Fatal Fête in Cherry Hills
Page 7
“Hey, I was too focused on the fact I’d get to meet her.”
“Is she staying at your house?”
“No, Alyssa—that’s her name—booked a room at the Cherry Hills Hotel.”
“Alyssa,” Kat repeated, turning it over in her head.
Matty’s nose twitched as the bird finally took off. The feline tracked its progress into the sky, then turned her attention to inspecting the bushes again.
Andrew kicked a stone on the sidewalk. “Her train to Wenatchee should have gotten in late last night, then she was going to cab it to Cherry Hills. Did I tell you she’s from Boston? I guess people there are used to not driving anywhere. Anyway, she wanted to do lunch today, but I’m on duty until five. But I still want to keep this casual and not turn it into a big Saturday night affair. I was thinking of taking her to Jessie’s. It’s homey, relaxed, nothing unpronounceable on the menu. I don’t want this to feel like a big deal.”
“Not a big deal, right.” Except, in Kat’s opinion it was a very big deal. And judging by the uncharacteristic way Andrew was babbling on, he obviously thought it was a big deal, too.
That wasn’t a surprise given their history. Kat and Andrew had both grown up in foster care until they’d graduated high school close to sixteen years ago now. At the time, neither one had any siblings they were aware of. But that didn’t stop Kat from dreaming about a big sister to confide in, someone with whom she could share all her hopes and fears. Sometimes she’d wanted it so badly her yearning had left a physical ache in her gut.
And now Andrew was living her dream. Well, maybe not exactly, but close enough that she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy.
But this was about him, not her, she reminded herself.
“Well,” she said, smiling at him, “I think that sounds nice, even if I was kind of hoping we could get together tonight.”
She waited for Andrew to invite her to join them for dinner, but apparently her hint had been too subtle. “I’m meeting her right after I get off work,” he said. “I figure we’ll finish supper by eight at the latest. Then maybe you and I could hang out.”
“You mean like a debriefing.”
“I suppose you could call it that.”
Matty had grown bored and was now inching farther down the sidewalk. Kat and Andrew fell into step behind her.
“Well, sure,” Kat said. “I can do a debriefing. Besides, I’m curious to learn more about this mysterious sister of yours.”
“Me, too.”
Kat didn’t miss the quaver in his voice. She set her leash-free hand on his arm and stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “She’s going to love you.”
He gazed into her eyes. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
He grinned, twin dimples appearing on opposite sides of his mouth. He pressed his lips against hers, but the kiss only lasted a second before Kat felt the leash pull against her fingers.
She sighed and refocused her attention on Matty. The tortoiseshell had her nose tilted up, her whiskers twitching as though she smelled something. A bird or a dog was probably nearby, Kat figured.
She likely would have stuck with that assumption if she hadn’t caught a whiff of something herself at that exact moment.
She wrinkled her nose. “Do you smell smoke?”
Alarm flashed in Andrew’s eyes. “Something’s burning over there.”
Kat pivoted around, her heart lodging in her throat when she spied thick wisps of black ash rising into the air. It seemed to be coming from only a few blocks away—and it looked a lot more serious than a backyard barbecue gone wrong.
* * *
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Books in the Cozy Cat Caper Mystery series:
Book 1: Murder in Cherry Hills
Book 2: Framed in Cherry Hills
Book 3: Poisoned in Cherry Hills
Book 4: Vanished in Cherry Hills
Book 5: Shot in Cherry Hills
Book 6: Strangled in Cherry Hills
Book 7: Halloween in Cherry Hills
Book 8: Stabbed in Cherry Hills
Book 9: Thanksgiving in Cherry Hills
Book 10: Frozen in Cherry Hills
Book 11: Hit & Run in Cherry Hills
Book 12: Christmas in Cherry Hills
Book 13: Choked in Cherry Hills
Book 14: Dropped Dead in Cherry Hills
Book 15: Valentine’s in Cherry Hills
Book 16: Drowned in Cherry Hills
Book 17: Orphaned in Cherry Hills
Book 18: Fatal Fête in Cherry Hills
Book 19: Arson in Cherry Hills
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paige Sleuth is a pseudonym for mystery author Marla Bradeen. She plots murder during the day and fights for mattress space with her two rescue cats at night. When not attending to her cats’ demands, she writes. She loves to hear from readers, and welcomes emails at paige.sleuth@yahoo.com.