by Lori Ryan
He wasn’t cold, per se, but she could tell his body wasn’t as warm as it should be either. Some part of her wanted to go get a blanket to cover him up, but she stopped herself. There was no pulse. He wasn’t breathing.
Cora was shaking as she left the house to get her phone in the car. Her hands were no steadier when she dialed her brother-in-law’s phone number and told him what she’d found. Since Garrett was the Chief of Police, she hadn’t bothered with nine-one-one.
“I don’t suppose I need to tell you not to touch anything?” Garrett asked. “It doesn’t sound like anything other than an accident, but…”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Her brother-in-law had been a major crimes detective in a nearby city before coming to Evers. He would follow protocol with any dead body.
A shiver ran through her at the thought of the body inside the house. Poor Mr. Knight had been so sick lately, but that didn’t make his death any easier to face.
“Garrett, his son is probably working at the feed store today.”
“I’ll go there first. I’m sending an ambulance and Carter out your way, though. I’ll call Ashley and have her come, too.”
“Thanks, Garrett.” He was right. She wanted her sister.
Truthfully, Justin flashed through her mind first and she wanted to call him, but she couldn’t bring her current boyfriend out here when Ethan would be coming home.
Ethan was about to find out his father was dead. She should be here for him. She could go see Justin as soon as she’d been a friend for Ethan.
22
Cora sat with Ethan on the porch steps after the ambulance and police cars had pulled away. Garrett hadn’t found anything to indicate that Ethan’s father hadn’t died as a result of an accidental fall from the top of the stairs. Mr. Knight had been getting weaker and weaker, so he'd likely either suffered a dizzy spell and lost his balance, or simply slipped trying to come down the stairs.
Ashley had offered to stay with Cora and Ethan but Cora sent her home. There was nothing she could really do to help. Pretty soon, the neighborhood patrol would come around with casseroles. The town of Evers might have been upset at Mr. Knight’s lawsuit against one of its major employers, but they would be there for his son while he mourned. It’s what small towns did.
“I tried to get him to let me move a bed to the den for him, but he wouldn’t do it.” Ethan sounded hollowed out, like he was still trying to figure out what had happened. He was white as a sheet and his hands shook just a little. You had to look closely to see it, but it was there.
Cora had a feeling the fact his father was gone hadn’t truly sunk in yet. This had been expected. The doctors had said that with the damage to his body from the chemicals he’d been exposed to, he wouldn’t last long. Still, she could guess Ethan thought he’d have time to say goodbye. No one had expected it to end so suddenly.
She rubbed Ethan’s back. “I’m so sorry, Ethan.”
He brushed at a tear that ran down his face and nodded.
Cora murmured something she hoped was comforting, but she didn’t know what to say to make this better for him. She thought about saying his father wasn’t in pain anymore and that was a good thing, but she didn’t think anyone ever really wanted to hear those words when they’d lost a loved one.
“I can’t believe this happened.” He’d said the same thing a few times now, and she still had no response for him. “I think I didn’t really think he would…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
“Do you want me to get you something to eat or drink?” She looked over at the old porch swing. She wasn’t sure it was safe to sit in, but Ethan probably wouldn’t want to go into the house yet. His father’s body was gone, and Ashley had cleaned the blood at the bottom of the staircase before she and Garrett left, but how could he look at that hallway again and not see his father’s body lying there?
“You can sit out here,” she said, motioning to the swing, “and I’ll bring something out to you.”
Ethan looked at her, then, this time not trying to wipe the tears from his face. “Will you just sit with me for a while?”
Cora nodded. Her heart broke for him. His mother had died when he was little. Now his father was gone. She didn’t know if he had any other family, but even if he had aunts or uncles or grandparents that were still alive, he’d just lost the last of his immediate family. Cora knew what it was like to be alone in the world.
She could sit with him. If there was anything she could do right then to make him feel better, she would.
23
“Thank you.” Cora took the last of the dishes Justin handed her and lowered them into the sudsy water in the sink. She loved the feel of the warm bubbles. She was probably a little strange, but she liked washing dishes. She’d never fought with her siblings over that chore.
Others, yes. When it was time to rake the lawn or fold the laundry, she’d be the first to claim it wasn’t her turn, but washing dishes was something she was willing to do anytime.
Justin had tried to tell her he’d do them since she had cooked, but she wanted the calm right now.
“When is the funeral?” he asked, taking the clean dishes she’d set in the drain board and drying them. Cora’s small duplex didn’t have a dishwasher. She thought he might comment on it, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m not sure yet,” she said. “Probably in a few days.”
“Let me know when it is, and I’ll go with you.”
Cora looked at him. “You wouldn’t mind?”
“No. I understand you want to be there for Ethan. I want to be there for you.”
Cora nodded, pulling the drain plug in the sink and watching the water wash down the drain.
Justin reached to put a frying pan on the shelf above the toaster oven. He’d watched her cook the meal, so he must have noted where she was pulling things from.
“A lawyer for Caufield’s Furniture held a press conference,” he said. “They said they will be able to produce a paper trail showing the metal drums that were dug up had been turned over to a transportation company that was hired to transport them to a chemical disposal company. He said the company demonstrated no negligence in the handling of their chemical waste. Even if they do show that, the cost of defending the suit long enough to clear them might take down a company of their size. They seem like a large company to the town, but on a national scale, they aren’t huge.”
Cora wiped her hands on a dish towel and they moved together to the living room to sit side-by-side on the couch.
She was glad for the strong arms and heat that wrapped around her as he pulled her toward him.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that today.”
She was sitting with her back to his chest. When he spoke, he lowered his head to graze a kiss across her neck.
She didn’t answer him. She moaned softly and tilted her neck to grant him greater access. This was what she needed. This was what would make the image of Mr. Knight’s broken body lying at the bottom of the stairs go away.
“Cora.” It was a whisper as he moved his hands to run up and down her arms. His mouth traveled up her neck to her jaw and then she turned in his arms and his mouth covered hers.
Cora lost herself in his kiss. His body was hard and unyielding beneath her and she could feel the evidence of what this kiss was doing to him. She was glad. She hated to think its effect was one-sided. It was a hell of an effect. Cora had gone soft and warm at his touch. Every part of her felt like a lightning strike of pleasure had run through her, sparking desire and need.
She ran her hands over his chest as his hands found their way to the buttons on her shirt. He was undoing them, but his pace was maddening. Cora wanted to take over for him, if only she could pull her hands away from him long enough to be effective.
She didn’t want to stop running her hands over him, though. The only thing better than touching his chest would be touching his bare chest.
She slid her hand under his shirt, feeling hot flesh o
ver tight muscle. She meant to go to his chest, but her hand stalled on a six pack of abs that made her groan.
She could feel his lips pull into a smile as he broke their kiss but kept their mouths connected. “Right back at you, baby.”
Cora laughed but the sound was cut off when he put an arm around her and flipped them, rising over her on the couch. He leaned on an elbow and reached with his other arm to grab the couch pillows and toss them over the back side of the couch, giving them more room.
She lifted the hem of his shirt and he took over, pulling it over his head and off. Cora felt like she might swallow her tongue. The man was incredible. She wouldn’t have guessed he would be this cut under those buttoned-up shirts he wore to the office all day. She made a mental note to ask him what he had to do to maintain this body, then promptly lost herself in the feeling of his body moving over hers.
He kissed her as their hips ground together. Cora broke from his mouth and kissed the warm skin of his shoulder, then ran her mouth down his chest, letting her tongue explore as he hissed in a breath.
He caught her hand and held it in place. “We need to slow down or I won’t be able to stop.”
Cora grinned. There was something incredibly powerful in knowing she was pushing him to the point of losing control. There was also something incredibly moving in knowing he wanted to hold back with her. They’d talked about not wanting to jump right into bed even though they’d known each other for years.
She liked that, but it was a little hard to stick with that decision at a time like this.
He rolled to his side and pulled her to him, then lazily kissed her as his hands trailed over the skin he’d exposed above her bra.
“I like this,” he said. “I like just holding you and touching you and knowing it doesn’t need to go any further than this right now.”
“Me, too,” she said, and she meant it. It might seem a bit like high school to make out for hours, without even taking off all of their clothes, but she didn’t care. It felt right for them right now, and that’s what she cared about. This felt very right.
24
“How do you know all this?” Cora looked at Justin as he explained another self-defense move.
“You’re a horrible student.” He stood in front of her in his office wearing pressed slacks and a white button-down shirt rolled up at the sleeves. He’d kicked off his shoes.
“True, but I’m not convinced this can be considered work.” So far, they’d spent the last hour with him showing her several self-defense moves and then making her practice them. “I’m supposed to be working for you.”
Justin scowled. “Yeah, well this is what I want you focusing on today.”
Cora crossed her arms and gave him one of her best teacher stares. He didn’t fall for it.
“What if one of those guys at the convenience store had decided they needed a hostage to help them get away?”
Cora felt cold wash down her spine at the idea but she stood up straighter and looked him in the eye. “I would have gone with them, Justin. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I would have done it because it would have drawn them away from the kids.” She stepped to him and reached out to touch his arm. “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you I wouldn’t have done that.”
Justin sighed and pulled her into a hug. “I figured that.” He let go and went to his desk. “That’s why I got you this.”
He opened a drawer and pulled out a canister of pepper spray or mace on a keychain and another keychain with a small pendant on it. He held them both up to her.
“Pepper spray that dyes your attacker’s face blue to mark them.” He held up the pendant. “A personal alarm. Put this one on the outside of your purse so you can easily grab it and pull it loose if you’re attacked.”
Cora took both items and studied them, then set them back on the desk before going to him. She put both hands on Justin’s face and looked him in the eye. “Thank you. I will absolutely use them, and I’ll even keep practicing self-defense techniques with you, but I need you to know that nothing’s going to happen to me. It was scary and horrible, but I’m okay now.”
He covered her hands with his own and nodded.
“Now,” she said, with a grin, “tell me where you learned all these moves.”
He laughed. “You remember when I was blowing through my family’s fortune?”
She smirked. “From what I understand, you might have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on your own, but you barely put a dent in it.”
He shrugged. “True. Anyway, shortly before my brother was killed, I started to get tired of being drunk all the time. I had a friend who knew Muay Thai and some Aikido. I asked him to teach me some things. I was thinking that I would go to Thailand and study the method. I think I envisioned myself moving from one country to the next in some quest for…” he shook his head, “I don’t know, something. I would study one martial art after the other until I found myself. It was stupid. Anyway, I learned enough from him to be slightly useful in a fight before I got the call that my brother had died.”
“You always make it sound like it was your brother’s death that made you turn your life around.”
Now it was his turn to smirk. “I was hardly doing anything noble. I was prepared to spend another small fortune traveling the globe a second time, only this time I planned to study martial arts instead of cocktail mixology. Hardly noble.”
Her eyes burned fierce. “It was something. You like to pretend you were this worthless person, but when you saw the evidence of Laura’s abuse, what did you do?”
“I went after her. I wanted her to know we would be on her side from that point on. I didn’t want her to think she needed to raise her baby alone. Or that she needed to fear us.”
Cora laced her arms behind Justin’s neck and stood on tip toe to kiss him. “Whether you like it or not, Justin Kensington, you’re a good man. And I have a sneaking suspicion you always have been.”
25
Julia and Cora left the small apartment they’d rented on an online site. It was a tiny one room studio over a garage in an Austin neighborhood known as Hyde Park. The price had been right for two teachers on a budget, and they hadn’t minded sharing the single queen bed for two nights while they shopped.
It wasn’t July fourth weekend. They’d decided to move their shopping trip up a bit and Cora was glad they had. She’d gotten her hair cut the day before, opting for a cut that brought the length up to her shoulders and added layers framing her face. She loved it.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, digging into her purse after they’d settled into Julia’s car. “Justin got us a gift card for a restaurant so we can splurge on dinner tonight.” She pulled out the printed gift card he’d sent to her email as a surprise.
Julia looked over and made an appreciative oohing sound. “I love that man.”
“Hands off,” Cora said with a mock scowl, drawing a laugh from her friend.
“Okay,” Julia said. “I want to check out that boutique Ashley told us about and then maybe we can go get makeup?”
Cora nodded and bit her lip. “Um, can we uh also...”
Julia laughed. “Did you have something to say, Cora?”
Cora flushed. She didn’t want to say it.
Julia put on a prim affect. “Why yes, Cora. We can go to a dirty lingerie store so you can get some naughty panties for your boyfriend.”
Her cheeks heated further and she mumbled a response that might have included threats against Julia’s favorite pair of shoes.
Julia only laughed harder, but she did help Cora choose three nighties with lace and frilly see through spots and all kinds of things that Cora couldn’t wait to wear for Justin someday. She also picked three new sets of lace bras and panties. One was a demi bra that cut low and showed off her breasts in a way she hoped would make Justin lose control.
They’d been seeing each other for a month now and she though she was ready to move past the “taking things slow
” stage.
She had a feeling he was, too. Things had been heating up lately and walking away at the end of a night of making out seemed to be as hard for him as it was for her.
“Makeup?” Julia asked, as they left the lingerie section after ringing up their purchases. Cora nodded. She’d spent her savings on a few cute skirts and dresses at the boutique and put the lingerie purchases on her credit card. She’d budgeted for fifty dollars in new makeup. She couldn’t get much with that nowadays, but she wanted to get a new blush and some new eye shadows.
“So, I take it you’ve taken yourself off all the online dating sites?” Julia asked as they took the escalator down to the cosmetics department.
“Of course.” Cora looked over at her friend. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Julia shrugged. “I just know you didn’t do that when you were dating Ethan. It’s different with Justin?”
Cora pressed her lips together and nodded. “It really is.” She looked down as they stepped off the escalator and then glanced away from her friend. “It is for me, at least.”
Julia put a hand on Cora’s arm, pulling her to the side. “Hey, what’s that face for? Do you think it’s not as big of a deal for him?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I think it is, but I guess I worry sometimes that maybe it’s not? I mean, what if he decides this isn’t doing it for him or he changes his mind or...”
Julia struck that Mama Bear pose she sometimes took with the kids. “Hey, listen to me, Cora.”
Cora’s eyes met Julia’s.
“Listen good, okay? I get that sometimes you have leftover—” Julia waved her hands around— “shit from your mom walking away from you like that. I know it affects you sometimes, and all, but I also know you’re smart. So, I need you to use your head to check yourself when things start to creep in and worry you.”
Cora didn’t answer, but her focus was fully on Julia now.
