  “Yes. He was working today so Nico and the kids could help Marissa move to the rehab center.” Marissa was better, but according to doctors, she had a long road in front of her. “He’ll be done in another hour or so. I told him to meet us here.” And that could be the other reason that they weren’t staying long.

  Did Toni want to introduce Henry as her… boyfriend / significant-other-type person?

  Yes.

  Did she want to stick around for questions?

  Most decidedly no.

  Just as they were about to walk into the backyard, Jackie rushed out of the house with a giant smile on her face.

  “Hi!” She jumped over and hugged Megan. “So great to see you.” She stuck her hand out to Katherine and Baxter. “You must be Toni’s professor friends from the university, Katherine and…”

  “Baxter.” Baxter shook her hand. “You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Dusi. Thank you so much—”

  “Yep. I am going to chat with all of you, but first” —she turned to Toni— “please don’t kill me.”

  “What did you do?” Alarm bells were going off in her head. Jackie could be dramatic. But this time she looked genuinely panicked.

  “So!” She took a deep breath. “Okay, the guy you need to talk to is Ron Withers and he was Whit’s accountant and I guess he’s also a customer of yours because he was really excited when I told him you were my sister-in-law and he thinks you’re really cute and he kind of thinks this is a blind date. I am so sorry—it was the only way I could get him to come to the barbecue.”

  Toni had to rerun it three times in her head. “Sorry, you what?”

  “You wanted to question him about the stuff for Nico, but it was the only way I could get him here, okay? I’m so sorry.”

  “You… you told him you’d set me up with him? On a date?” Toni looked around in a panic. “Jackie, the week that I told Henry I would introduce him to my family as my boyfriend, you set me up on a fake date so I could interrogate someone about a murder?”

  Jackie made a high, whining noise. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know about Henry, and it was the only way he’d agree to come!”

  Baxter leaned over and spoke quietly to Katherine. “It really is like watching a television drama, isn’t it?”

  Toni was panicking. “Oh my God, Jackie!”

  “I’m sorry!”

  “What am I supposed to do? Henry will be here in an hour!”

  “Okay, well just… interrogate Ron fast?”

  Megan grabbed Toni’s arm and hooked it around hers. “We can do this. Jackie, you take care of Katherine and Baxter for us, point us in the direction of the accountant, and we’ll handle it.”

  Toni’s mind was racing, but Megan’s calm presence steadied her. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

  “Sadly, I have had to pretend to be interested in more than my fair share of boring men over the years.” She patted Toni’s arm. “We got this. I’ll be your wingwoman.”

  “He’s a little older, like midfifties, and he’s got a white beard and he’s completely bald otherwise. Pretty fit, but he dresses like a dad.” Jackie looked at Megan. “You got it?”

  “I got it.”

  Toni could feel her panic start to rise with every step she took into the maelstrom of her big brother’s backyard. She felt a low burning anger start to simmer. She was trying to exonerate her cousin. Did men have to put up with faking interest in women to get information about murderers? Did men have to play dumb in order to—

  “Okay, you’re gonna want to tamp down on that.”

  Toni took a sharp breath. “Can you feel it?”

  “It’s just rolling off you in waves, honey. I’m surprised no one around us has thrown a punch yet.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Imagine I’m Henry, okay?”

  She could do that. Henry was calm. Cool. Steady. Toni took a deep breath and tried to imagine Henry was holding her arm. “Do you see him?”

  “I think so? Oh. Don’t look up. He’s at three o’clock and he’s by the buffet table. We’re going over to get a drink.”

  “How do you know it’s him?” Bald with a white beard and dressed like a dad could be any number of Frank’s friends.

  “He’
s staring straight at you.”

  “Pretend you don’t see him.”

  “I’m gonna wave.”

  “Don’t wave!”

  “Waving.” Megan’s voice went a little higher. “Okay, look up. Act interested.”

  “I cannot do this.”

  “You are a supernatural feelings wizard, Toni Dusi. You telling me you can’t bullshit a man for a half an hour to get some answers?” She squeezed Toni’s arm. “Look up and smile.”

  Her head shot up, and she plastered a smile onto her face. “I am not used to this.”

  “I realize that, but it won’t kill you.”

  “No, but I might kill someone else.”

  “Have I told you that you look fantastic today? You do. The ripped concert-tee thing with the long vest is kick-ass, and those boots make your legs amazing.”

  “Yeah, well, I thought I was being cute for Henry.” Oh, she’d spotted him now. Dammit. She knew who he was. He owned a recent-model BMW 4-Series that he drove like crap. Everett had already had to rebuild his clutch.

  “I like Henry so much,” Megan chirped. “I want you two to get married and have, like, three more babies.”

  Toni nearly ran for her car. “Are you kidding me?” she asked under her breath. “Have you forgotten that I’m going to be forty-two when this one pops out?” They walked through the crowd, and Toni kept the plastic smile glued to her face. “One is already more than I planned for.”

  “Pfft.” Megan waved and laughed at nothing in particular. “Age is just a number.”

  “Biologically speaking, it really isn’t. Hi!”

  “Hi.” They’d arrived at the accountant. “What was that?”

  Megan stuck her hand out. “I was saying that age is just a number.”

  “Agreed!” Ron Withers’s face was flushed a bright red, and his head looked a little sunburned. “I’m Ron.” He turned his smile on Toni. “And you’re Toni. Jackie said you’d be here. I don’t know if you remember me, but—”

  “Grey BMW,” she blurted out. “Four series. Needed transmission work.” She nodded quickly.

  The man appeared flattered. “You have a good memory.”

  “For cars.”

  Megan’s elbow dug into her side.

  “And people,” she added. “People too. I remember them. And cars.”

  “Nice to meet you outside the garage.” Ron held up his glass of wine. “Can I get you a drink?”

  “Just water for me.” She touched her throat. “I’m parched.”

  “Water for me too,” Megan said. “But sparkling. Maybe with a slice or two of lime?” She laughed. “Am I being a pest?”

  “Not at all.” Ron Withers’s attention was split as if he couldn’t believe his luck. Two women were waiting for his attention. “Give me a minute.”

  He walked away, and Toni carefully kept the smile pasted on her face. “He looks like he’s about to spontaneously combust in the sun.”

  “That is a pale, pale man,” Megan murmured. “Maybe let’s move to the shade.” She sidled over to a quieter corner of the yard under a canvas shade cover and away from the grill.

  Toni immediately felt calmer. The press of people and emotions in the middle of the party was just too intense. Now that she had a little distance, she could think more clearly.

  “Do you see him?” Toni asked.

  “Yep.” Megan lifted her hand and waved. “On his way back.”

  “Goodie.” She glanced at her watch. It had already been fifteen minutes just finding the man and exchanging small talk. How was she supposed to interrogate him with so little time? “I think I’m going to have to resort to the woo-woo feelings-wizard-stuff.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea in a crowd?” Megan was looking around the backyard. “Are you actually related to all these people?”

  “Most of them, yes.”

  Ron returned with three drinks balanced in his hands. Toni felt slightly guilty. The man was laboring under the delusion that she might be interested in him romantically, and he’d been very polite.

  He was also the accountant for a very sneaky murder victim, and she needed to clear her cousin’s name.

  “Thanks.” She quickly took the drinks and set them down on the small picnic table. “Care to sit? This sun is pretty intense, right?”

  Ron wiped his forehead. “Yes. I’m from San Francisco originally, so this heat…”

  “It can be pretty intense when you’re not right on the ocean.” Toni felt like fanning him; his face was so flushed. She reached over and tapped his hand slightly, pushing a little bit of calm toward him. The last thing she wanted was for Ron the accountant to pass out.

  “Thanks.” His color immediately evened out. “So Toni, I know you have your garage. Megan, what do you do?”

  “I’m an event coordinator,” she said. “I was in Atlanta for most of my career. I just recently relocated to Moonstone Cove.”

  Ron’s eyes lit up. “It’s an exciting area, isn’t it?”

  Megan leaned toward him and lowered her voice, creating a sense of conspiratorial flirting. Ron was into it; Toni could tell.

  “You know,” Megan said. “I heard a rumor that they were going to be building this big wine-country-estate kind of thing around here. Winery, event venue, restaurant, private club. The works. No idea where they’d put that though.”

  Toni knew immediately what she needed to do. If there was one thing men adored, it was correcting women. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and I just don’t think anyone would put money into something like that. That would be a lot of cash, and it’s still really a farming town.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Ron took the bait. “I have a few clients that… I think you’d be surprised by the plans they have for the town. Moonstone Cove is on the rise.”

  “Really?” Megan leaned her chin on her palm and cocked her head at him. “Well, that’s good news for the event-planning business, isn’t it?”

  “I’m just saying,” Toni said. “Moonstone Cove is small. It’s not really a destination like Napa or Sonoma. I don’t really see anyone coming all this way off the highway to get here.”

  “Napa and Sonoma aren’t on major highways either,” Ron said. “I think the seclusion is part of the charm.”

  She needed to give in to keep him interested. “I guess. I mean, I live just off Ferraro Creek, and I love how quiet it is. It’s incredibly beautiful in that area.”

  “I’ve heard that area is really desirable.” A hint of a smile teased his mouth. “I’d hang on to any property around there if I were you.”

  “Is that so?” Toni leaned forward to touch his arm. “Any other insider tips you want to share?” She pushed him just a little. She didn’t want him to notice anything was going on.

  “I may have heard that…” He blinked slowly. “There’s a big developer—someone from up north—who’s looking to buy in that area. Not sure when, of course.” He sipped his wine. “It might be just a rumor.”

  “Mmmm.” Toni smiled at him and kept her fingers on his skin, stroking the inside of his wrist provocatively. “I’ve heard developers can be… a little pushy.”

  “Pfft.” Ron shrugged. “You know, I deal with a lot of these companies in the course of my business—”

  “And what do you do?” Megan played dumb.

  “I’m an accountant and tax consultant,” Ron said. “I also do some estate planning.”

  “Oh!” Toni’s eyes went wide, and she kept her fingers on Ron’s arm. “Did you know that poor man who had the winery next to my cousin? Whit Fairfield?”

  Ron frowned, and for a minute he looked very confused. Toni pushed a little more calm into him to assuage his suspicions. “I… Yeah. I know that estate. In fact, his fiancée… I can’t really—”

  “I didn’t know he was getting married.” Megan was all sympathy. “That poor woman. She must be devastated. Were they starting the winery together? God, I think I’d just sell
everything if it were me. I’d never want to look at it again, you know?”

  “A crushed dream,” Toni added, giving a little hitch in her throat. “I feel for her.”

  “Heh!” Ron looked a little drunk, and Toni decided to back off on the ease she was pushing, but she kept her hand on his wrist.

  “I…” He stumbled a little over his words. “I’d not… I wouldn’t feel sorry for her. I think she’s very… Uh, she’s in finance. She knows her business. So I think she just sees everything as an investment, you know?”

  “Oh, that’s so brave.” Megan blinked hard and actually managed to produce a few tears. “Just carrying on to fulfill their dream on her own. She’s still going to build that club and expand the winery and everything?”

  “She’s determined.” Ron leaned forward. “Maybe even more than before. I warned her… he was gonna shoot his foot off with the tricks and th-the sheeeh…” He slapped his palm on his cheek. “What’s the word I’m looking for?” He started to laugh. “What did Frank put in this wine, am I right?”

  “Shenanigans?”

  “Yes!” Ron laughed hard. “I tell you, that one listens about as well as Whit did.”

  “Well, you’re smart,” Megan said. “I’m sure you’ll get your point across to her eventually. You just have to keep telling her…” Megan gestured toward Ron.

  “You can’t buy too fast. That’s just… common… It’s common—”

  “Sense.” Toni squeezed his arm. “It’s common sense. Obviously.”

  “She acts like that one piece of land is the only place they could build a cave in that area and it’s just… it’s not the case. The geologist said so.”

  “Really?” Toni nodded. “I mean, I don’t know about you, but I trust science, you know?”

  “Yes.” He slapped his hands together, breaking their connection. “Exactly. Trust science.”

  “I trust science too.” Megan looked past Ron and her eyes went wide. “My Lord, I need to pee. We should go, Toni.”

  Toni had been reaching toward Ron again, trying to reconnect and get more information. “What?” She looked up.