Blazing Summer (Darling Investigations Book 2)

by Denise Grover Swank

  It was obvious he hoped I’d bring back a new case, which I had no intention of doing.

  Probably . . .

  I grabbed my purse and flashed Dixie a tight smile. “We’ll reconvene at noon, Dixie.”

  “Of course we will.”

  Luke waited for me to walk out the door. I smiled to myself when I saw his truck parked at the curb about ten feet from the entrance—obviously Dixie had noticed him parking. He opened the passenger door and waited for me to get in.

  “You don’t want to go to Maybelline’s Café?” I asked.

  He gave me a devilish grin. “And be plastered on Sweet Happenings in the Briar before we even leave the restaurant? I’d rather have you to myself.”

  Maybelline’s runaway success with her gossip blog had encouraged her to choose a more “marketable” name (her words). The way Luke was watching me now, I suspected it was a good idea for us to steer clear. I had enough issues with the national gossip sites. I didn’t need to be on the local page. “Then where do you want to go?”

  I’d stopped in front of him, and he rested his hand on the upper door frame and leaned down so his face was inches from mine.

  “I was thinking my place.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t been to Luke’s house before, although I was certainly curious. He’d invited me over the night before my showdown with Cale, but I’d turned him down, saying I needed to get back to Dixie. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I was ready to sleep with him yet.

  “I make a pretty good hash-brown scrambler,” he said in a sly tone.

  “While you can put that away without a worry,” I said, “I put on five pounds when I was here last, and it took me all seven weeks to work it off.”

  “I can make you an egg-white omelet. I have some spinach and feta cheese.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “You have spinach and feta cheese? The meat-and-potato guy I spent a summer with?”

  “Hey, I grew up,” he said with a chuckle. “What do you say?”

  Butterflies took flight in my stomach. “I have to be back by noon.”

  “That’s plenty of time.”

  “Luke . . .” God, this was embarrassing, but I needed to tell him how I felt so there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding. “I’m not ready to sleep with you yet.”

  Surprise filled his eyes, and he stood up taller. “Okay.”

  “I like you.” I probably still loved him, but I wasn’t willing to admit it out loud yet. One embarrassing confession at a time. “It’s just that it’s been a while since we were together. I think we should take it slow. I know you suggested a fling last time—”

  “Summer,” he said in a husky tone, a hint of a smile at the corners of his lips, “I already told you that I was an idiot when I suggested that, and I also told you I was willing to accept whatever rules you set. If you want to take it slow, I’m good with that. In fact”—he placed a soft kiss on my lips—“I think it’s a good idea.”

  “Thanks for understanding, Luke.”

  “But we can still go to my place for brunch. I have no devious plans to take your clothes off.”

  Part of me was disappointed, but I’d made up my mind. “Okay.”

  I got inside his truck, shoving his duffel bag to the middle of the seat. When he got in the driver’s side, I said, “Are you sure you won’t get in trouble for skipping your conference?”

  “I paid for it out of my own pocket and took vacation time to go. We had to borrow a sheriff’s deputy to cover for me, so the city council will be happy to see that I’m back, especially since the officer we hired to replace Cale just started last week.”

  “Oh, you already found someone?”

  “He’s Mayor Sterling’s son, but at least he has an associate degree in criminal justice.”

  “How’s he working out?”

  Luke frowned. “Too soon to tell.”

  He drove past the police station and turned left two blocks later. My mouth parted in surprise when he pulled into the driveway of an old bungalow.

  “Your house is adorable.”

  He laughed. “Just what every man wants to hear.”

  I grinned. “I didn’t mean to call your masculinity into question.”

  “I can handle it.”

  I got out and walked up his front steps. “You have a porch swing.”

  Luke dropped his duffel bag on the porch as he turned his attention to unlocking the front door.

  “I’ve always wanted a porch swing.” I’d told him that multiple times when we were teenagers, sitting on the swing on his parents’ front porch.

  He pushed the door open and picked up his bag, as though purposely ignoring my statement. “Go on in.”

  Curious, I walked past him and went into his living room, surprised again when I realized it had been updated. The wood floor was refinished in a dark stain, and freshly painted built-in bookcases surrounded a redbrick fireplace. A TV hung over the fireplace, and a gaming system sat on one of the bookshelves, wires attached to the TV.

  “It’s clean,” I said with a grin. I recognized his furniture—it had belonged to his parents, but his cluttered high school room hadn’t prepared me for this degree of organization.

  “I’m not that seventeen-year-old boy anymore. I know how to clean my room.”

  One more reminder that we really were starting over. “It’s nice.”

  “It’s small, but it’s just me.” He walked through a door off the living room, and I saw a bed with a brown comforter. After dropping his bag on the bed, he walked out and motioned to the back of the house. “The kitchen’s this way.”

  I headed through a dining room with a table that was too small for the space, and into a small kitchen that hadn’t been redone. “Are you hungry?” I asked.

  “I’m starving. I left the conference before the breakfast was served.”

  “I feel bad that you left early for me.”

  He shook his head. “You shouldn’t. I left without one ounce of regret.”

  Luke got out a carton of eggs and the fixings. I insisted on helping and found a whisk. When I handed him the bowl of scrambled eggs, our fingers brushed, making my stomach cartwheel, and the look on his face said he felt it too.

  We made two omelets and brewed some coffee, and despite the sexual tension between us, it felt homey too. I was amazed at how natural it felt to do this with him. It gave me hope that we could actually work, but I tried not to let myself picture us playing house. Not yet.

  He studied me, and a smile spread across his face.

  “What?” I asked, then reached for my hair. “I know, it looks like I walked off a pageant stage, but I never thought it would get this big.”

  Laughing, he shook his head as he reached out and caressed my upper arm. “That’s not why I’m smiling.”

  “Then why?”

  “I can’t believe you’re in my kitchen.”

  “I can’t believe it either.”

  After we plated the omelets, we carried them into the dining room along with the fresh-brewed coffee. “So how’s your first day back to work goin’?” he asked as he set his plate on the table.

  I groaned. “Don’t ask.” I set my plate down and grabbed his hand, realizing I needed to warn him about one part of it. He’d been jealous of Connor before, so this would be a good test of how we were going to work out. “I don’t want you to be alarmed—”

  “It’s always a bad sign when someone leads with that,” he said with a frown.

  I took a breath. “I want you to know I had absolutely nothin’ to do with this, okay? In fact, I threw a fit when I found out, but it turns out I have no say in it, even if it’s my own TV show.”

  “Summer, darlin’, just tell me.”

  My breath caught. “You called me darlin’.”

  His eyes widened slightly, and he looked uncomfortable. “I used to call you that before . . . Do you not want me to now?”

  “No,” I said, warmth flooding through me. “You’re the only one who can call
me that.” He’d started calling me that as a joke. When we’d first started dating, he’d called me darling just to tease me, but something about the way he said it, long and husky, had sent a thrill through my blood. It still did. “I like it.”

  He graced me with a sexy smile.

  I couldn’t let him distract me. I needed to get this over with. “Okay, here it goes: Connor’s workin’ on the show.”

  “Your show? Darling Investigations?”

  I nodded. “This is Lauren’s payback for standin’ up to her. But . . .” My fingers dug into his hand. “We’re each workin’ our own cases, so hopefully I’ll hardly ever see him. I didn’t want this, Luke, but there’s nothin’ I can do to stop it.”

  He gave me a long look. “I’m sorry.”

  Ice ran through my blood. “What does that mean? Are you breakin’ up with me already?”

  His eyes shot wide-open. “What? No. It’s exactly as it sounds. I’m sorry you have to work with the asshole, but thank God you don’t have to deal with him much.”

  I stared at him in disbelief.

  “What?” he asked, pulling out the chair in front of my plate. “You didn’t think you were gettin’ rid of me that easily, did you?”

  I sat in the chair, slightly confused by his lack of reaction. “But Connor’s the reason we broke up.”

  Luke shook his head and sat down. “No. I’m the reason we broke up, but I’d rather focus on the future than on my past idiocy.” He picked up his fork and cut into his eggs. “How’s Dixie doing?”

  That was a weird question, given that he’d just seen her. “She’s fine.”

  “So she’s handling Trent Dunbar’s return okay?”

  I lowered my fork. “Wait. What?”

  His eyes widened. “She didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  His eyes clouded. “If she hasn’t mentioned it to you, then maybe it isn’t bothering her as much as I thought it would.”

  “I’ve been gone for weeks, and I barely had time to talk to you, let alone Dixie. It’s not the kind of thing she would probably mention on the phone, and I didn’t pull into the farm until late afternoon yesterday, so we didn’t get much of a chance to talk,” I said, although we’d spent more than an hour going through cases in her room, so that wasn’t exactly true. “It’s Trent Dunbar. Of course it’s a big deal.” Trent Dunbar was her first boyfriend, and he was with her when she accidentally started the barn fire that killed her parents and our grandfather.

  “I meant maybe she’s distanced herself from him. She never seemed to hold a grudge against him, and when I tried to charge him as an accomplice, she insisted it had only been her.”

  I stared at him in shock. “Luke, Dixie said she doesn’t remember how the fire started.”

  “That’s what she told me at first, but later she insisted she’d remembered something—that he had nothing to do with it.”

  “Why would she change her story?” I asked, but it was a stupid question. “Of course. To protect him.”

  “Trent Dunbar was never worth protecting,” Luke said with a scowl. “Typical rich boy who had Daddy bail him out whenever he got into trouble. Just like his older brother, Troy. Both boys were into drinking, drugs, and stirring up shit. And based on Trent’s recent record, he’s still a mess. He’s the one who supplied Dixie with the drugs and alcohol the night of the fire, but she would never accuse him of it. She refused to say where she got them.”

  And now he was back. I wondered if Teddy knew. He was liable to freak out when he found out about Trent. “Where’s he been that he just got back from?”

  “College, believe it or not. But rumor has it he never got his degree. Maybelline said he got into trouble with the law in Mississippi. I can’t find any recent arrests or convictions, but plenty of arrest charges were dismissed in Birmingham.”

  “So why did he come back?”

  “I hear he ran out of money, and his daddy insisted he come back home to learn the family business.”

  “Huh.” If I remembered correctly, Trent was the Dunbars’ only surviving child, and Dunbar Lumber was privately owned. Troy had died in a car accident a few years ago. Screwup or not, Trent would be his father’s successor.

  “My biggest concern is that Trent and Elijah were big buddies in high school.”

  “Your new officer?”

  “He and Trent went to school together, and they were on the middle school and high school football teams together.”

  “Well, crap. When did Trent come back to town?”

  “Last week.”

  “And Elijah started on the police force last week too?” I asked. “That looks mighty suspicious. It’s the perfect way to continue to cover up Trent’s bad behavior.”

  “I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so. Especially since the mayor and the board didn’t consult me about hiring him. They ramrodded it through. In fact”—he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket—“this reminds me that I need to make a quick call to the office. If you don’t mind, of course.”

  “Not at all.”

  He unlocked the screen and placed the call. “Amber,” he said after a few seconds, “I’m just letting you know that I’m back in town, so let me know if anything big comes up. Also, if you get any calls regarding Trent Dunbar, hand them over to me and not Elijah, okay?” He paused and made a face. “Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Text me the location.”

  “He’s in trouble already?” I asked after he hung up.

  “Yep,” he said with a frown. He shoveled a big bite of eggs into his mouth. When he swallowed, he said, “I really hate to do this, Summer, but I have to take you back to your office.”

  “Oh.”

  He must have picked up on the disappointment in my voice, because he looked down at his phone and shook his head. “No. I’m at least taking today off. I’ll get back to it tomorrow.”

  All I could think about was the asshole who’d given Dixie the drugs and booze that had ruined her life. He was back in town, and he was already causing trouble. I had to make sure he didn’t hurt her. “No. I want you to go. This is important.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m positive.” I stood and picked up my plate, then reached for his nearly empty one. “Do you need to change?”

  “Ordinarily I would, but I don’t want to take the time. Besides, the person who called it in knows me. She won’t care whether I’m in uniform or not.”

  I carried the dishes into the kitchen and set them in the sink. Luke walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my stomach.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispered into my ear.

  I sank into him and covered his arms with my own. “I’ve missed you too.”

  He slowly spun me around to face him, then his lips captured mine. The kiss started slow and tentative, but I slid my arms around his neck and pressed my chest to his.

  His arm tightened around my back, holding me close as his kiss became bolder. He lifted his head and gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. You want to take this slow.”

  “Yeah.” But I could already see how impossible that was likely to be. “We should go.”

  “You really don’t have to be back until noon?” he asked.

  “If you’re suggesting I stay here and wait for you,” I said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “No. I was thinking you could come with me. It’s not an emergency call. Amber said April Jean Thornberry reported some kind of incident involving Trent, but she wouldn’t explain it over the phone. I’ll see if she minds you being there while I take the report.”

  “Really?” I asked in surprise. “I wouldn’t think you’d want me around anything official.”

  A solemn look filled his eyes. “You were instrumental in Cale’s apprehension. I think that means you can watch me take a statement . . . unless you’d rather go back.”

  “No,” I said. “I want to go with you.” Especially since it involved Trent Dunbar.
r />   “Good.” He gave me another kiss, and an ornery look lit up his face. “Then you can run interference with April Jean.”

  I was suddenly questioning my decision.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  April Jean Thornberry lived in a mobile home on the east end of town on a plot of land off the highway. The mobile home looked like it had been there a few decades, and the junk around it looked just as decrepit. I couldn’t decide if it was a wannabe junkyard or a thrift sale gone awry. There was a mannequin under a tree wearing a boa around its neck; a few rusted musical instruments hanging from a scrawny artificial Christmas tree that was missing a few branches; and a riding lawn mower that had been painted black, red, and silver to look like a race car, with the number three and the words Dale Earnhardt Forever painted on the side.

  I didn’t have time to examine much else because a young woman walked out of the trailer as Luke pulled into her partially graveled driveway. She wore short denim shorts and a red halter top that showed off quite a bit of her ample breasts. Her blonde hair was bigger than mine, but her face was free of makeup. Not that she needed it. April Jean was pretty without it.

  Luke opened his door and called out to her as he got out, “Hey, April Jean. Amber told me you had an incident this morning.”

  “An incident?” she said from the top of the rickety steps. “Is that what you’re callin’ it?”

  I got out and stayed next to the truck as Luke walked toward her. “I’m not sure what to call it, April Jean. Amber didn’t tell me much about what happened, so why don’t you fill me in?”

  “That no-good Dunbar boy is up to his old tricks again.”

  “And which ones are those?” Luke asked.

  Her gaze drifted past him and landed on me. “Is that Summer Butler wearing a bad wig? Is she trying to be undercover?”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s the humidity!”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Am I gonna be on that reality show?”

  “No,” Luke said in a stern tone. “You definitely are not.”

  April Jean’s full lips formed a pout. “That’s too bad. I wanted to be on it.”

  An idea was percolating in my head, so I made a mental note to be sure to leave her a business card. Thankfully, I had a few in my purse.