by Abby Knox
“I was wondering if you could help me find some documentation,” Misty said. “Birth records, death certificates, property deeds. Maybe even a possible restraining order, from 30 years ago. The clerk of courts is making life difficult.”
“Sure, but tell me what you’re researching,” the judge asked.
“I’m looking for the real cause of death of my aunt Eliza Moon.”
The judge looked surprised, but not put off, the way some others in town behaved when she brought up the idea. “I can get you the documents, but finding out anything new in the case is dead end, as it was ruled a suicide.”
Misty swallowed and shored up her courage. “I know it was. But I don’t believe she killed herself. I believe she was murdered.”
Judge Diamond pressed her opposite fingertips together and spoke carefully. “The two bullet wounds?”
Misty was trying her best to hold back her emotions. “Yes. And the newspaper had nothing but a pitiful excuse for an obituary.”
The judge cast a curious glance her way. “Have you spoken to anyone at the newspaper yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“They may be able to shed some light.”
Before she left, the judge told her, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you. But please, be careful.”
Misty had one more stop to make before going home for the night.
As they parked in front of her house, Ryan and she argued over what she was about to do, because she wanted to do it alone.
“And another thing,” he said.
“What?” she asked. She could see he was irritated, but it was in an incredibly sexy way.
“Your idea about waiting until after the fall festival to try dating? Fuck that. You’re my girl. I’m your guy. Dating sucks. So let’s get to the good part and just be together. And I don’t mean just ‘fuckin,’ as you put it.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes shining a little bit.
“And I want you to stay the night tonight at my house,” he added.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because after this I need to go over my list of names again and make some phone calls.”
“I would like to help you,” he said.
“It’s something I need to do alone.”
He looked at her strangely. “Why?”
“Because if I have a caveman on my tail at every turn—albeit a sweet and super-hot caveman—the bad guy is not going to show himself. I’m trying to smoke him out.”
And with that, she insisted he wait in the truck while she knocked on her neighbor’s door.
“I don’t like this. I should come with you,” he said as she opened the passenger door.
“I know,” Misty said. “But if you’re hovering around me, the bad guy will never surface.”
Ryan growled and waved her on while saying, “Go on then, but just in case I wasn’t clear: I do not like this.”
When the neighbor in the house next to 666 Main Street answered the door, Misty introduced herself.
“I was wondering if you could answer a few questions. I’m new to town and I’m investigating the death of my aunt. She lived next door.”
“Yeah.” The gruff man looked to be about 60. Surely he would remember her aunt.
“I was wondering if you could tell me how long you’ve lived in this house.”
“You a cop?”
“No.”
“You a private investigator?”
“No. I mean, I’m a private person and I’m investigating a crime,” Misty said, trying to summon a smile.
“But you're not licensed?”
“No, I’m not.”
“I see.”
Misty waited, but he seemed to be waiting on her to continue explaining herself. “So, could you tell me? Were you acquainted with anyone who frequented this house in 1983?”
“No, I was not,” he replied, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Do you know anyone who might have been?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why are you asking?”
“I was wondering if I could speak to whoever might have been friends with Eliza at the time of her death,” she said.
“Why?” he asked. Boy, was he a barrel of helpful.
“I’d like to interview any possible witnesses to the crime.”
He blurted, “That was a suicide. Only crime was in the eyes of God.”
Wow.
“That’s the thing,” she said. “I don’t think it was a suicide.”
“What makes you think you could do a better job than the cops?”
Misty shook her head. “I didn’t say I could. “
“Then why don’t you let them handle it?”
She was trying very hard not to punch this guy in the face. “Well, they did and it was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner at the time. Can I ask you why it’s bothering you so much that I’m looking into this case?”
He cleared his throat and said, “Because women who invite men over to their homes in the middle of the night pretty much get what they deserve.”
Misty should have expected running into this kind of attitude in Middleburg. Lucille never had anything good to say about the town. But it still made her take a step backward in shock.
“Excuse me? A grown woman has a boyfriend and she deserves to die?”
“God’s judgment, not mine. And if she killed herself, doubly so.”
“Holy fucking shit,” she said, exhaling, studying this man’s face to figure out what had happened to his inner child to make him such a wretched human being.
He glared at her. “I’ll ask you not to use obscenities on my property. You can go now, miss.”
“It’s Ms. Moon,” she said.
“I wasn’t asking.”
16
October
Ryan
All four couples assembled around Ryan’s huge farmhouse table, going over the plans for the fall festival, which was now three weeks away.
It was a crisp, fall evening. Everyone was in high spirits, laughing and joking and having a blast, sharing little inside jokes about getting caught skinny dipping in the Clays’ pond. The teenagers was entertaining Caroline and all of the Clay children on the wrap-around porch.
But Ryan could see that Misty was only half-smiling as the meeting carried on. Something else was on her mind.
He hoped she hadn’t been upset with him over all the work he’d taken upon himself to do at her house over the past couple of weeks.
He had been trying to give her the space she needed. For his part, he had been spending all his days either working on her house or at Lowe’s gathering supplies. Primer and paint, brushes, rollers, a few two by fours to replace rotted wood in the porch, installing a back deck. And the biggest surprise of all that was yet to come, a set of French doors that would open up the awkward dining room addition on to the back deck.
He knew it was over the top. He knew he had been so busy trying to help her that perhaps she wasn’t getting the attention she deserved.
He watched her carefully, but she was avoiding eye contact with him.
This would not suit him at all.
He bore his eyes into her until he could see the red flush crawl up her chest and neck. She knew he was staring.
Finally, she glanced up and he stared back intensely.
He mouthed the words, “What’s up?”
Her eyes widened, her cheeks reddened. She shook her head. As if to say, not now.
Ryan was not having it. He held her gaze and then gestured toward the hallway.
17
Misty
Oh my god, he’s telling me to follow him to his room right in the middle of a meeting.
He was going to break it off with her.
She’d been distant since that moment on her neighbor’s porch. The creep factor took a toll on her. She had ramped up the pace of her attempts to conduct interviews in the community.
One after one she was turned away: the former s
heriff, the former medical examiner, the 9-1-1 communications office, and now the judge wasn’t returning her calls. The newspaper editor told her suicides were not reported in detail in the paper, as a rule.
Her head had been buried so deep in trying to come up with answers she had been neglecting Ryan. This was exactly why she had wanted to wait until after the festival before dating. She had hoped her investigation would be concluded by then.
So now, she supposed, he was doing the gentlemanly thing by telling her up front, in private, before things got too serious, that they couldn’t see each other.
Good, she thought. This is a good thing. The merciful thing to do.
He then stated to the group, “Excuse me, I just remembered I have to go make an important phone call. I wouldn’t do this to you all in the middle of a meeting except it’s about my mother’s estate.”
“Oh no! I hope everything is OK.” Remy said.
“It’s fine, I just have to tie up some loose ends with her lawyer, that’s all.”
He dashed out before anybody else to ask any more questions.
Smooth, Misty thought.
She waited five minutes and lifted her phone to her ear when it rang, pretending to be surprised. Of course, it was Ryan phoning from his bedroom. “I’m so sorry, everyone. I have to take this.”
18
Ryan
As soon as Misty’s body crossed the threshold of his bedroom door, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside. He closed the door and locked it.
“Ryan!”
“Misty,” he said, smashing her body against him in a tight embrace. His lips found hers and she actually seemed surprised.
She gasped. “Ryan,” she whispered when he finally let her come up for air.
“What is it, beautiful?”
“What did you need to talk to me about?” she said between bouts of kissing and groping.
“I can’t stand another second of not being inside you. Being across the table from you is torture. Everybody talking about skinny dipping and getting pregnant … I couldn’t hold back another second.”
He felt her skin erupt in gooseflesh as he began to devour her neck. His hands trailed down over her ass and he let out a hungry moan.
“I thought you were bringing me in here to tell me we couldn’t see each other anymore,” she said.
Ryan pulled back then. “What do you mean? Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know. You’ve been working so hard at the house, and I thought maybe you’ve had time to process what it’s going to take to be with me. When I’m on a mission, sometimes I neglect my relationships. And … I also wondered if you were regretting me encouraging you not to use a condom.”
Ryan backed up and was quiet for a second. He rubbed his face and lost himself in thought.
“I’m such a fucking ass,” he finally said.
“No, you’re not.”
“Shit.” He stepped toward her and brushed his fingers through her hair. “Misty Moon, I’m totally, completely, 100 percent into you. Really into you. I can’t stand the idea of not touching you. You’re a passionate woman about everything you do, and it’s ridiculously fucking hot. I don’t mind if you’re not in the mood for sex because of what this investigation is doing to you.”
“Oh,” she said, biting her lip. “So you’re not regretting what we—”
He interrupted her up with another deep, soft, wet, hot kiss. She melted in his arms and softened her shoulders. Her body nestled into him as his hands caressed the small of her back, her ass, up to her ribcage and the sides of her breasts.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but again, he was covering it with his.
“God, I love that sweet mouth,” he said in between kisses.
His hands grew more urgent, pulled at her clothes, caressing her bare abdomen under her tee-shirt.
“Ryan, we have a meeting.”
“Just five more minutes.”
“They’re going to know something is up.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “They’re not going to judge. Every single one of those couples out there went from zero to 60 in ten seconds the moment they met, and started having babies immediately.”
“Ryan,” she whispered, placing her hands on his chest. “Stop making me want you so bad right now.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll never want to leave Middleburg.”
He growled and picked her up and brought her over to the bed. “Lie on your side.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Claim you.”
Shaking with anticipation, she lay on her side.
He crawled in behind her and spooned her, caressing her hair out of the way and suckling her earlobe.
“Thank you for wearing a skirt. Means I can fuck you a lot faster.”
“Ryan they’re going to hear us.”
He tugged her panties down and buried his fingers in her folds.
Misty gasped and bit down hard on her lip. But she urged him on by spreading her legs open. She angled her top leg backward and hooked it around his legs.
Ryan cradled Misty’s head with the crook of one arm, using that hand to explore her soft mounds. His other hand plundered the depth between her legs, taunting her tight little button that was as hard as his cock had been for two weeks.
“Oh my god, Ryan.”
“You’re mine, do you hear me?”
“Yes,” she squeaked.
He stroked her clit up and down, side to side, punctuating his massages by sinking one, two or three fingers deeply inside her. Her folds were the perfect place for his hands.
He rubbed and caressed and teased. It was delicious seeing her curves in the light and watching her body respond to him. It was strange and delicious and intimate, the fact that an entire room full of people down the hallway knew exactly what they were doing in here. Or, probably had a vague idea.
“I love the sweetness between your legs. I love knowing that’s how wet you get for me.”
She reached her left arm behind her and fumbled around for his cock.
“Not now, baby girl. Just you. I’m just going to pleasure you and leave you a taste of what’s going to happen later.”
“What’s going to happen later?” she said.
“More of this, but slower, and with my mouth,” he replied.
He flicked her clit one more time and she suddenly erupted in a full-body orgasm. Her back arched, her pelvis rose up, her pussy clamped down around his fingers.
“Oh my god,” she nearly shouted. She had to reach out and grab a pillow to bite down on to keep from crying out loud.
He smiled down at her expression, like a woman floating in another place. A happier, calmer place than where her head had been during the meeting.
Ryan was going to spend the rest of his life making sure she didn’t have to hold back her cries of pleasure.
By the time Ryan and Misty returned to the meeting, it was no longer a meeting, but a massive dinner around the table prepared by the Clays.
“What did I miss?” Ryan asked, stepping into the room where everyone digging in something that smelled amazing. “Are those my casserole dishes?”
“Yeah,” Remy said. “We found them in the cabinet, and they looked like they were never used before.”
Maggie chimed in while she and Jackson were serving the food to all the kids. “Well, they’ve all been used now. The troops were hungry. I hope you don’t mind, I rummaged through your pantry and fridge. I managed to pull together a couple of baked pasta dishes.”
Ryan was amazed. “I could have just ordered pizzas for everyone.”
Maggie waved him off. “I’ve seen what you eat, this is better for you.”
He was going to respond, but Jackson intervened. “Don’t even bother. If Maggie wants to feed you, just let her.”
“Besides, you need to start taking better care of yourself and stop eating like a single dad, for Misty’s sake,” Remy said
with a sneaky smile, cutting up Caroline’s food.
Ryan tried to look like he didn’t know what she was talking about, but then Misty entered the room. She was greeted by knowing smiles from everyone except the kids, who thankfully had no idea what was going on.
Misty looked self-conscious. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t feeling well. What did I miss of the meeting?”
Elly laughed. “Absolutely nothing. What did we miss while the two of you were having your meeting, is what I want to know.”
Misty and Ryan exchanged looks. “Guess the cat is out of the bag,” he said with a shrug. His woman looked thoroughly embarrassed, so he sidled up to her and wrapped her in a bear hug.
“Oh god,” she said. “Everybody knows now.”
“Oh honey,” Maggie said, finally sitting down to eat, “We’ve known since the day Ryan took off after you down the street. We’ve just been enjoying watching you guys pretend there’s nothing going on.”
Nobody seemed put out that he and Misty had missed half of the meeting, and truth be told, Ryan was starving. He was grateful for a home-cooked meal, for once.
Throughout dinner, he could tell Misty was feeling a bit vulnerable about everyone knowing their business. So, after everyone left, they talked it over while doing the dishes. The talk continued into a nightcap, with wine, cross-legged on the porch swing bed.
“I have no regrets about that first time we had sex. I should have said it sooner. It was the most amazing night of my life,” Ryan said, matching her vulnerability with full disclosure. “And don’t feel weird about egging me on to keep going. It was incredible fucking hot and I wouldn’t change a thing. I didn’t want to pull out anyway. I want you in my life. I want you to stay. And I also want whatever — or whoever — might make an appearance later on as a result.”
He reached a hand over and stroked her lower belly. Misty smiled. “Well, I’m not pregnant. So, no worries.” She sipped her wine as Ryan studied her.
She was holding back again. He reached over and took the glass of wine, setting it down on a side table. “What is it,” he said, taking her face in his hands.
