Once Hunted, Twice Shy: A Cozy Paranormal Mystery (The Happily Everlasting Series Book 2)

by Mandy M. Roth

  Buster was next to get off, but he wasn’t quite as accomplished as Petey and nearly fell off the other side of the dock and into the water. Petey caught him and held him still.

  “Steady, mate,” said Petey.

  Buster gulped. “I can’t swim.”

  “I know,” said Petey.

  Curt patted Hugh on the shoulder and exited the boat as well, leaving Hugh standing alone with Penelope. He couldn’t help but think of kissing her again. Of what her lips had felt like against his. His body tightened, and he had to swallow down a groan of frustration. The woman would be his downfall if he wasn’t careful. She’d been back in his life a day, and already he felt a connection to her unlike any other person. He couldn’t even think what tomorrow might bring. If he could keep from sticking his foot in his mouth, he just might be gifted another date with her. First, he had to get through this one without doing anything to annoy her—something he seemed terribly good at.

  “Are you still okay with all of this?” he asked, wanting to be sure she was happy. “I can have one of them come too if you’re uncomfortable in any way.”

  A huge smile moved over her beautiful face. “I trust you, Hugh. I think you’re nuts, but I trust you. Now, let’s go find out what really happened by the cliffs and then you’re feeding me, remember?”

  “Yes ma’am,” he said, giving a small salute. He lifted a seat on the deck and pulled out a life jacket. Hugh held it out to Penelope. “Here. Put this on.”

  “I can swim. I just haven’t been on a boat before.”

  Against his better judgment, Hugh put the life jacket back under one of the seats. He’d feel a hell of a lot better if she was wearing the thing, but he didn’t want to push the issue.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “How many boats do you have?” asked Penelope as Hugh brought the large sailboat to a stop near a rocky shoreline that butted against a cliff face. There looked to be a flat section on the rocks, but from her vantage point, she couldn’t see how far back it extended.

  She could see the edge of the road above that she’d been on earlier in the day when the storms had come through. It had seemed high when she was on it. From below she got a sense of just how high up it truly was.

  She gulped, happy with her choice to stop when the weather got too bad rather than risk plummeting to her death.

  Hugh eased up alongside her. “This is the spot I was told the bodies were found.”

  She looked around. “There isn’t any police tape or anything here. Are you sure?”

  “Everlasting doesn’t always do things the ways other places do. Trust me. I’m right. I’m picking up a lot of scents here. That means a large number of people were here very recently. I can smell Deputy March, the sheriff, the county medical examiner, and some other locals. Plus some people I don’t know.”

  She didn’t question him about what he smelled, afraid he’d launch into the whole wolf-shifter thing again, ruining their date night with irrational talk. “How am I going to prove I didn’t do this?”

  “It will all work itself out in the end. It always does,” he said, putting an arm around her gently.

  Somehow, his words helped to ease some of the worry. She didn’t want to believe she could end up in trouble for a crime she didn’t commit, but she’d heard stories of people who really were innocent being imprisoned. Some spent decades behind bars. Could that happen to her too? The thought was terrifying.

  As if sensing she was about to spiral into a mess of anxiety, Hugh squeezed her tighter. It was exactly what she needed.

  She sank into his warm embrace, surprised at just how chilly the air was on the water. Her puppy dog sweater wasn’t warm enough for the falling temperature, and her light jacket was in her checked bags. She hadn’t thought to grab it before leaving her grandfather’s house. “I hope you’re right. All I wanted to do was get away from Chicago and Craig and clear my head. I certainly never thought I’d be staring prison in the face because of it.”

  Hugh tensed, his muscles bulging as he held her against his body. “Tell me about this Craig.”

  Twisting in his arms, she expelled a slow breath and faced him. “Craig and I were a couple for two years. He’d always been embarrassed by my clothing choices, by my lack of ambition at work, and by my personality. As I look back, I’m not sure why he was with me at all. Then, one day, he decided I wasn’t marriage material, and he was ready to settle down and start a family—just not with me. He dumped me and within no time at all he was engaged to someone else. I was really broken up about it. In truth, that is why I came to Everlasting. I was hoping to forget my troubles. Looks like new trouble found me.”

  “And now?” he asked softly, though a dangerous note hung in his voice. “Are you still broken up about it all?”

  She slid her arms around his waist and put her head to his chest. She could remain there forever, just letting him hold her. There was something about him that made her feel not only safe but as if she were home. “Not as much as I had been this morning. You know, before I was a murder suspect.”

  His deep laugh reverberated through his chest, sending shivers of desire down her spine. “You’re a person of interest, that’s all.”

  “That’s all?” she echoed. “I don’t even jaywalk let alone murder people.”

  “I jaywalk all the time,” he said, still laughing.

  She tipped her head back to get a better view of his face. “I know. I hit you with my car when you were doing it.”

  “Pretty much the only way to knock sense into me,” he admitted with a wink.

  She chuckled and hugged him again, their closeness causing desire to thrum beneath her skin. “It’s getting dark. Should we head back?”

  “We could, or we could eat,” Hugh said, stepping back from her. “Curt, Petey, and Buster went all out for us. They aren’t really known for being date facilitators, so I say we enjoy their hard work. I’ll pull up anchor, and we can head down just a bit to find a better spot to eat. Sound good?”

  “Is it wrong that I’m a little scared to see what they think is dinner?” she asked, positive Curt would think something super fancy would be to her liking. It wouldn’t. She was a meat-and-potatoes kind of girl. And she’d seen what Petey liked to eat—Polly had named it and thought of it as a pet.

  Hugh stared at her for the longest time before he spoke. “Honey, you should know that I think you’re marriage material.”

  She gasped.

  He looked as stunned by his statement as she was. “Fish sticks with ketchup,” he blurted before hurrying off. The man certainly had offbeat sayings.

  Penelope followed behind him and touched his back lightly, stopping him from pulling up the anchor. “Let’s just have our dinner here.”

  His gaze moved in the direction of the rocky shoreline. “Are you sure? I can take you to that cove I told you about.”

  “Hugh, it’s fine. There is no evidence here of what happened. And we’re pretty far out from the shoreline still.”

  Nodding, he stood tall. “There are rocks below. The closer you get to the shore, the worse they are. It’s not smart to take a boat any closer. You risk hull damage and sinking.”

  “Here is perfect.” Going to her tiptoes, she kissed his scruffy cheek. “Thank you for being so considerate. And thanks for not being too mad that I hit you with my car.”

  “Honey, if I’d have known I’d get to be on a boat and have a star-filled dinner with you on the ocean, I’d have let you back over me with that tiny thing you keep calling a car.”

  She laughed. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you drive.”

  “A gas-guzzling truck,” he returned with a cocky grin.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  A smug expression was her only answer from him before he kissed her forehead quickly, then darted off, going below. He came up with a basket and a blanket. Artfully, he made his way to the deck and laid the blanket out. For as muscular and tall as he was, he moved with a fluid grace
around the sailboat, as if he’d been born on it. He set the basket on the edge of the blanket and then shocked her by coming back for her.

  “Here,” he said, holding out his hand. He walked her to the deck, making sure she had her footing under her the entire way. He didn’t release her hand until she was seated on the blanket.

  It was so sweet that she couldn’t help but think of her time with Craig. He’d never been so thoughtful, and he’d never bothered to do anything even close to romantic for her.

  The longer she was around Hugh, the more she began to wonder what she had been thinking being with Craig. At the rate she was going, she wouldn’t even remember Craig’s name come morning.

  That was her hope anyway.

  Hugh hurried off and returned frowning, holding up a bottle of whiskey. “This was chilling where the wine should be. My guess, Petey changed out the wine for this.”

  Penelope snorted. It was easy to picture Petey doing that very thing. “I’ll have water if you don’t mind. I’m not really much of a drinker.”

  “Water it is,” he said, walking off again only to return with two bottles of cold water. He sat down next to her and opened the picnic basket. Tossing his head back, he laughed—and then pulled out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and an assortment of other goodies.

  Penelope took one. “Oh, I love these. I was worried it would be something I couldn’t pronounce. I’m not fancy at all.”

  He handed her a note from the basket.

  She read it and couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear. The men had thought to put in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because of Hugh’s newfound non-cursing status. They’d even added a box of frozen fish sticks, but Petey had a postscript on the note warning them not to eat them because they didn’t smell natural. Thankfully, the men had also sent Italian pasta salad and a meat and cheese tray, along with assorted olives.

  Penelope went right for the olives, having always had a soft spot for them. She thought of them as comfort food and whenever she was stressed she tended to eat them by the handfuls. They ate in relative silence, looking up as the sun set fully and the sky darkened. It was beautiful.

  Hugh ate the sandwiches and then helped himself to pasta salad. He put some on a plate and held it out for her. “Here. Eat more.”

  She touched her stomach. “I can’t. I ate a ton.”

  “You ate like a bird. Eat up,” he said, pushing pasta salad at her. He wasn’t taking no for answer.

  She picked at it, eating a mozzarella ball before moving around the cherry tomatoes, pieces of meat, black Greek olives, and crumbled feta cheese, unable to get much down because she’d single-handedly eaten almost all the meat and cheese tray, not to mention she’d put a dent in the olive reserve too. As delicious as the pasta salad was, she couldn’t eat any more.

  “Ready for cheesecake?” asked Hugh, a wolfish grin spreading over his face. He patted his nonexistent gut. “I’m still starving.”

  She stared at him, her jaw agape. He’d polished off a large amount of food and didn’t show any signs of slowing. “Where do you put everything you eat? You’re nothing but muscle. Not an ounce of fat on you.”

  “Shifters have high metabolisms,” he said nonchalantly. “We eat a lot every day. We have to.”

  “Uh-huh, sure they do,” she answered, nearly laughing at his humor. He really was running with the whole joke of being supernatural. She had to hand it to him, his made-up reality was well thought out.

  He touched her hand tenderly and heat flared through her skin. “Penelope, eventually you’re going to have to listen to me with both ears and know I’m not joking.”

  “Try to see it from my perspective,” she said, keeping her hand in place, enjoying his touch. “You expect me to believe that you can do the impossible. That you can change shapes into an animal. That’s a lot to swallow for anyone. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Ghosts, shifters, and who knows what else are real as well?”

  “Yes. So are witches. The devil is real too. I can introduce you to him if you want. Nice guy,” he returned. “Mrs. Mays is another matter. Avoid her. She can scare the hair off a dog with her glares.”

  Penelope grabbed a stray olive and ate it. She might be full but she needed a coping mechanism, and the olive was it. “I’m almost afraid to ask who is a witch in town. Jolene?”

  “No. She’s a were-dolphin.” He delivered the news as if he were telling her something as mundane as someone’s eye color.

  “Of course she is.” Penelope found herself listening, totally enraptured, much like she used to be when she was little, and her grandfather would tell her similar stories about Everlasting and the people who lived there.

  Hugh sighed, his frustration with her showing. “Polly and Anna from Witch’s Brew Coffee Shop & Bakery are witches. There are more in town too. All of them are good, so don’t fear them. They haven’t dropped a house on anyone—that I know of.”

  She leaned against him. “Dorothy was the one who dropped a house on a witch. A witch didn’t drop a house on anyone in The Wizard of Oz.”

  Hugh rubbed his jawline. “Huh. Learn something new every day. My childhood was full of the real thing, so I didn’t pay much attention to movies about it all.”

  “And my grandfather is a hunter of them all?” she asked, doing her best to avoid laughing at him. He looked so serious, and like he truly bought into what he was saying.

  With a nod, he drew back and stood. “He is. He claims he gave it up years ago, when your father and mother passed, but a leopard doesn’t change its spots.”

  Penelope tensed at the mention of her parents’ passing.

  Hugh bent and went to one knee near her. He pushed her long hair back from her face. His expression was guarded. “Hey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up. I was just trying to give you a timeline of when Wilber hung up his hunting gear, or rather when he claimed he did.”

  She mulled over what he was saying. As great as a world filled with magic and mystery sounded, the real world wasn’t like that. It was a hard place, where sorrow and heartbreak lived. There were no magic potions or spells to fix everything wrong in one’s life. There was simply reality, and it often sucked. “I was little when my parents died. I’ve come to terms with it over the years. And I know they wouldn’t have wanted me to wallow for the rest of my life.”

  “No. I don’t think they would have wanted that at all,” Hugh said, remaining close to her. “I’m guessing your father would have lectured you about having dinner with me,” he said with a grin. “I remember him chasing me out of your backyard more than once when we were little. Your mom liked me. She used to swat his arm and tell him to stop and to let us be. She was a sweet lady, not to mention she was beautiful. Like you.”

  Sadness tightened her chest. “You remember my parents better than I do. Mostly, I remember walking in their funeral procession. I have very few memories before that all, but that day sticks with me.”

  “I remember more about them because I’m four years older than you,” he said, caressing her cheek. “I can still remember the day your other grandparents drove off with you. I chased after their car. Though, I will say, I remember calling you Penny, not Penelope.”

  She perked. He’d done that? She hadn’t remembered. Then again, she didn’t really remember him from her childhood.

  “My father and my uncle even went to your grandfather, trying to help him keep you here in Everlasting. Let me tell you what that meant for two of my pack, who are blood relations, to seek out a hunter and try to help him. It didn’t work out, but more than one person wanted you to stay. I know Wilber wanted it too.”

  She frowned. “I didn’t want to go. My choices weren’t my own then. My grandparents thought they were doing the right thing. Grandpa Wil liked to talk about supernatural things. My other grandparents thought he wasn’t stable enough to be left in charge of me. And they felt they could do a better job raising a little girl than he could.”

  “Wer
e they good to you?” asked Hugh.

  “Very. They still are. I see them once a year around the holidays,” she said. “They weren’t thrilled when Grandpa Wil and I reconnected, but I’m an adult now, so my choices are my own.”

  He rose to his feet and managed to stay upright when the boat rocked back and forth slightly. It was easy to see he was used to being on a boat and the ocean. “Cheesecake time.”

  She snorted. “I’m not hungry. Stuff me full of anything else, and I’ll pop.”

  Groaning, he stared at her, looking hopeful.

  She snickered and tipped over on her side. “Your mind is in the gutter.”

  “Normally my words are too. I’m afraid to tell you what I’m thinking right now. It will end up sounding like I have a baked good fetish or something. Polly’s potion will be my greatest downfall.”

  She cackled with laughter as he hurried off to retrieve the cheesecake.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hugh put a piece of creamy, fresh cheesecake on a plate for Penelope and then spooned a gooey cranberry topping over it. No way was he putting that on his. He hated cranberries, and they were everywhere in Everlasting this time of year.

  No thank you.

  The smell of them even turned his stomach.

  It took him a minute to realize he was smiling hard enough to cause his face to crack. Having Penelope near him made him happy. Happier than he’d been in his life, but he couldn’t explain why. She just felt right. Like she was supposed to be close to him.

  “Calm down, Lupine,” he said in a hushed tone to himself. “She’s been in your life a day now. Take it slow.”

  He made his way back to the topside, a plate of cheesecake in each hand. The moment his feet touched the deck the boat tilted hard to the right, causing Hugh to drop the cheesecake. He righted himself and scanned the water, wondering if a larger boat had come past when he wasn’t paying attention, leaving a big wake behind.