I Do, or Dye Trying (Curl Up and Dye Mysteries,#4)

by Aimee Nicole Walker

  “I can hear you thinking,” Josh said.

  “Do I tell my parents now or wait until I know for sure that Jimmy killed Dylan?” I asked my husband.

  “What would you want to happen if you were in their shoes?” Josh asked me.

  I picked up my cell phone and dialed my parents in Miami. Josh pressed himself tight against the left side of my body then squeezed my knee comfortingly. The heat of his body and the slight weight of his hand was just what I needed when my words shattered my parents’ hearts all over again. Josh pressed his lips against my shoulder in a simple kiss when I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer.

  Josh led me upstairs after I was done talking to them and held me tight in the darkness of our bedroom. I knew there was no fucking way I was going to get any sleep that night. I was also just as certain that the sunrise the next morning would pale in comparison to the man who loved me.

  “My Sunshine,” I said, kissing his forehead.

  “Always.”

  “COME OUT AND LET me see you,” I said to Gabe through the bathroom door. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “I’m not coming out,” Gabe said, sounding more like a petulant teenage girl than a sexy stud. “I can’t believe I let you pick out the costumes for the party.”

  “You didn’t let me. That was your punishment for the asinine contests you and Dorchester set up again. Clearly tying you to the bed and fucking you stupid was only encouraging more stupid.”

  “Stupid is as…”

  “No, Gabe. Now is not the time to repeat movie lines like Savage and Sassy do to get out of trouble. You agreed to let me pick out the costumes, and you’re going to plaster a smile on your face when we go down there and kick some costume ass!”

  “Can I wear my real gun in my holster instead of the fake one you gave me?” Gabe whined.

  “No! Get out here.”

  Gabe opened the door so fast that I nearly stumbled in, but then I got a look at him and fell to the floor laughing. Gabe stood over top of me with his arms crossed over his broad chest. “I don’t know why you’re laughing at me. That wig makes you look more like Joe Dirt than James Crockett.”

  His ire only made me laugh harder. “That wig!” I said in between gasps of air. I’d gotten him a wig that was supposed to resemble the curly hairstyle of Ricardo Tubbs, but he was looking more like Lionel Richie.

  “I look ridiculous,” he said. “Can’t we just cut eye holes in the bedsheets and go as a ghost or something?”

  I stood up and faced my husband down. I was a firm believer in picking your battles wisely, and I discovered that I didn’t want to back down from him that night. “No!” I looked down at my white pants, pink silk T-shirt, and open white jacket. “I think I look damn fine in this outfit.”

  “You’ll look better out of it,” Gabe grumbled, but at least his humor was starting to return. He looked down at his double-breasted suit jacket and matching trousers that were like a suit Tubbs wore on an episode of Miami Vice.

  I pulled one side of my jacket open to reveal my cheap pleather holster and water pistol. “I’m still going to have a lot of fun if we don’t win.”

  “Hey, why don’t I get a water pistol?” The whining had returned to his voice.

  “You can play with my pistol once the guests go home,” I told him over my shoulder as I headed for the door. I had tons of things I still needed to do before our guests arrived.

  “By then it’ll be empty,” Gabe argued.

  That got my attention. “What kind of party do you think we’re having and where exactly do you think I’m going to be expending my cartridges?”

  Gabe’s phone rang before he could answer me. He looked at the caller ID and smiled broadly. “Now you’re going to get it,” he told me before answering the phone. “Hi, Mama. Josh is being mean again. He won’t let me have a water pistol.” Gabe smiled smugly at me as he listened to what she had to say. I rolled my eyes because there was no way Martina would side against me. “Yes, I’ll put you on speakerphone so Josh can hear what you have to say.”

  “Hello, my loves,” Martina said. “I’m happy to hear that you’re fighting over important things like water pistols and not boring crap like finances. I’m almost hesitant to intrude on the precious moment. Perhaps I should call back tomorrow.”

  “No!” Gabe and I said at once.

  “What’s on your mind, Mama?” Gabe asked.

  “I know you are planning to wait a year before you adopt your first child, but an opportunity has presented itself. You see, there’s a young woman in our neighborhood who is looking for a couple to privately adopt her babies.”

  “Babies?” we both asked in surprise.

  Gabe recovered faster than I did. “How many babies?” I nodded my head because it was a great question.

  “She’s having twins—a boy and a girl.”

  “We’ll take them,” Gabe said as if he was talking about tickets for a concert that were up for grabs.

  “What?” I asked in a near panic. “But our trip? Our plans? We aren’t ready.”

  “Josh,” Gabe said, his voice thick with emotion, “were you ready for me? Was I a part of your plan? We’ll move our trip up a few months and be ready when they get here.”

  Damn, but he was right. The best things in life were often ones you never saw coming. I saw the same hope and excitement in Gabe’s eyes that I felt bouncing in my chest with every beat of my heart.

  “We’ll call you tomorrow morning once we make travel arrangements,” I told Martina.

  “I’m so excited about being a grandmother.” Martina acted like it was a sure thing and I hoped she didn’t have her heart crushed if the woman chose someone else. “Even if it’s years instead of three months.”

  “Three months?” we asked her. It sounded to me like any road trips we’d be taking the next year would be done in a minivan instead of Charlotte.

  “We can do this,” I told Gabe. “Three months is plenty of time to plan for a baby.”

  “Two babies,” Martina reminded us.

  “Two babies,” Gabe and I repeated, sounding like our birds.

  “Lick my hole,” I heard Savage squawk downstairs.

  “Butt Breath!” Sassy repeated back.

  Our eyes widened, and our faces turned red because surely Martina overheard the birds repeating an exchange they learned from her son and me.

  “You have three months to get Savage and Sassy’s language cleaned up,” Martina said after laughing so hard she gasped for air.

  “Yes, ma’am,” we both said.

  “Have fun tonight, Hole Licker and Butt Breath. Wait until I tell Bertie about this one. She’ll have new T-shirts made,” she said before she hung up.

  I looked into Gabe’s smiling face and said, “I will not be called Little Daddy by my children.” Gabe threw his head back and laughed raucously. “I mean it, Gabe.”

  “Oh, Sunshine. I love you so hard.”

  Somewhere on a cloud, most likely over a rainbow…

  “YOU DID GOOD, BIANCA,” Georgia Beaumont said to me. “Did you know that Gabe would fall for my Josh when you slipped that potion in his drink?”

  “No,” I answered honestly. “I don’t even know if Gabe drank his coffee that morning, and even so, it might not have worked.”

  “What do you mean?” Dylan asked. Gabe’s brother was such a sweet young man, and I loved watching over the guys with him and Georgia.

  “Gabe had to believe that the spell was possible for it to have worked on him. I had no idea if he believed or not; I just knew I wanted to try,” I explained to Dylan. “Even if Gabe believed, the potion only made it possible for him to see his true love. It didn’t make him fall in love. As you saw, he still had to put in the time and effort.”

  “So, Gabe and Josh falling in love was all their doing and not the work of a spell, magic, or juju?” Georgia asked.

  “That’s right,” I said. “I was just responsible for the shattered mirror.”

&n
bsp; “Too bad you weren’t around to help me out,” Georgia said somewhat bitterly. “Then again, maybe it happened the way fate intended. At least they’re going to bring children into my home.” I didn’t bother pointing out to her that it was no longer her home, but their home. I thought she was going to have an angelic meltdown when they started remodeling the place, but she approved in the end.

  “Oh man, I can’t wait,” Dylan said. “Gabe is going to be an incredible father.”

  “As will Josh,” I said.

  We enjoyed the Roman-Wyatt’s Halloween party from up high. Dylan and I danced to the retro music while Georgia tapped her toes in time to the beat while she kept an eye on the activities below. Something good must have happened because she threw her head back and laughed boisterously.

  “I was going to say it was too bad you didn’t help the town vet with Josh two-point-oh there, but I can see that the strapping stud is taking matters into his own hands,” Georgia said.

  I peered down through the clouds and saw that Kyle had tossed Chaz over his shoulder and was heading toward the door. Chaz was wiggling to get loose, but the hunky vet slapped his hand sharp against the younger man’s leather-clad ass.

  “Get the popcorn ready,” Dylan said. “This ought to be good.”

  The End!

  Other Books by Aimee Nicole Walker

  Only You

  The Fated Hearts Series

  Chasing Mr. Wright, Book 1

  Rhythm of Us, Book 2

  Surrender Your Heart, Book 3

  Perfect Fit, Book 4

  Return to Me, Book 5

  Always You, Book 6

  Any Means Necessary, Book 7

  Curl Up and Dye Mysteries

  Fatal Reaction (Series Prequel found on author’s blog)

  Dyeing to be Loved

  Something to Dye For

  Dyed and Gone to Heaven

  Undisputed – coauthored with Nicholas Bella

  First, I need to thank my husband and children for their constant support and encouragement. It’s not easy living with a writer who often disappears into a fictional world for long periods of time. They do so many things to help me out so that I can realize my dream. I love you guys more than words can ever express.

  Many thanks go out to my three best friends, Anne, Deena, and Kerry. They’ve stood by me, cheered me on, picked me up, and held my hand through some really rough patches. I love you girls so very much. I wish everyone had friends like you because the world would be a much kinder place.

  To my creative dream team, thanks seem hardly enough for all that you do. Pam Ebeler of Undivided Editing thank you for your tireless work, feedback, and many laughs while editing. Wander Aguiar Photography for the incredible photoshoot that made these gorgeous covers and teasers possible. Jay Aheer of Simply Defined art is just an incredible artist, and I love how she brings my words to life. Stacey Blake of Champagne Formats is also an amazing artist who does incredible interior formatting and designing for e-books and paperbacks. Judy Zweifel of Judy’s’ Proofreading does an amazing job of finding the tiniest details that make a book shine.

  I would like to thank my beta readers for all the honest feedback they give me on my storyline. I appreciate you guys so much. Aimee’s ARC Angels are Anne, Kerry, Jason, Jodie, Kim, and Laurel. Thank you for all that you do!

  I am a wife and mother to three kids, four dogs, and a cat. When I’m not dreaming up stories, I like to lose myself in a good book, cook or bake. I’m a girly tomboy who paints her fingernails while watching sports and yelling at the referees. I will always choose the book over the movie. I believe in happily-ever-after. Love inspires everything that I do. Music keeps me sane.

  I’d love to hear from you.

  You can reach me at:

  Twitter - twitter.com/AimeeNWalker

  Facebook – www.facebook.com/aimeenicole.walker

  Blog – AimeeNicoleWalker.blogspot.com