Auf'd (The Belinda & Bennett Mysteries, Book Two)

by Amy Saunders

  Mr. Sykes helped load up her Mini Cooper, which wasn't large enough for everything at once, so she would have to come back for the rest after she unloaded. Her purse barely hit the passenger seat before her phone rang. She wrangled it out, and picked up instead of ignoring it after she saw Finnegan's number on the screen.

  "What's up?" Belinda said cheerfully, fingering the fuzzy cat bed in the backseat.

  "Well, it was obvious I didn't do my job before," he said. "With the phone number."

  "You did your job." Belinda slammed the door. "You got the number info."

  "And you hung up on me right after."

  "Oh...right." She shut her eyes. "Sorry about that. It was completely unrelated. See, I found these–" She looked up and saw Bennett striding up the sidewalk in her direction. He saw her about the same moment and they both froze. "I'll call you back. Promise this time." She ended the call before Finnegan could grunt.

  Bennett's eyes lit up with happiness for a brief second before fizzling back to indifference. But he was happy to see her, even if only initially because of gut reaction, and that was something.

  "What are you doing here?" she said as he approached. "At the pet boutique?"

  "Why is everything called a 'boutique' these days?" Bennett muttered, putting his phone back in his pocket. "I'm not at the pet store anyway. You are."

  "Right." Belinda pulled her shirt down because she realized it rode up when she carried the products to her car. "Well, then, what are you doing in town?"

  Bennett glanced back in the shop where Mr. Sykes was grumbling to someone over the phone again. "Just walking back to my car."

  That didn't technically answer her question, but Belinda didn't feel like prying out an answer.

  "So what were you doing in there?" Bennett aimed his thumb at the shop.

  "Oh...um...I have a kitten problem."

  The space between his eyebrows wrinkled up. "A kitten problem? Do you have strays trying to get in or something?"

  "What? No." Belinda shook her head impatiently. If he wasn't busy concocting reasons to ditch her, he would know about this already. She moistened her lips. "So I hear you and Brooke have become friends." Belinda didn't want to come across like she was jealous or worked up over the matter. Because, of course, she wasn't.

  As usual, she couldn't tell from his face if he bought her cool demeanor. "Have we?"

  "You went for coffee."

  Bennett's mouth puckered. Was he trying not to smile, or just thinking about his response? "I'm not sure that means we're friends."

  Belinda wanted to sigh in frustration. Why could he never be more forthcoming when she was clearly fishing for information?

  Fine. She would just ask. "Why did you meet Brooke for coffee?"

  "Is that what's been in your pants?"

  Belinda glowered. "Just answer the question."

  She thought he was staving off a smile, but it could be wishful thinking. "She had some questions about computer tablets." He shrugged. "Brooke wanted to know what to look for. So I told her. In a public setting with lots of witnesses and a table between us, plus some steaming coffee. And I think she got a piece of pound cake."

  Belinda screwed up her mouth. If he could get his boxers in a bunch over a key card in her pocket, she could get irritated that he had coffee with her PA. And, unlike someone else Belinda knew, she actually had proof that it happened.

  Bennett's eyes were still harder than she preferred, but they had softened.

  "You know," Belinda said, switching gears, "we're having a poolside party at the Sykes because of everyone being stranded and all and...and I know you're not a big party person, but you're welcome to come if you like."

  He looked surprised, then...pleased. Maybe Victoria was right and she just needed more patience to cut down the barriers. "I'll think about it." He stuffed one hand in a pocket. "Well...I hope you take care of your kitten problem."

  Belinda mimicked him and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "I will."

  He nodded again, determination filling his eyes, and walked up the street, headed back to his SUV. Belinda watched him walk away, hoping this was not how it would be from now on. She pulled herself together and carted her first load of kitten supplies home. Then it was time to face the fundraiser embezzling.

  Chapter 14

  If Mr. Sykes was right about the embezzling, it was time for a visit to her lawyer, Russell Carmichael. She might need his help in the near future, and she had a couple favors to ask. If this Riley person was fired for hacking into restricted files, maybe she found out about the embezzling, and maybe that notebook in the Sykes' liquor cabinet was a record of what they paid her to keep quiet. So before going home on her second trip of hauling kitten supplies, she stopped by his office.

  His assistant sat her in Carmichael's upstairs office in the two-story blue Colonial townhouse in the Historic District. The older woman set down a cup of coffee in front of her and smiled. She was a little soft around the edges, and her cheeks plumped out. Carmichael came in and waved a hand to dismiss her.

  "I don't know why she works for you," Belinda said when the door closed. "She's far too nice."

  Carmichael laughed and slapped his knee. "Now that was a June Kittridge comment if I ever heard one."

  "I did spend close to a year with my grandmother."

  "It shows." Carmichael smiled. "And I mean that as a compliment. So, Belinda Kittridge, have you come about your shop? Or, more appropriately, truck? Because you are all neat and tidy and legal and have nothing to fear."

  Belinda smiled sweetly. "I wish that's all I had to worry about right now." She took her time and explained the situation with the Sykes, and what she'd learned at the pet boutique.

  Carmichael swished back and forth in his desk chair while he listened. "Now it all makes sense." He tapped his glasses on the desk in time with the words.

  "What does?"

  "There has been some legal gossip going around that they aren't doing everything by the books." Carmichael clasped his hands on the desk. "I doubted it was anything they couldn't wriggle out of with minimal damage...but this. This is different." He looked up at Belinda's panic-stricken face and smiled. "Don't worry. If it comes to that, I'll take care of you."

  There were some perks to having a lawyer fawning over your grandmother. Belinda tried to relax and drummed her fingers on her purse. "Just one more thing."

  Carmichael suppressed a grin. "What favor would you like to extort from me this time? Don't think I don't know you're taking advantage of my crush on your grandmother." He wagged a wrinkled finger at her.

  "Would you be able to get a list of all of someone's previous employers?"

  Carmichael's forehead wrinkled in confusion, but he said, "I think I can do that for you."

  He made her wait downstairs in what was probably the parlor at one point, with his assistant shuffling around and smiling at her with every pass. The woman finally approached her tentatively, her voice hushed.

  "Is it true, Ms. Kittridge?" She cast down her china blue eyes. "Because I really can't imagine it is."

  Belinda set her coffee down. Instead of a foam cup, Carmichael served it in a flower-patterned china cup and saucer. She felt like a proper Victorian, sipping her coffee out of a china cup on a green velvet settee. "Is what true?"

  The assistant hesitated. "That you left the security guard for that designer."

  "Who said that?"

  The assistant smiled apologetically. "I...overheard...your assistant talking to another client one day. They wanted to know if it was true...they'd seen a photo of you supposedly kissing the designer. Anyway, your assistant said it was true as far as she knew."

  "What?!" Belinda nearly jumped out of her seat. It was a good thing she'd set her coffee down on the side table. "Where? The picture...WHERE?!"

  His assistant colored. "You know...one of those social networking things. Someone posted a photo of you two—kissing."

  Belinda flew out of her seat. Her mi
nd raced at who would have done such a thing. "Who saw it online?"

  The assistant shifted her eyes uncomfortably.

  "I know you shouldn't have heard that," Belinda said. "But I won't ever mention that, I promise."

  After a second, the assistant's eyes rolled back to Belinda and she gave her a name. It was someone Belinda knew. Good.

  Something like the desire to cry stung the back of Belinda's eyes. Why was everything going so, so terribly wrong? "Please don't pass that on to anyone else."

  "Because it's not true?" The assistant's eyes lit up.

  Belinda nodded eagerly. "Because it's not true. Not even close."

  The woman let out a sigh. "I knew it couldn't be. Not you. No matter what they said about you and the Nichols' boy." She shook her head empathetically. "They're just jealous because you've nabbed all the handsome ones."

  "Handsome ones?" Carmichael said from the bottom of the stairs. "You better be talking about me."

  His assistant pursed her lips and gave a nod to Belinda before leaving the room. Belinda stayed cemented to the floor. She felt lightheaded. So people were talking about her and Mark again because of what had happened with Bennett. And they didn't even have the decency to get Bennett's employment right.

  "Here's the list, dear," Carmichael said, handing her a printout. "I hope this helps with whatever adventure you're on."

  She smiled sadly, glancing over the list. It was short with gaps of inactivity. "That's it?"

  Carmichael shrugged. "He could've been working under the table for someone, or collecting unemployment."

  Belinda scanned the names, mentally checking off the Sykes' pet boutique. After that, Riley apparently left Portside and spent time in New York City. Belinda pinched the paper. She had worked for Sawyer.

  "Anything else I can do before you go?" Carmichael said with a smirk in his eyes.

  Belinda glanced up, wide-eyed. "Yes. Please just let your assistant know that Bennett is not a security guard. He owns an event security firm. It's different."

  Carmichael's mouth formed an O but she didn't give him a chance to prod for information. She had connections to make sense of, and a rumor to trace.

  Before Belinda visited Carmichael, she'd planned to go home and empty her car of the second load of cat products, and then write up the first blog post for the Cake Diva site. After her trip to Carmichael, she ran into the house and forsook everything else to scour people's social networks until she found the photo.

  It took a lot of page hopping, but she located the source. Not the photographer, mind you. That would take more investigating. But she'd pinpointed the social network gossip.

  Belinda jumped when the door slammed.

  "What's all this?" Kyle swept his hand to encompass the corner of the back of the house next to the pyramid.

  Belinda waved it off impatiently. "Just some things the kittens need." She stood from her crouched position on the floor, shaking her foot out to wake it up, and ran over with the phone extended.

  "Need?" Kyle's brown eyes darted from the cat tree to the toy mice to the pink leopard print cat bed to the bag that didn't look emptied.

  "There's more in the car."

  Kyle's eyebrows arched even higher. "You're not planning to keep them, right?"

  The white kitty with the random splashes of gray along her body sniffed at the bag and meowed. Belinda had started calling her Aria—in honor of their mother, the opera singer. The only boy in the litter with a white underbelly and a light gray blanket on top, snoozed in the cylinder in the middle of the cat tree. Belinda was tempted to call him Kyle.

  "It's nothing permanent," she said vaguely. "But I needed some supplies to keep them alive until...until I figure out what to do."

  "Until you figure out what to do?" Kyle stomped over. "Bels, we have like five-hundred cats here. They're on the coffee table, behind the toilet, in the microwave–"

  "In the microwave?"

  "They meow, they leave presents on the couch, they try to suffocate you in the middle of the night." Belinda wrinkled her nose. Maybe they tried to suffocate him because he put them in the microwave. "I'm saying you have to do something about this. I can't take it."

  "Never mind the kittens. Look at this!" Belinda thrust the phone in his face. He leaned back so he could actually focus on it.

  "What am I looking at?"

  "Me. Me and Sawyer at the art gallery when he kissed me. Someone took a photo and now it's online!" She didn't feel like adding that the message had spread.

  Kyle arched his sleek brows again. "So?"

  "What do you mean so?"

  "Well, it happened, right? It's not like they're Photoshopping it."

  Belinda wanted to scream. Or strangle him. Or all of the above. "Just once, would you please be upset for me? My relationship with Bennett is...I don't even know what it is! And now everyone is saying I cheated on him, and I didn't! I know what's in this photograph, but it's not the whole story. And they're...they're even bringing up Mark again." Just when she thought she'd put that behind her after nearly a decade, here it was again.

  Kyle sighed and scratched the side of his face. "Bels, I'm sorry. But we've both learned the hard way that people like to talk."

  Well, that was the truth. The Sykes had been Portside's most recent favorite topic of discussion. Apparently, everyone was bored with them and moving onto Belinda and her man drama.

  "Don't worry about it." Kyle shrugged.

  "Why not?"

  "Because soon enough someone else will break up in front of every member of the yacht club, or find out their eggs are useless, or disown their family's Ivy League legacy and move to Laos. Just give it a week."

  "Find out their eggs are useless?"

  "Yeah. Remember What's-her-face was seen coming out of a fertility center?"

  "Oh, yeah. You know they adopted this winter, right?"

  "See. Useless eggs completely forgotten."

  Belinda cracked a smile.

  "Like everything else, it'll be fine," he said. "Now please promise me you have plans to off-load these cats."

  Belinda stroked Aria's head. "I will. I promise." She smiled to assure him though she really couldn't promise anything at that point.

  After hesitating, he finally nodded assent and locked himself in the bathroom. A moment later he came back out, holding an all gray kitten by the scruff and deposited her in Belinda's palms. "Soon," he said and slammed the bathroom door shut.

  Belinda and the gray kitten exchanged confused glances. "I can't imagine what he's so upset about." The kitten nuzzled her hand and Belinda leaned her back against the wall of boxes, stroking her head. Maybe the rumor would just pass over in a few days by itself. But a little push in the right direction never hurt.

  Chapter 15

  The following afternoon, Victoria helped while Belinda ushered the caterers around and made finishing touches before guests arrived by the Sykes' pool. Belinda placed a guest book by the entrance and told Brooke to try and keep an eye out and make sure people signed it, to which Belinda got one raised chestnut eyebrow and an uncertain "Oookay."

  It was out of place at a poolside party, and everyone would probably scratch their heads when they saw it. But it was the only idea Belinda could think of to get people's signatures without suspicion. This way, she had her bases covered and could check the signatures against the note in her pocket later.

  "Drama?" Victoria said, sprucing up a flower arrangement on one of the tables.

  "I could just die!" A breeze blew across the water, rustling the surface of the pool. "As far as I can tell, that silly Silva woman posted the photo originally, but it's gotten around." Her sparkly brown eyes turned a deeper shade of gold like they did when she got mad. Really mad.

  "So, what are you going to do?"

  "It's already begun. I friended her." Belinda dropped a fresh cut tulip into one of the vases.

  Victoria raised her eyebrows. "Bold. Cheeky. And a Portside Power Play if I've ever seen on
e."

  Belinda smiled coldly. "I just got the invite for the charity auction yesterday. If she expects support from the House of Kittridge, including my nana, that photo will disappear from her page and every one of her friends' pages. I have faith she'll see to that.

  "Of course," Belinda added, trying to make the tulips stand upright, "it doesn't really change anything for me. With Bennett."

  Victoria rubbed her shoulder. "I don't care. It's still not over."

  "He hates me."

  "He doesn't hate you. He's just upset."

  "You didn't see the look in his eyes. He–"

  "Belinda, look at me." Belinda turned her chin partway toward Victoria, peering over at her. "He's just upset. He'll get over it."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because you'll make him get over it, that's how! You'll get another opportunity, and you'll snatch it, and you'll patch things up."

  "But–"

  "No buts! I'm a no-buts kind of girl when it comes to you and Bennett Tate. You'll make it right. You will."

  Belinda pursed her lips, trying to have the same conviction. Patience, she said to herself. Patience. She recalled the happiness in his eyes when he first saw her at the pet boutique. It may have evaporated, but it seemed genuine while it lasted. So maybe Bennett was just as conflicted underneath it all.

  She glanced around, but no guests, or Bennett, had arrived yet. "Aidan's here," she whispered.

  "No!"

  "Yes. And Mrs. Sykes made a very pointed point of telling me about it."

  Victoria peered around. "Don't panic now, but they're coming our way."

  Belinda stood up as Mrs. Sykes approached with Aidan trailing by her side. He definitely resembled his mother: thick wavy hair and blue eyes. And he looked like he stepped out of a catalog in his loafers with no socks and polo shirt with the collar turned up. Belinda cringed. So not her type.