Bootscootin' and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-6)

by Scott, D. D.

  She was the real deal. A genuine beauty. And a genuine heart.

  Something else foreign to Sienna and her high-strung, conquer-the-Jones’ family philosophy.

  Jules leaned her head against his shoulder, and quickly brought his focus back to his new reality.

  “I told you, Sweet Man, I’m never going to get tired of you next to me. One of these days, someday soon, perhaps maybe, you’ll believe that.”

  There was something so intrinsically right about her body touching his in such a sweet, sincere and unassuming way.

  Seeing Sienna a ways across from the pool perched on a barstool, apparently drowning her pre-wedding jitters in vodka, a slight shiver descended Cody’s arms despite the warmer-than-usual December night air.

  He fitted his hat more securely on his head and pulled Jules closer to the side of his chest.

  His mind drifted back to, the last time he’d sat at this pool. A night, like this one, that was supposed to hold such promise for his life ahead.

  His nerves fought against the recollection.

  Damn he’d been a fool.

  The warning signs that his and Sienna’s relationship wouldn’t work had been so strong. Talk about major, big ass red flags. The things had cloaked him in impending dread. But he’d ignored them and kept marching into battle.

  Why had it taken him such a huge, unexpected jolt to put the pieces together?

  Sienna’s family stood for nothing he and his family believed in.

  She was no doubt a beautiful woman on the outside. But she hadn’t a clue who she was underneath her dangerous curves and barely-there dresses. She held fame and fortune in a higher place than love and devotion. And it appeared she always would.

  Cody may not have been able to recognize the clues back then, but he sure could now.

  And man did he pity the groom-to-be tonight. Cody had seen nothing to indicate Sienna loved the man she was about to marry any more than she’d ever loved him.

  Back then, Cody had thought he’d been rescued by Sienna. What a wealthy and gorgeous girl he’d hooked-up with, he’d often remind himself when his gut churned with a discomforting roil following her latest highfalutin antics.

  He’d prepared himself to accept her selfish, self-absorbed tendencies as the necessary evils of her and her family’s celebrity lifestyle.

  The stresses and strains inherent in the constant spotlight appeared tough to handle. He’d give the Cruz’s that acknowledgement.

  But that’s all the empathy he’d part with.

  In actuality, if he’d gone through with their wedding, he’d have been a prisoner in his own home, a hermit in order to escape the hideous glare of the public interest and obsession with his sex-kitten wife. With Sienna as the opportunistic heartless commander of his lost soul and unrealized happiness, he’d have been miserable.

  Even now, the hint of that eventuality chilled him with a raw blast of cold reality.

  He shook off the harsh memories, pulling Jules closer still, relaxing into the comfort he found holding her body against his. Nothing brought him more happiness and a sense of warranted duty than letting the world know she was his to take care of forever.

  After his and Sienna’s abrupt end, Cody had vowed to get over her quick. Since she’d refused to take into account his feelings regarding her actions and business deals, he wasn’t about to be consumed by her tasteless decision to pursue a Triple X career instead of their marriage.

  But even though he’d denied it ‘til now and tried numerous times to fool himself into believing it wasn’t so, he’d been stuck in his own misery ever since he and Sienna’s wedding bells had stopped ringing — stuck until Jules popped into his life and into his friends’ kitchen.

  Now, he wanted nothing less than to permanently bury the pain of his past along with his bruised pride and previously-pulverized heart. It was time he faced the music of his past and let it go. He wanted to move on and was finally ready to go beyond the heart-wrenching memories.

  He lifted Jules’ head off his shoulder then slipped his other arm around her too, letting her head rest square against his chest while he wrapped her in a giant bear hug.

  “That’s what I wanted, and needed, Sweet Man,” she said, looking up into his eyes.

  Her hair fell out of her elegant up-do into the sweetest, sexiest mess he’d seen.

  “I love hearing your heartbeat under my ear,” she whispered.

  The warm heat of her breath stirred his soul as well as every part of him below his belt.

  “You’re a funny girl,” he said, tightening his grip on what he wanted to be his for a lifetime.

  He could never hold her tight enough to soothe his fear of losing her to this mess of a world she catered for, but he sure as hell was about to give it all he had.

  “I love how you describe things that I can’t begin to put in words. I love how you look at life. You’re amazing, Jules. I love you so much.”

  Jules moved her toes in slow circles through the water, stirring up the pool like she did Cody’s insides.

  “You know what’s the most amazing part about us, Sweet Man? It’s that we’ve each found that someone to love who loves us back for who we are. Quirks and all,” she said.

  “Who said anything about me having quirks?” Cody loved teasing her and took comfort in her laughter and witty comebacks.

  “Oh you have ‘em. Trust me, Mr. Punctuality.”

  And he did trust her, with everything in him.

  “Better me late than you.”

  He laughed, loving their easy, playful banter.

  “I love you, JuJuBee. I sooo love you.”

  Responding to his good-natured tease with a throaty, sexy-as-hell giggle of her own, she then pinched a tiny roll buckling his midsection from one too many of her carrot cake muffins.

  “I love you more, Sweet Man.”

  “No you don’t. It’s not possible.”

  “Yes it is.”

  “Uhhh — no it isn’t.”

  “Whatever,” she said, splashing him with one quick flip of her feet.

  “You’ll pay for that later,” he said, reaching for her knee and applying pressure ‘til she squealed.

  “You promise?”

  “Oh, yeah, baby, I promise,” he said, knowing he’d make good tonight on the one thing that always set them both free from their pasts.

  Damn he’d love to have his way with her. Right now. By the light of the moon. In the pool. Without a stitch of clothing blocking his fantasy.

  But they had to finish-up with Cruella DeCruzville.

  And from the length of time Sienna had been courting the bartender and his Vodka supply, they had a bunch more to deal with than clean-up and a re-set for tomorrow’s wedding gig of the year.

  • • •

  To live fearlessly single, it took more than a couple of cocktails.

  It took finding, then accepting, then having the guts to live your personal truth.

  Jules now knew this.

  Apparently, Sienna didn’t.

  From the looks of things at the bar, their bride-to-be was attempting to drown her marital jitters and doubts. She’d certainly consumed a helluva lot more than a couple drinks to navigate one of her life’s big moments.

  For Jules, being fearless meant she’d dared to fall in love. Until Cody, though, her only rule had been not to go that route. Thankfully, she’d taken the risk.

  It didn’t appear Sienna had yet made that corner-turning milestone.

  Sienna no longer needed a barstool. She’d taken up residence on the bar top.

  Like a lioness stalking her next prey, she prowled the smooth surface on all four limbs. Purring like a hungry, stealthy jungle kitten, she staked her claim on the befuddled bartender.

  Help-me-now was stamped across his beyond frightened-looking face.

  “C’mon over here, you naughty boy,” Sienna teased, drawing her French manicured paws down the middle of the guy’s over-well-developed pecs and abs.


  Popping open one button at a time, Sienna stopped at the poor sap’s belt buckle.

  “Oh boy,” Jules said glad to see Aunt Tulip and Grams headed her way.

  “Who the hell does she think she is? Mae West?”

  Tulip tightened her fists into perfect round annihilators.

  From Jules’ recollections, not a positive body language display for a serious-practicing Buddhist.

  “What’s Mae West got to do with our impending disaster?” Jules inquired stepping in line between Tulip and Grams as they closed in on Sienna’s misplaced pride.

  “Oh, I got this one,” Grams said then cackled. “Mae West considered sex a misdemeanor. The more she missed, de meaner she got.”

  Tulip and Jules joined in Gram’s witty revelry.

  “Sienna’s hot country music boy-toy must not be givin’ her much. That or the panther she is doesn’t want what he’s offering.”

  “Well put, Grams,” Tulip concurred, quickening their pace as Sienna worked loose the bartender’s belt buckle.

  “You two are demented.” Jules suppressed a giggle, frightened to think the devilish duo could be right.

  She refused to bait them further for confirmation, though, knowing if they were right, Sienna’s second wedding would be a no-go too. Plus, Jules had a much bigger potentially combustible item joining their line-up.

  Which was worse, she asked her usually right-on conscience.

  The fact that Sienna was so out of control? Or the beyond un-nerving image of the Cruz’ weasel of a gatekeeper entering the jungle to save the family princess?

  Passing by the final table before reaching the bar, Jules grabbed a handful of the dark chocolate guitars she’d made.

  She unwound one of the hot pink foil wrappers and popped the morsel into her mouth, wishing for Dark Chocolate Diva strength to once again be her personal savior.

  “You best save the rest of those for our she-cat,” Grams snipped. “She’s gonna need somethin’ to soak up that liquor.”

  “Good idea.”

  Jules picked up the silver dish holding the chocolate and dumped the remaining pieces into her chef’s coat, glad she’d decided to throw it on to clean-up Sienna’s party aftermath. She wasn’t taking chances ruining her Raeve original dress.

  Over the steel of his bifocals, Diesel met Jules’ pensive gaze. His ace of spades, black evil pupils bore into her determination to see this event through to success.

  If he was daring her to do something to Sienna before he could cover-up for her pathetic antics then ‘game on’, Jules thought.

  No one was getting the best of Sweet Destiny’s first trophy night.

  Jules rummaged her jacket pocket for one more chocolate guitar. Better to indulge her tongue with something sweet then give into the bitterness coating her taste buds on account of The Weasel’s sinister stare.

  His pencil-thin lips spread into a messed-up smile, calling for a challenge to his presumption of authority.

  Sienna may be under his stewardship, but Jules wasn’t. And neither one of them — Sienna or her Ringmaster - were going to screw-up what Jules had accomplished here tonight.

  The Weasel reached the end of the bar first.

  But instead of swooping into save Sienna, he stopped and stood a silent guard at one end of the bar top, twiddling his bony, skeletal fingers.

  His mouth twitched like a rat about to score a huge chunk of Havarti.

  Sizing up Jules, Grams and Tulip, a mistaken sense of haughty confidence pervaded his wretched laugh.

  Good thing he did the snapping turtle routine and tucked his chin into the scary-thin hollow of his neck ‘cause Jules would fight her Aunt Tulip hard to be the first to chop it off.

  “Time to get our princess to bed,” he said with the sincerity of a pompous ass whose sole concern was getting his paycheck and pushing power buttons between direct deposits.

  “Fuck off, you arro-gant — over-paiddddd robot,” Sienna’s words slurred into a brilliantly insulting litany of too much, too late rebellion.

  “You may have ruled over me and my family too for years. And years — aaannnd years. But I’m tired of you, Dieselllll. Tired of alllll this.”

  Sienna flailed her arms in wide, over-dramatized sweeps, sending her last empty martini glass crashing to the faux marble floor covering the sod-perfect lawn under the tent.

  The room was momentarily locked into a remote-controlled-like pause while everyone adjusted to Sienna’s slam dunk against Diesel.

  Knowing it wasn’t within the guidelines of her loving kind ways, but not really giving a rat’s ass, Jules couldn’t help but feel an immensely deep, soul-touching pleasure at the horror framing The Weasel’s gaunt face.

  Jules reached for one of Sienna’s arms while Tulip went for the one closest to her and Grams.

  But Sienna escaped both their well-meaning efforts and made a sloppy, undignified at best move for the microphones vacated by her fiancée’s band.

  Jules started to go after her but felt Tulip’s steady and gracious hand hold her at arm’s length from going to Sienna’s rescue.

  “Let her get this out,” Tulip advised. “She needs this catharsis.”

  The only catharsis Jules was interested in was the one she’d have after this hellish party aftermath was finished and she was soaking in her tub, wine-glass half empty. Right now she simply wanted to pummel the bitch.

  Sienna cleared her throat then hiccupped. She swayed, unsteady on her feat, appearing dazed and blinded by the spotlights casting the stage in an odd glow.

  As if she were on camera, in some secret room of a reality TV show, about to reveal her new alliances before a cast-off vote, she looked around her with paranoia-propped, wide-open eyes that soon glazed over into a seductive dance befitting the siren she was.

  She moved her fingers in a provocative slide over her plentiful curves then stroked the mic stand as if it were something else entirely.

  “That’s right, I love my body. This is the reaaaal me. I’ve made these curves famouuussss,” she hissed into the microphone, followed by another hiccup.

  “So what if I chose a careeeeer over a man who luuuvvved me?”

  Jules swallowed hard, forcing the raw juices of anger to settle in her stomach instead of in the hands she’d like to be wrapping around Sienna’s throat.

  Her heart, dangerously increasing in rhythm watching Sienna make a fool of herself now beat an even stronger, deadlier beat thinking that this woman was once set to become Cody’s wife.

  Jules would not stand for her man to be a victim yet again of Sienna’s selfish whims. Sienna must be stopped.

  “The photographer made me feel soooo comfortable that day. I had fu-uunn,” Sienna gushed.

  “I’d only meant to do a few shots. Oh, and JuJuBee, that’s what he calls you, right? I was in Cody’s favorite bikini by the pool. But before I knew it, we’d moved the set into my bedroom. Which — could be fun too, right?”

  “The only thing that’s about to be fun, Sienna,” Jules said, taking the microphone out of Sienna’s hands, so wishing she could beat her with it, “is watching and waiting to see if you force the next guy to dump your sorry, wasted ass before you attempt to ruin his life too.”

  After hearing her words, Sienna covered her mouth with her hands, and slid to the dance floor where she stayed curled in a ball ‘til Tulip and Grams helped Jules set her on her feet.

  Now having a firm grasp on one of Sienna’s arms, while The Mom Squad flanked her other side, Jules searched the thinned-out work crew, hoping Cody was working on cleaning-up the barbecue pit and hadn’t heard Sienna’s open mic fiasco.

  Finally catching sight of him wrestling the barbecuer toward his truck, she relaxed her too-tight grip on Sienna’s arm.

  “Damnnnn, it’s about time you eased up. You’re hurrrrting meeee,” Sienna wailed, her voice so damn pouty and annoying Jules wished she could just slap her mouth shut permanently.

  Before she could entertain that rather
pleasant alternative, Roxy came storming at ‘em and took charge of Sienna, which meant, Jules harrumphed, that Sienna would have felt much better if Jules had gone ahead and bitch slapped her a good one.

  Another crisis averted, Jules shook off Sienna’s attack. But seeing Diesel the Weasel coming at her, she bristled, more than ready to take on another affront.

  Only she didn’t have to do a thing.

  The Mom Squad took off after him.

  And the last thing Jules heard was Grams’ shrill shriek, something to the effect, “C’mere you cowardly fuck! I’m not done with you either!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jules sipped from one of the two drinks Roxy had made for each of them, loving that her best friend never approached anything with subtlety or reserve.

  Life to Roxy was all about two-fisting everything. And sometimes, like now, Jules thought she was probably right.

  Letting the rum sit on her tongue, Jules enjoyed the sweet mixed with the bite of the Kahlua and creme.

  Still not sure how they’d pulled off every single Cruz event with finesse and fun beyond fabulous-ness, she raised her glass to make a toast.

  “To the best gal pals a girl could have,” she said, almost overcome by emotion.

  Sucking it up, thinking the drama of the last month was enough and wanting to end the year with nothing but fun and unfettered spirits, she continued, “To Audrey, always the perfect lady. And to Roxy, never a lady. Thank you for always being there for me. I love you both so much. Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas, bitches,” Roxy clinked her glass to Jules and Audrey’s glasses then blew them kisses.

  “Merry Christmas,” Audrey said, laughing and shaking her head at Roxy’s oh-so-sentimental ways.

  She set down her glass on the coffee table without taking even a sip, Jules noticed. Seated on the sofa in the middle of them, she looped her arms through theirs then rested her hands on her tummy.

  As they soaked in the moment, with the fire blazing, the Christmas trees lit, every candle in the house burning, and the rest of the family due to arrive in a little less than hour, Jules couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate Christmas Eve.