by RB Hilliard
I was sitting on the front porch when Bobby and Tut arrived. They’d barely stepped from their car when the police pulled up. Might as well kill two birds with one stone, I thought as I led them through the carnage that had once been my music room. They agreed with me. This was personal. After answering their questions and receiving assurances that they would investigate further, the officers took off. By then it was well after lunch and I was running on fumes.
Bobby wanted to use the bathroom, so I showed him and Tut to their rooms. On the way downstairs, I stopped off in the kitchen and found Quinn making sandwiches. Her eyes lifted to mine and her mouth tilted into a smile when she saw me standing there. As gorgeous as it was, I saw through that smile. I saw the hurt in her gray-eyed stare...the hurt I’d put there by being an ass. Mandy deserved my anger, but this woman did not.
“I’m sorry. I was a dick. I would love it if you would take off work tonight and for all of us to do dinner together.” Her brows shot to her hairline and I couldn’t tell if she was irritated or surprised. Either way, it was funny to see.
“You were a total dick, but I appreciate the apology.” Her dry tone and blunt delivery turned my smile into laughter. Believe it or not, I could actually admit when I was wrong.
With the tray of sandwiches in hand, she headed my way. “And, I already called and closed Margo’s for the night,” she whispered as she breezed past me. I followed her, laughing all the way.
While Quinn passed the tray around, Bobby jumped right in. “The receipt was legit. Amanda James purchased a man’s gold wedding band, size 8, with a credit card issued to a Baxter Keen,” he explained. Quinn, who was sitting next to me, started coughing.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Swallowed wrong,” she wheezed. She made several hand motions indicating her need for water and bolted from the room.
“Does that name ring a bell?” Tut asked once she was gone.
I shook my head. “Never heard of the guy.”
“Baxter is a yuppie financial planner who makes a decent living, owns his own house, and drives a nice car. Mandy didn’t pop up until I searched his social media accounts.” I watched as he typed something on his iPad. Holding it out to me, he said, “Have a look.”
Shit. I didn’t want to see the guy my wife had been nailing. My eyes, however, seemed to have a mind of their own, because I suddenly found myself staring down at a middle-aged man with light brown hair and a weak chin. Baxter Keen looked nothing like me. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or offended by this.
“Look at the photos,” Bobby instructed. I clicked onto the photo section of the page and frowned when Mandy’s face popped up. As I slowly scrolled through picture after picture of my wife—all in various poses and smiling happily with her new boyfriend—I felt sick.
“Great, so you found the guy she’s nailing. How does this help me?” I asked, holding out the tablet for him to take.
He nodded towards my hand. “Keep going and you’ll see.” Doesn’t he get it? I don’t want to see.
As instructed, I continued with my search. It didn’t take long to find what he wanted me to see. In this picture Mandy was front and center, with her hand in the air, and her eyes fixated on her ring finger—a finger sporting what had to be at least a three-carat diamond ring. This would be two carats more than she’d gotten from me. The caption beneath the picture read, “She said yes.”
“What the hell?” I growled. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“Scroll back a few pictures,” Bobby instructed.
I scrolled back until I landed on what I thought was a wedding invitation, but as I read the words, I realized it was actually a save the date.
Amanda and Baxter are Tying the Knot.
Save the date 10.10.18 Las Vegas, Nevada
That’s a little over a month from now.
What game was she playing? This...picture, this whole damn situation, was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, seriously, had she lost her fucking mind? I tore my gaze from the iPad long enough to find Bobby and Tut watching me, both with expectant looks on their faces.
“She can’t do this,” I announced.
“She can if the divorce is finalized,” Tut muttered.
“I find it kind of convenient that it’s right on the heels of your appointed court date. Don’t you?” Bobby asked.
Tut nodded in agreement. “Hell yes, I do. If I was you, I would stall.” I didn’t want to stall. I wanted out, but the hell if I was handing my money over to that cheating bitch and her weak chinned loser of a boyfriend. Still, I felt like I was missing something.
“I don’t get it. If she wants money, then why break into Quinn’s house and not take anything?” I asked. “And how did she find out I was living here?” The few people who knew would never tell her.
Bobby frowned. “I don’t think this was about money. This was the action of a woman scorned.”
“Is she still calling you?” Tut asked.
“You know, now that I think about it, she hasn’t called since yesterday morning.”
“Before the break in,” Bobby noted.
“Maybe I should talk to her.”
“No, don’t. I feel like we’re missing something,” Bobby muttered.
“Same here,” Tut chimed in.
“I don’t like it either, but what would you have me do?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but if you give us more time, we’ll figure it out,” Bobby answered.
“Done. As long as you’re staying, I’ll need you to contact the guy who installed Nash’s security system. I want the best he has to offer.”
“What happens if we prove Mandy did that?” Tut asked, pointing towards the pool house. Oh, she’d definitely done it. Of that, I had no doubt.
“She pays for it,” I answered.
“You would actually press charges?” I could tell Bobby was testing my resolve on the issue. Cheating on me and planning to marry another guy, was one thing, but breaking into the place I was living, destroying my things, and scaring the shit out of Quinn, was entirely another. Call me heartless, but Mandy had crossed a line.
“I gotta say, this is some seriously fucked up shit,” Tut muttered. I couldn’t agree more.
Our conversation eventually drifted from my screwed-up marriage to their crazy friends from Charlotte. Bobby was in the middle of a funny story when we heard a knock on the front door.
“Got it!” Quinn called out, and that’s when I realized she wasn’t in the room with us. Now that I thought about it, she hadn’t returned after her coughing fit.
“Surprise!” a familiar voice shouted from the entry hall. What the hell? We all three stood as Olivia and Chaz stepped into the room.
“You are shit at checking your messages,” Chaz complained.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“You left so suddenly,” Olivia answered.
“Without telling anyone where you were going,” Chaz grumpily interjected.
Olivia shot him a scolding look before continuing, “Soooo, we decided to cut our trip with Grant and Mallory short in order to make sure you were okay and to see your new place.” Her hands flew into the air as she shouted, “Surprise!”
“Bobby, you dickhead!” Chaz roared at the same time.
Poor Quinn just stood there with a panicked look on her face.
“Hellooooo!” All eyes turned as Alex-Ann and Gretchen appeared from the kitchen area. “We’re here to see the hot meeen—” her voice faded the second she saw us all standing there. “Holy cowbells,” she whispered.
My eyes immediately shot to Quinn.
“Shit,” she mouthed, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Shit was right.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Friends In Low Places”
Quinn
I stood at my kitchen counter with my hands wrist deep in hamburger meat and panicked thoughts traipsing through my head. Alex-Ann, Gretchen, and Olivia chattered in the background.
I could hear them, but I wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying. My mind was literally spinning. Amanda and Mandy were the same person. The same person. How could this be? The woman Alex-Ann and I had made a game out of hating, was not only married to the man living in my house but was cheating on him with my best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Correction—was engaged to my best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Only, she couldn’t be engaged to him because she was still legally married! Bigamy might be acceptable in some parts of the world, but it sure as hell wasn’t here.
Patty meat squished between my fingers as my mind wandered to the sexy as sin man living under my roof. How in the blazes was a man like Evan Walker married to a woman like that? The Amanda I knew was meaner than a snake, and now, to learn that she was also a cheating hussy... This got me wondering if Baxter knew. Somehow, I doubted it. I thought of all the times that woman had sat in my bar drinking her fancy cocktails and flaunting that gaudy ring as if she’d won the lottery, when all along, she’d been married to another man. Not just any man, either, but Evan Walker. Was she insane? The man was a flippin’ rock star, for Heaven’s sake!
“Quinn?” Alex-Ann called out.
“Huh?” I asked, glancing in her direction.
“What’s up with you tonight? Olivia was talking to you and you’re like off in la-la land.”
“Sorry,” I directed at Olivia, while thinking that I seriously needed to talk to Alex-Ann. She was not going to believe this craziness.
Olivia smiled at me. “No worries. You have a lot on your mind right now. I was just saying that Chaz and I are happy to stay in a hotel.” Olivia, with her golden mane of hair, sleeveless T-shirt, and stylish jean shorts, looked as if she was born to be a rock star’s girlfriend. You would expect her to be all stuck on herself, but the woman was sweet as pie without a mean bone in her body. That just goes to show, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
“Don’t be silly. We have plenty of room, here,” I told her as I began forming the meat into patties.
“We,” Alex-Ann teased with a huge grin on her face.
I shot her a dirty look. “Evan lives here. I live here. That makes we.”
“Whatever,” she muttered, still smiling like a goof.
“So, you and Evan aren’t...together?” Olivia asked, sounding hopeful. She really shouldn’t be.
“No, but they should be. Their sexual chemistry is off the charts hawt,” Alex-Ann interjected.
“I hate to break it to you, but he’s married,” I stated, thinking that would shut the conversation down.
“Yeah, but he hates her and they’re getting divorced,” Alex chimed in...again. I gave her a look of warning. “What? It’s the truth,” she grumbled.
“He’s married,” I repeated more firmly.
Now laughing, Olivia said, “Evan is a great guy.”
“Not to mention hot as hell,” Gretchen remarked before downing her second glass of wine. Gretchen’s thick southern accent made words like hell and hot sound more like hail and hawt.
Gritting my teeth in annoyance, I placed the final patty in the dish and turned to wash my hands. I knew exactly who and what Evan Walker was. I lived with the man. I’d cooked for the man. I’d seen him in a swimsuit. I’d thought about him, dreamt about him, fantasized about him. I knew the man a hell of a lot better than they did.
“He totally has the hots for Quinn. She feels the same. She just won’t admit it,” Alex-Ann continued.
“For shit’s sake, Alex-Ann, give it a rest!” I exclaimed, and before anyone could respond, I was out the door and racing up the stairs. I knew exactly who Evan Walker was. He was everything I shouldn’t want. He was a tatted rock star, probably didn’t even own a pair of cowboy boots, talked all proper, and made fun of my southern twang. He was everything I shouldn’t want, but damnit...I did.
I flung myself onto my bed and let out a frustrated sigh. How he’d been married to that hussy of a woman for nine whole years was beyond me. Amanda was a rotten apple. Rotten to the core. Evan was—
My door suddenly swung open.
“I’m sorry, I pushed it,” Alex-Ann announced from the open doorway, “but you should see the way he looks at you.” The contrite expression on her face made me feel marginally better.
“He’s married, Alex-Ann. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about that anymore. Where is everyone?”
“The guys just got back from the liquor store and want to go swimming. Gretchen’s gone to get our suits and I just showed Olivia and Chaz where their room is. From the sound of it, they’ll be there for a while.”
“And everyone else?” I primarily meant Evan.
“They’re down at the pool house. Bobby was complaining about the police doing a shitty job of getting prints and wanted to collect his own, or something like that, and Evan’s helping him clean the mess up. The guy is freaking huge, and have you seen Tut’s eyes? Goooooorgeous,” she sang out. God love my sweet friend and her one-track mind.
I patted the bed next to me. “Close the door and come here. I have something to tell you.” I waited for her to get comfortable before telling her what I’d learned. When I got to the part about Amanda and Mandy being the same person, her eyes nearly bugged right out of her head.
“Shut the front door,” she gasped, her hand latching onto my arm for support.
In a voice low enough for her ears only, I shared what was bothering me. “She broke into my home and destroyed an entire room of Evan’s things simply because he took her car away. She’s been in my bar, like for months now, pretending to be someone she isn’t. She calls the man at least ten times a day and hangs up on him. And clearly, she thinks it’s okay to be engaged to one man while still married to another. I shit you not, Alex, the woman is crazier than an outhouse fly.” Voicing it out loud didn’t make me feel better. If anything, it only made it more real.
“Wait, did Evan or Bobby figure this out?” she asked.
“Bobby.”
“How?”
“The night Evan got the car back, he searched it and found a receipt for a man’s wedding band. Amanda had signed it, but it wasn’t Evan’s credit card number. He gave it to Bobby and Bobby traced it to Baxter. When he looked into Baxter’s social media accounts, guess who was front and center? Amanda.” I didn’t bother to tell her I’d eavesdropped, and that’s how I knew this last part.
“I should tell Evan.”
“No, you should not.” Her sharp response caught me off guard.
“But...I knew what was happening—” She cut me off before I could finish what I was saying.
“You’re that man’s safe haven right now, Quinn. If you tell him, you will just mess it all up. And think about it, what would you say? That you personally know Baxter Keen? That you’ve been watching his ho of a wife cheat on him for months now? That you were there the night she got engaged to another man, and even offered up free booze in celebration?” My stomach twisted with each word she spoke. She was right. I had done all of the above, but still, it felt wrong not to say something. Then again, what if she was right? I really, really liked being his safe haven. Shoot, if I was honest with myself, I would admit that I really, really liked him.
“Knock, knock!” Olivia called out. She stood in the doorway with her swimsuit on and her hair braided into pigtails looking like she’d just stepped off a runway.
“Girl, look at you,” Alex-Ann squealed. A pretty blush spread across Olivia’s cheeks as she laughed.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Chaz is already down at the pool and I think he and Evan are going to play for us. I didn’t want you to miss out,” she announced.
“Shit!” we both shouted and jumped from the bed.
While Alex-Ann went to find Gretchen and her swimsuit, I slipped on a bikini and pulled my hair up on top of my head. We all met back up in the kitchen, and with towels and food in hand, we headed for the door.
The hot August heat hit us the moment we stepped onto the back porch.
“Look!”
Alex-Ann exclaimed. At first, I thought she was talking about the music pouring from the pool house, but then I saw the firelight. Those sneaky boys hadn’t just gone to the liquor store. Torches, eight by my count, surrounded the pool, their flames reflecting off the water. Against the back drop of the brightly lit pool house and the dusky night sky, it looked magical.
“I love nights like these,” Olivia murmured as we made our way down the stone path.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped inside the pool house was how empty it appeared without all of Evan’s instruments and gadgets filling it. The second was the man seated behind the piano—a piano I thought was broken, but clearly was not. In a chair next to him sat Chaz, who appeared to be drumming away on what looked like oversized electric stove burners.
Evan’s eyes lifted from the keys. I watched as they slowly drifted down my body before settling back on my face. “You good?” he asked. The heat of his stare made me flush.
In an attempt to play it cool, I said, “The torches look nice.” His smile widened and my flush deepened.
“That suit looks better than nice.” His sexy deep voice all but made my ovaries explode with delight.
“Are we going to play, or are you two going to sit here all-night talking shit and eye fucking each other?” Chaz asked. Embarrassed beyond words, I turned and walked out.
“Dick,” I heard Evan say.
Minutes later, the music came to a halt. Not long after that Evan stepped onto the pool decking. He had his phone to his ear, but that’s not what held my attention. No siree, I was all about his tatted torso and those black swim trunks that molded perfectly to his lean frame. From the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one. Alex-Ann and Gretchen were practically frothing at the mouth. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to jump into the pool and dunk them both. Before I had a chance to execute that plan, Evan ended the call and his eyes met mine.
“That was the police. They said Mandy had an alibi.”
“Did they say who?” Bobby asked.
“She was apparently at a bar with her fiancé,” he answered. A gasp of surprise shot up my throat with such force that I had to bite my tongue to keep it from escaping.
