by Leslie Kelly
Dex nodded.
“And she didn’t like what you had to say?”
Dex’s harsh laugh sounded unfamiliar to Nick. “She told me in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t marry me, and to get out of her fancy house and out of her life.”
Whoa. Nick had suspected Rosemary could be a flaming bitch, but that sounded way over the top, even for her. From what he’d seen, the woman loved Dex. Even if she didn’t want to marry him, he still couldn’t see her being so cruel about it. “She actually said those things?”
“She turned down my proposal,” Dex said flatly. “I told her I wanted to marry her, and tried to give her my grandmother’s ring, which I’d flown up to Pennsylvania to get.” Dex shook his head, sounding more dejected than angry all of a sudden. “She told me she wasn’t giving up her house, her town, her life.”
That made Nick curious. “Why would she have to?”
Finally Dex stopped eating up the cracked linoleum floor with his long strides. Looking at Nick as if he were thick in the head, he said, “I can’t support her like that.”
Nick didn’t understand his friend’s attitude. “Seems to me Rosemary makes a good living…so why would you have to support her at all? The two of you could live just fine on what you both make.” Then, not quite believing it himself, he speculated, “Unless, of course, you’re some kind of male chauvinist who doesn’t want to let your wife work outside the home.” He immediately shot down his own theory. “Of course, Rosemary works out of her house, so that’s kind of a moot point anyway, isn’t it?”
“I’m not a chauvinist,” Dex said, sounding shocked at the accusation. “If Rosemary was an accountant or a salesclerk, or a pilot or a doctor, I wouldn’t care.”
Crossing his arms and leaning laconically against the wall, Nick said, “Yeah, sure, I can see why that’s so different. Realtors being so much more rich and successful than doctors and pilots and all.”
Dex must have realized how stupid his words had sounded, because he shook his head. “It’s not what she does for a living.”
“You just said it was,” Nick said softly, playing devil’s advocate for some reason. Maybe because he hated to see his partner so ripped up. And maybe because he knew Melody would hate to have her best friend’s heart broken. Which, he was beginning to suspect, was exactly what was going on.
Dex’s pride had spoken. And Rosemary’s pride had answered.
“It’s not her job. It’s her lifestyle. Her big house, her rich family, her parties. I’m not cut out for any of that.”
Pursing his lips, and nodding, Nick said, “Okay, I can see that. Of course, I don’t suppose Rosemary’s going to be having many parties with a baby running around. And I sure don’t see that woman letting her rich family have any say in how you two raise your kid. She’s a strong-minded one.” Straightening and stepping closer to his friend, he continued, “Strong-minded enough not to want to be dictated to by anyone. Not her family.” Lowering his voice, he added, “Not even you.”
Dex froze, only the tightening of his mouth showing the direct hit Nick’s words had been.
“Did you ask her what she wanted?” Nick asked, suspecting the answer already. “Or did you tell her how it was going to be?”
Dex didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
“Hell, man, did you at least romance her before you told her she had to give up her life to keep such a great prize as yourself?”
“Fuck.”
That was answer enough, too.
Dex looked completely stunned. “I blew it. I didn’t even ask her to marry me, I told her I wanted her to. No getting down on one knee, no flowers.” His friend’s green eyes grew suspiciously misty. “I wanted to say all that, to tell her how happy I am about the baby. But I walked in and saw that house and those antiques and just found myself throwing down the gauntlet.”
“Sounds to me like she picked it up and socked you in the jaw with it.” Dex was lucky the woman hadn’t done it literally, as well. If Rosemary weren’t pregnant, she might have.
“I should go talk to her.”
“I think you’re forgetting something,” Nick said, nodding toward the interrogation room, where the best friend of both the women in their lives was still cooling her heels.
“Damn. Why this? Why her?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “But I think it’s time to find out.”
Leaving Dex to figure out how to fix the relationship he’d screwed up, Nick entered the interrogation room.
“It’s you,” Tanya Williams said, sounding stunned and angry. “You were at Rosemary’s party.”
“Yeah. I’m Nick Walker. Dex’s partner.”
The woman met his stare without flinching. “I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Drake. I swear to you.”
He pulled out a chair and sat across from her, remaining silent, assessing her posture, the sound of her voice, the steadiness of her hand and the gleam in her eyes. He didn’t know this woman at all beyond knowing she was Melody’s friend. One of the infamous “list” ladies. Yet somehow, when he looked at Tanya’s brave-yet-terrified face, he realized he believed her.
“Okay,” he said. “I need you to tell me everything you know about Drake Manning. Starting with anyone else who might hate his guts as much as you obviously do.”
WHEN ROSEMARY SAW Dex at the police station, her first instinct was to kick him. Her second was to throw her arms around him and hold on like they were the last two people on earth.
Her third was to kick him again.
“Where is she?” she asked, storming right up to him as he stood in the hallway outside the precinct’s coffee room. Rosemary had visited him here before, so she had a good idea of the layout. She turned toward the interrogation area. “In there?”
Dex took her arm. “She’s fine. Nick’s with her.”
“She needs a lawyer.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Rosemary smacked his hand away. “I watch Law And Order. You can’t hold her without a lawyer.”
“We’re not holding her at all,” he said quietly, trying not to touch her again. “We’re talking to her. She gave Nick some information that could help. I got word from the crime lab five minutes ago that they matched a fingerprint they found on Drake Manning’s cup to the same person Tanya mentioned. I think your friend’s in the clear, Rosie.”
Rosie. Oh, drat the man, why did he have to call her Rosie now when she was so angry and had all her defenses in place? God, it had been hard driving over here today after she’d gotten Melody’s frantic call. The last person she wanted to see was the man standing in front of her, looking so tired and so unhappy yet still so utterly desirable. Even now, when he ran a weary hand over his eyes, Rosemary’s heart flipflopped in her chest.
“Nick went back in to tell her he’ll take her home.” Dex laughed, though it sounded forced. “It looks like all this fuss over your friend’s list was a big series of coincidences.”
That distracted her. “What do you mean?”
“The person we’re focusing on didn’t have anything to do with Melody’s list. A fax came in yesterday from the detective in Atlanta who investigated the death of that golfer. He says the surveillance cameras outside the ladies’ room show the man was alone when he had his…accident. No foul play.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “So there’s no way the cases are connected. Not even to the chef with the meatball?”
“An accidental choking, just like we always thought.”
Oh, this was good news. Melody was going to be real relieved to find out she wasn’t some Typhoid Mary. Remembering one more thing, though, Rosemary frowned. “What about Jonathan Rhodes?”
Dex shook his head. “We’re not sure yet. That investigation is still open. But the more we look into the man, the more I’m convinced he was offed by one of his own clients. Or some ruthless business type he was trying to crawl into bed with.”
“Wearing women’s panties?” sh
e replied, unable to resist.
Dex laughed, his tense face finally easing into those familiar laugh lines. Those much-loved laugh lines.
Rosemary stiffened her spine and forced herself to think of the unlovable cretin who’d showed up at her door yesterday morning. “I’d better call Melody. She was going by to pick up Paige and bring her down here.”
He groaned. “Oh, please call off the cavalry. I don’t know if the precinct can handle all four of you.”
Glaring, she said, “You can’t handle one of us.” Then her hand dropped to her stomach. “Make that two.”
She’d expected Dex to react angrily, to turn back into that stiff-lipped man who’d handed her his ultimatum yesterday.
Instead, he did something much more shocking. Without sparing a single look around the station—which, though not as full as it would be on a weekday, was still populated by people—her big, strong cop dropped to his knees.
“Dex, what are you…”
“I love you,” he said, his voice unwavering. Putting his hands on her hips, he pulled her close, until his face was near her stomach. “I love your mommy. And I can’t wait to meet you.”
The world spun a little off-kilter, a crazy sense of dizziness sweeping through Rosemary’s body. Down the hallway, she spotted a few familiar faces but didn’t even think of taking her attention off the man kneeling in front of her, saying such amazing, tender, wonderful things.
“I want us to be a family, to be together,” he said. “But I realized I never even asked what you want. So I’m asking now, Rosie. Do you want me?” He reached into his pocket and dug out the ring he’d offered her yesterday. “Will you have me?”
She sucked her bottom lip in her mouth. “Do you really want me, Dex? The real me, warts, temper, bossiness, money and all?”
He slowly rose to his feet, stepping close to her so his face was only an inch from hers. His dear, tired face, now looking so hopeful, so full of love. “I want you any way I can get you, Rosemary Chilton. Please say you’ll be my wife.”
Over Dex’s shoulder, Rosemary saw Melody, Paige, Tanya and Nick watching with smiles on their faces.
It couldn’t possibly match the one on hers. Almost laughing with the sheer joy of it, she threw her arms around Dex’s neck.
“I’ll marry you, you big, slow Northerner!”
He cupped her face in her hands and tenderly touched his lips to hers, sealing their promise with a sweet, loving kiss. When they finally pulled apart, he didn’t let her out of his arms, as if he were afraid she wouldn’t come back. “Soon?”
She nodded. “While I can still fit into a gorgeous dress.” Then, wanting to make sure there were no misunderstandings, she added, “By the way, Dex, I’ve got one hell of a mortgage on that house. If we do this, it’s as partners. Fifty-fifty.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “On a Georgia detective’s salary?”
Rosemary grinned. “Sixty-forty. But you pay the phone bill.”
Dex rubbed his chin, pretending to think about it, looking so darned cute. “Oh, you drive a hard bargain, ma’am.”
“You’re looking at the best broker in Savannah,” she said, almost purring. “You don’t want to haggle with me, sugar.”
He stepped back and stuck out his hand, taking hers to shake it. “Okay, Miss Chilton, you have yourself a deal.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THERE WAS NOTHING like a chicken burrito and a margarita—or in Rosemary’s case, an ice water—to celebrate an engagement. And a pregnancy. And a get-out-of-jail-free card. Which was why Melody, Paige, Rosemary and Tanya met at their favorite restaurant that night.
They sat at their table. Served by their waiter. Toasting with their margaritas—and water. And feeling very much a foursome. Just like old times…except for a few updates.
“I still can’t believe you’re having a baby,” Melody murmured, looking across the table at Rosemary, trying to picture her friend heavy and round…a mother. A wife.
“Me neither,” Paige said. “You’re not exactly glowing. When is she supposed to start glowing?”
“I don’t know,” Tanya said, sipping her drink. “But she’s right, Rosemary, there’s no glowing that I can see. You look like crap.”
“Spoken like a woman recently released from jail,” Rosemary replied with a smirk.
“Bite me, Rosie, baby,” Tanya said with a sweet smile.
Ahh, heaven. This was what Melody had needed. What she’d longed for. Her friends…no, her family…together again. So why did she feel something was missing?
Or maybe someone was missing.
“Okay, Tanya, give us the condensed version,” Rosemary said, tackling the subject they’d all been dancing around since they’d sat down thirty minutes ago. “What happened between you and Drake Manning?”
Melody’s heart tightened for her friend, who suddenly looked so lost, so bereft. So unlike the strong, amazing woman they all knew and loved.
Tanya didn’t try to bluster or joke her way out of it. Instead, she simply said, “He hurt me.”
Three little words. But they held a wealth of emotion and heartbreak. Melody reached over and grabbed Tanya’s hand. Paige dropped an arm across her shoulders and hugged her, and Rosemary gave her a nod of understanding.
“After talking to Mel Wednesday,” Tanya explained, squeezing Mel’s hand back, “I decided to be the person I used to be, and go tell him off for what he did, instead of crying about it. So I went to the studio and we had it out in the parking lot Thursday night. Then I left and went to a hotel on the beach for a couple of days to be alone.”
That explained why nobody’d seen her.
“Are you…does it hurt?” Paige asked. “That he’s gone?”
Tanya thought about it, then slowly shook her head. “I’m not grieving, if that’s what you’re asking. I really had gotten over him in the two months since we split up. I’m not happy the man’s dead, but I can’t say I’m real broken up over it, either.”
Tanya sighed deeply, nodding and murmuring something to herself. Then, looking as if she were shaking off her sadness, she lifted her glass and drained it in one long sip. By the time she returned the empty glass to the table, she had a smile on her face. “Okay, enough about the dead dick with the big dick. Melody, I want to hear about your hot Time magazine hero.”
Paige nodded so hard her curls bounced. “Me, too.”
Tanya continued, “I have to say, if that man had used a few persuasive techniques on me, I’d have been confessing to giving stock tips to Martha Stewart.”
Reaching for some sour cream to put on her burrito, Melody chuckled. “He’s, uh…amazing. Wonderful.”
Paige sighed. Rosemary smiled. And Tanya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, but I want to know what he’s like in the sack.”
The restaurant owner, whose face had lit up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree when they’d come in, happened to be passing by at exactly the right—or wrong—time. He frowned, looking shocked by Tanya’s words.
Oy. Ricky the restaurateur really did have a thing for her. A serious one, apparently, because with one more disappointed look in her direction, the man walked out of his own restaurant.
“Come on, girl,” Tanya prodded, not even noticing. “Was it worth waiting six years for? Worth everything you’ve been through?”
Was it worth it? Oh, there was absolutely no question about that. Nick was amazing. The sex was phenomenal. Every hour they spent together was more magical than the last. He made her laugh and he made her crazy. He teased her and listened to her, bossed her and understood her.
Was Nick worth it? Yes. Most definitely.
Acknowledging that much wasn’t hard. But it did force her to confront something else. Something she hadn’t wanted to face, hadn’t wanted to consider. Something absolutely terrifying. “Oh, God,” she whispered, “I’m in love with him.”
Her three friends didn’t laugh or razz her. They all got quiet, probably hearing the dismay in her voi
ce.
“You weren’t looking for that,” Rosemary said softly.
She shook her head. “I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love again for the rest of my life.” Still almost dazed, she looked around at her best friends, seeing their concern. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was supposed to be easy, blameless. Not something that could hurt me.”
Paige leaned over and touched her hand. “He hasn’t hurt you, Mel, and maybe he won’t.”
“He wouldn’t want to,” she admitted, not doubting that for a second.
Tanya cleared her throat. “But?”
“But…if it doesn’t work out, I’m going to end up a wreck again.” She looked at Rosemary, who’d held out for what she wanted—what she believed was best—for herself and her child. “You were strong enough to know you’d be okay on your own. I don’t know if I’ve reached that point yet. And getting involved with Nick so soon after coming here, I haven’t had a chance to find out.”
It was true. During her life, she’d gone from being her mother’s cash cow, to Bill’s trophy. Moving to Savannah was supposed to be about not needing anyone. Not being used by anyone, ever again.
Yes, she’d begun to blossom into her new life, to reclaim her friends and her career and her own home. But she’d also gone and fallen in love with someone who could shatter her all over again. Someone who could already make her heart stop if he even innocently hugged another woman. Someone who demanded the right to protect her, when what she most wanted was to stand up for herself. “I don’t know that I’m ready for this.”
“You think it’s too soon after your divorce?” Paige asked. “Since it’s only been a few months?”
“Bullshit,” Tanya said. “We all know your marriage has been over for years, Melody Tanner. So don’t use that as an excuse not to go after something good.”
Something good. Something great. But something she didn’t know if she could handle.
“So this is the infamous place where brides and bridesmaids gather to write lists.”
