Teased to Death (Misty Newman 1)

by Gina LaManna

  Why on earth would he want my sunflowers? Until now, his unrequited crush was flattering at best, annoying at worst, but this was one step too far. Nobody took my sunflowers.

  I shut my lights off and locked the door, thinking maybe it was time to get some cameras installed in this joint. These little surprises were getting old. What I'd give for a nice, normal day.

  To cheer me up, I decided to treat myself at Sweets. Some conversation with Donna plus a handful of licorice ropes were exactly what I needed to get my happiness level back up to where it'd been before Alfie'd stolen my flowers.

  "Hey, there's the little sexy teacher," Donna called as I walked into the store. A tiny bell jingled, and the warmth of the store combined with the ooey-gooey delicious smell of fudge immediately boosted my happiness level by five points. "How was class?"

  "It was great!" I grinned. "Six licorice shoestrings, please. I'm treating myself."

  "On the house," Donna said, pulling apart the strands. "We had a few customers stop by after class. It turns out your sessions are good for business. Dancing makes folks hungry. Plus, they all raved about the class. You've got a six-week session coming up next, huh?"

  "Yes, things are working out." I sucked on the edge of one licorice rope. "What'd they say, anyway?"

  "Oh, you know. Only that you're bringing the hottest thing to come to Little Lake since swing dance."

  I allowed myself a huge smile. "It was really a great day. And do you remember Sarah?"

  "Sarah…your sworn enemy that moved back here a while ago?"

  "Yeah. Well, she's not my sworn enemy anymore. In fact, she's actually supernice, and she signed up for my six-week class. She's a natural."

  "That's great." Donna's smile seemed frozen in place.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing," she said, quickly.

  I paused. "You're not jealous, are you? I mean, she'll never take your place as my best friend. It's just nice to have one person in class that actually can move to the beat. She's also positive, which helps offset some of the weird stuff Mrs. Jenkins says."

  "Oh, of course. And I heard about that. Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine. Actually, that didn't bother me as much as Alfie stealing the flowers from my desk after class."

  "That turd. Why would he do something like that?"

  "Beats me." I leaned on the counter, swallowing the last of my candy. "He's been making little passes at me, so maybe it's some weird thing related to that."

  "Sounds like you have a secret admirer." Donna winked.

  "No, no…he's just not over our kindergarten fling on the playground." I laughed—Donna knew the story well. "Plus, who 'secretly admires' someone while driving a cop car?"

  "He had his cop car here?" Donna peered over my shoulder once more.

  "Oh, I thought it was his sitting out front of Sweets. I thought he might've stopped in here, actually. Am I wrong?"

  "That's not Alfie's cop car," Donna said, still looking over my shoulder.

  "Whose is it then?" I turned to see what on earth Donna was staring at.

  "Uh…nothing," she said, all too late.

  Because I'd turned around just in time to see Sarah, my sworn enemy, lean up on her tiptoes and kiss my high school sweetheart on the lips.

  "Jax," I breathed.

  "Hey. Hey, earth-to-Misty, are you okay?" Donna asked.

  "Yeah, I'm fine." But my voice came out more than a few pitches higher than normal.

  "You can talk to me about it."

  "What's there to say?" I pried my eyes away from Jax and Sarah. He had one arm wrapped around her waist, a hand situated too close to her rear end for comfort, or at least my comfort, and his lips were completely intertwined with hers. "I'm going to be an adult about this."

  Donna's eyes followed me as I reached for more licorice and began taking huge bites of the multicolored rope. Her sympathetic gaze was more than I could handle.

  "It's fine. I was just telling you how nice of a person she is. It'd be very immature of me to change my mind only because she's dating my ex."

  Donna pursed her lips, watching me shovel more licorice into my piehole.

  "Fine," I said, letting my breath whoosh out. "I'm upset. I'm frustrated, but it's stupid, and I realize that."

  "It's not stupid. You're allowed to still have feelings for Jax."

  "I don't have feelings for him. You told me already that he had a girlfriend."

  It was catty, but I couldn't help but feel a little betrayed. Donna knew about my rivalry with Sarah, and all she'd said was that Jax's girlfriend was a b word. She could've at least given me a heads up.

  "I know this looks bad," Donna said, "but I didn't know he was dating Sarah, or else I would have told you. Honestly. Three weeks ago, Jax was dating a different blondie whose chest was larger than Albert Einstein's brains. All of his brains put together."

  "That's a lot of brains," I said. I glanced up at her, somewhat relieved for a few reasons. First, because Donna hadn't betrayed me. I mentally kicked myself a bit. Never should I have doubted her friendship. But second, I was relieved because that meant Jax and Sarah were a new, hot item. And statistically, there was a decent chance they'd break up.

  I shook my head. "The problem is that she's nice. And she's cute and funny, and there's frankly nothing mean about her anymore. At least not in my class. Dang it!"

  "What?" Donna looked alarmed.

  "She's a really good dancer too." I threw my hands up. "I can't believe I just gave advice to my archenemy on how to seduce my former boyfriend. That sucks."

  "It does." Donna placed her hand over mine, which happened to be reaching for the licorice jar once more. "This calls for more. Froot Loops."

  I grinned. "You know how to make a girl feel loved."

  "I'm kidding. Come over and eat dinner today. It's my evening off. Bring your sister—she can play with the kids. It'll be fun."

  "Actually, that sounds awesome. I haven't eaten much besides sugar and coffee these past few days. What should I bring?"

  "I just told you." Donna winked. "Your sister. And your appetite. I'm having lasagna."

  "I'll see you." I tossed a few bucks on the counter and headed out the front door. Jax had swooped Sarah into his cop car, I supposed, when my back had been turned for a few moments.

  Better that way, I thought. My stomach couldn't handle seeing any more kisses between the two of them, and I definitely didn't want to come face to face with their relationship. I was fairly certain my vocal chords wouldn't work all that great under those circumstances.

  My plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening didn't consist of a whole lot of exciting stuff. I'd finished my emails and class plans at the office, my meals for the week looked like they'd be heated from a can in the microwave, and the television looked as if it'd be my best friend after Donna's house. With nowhere to be, I figured now was a good time to swing by Al's to get my errand out of the way.

  Al's was between Sweets and my home, and it was a run-down "convenience" store that sold everything from butter and milk to bullets and hunting knives. I browsed somewhere in between—the BB gun aisle.

  "Do you have any pellets, or bullets, or whatever they're called?" I asked Al.

  Al's whiskers twitched excitedly. "Which sorta gun? This for your sister? Your brother sent for her gun the other day. Ordered it from here all the way from Montana. I was tickled."

  Al didn't understand the internet. He wrote receipts by hand, accepted cash only, and was of the mentality that cell phones and computers were absolutely no-good, useless machines.

  "Pellets for whichever gun he got her, then. I'm taking her shooting on Friday."

  "You going down to Saddle Ranch?" he asked. Al was short, stout, and blunt. His hair looked as wiry as a scrub-brush's bristles, and the gray strands poking from his ears looked like pipe cleaners. He had more wrinkles than a fat bulldog, and it was clear he'd lived in an era where sunscreen hadn't been a priority.

  "This
here's your best option," he said, holding out a box. "Thing can go straight through a squirrel if you get 'em at their softest part."

  "That sounds…dangerous. Do you have anything less fatal, by chance?"

  After a bit of grumbling, he pulled another box off the shelves. "This'll be the weaker stuff you're looking for. Won't kill, only injure."

  "Perfect." I took the box and smiled.

  "Because we can't trust you with the real stuff, am I right?" Jax's voice sent a chill through my spine.

  Al guffawed. "Not after she shot the headlights out of Jerry's truck in high school."

  "It was an accident," I hissed. "What are you doing here?"

  "Swung by to pick up bullets and milk. Where else can I get a combo like that?" Jax winked at Al, who blushed slightly. Jax could even charm the pants off a grizzled, gun-toting, old corner-store owner. No wonder he'd charmed the pants off me. And now, Sarah too.

  "Nice of you to pick up your girlfriend from class today," I said, my nose slightly in the air. "I didn't know you knew Sarah."

  Jax eyed me warily. Al slowly backed out of the gun aisle and into the lotions area, which was a true sign that he was utterly distracted. Al wasn't the moisturizing type.

  "Yeah…well, I met her a few weeks ago at a barbecue, and I'd just broken up with my last girlfriend."

  "So she's your rebound. Nice." I rolled my eyes. Why I was acting like a sixteen-year-old with a bad crush was beyond me.

  "No," Jax said, a bit harshly. "But thanks for teaching her some moves. I'm sure we'll both enjoy them tonight."

  "Have a ball." I stalked to the front of the store, where Al was doing his very best to avoid any sort of eye contact with me.

  "You have nothing to say about this," Jax called after me. "You've been gone for ten years. And, she's not a suspect for murder."

  Al gasped as he held the box of BBs. He looked beyond me to Jax. "Can I sell her these?"

  "Yeah, yeah. They're not fatal, thank God," Jax said. "But if I show up with a zinger between my eyes, you know who to go after."

  "Sure, sure," Al said. "Absolutely, Chief."

  * * *

  "Is this how things are going to be?" Jax asked, jogging to catch up with me as I headed out of the store.

  "Like what?" I kept right on walking.

  "This. You. Ignoring me." Jax put a hand on my shoulder and spun me around.

  "Would I be talking to you if I was ignoring you?" I asked sweetly.

  "You've been gone for ten years. Ten years. What was I supposed to do, wait around?"

  I hesitated, glancing around. Jax didn't seem to care that we were in the middle of a parking lot, discussing our personal business for any shopping patrons to hear.

  "You're the one who broke off our engagement, Misty. I asked you to marry me. In fact, I begged you to stay. You're the one who disappeared, might I remind you?"

  I looked into Jax's eyes, unable to decipher the emotion staring back at me.

  I cleared my throat and whispered softly, "I'm sorry."

  "Sorry for what? You've still never explained why you up and left. But even so, you never came back, didn't look back one damn time at what we had—do you know how much that hurt?"

  Jax had moved forward, and now his chin hovered just above my lips, which trembled with the close proximity, the emotions between us running deep.

  "I did come back." My voice shook slightly. "I ran away to college because I didn't know any better. They offered me a full scholarship, and I didn't think I could turn it down."

  "Didn't want to turn it down…"

  "Don't you understand that, Jax?" I peered up at him. "Haven't you ever felt the desire to get up and leave this town, if only for a second? Little Lake will always be here. Don't you understand that urge?"

  It was Jax's turn to breathe quietly, at a loss for words.

  "Between my crazy family, this nosy town, and my desire to be successful at the one thing I was good at—school—no, it didn't seem like an option to turn down the scholarship."

  Jax opened his mouth, then shut it for a moment before he spoke. "But you didn't come back. I didn't hear from you once you left."

  Jax had proposed to me the night I graduated high school. He was a few years older, already studying to become a police officer. At the time, I knew we'd had something special, but I figured it would still be there, waiting for me in a few years. Or I'd find someone just as special somewhere else.

  Plus, having kids wasn't on the foreseeable horizon for me, and adventure called. I'd been given a full ride to a prestigious college out in Los Angeles—but it came at a cost much larger than tuition. Jax was bound to Minnesota, since he'd already started the police academy. He didn't want to move across the country and start over. His family was here. His life existed in Little Lake.

  His proposal had been clear: stay in Minnesota and get married.

  There'd been no long distance clause or a four-year waiting agreement. It was the ultimate ultimatum. I'd chosen the safer route, or so I'd thought at the time, and I opted for college. Had I been right or wrong? Impossible to say.

  "But I did come back," I said softly. "I flew back three weeks later to tell you I was sorry, and I saw you in the window of Lenny's with another girl. You'd moved on."

  I cleared my throat, beads of dampness lining the corners of my eyes. I couldn't look at Jax, but I could feel his gaze on me. Without a word, he strode past me and climbed into his cop car without looking back. Just as I'd done ten years before, driving off to California.

  A small sniff escaped, but I refused to cry anymore over my past. As they said, every sinner has a future, and every saint has a past. My past just happened to be not all sunshine and roses and smart decisions. Because as it turned out, college wasn't my calling after all. But burlesque had been just around the corner.

  I'd dyed my hair neon pink and purple ombré, slipped into my first pair of fishnets, and the rest was history. I'd vowed never to let school keep me from following my heart ever again.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As luck would have it, I ran into one of my new dance students as she pulled up and parked.

  "Hey, Misty," Anna said. She had longish brown hair, a quiet disposition, and a sweet smile.

  "Hey! How are you, Anna? I'm just headed home. Taking my sister shooting on Friday." I held up the pack of BBs sheepishly.

  "Oh, that's great. I wouldn't trust myself around a squirt gun, let alone a BB gun." She winked. "But I imagine it's great bonding time."

  "Oh, of course." A sudden thought occurred to me. "Actually, do you have a cell phone I could use really quick? I was going to stop over to her place, but I don't have my phone with me."

  "Ah…I hate when I forget mine."

  She pulled a demure, dark-brown case out of her purse and handed it over. "There's no pass code."

  "Thanks." I smiled and turned away. She didn't need to know that not having my phone with me was code for didn't need it, since it didn't have service anyway.

  "What's up, Sis?" I listened for a moment as Harmony excitedly greeted me. "Hey listen, I'm coming to get you. Feel like playing with Donna's kids tonight?"

  "Yay!" Harmony shrieked. "I'll get all my stuff ready."

  "It's just dinner. No need to pack a suitcase."

  "But I need books, and I got a new craft weaver that I want to show Lisa, and I also—"

  "Yeah, yeah. As long as it can fit in a backpack and you don't whine when it's time to go. I'll be there soon."

  I hung up. "Thanks a lot, Anna."

  "You're good friends with Donna?"

  "Yeah, we've been best buds for a long time," I said.

  "Ah…so you must know her brother, then?"

  "Her brother?"

  "Jax," she said.

  "Oh…yeah. Vaguely." Even though his name warmed me to the depths of my soul. Whether out of anger or passion or love or confusion, I couldn't be sure.

  "Man, he's scorching." Anna fanned herself. "I didn't know he was g
oing out with Sarah from class. I'm envious. A cop and a hunk…all from small town Little Lake, born and raised? Whooooeee."

  "Yeah, I think they're a new couple."

  "That's why I hadn't heard anything. Ah, well. Maybe they'll break up, and we'll all get our chances—am I right?" she tittered.

  I gave her a halfhearted smile that I hoped passed for whole-hearted. "I gotta get going. Sister's waiting."

  "Of course. See you Monday!"

  With a quick wave, she was off into Al's. It was still only late afternoon, so I had some time to kill before heading over to Mom's to pick up Harmony. Walking the short distance home, I ran through my mental checklist of things to knock out with my extra time. Maybe a shower wouldn't be so bad. I took a whiff of myself. Definitely, a shower couldn't hurt.

  I headed up my driveway a few minutes later, lugging the BBs under my arm. I pressed the kitchen door open, deposited the BBs on the sink, and took a quick handful of Froot Loops from my backup stash above the sink. I needed energy somehow to power through a shower and make it to Donna's, and then proceed to have enough energy to deal with her cute, energetic little rug rats. All five of them.

  I jogged up the steps, skipping the crooked one, and headed into my bathroom. Climbing into the shower, I cranked the water as hot as I could handle and let it wash over me.

  When I heard the first thunk, I thought I'd bumped my elbow against the wall. But when the second thump sounded even louder than the first, I shut off the water. The sound of footsteps sprinting down my stairs—the stairs inside my house—was unmistakable.

  Someone had broken in while I'd been showering.

  Or—a thought sent chills up my spine—someone had been inside this whole time, and I'd happened to catch them in the middle of their snooping.

  I froze, my heart leaping into my throat and pulsing in my ears. The silence was so absolute that my thoughts sounded loud. The front door, or so I guessed from upstairs, banged as if it'd been flung open against the wall.

  Grabbing the fluffy blue towel from the rack next to the shower, I leapt onto the mat, enveloped myself in the cloth, and hightailed it to the stairs. I should probably call the police was a passing thought that came into my head and then flew right on out of it.