Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Mail List
Acknowledgments
Books by Lily Harper Hart
Grave Danger
A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 12
Lily Harper Hart
HarperHart Publications
Copyright © 2018 by Lily Harper Hart
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
1. One
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four
5. Five
6. Six
7. Seven
8. Eight
9. Nine
10. Ten
11. Eleven
12. Twelve
13. Thirteen
14. Fourteen
15. Fifteen
16. Sixteen
17. Seventeen
18. Eighteen
19. Nineteen
20. Twenty
Mail List
Acknowledgments
Books by Lily Harper Hart
1
One
“What are you doing, love?”
Nick Winters furrowed his brow as he stood in the shade of a large maple tree and watched his girlfriend – the woman who would become his wife and was already the whole of his heart – as she prepared herself for a new adventure.
Maddie Graves, her honey blond hair pulled back in a loose braid at the nape of her neck, tugged a wide hat over her serious brow and fixed Nick with a look that was supposed to be stern, but he found adorable.
“I’m gardening.”
Nick ran his tongue over his teeth as he surveyed the pile of items she’d secured from the store the previous day. They sat on the ground as she shifted from one foot to the other and swished her hips in a way that caused his lips to curve. “I know,” he said after a beat. “You told me the news when you got back from the gardening center yesterday and your entire car was full of stuff that I didn’t recognize – stuff that I unloaded without complaint because I’m strong and dashing, mind you. It’s just … why are you going to garden?”
Maddie’s face remained blank. “Why wouldn’t I want to garden?”
Nick wasn’t sure how to answer. In many ways, Maddie was easygoing and never put up much of a fuss. In other ways, she turned high maintenance at the oddest of times. They’d been best friends for their entire lives – other than a ten-year period of estrangement that nearly killed them both – and they’d only been lovers for about nine months. Still, Nick felt he knew Maddie better than anyone.
He didn’t know what to make of this new development, though.
“But I don’t understand,” Nick hedged, his eyes darting from the overgrown flowerbed at the front of the house to his beloved. “You’ve never shown much interest in gardening before.”
Maddie merely shrugged. “I’m going to change that. I bought gloves … and little hand tools … and seeds and stuff. It’s spring, so now is the time to plant.”
“But … do you know anything about gardening?”
“I looked up some stuff on the internet and they even have a television channel about gardening so I can get ideas.”
“They also have a television channel for porn but … .”
Maddie offered up an expression that was halfway between rueful and annoyed. “Only you would bring up porn when I’m about to embark on a new hobby. That’s just so … you.”
Nick leaned closer. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. It’s just … you’ve never expressed an interest in gardening before and I have no idea what to make of it. Is this some sort of late-twenties crisis?”
“Why do you have to make anything of it?” Maddie wasn’t normally known for being aggressive, but the look she shot Nick now was worrisome. “Can’t I simply want to pick up a new hobby?”
Nick wasn’t sure how to answer. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here.” He was uncomfortable, something he almost never felt when spending time with Maddie. “I just want to know why you’ve decided to start gardening. I don’t want to turn it into a big thing.”
Maddie opened her mouth to answer but no explanation came out. She was genuinely at a loss. That’s when her grandmother stepped in and made things even more awkward.
“Maddie is getting married,” Maude Graves drawled from the open doorway, a mug of coffee clutched in her hand and her silver curls still damp from a shower. The expression on her face was mischievous.
Nick glanced over his shoulder and met Maude’s steady gaze. “I know she’s getting married. I was there when she got the ring.”
Maude didn’t so much as twitch. “Yes, but now Maddie needs to do wifely things. Gardening is a wifely thing.”
Nick blinked several times in rapid succession. “But … .”
Maude, who generally enjoyed messing with her granddaughter and Nick rather than helping, took pity on the man she’d known since he was a small boy. He was genuinely lost. “She’s getting married and it’s a wife’s job to keep up the house,” Maude offered helpfully. “That’s what she’s doing. She’s keeping up the house so you’ll be happy.”
Understanding dawned on Nick, and it wasn’t a comfortable experience. “Maddie.” He made a clucking sound with his tongue as he shook his head. “You don’t have to garden to make me happy, Mad. In fact, if you never want to garden and instead spend your time kissing me, I will be forever happy.”
Maddie offered up a chagrined smile. “Nicky, that’s very sweet.” She meant it. “That’s not why I’m gardening, though.”
Nick stilled, his handsome face thoughtful. “So … you’re not gardening because you think that’s what a wife does?”
Maddie’s answer was perfunctory. “No.”
Nick couldn’t help being relieved. “Good. That makes me feel better.”
“I’m gardening because that’s what my mother would want,” Maddie added, only adding to Nick’s confusion.
“Wait … what?” Nick glanced to Maude for help, but the Graves matriarch looked as confused as he felt. “You’ve decided to pick up gardening because your mother liked to garden? I don’t … um … understand.”
“That makes two of us.” Maude was suddenly serious. “Maddie girl, your mother gardened because she always liked it.” She shuffled out onto the front porch so Maddie had no choice but to meet her steady gaze. “Even when your mother was a kid she used to enjoy picking flowers and weeding the garden. I never made her do those things. She liked it. She said it was relaxing.
“At first I thought she was defective and couldn’t understand how a child of mine could possibly like something so … mundane,” she continued. “Then I realized that was the wrong opinion to have. I’ve always been a big proponent of being who you are … and your mother happened to like gardening. That’s who she was.”
Nick was careful to keep his expression neutral. “You don’t have to garden, love.”
“The beds are overgr
own, though,” Maddie pointed out, gesturing toward what could only be described as a pile of dead weeds (thanks to the brutal Michigan winter), which looked to be choking what had once been a pretty bush. “When my mother lived here, the beds were beautiful. The flowers were so pretty people all over town commented on how nice they looked.”
“Yes, but you’re getting married to the town stud,” Maude noted. “The people in town have better things to gossip about now, like the fact that you two are so pretty together that everyone else appears ugly when they stand next to you.”
Nick snorted. “While I wouldn’t exactly put it like that … .”
Maude cut him off. “Maddie, you don’t have to garden to make Olivia happy.”
Olivia Graves, Maddie’s mother, died almost a year before. It was sudden and traumatic. It was also the thing that forced Maddie back to Blackstone Bay, a small hamlet in northern Lower Michigan, and resulted in Maddie and Nick reuniting. Even though the initial meeting was tense, Maddie and Nick found their way back to one another fairly quickly and once they were a couple it was as if everything slipped into place and their future was set in stone. Oddly enough, they were both fine with that. The only thing Maddie and Nick believed with absolute certainty was that they belonged together.
Forever.
“I know I don’t have to garden to make Mom happy.” Maddie’s tone was firm. “We’ve talked about it and she said that the house was mine and I could do what I want with the flowerbeds.”
Olivia may have been dead, but her ghost remained to offer up advice and admonishments. Since Maddie was the only one who could see and talk to ghosts, those motherly musings didn’t fall on deaf ears and no one else could ease the burden of Olivia’s chats because they couldn’t participate in them.
“I gave it some serious thought and I want to put the gardens back to what they were before,” Maddie said. “I’m not doing it for Mom. I’m doing it for me.”
“But why?” Nick desperately wanted to understand. “You’ve never cared before.”
“I know but … .” Maddie searched for the correct words to make Nick not only understand but also refrain from worrying. “I love this house and I love what my mother did with the flower beds. I remember seeing the house from afar when I was a kid and I was coming home after we spent a day in the woods or getting ice cream, Nicky, and I always loved the flower beds because they were the first thing I saw when we rounded the corner on the street.”
Nick licked his lips, uncertain. “So you want to clean up the flower beds because you loved them?”
Maddie nodded. “Yes. I want our children to look at the house the same way I did. I want them to be happy to come home.”
Nick smiled and this time the expression was easy and made it all the way up to his eyes. “I think that sounds like a fine idea.”
Maddie beamed. “Good. I’m going to need your help to do it. You should probably change your clothes.”
Nick balked. “Hey, I don’t want to garden.”
“No, and I have no intention of making you do it long term.” Maddie adopted a “no nonsense” tone that Nick was becoming familiar with. He mostly enjoyed it when she got bossy because it didn’t regularly happen. It was often a spur-of-the-moment thing. She clearly meant business now, though. “I let it go for a full year and that’s too long of a time. See those weeds over there.” Maddie pointed for emphasis. “They’re as tall as I am and I’m going to need help yanking them.”
“Oh.” Nick stared at the weed in question. It did look rather unruly. Since it was early spring in Michigan, the flowers and foliage hadn’t yet taken full bloom. “Now would probably be the time to remove that sucker, huh?”
Maddie nodded. “It will take a bit of muscle to get things back to where they were, but if we work together, it will be done quickly and it won’t be nearly as much work next year because we’ll be keeping it up.”
“And this is important to you?”
Maddie bobbed her head. “We’re going to start a family here. I want this house to be beautiful, exactly how I remember it from when I was a kid. I know it sounds corny, but I can’t stop myself from wanting it.”
Nick’s expression softened. “Love, I want that, too.” He took a step toward her and tipped up her chin with his thumb, planting a long kiss on her lips. “I’ll change my clothes and grab some gloves. I think we also need some of those big lawn and leaf bags.”
“There are some in the shed behind the house,” Maddie said, her eyes already on the flower bed. “If we work together, it won’t take us very long.”
“That’s good. That means we can play together later tonight, right?” Nick’s tone was impish, but his eyes offered up a hint of seriousness.
“Absolutely.” Maddie liked both ideas.
“Then that sounds like a plan to me.”
NICK SPENT TEN minutes changing his clothes and gathering the necessary supplies. He ran into Maude in the backyard after gathering the appropriate bags and pulled up short when he gauged the expression on her face.
“Oh, don’t make things difficult,” Nick groused. “Everything is fine. There’s no reason to be … well, you.”
If Maude was offended by the comment, she didn’t show it. “I’m not saying things aren’t fine. I simply wanted to touch base with you.”
Nick was taken aback – and mildly chagrined. “Oh, well, what seems to be the problem then?”
“I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job handling that.” Maude was very rarely serious so Nick couldn’t refrain from being flabbergasted. “You two are having fewer and fewer misunderstandings these days and things seem to be falling into place.”
Nick narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “Okay, what do you want?”
Maude’s face flashed with annoyance. “What makes you think I want anything?”
“I’ve met you.” Nick refused to back down. “You’re clearly up to something.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say about the woman who used to babysit you,” Maude shot back. “I mean … I took care of you, cooked for you, baked for you, entertained you … and this is how you repay me, huh?” She made a tsking sound with her tongue. “You’re breaking my heart.”
Nick refused to be swayed. “You never did any of those things for me. Olivia did those things for me. You didn’t do anything but try to point me toward mischief. Okay, you entertained me. You didn’t bake and cook, though.”
“I could’ve done those things,” Maude pressed.
“And yet you didn’t.”
“No, but I could have.”
“But you didn’t.”
Maude made an exaggerated face. “Do we really need to get fixated on this?”
Nick was genuinely fond of Maude – so much so he considered her a part of his family even when he and Maddie were estranged – so he knew how to play the game. “No. We don’t. I have a feeling Maddie is going to be a taskmaster this afternoon so I actually want to get work done rather than play with you. Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing out here, huh?”
“I would be glad to.” Maude almost looked serene. “You can’t let Maddie dig up that flower bed on the east side of the house until at least tomorrow.”
The simple statement was the last thing Nick expected. “The one under the garage window?”
“The one under my apartment window,” Maude clarified. Several months before she converted the garage into a living space so she could avoid climbing stairs while giving Maddie and Nick privacy at the same time. “You need to keep Maddie away from that flower bed until I can … deal with things.”
Since he was a police officer, Nick wasn’t sure he wanted further details. “Do I even want to know?”
Maude was a master at feigning innocence. “Know what?”
“What you’re hiding in the flower bed beneath your bedroom window.”
“Oh, that.” Maude made a dramatic face. “What makes you think I’m hiding anything there?”
“Do y
ou really want to play this game?” Nick wasn’t in the mood to be trifled with. “Whatever you’ve got out there – and I’ve decided I don’t want to know, so you’re getting off lucky, quite frankly – I want you to get rid of it because I’m guessing it’s going to upset Maddie.”
“I’m not saying I have anything out there,” Maude clarified. “I need you to know that.”
Nick’s tone was dry. “Duly noted.”
“I just think it would be better if you could keep Maddie away from that window until tomorrow,” Maude clarified. “I think that for her mental health – and yours as well – that it would be the best thing for everybody.”
Now Nick was certain he didn’t want to know what Maude was up to. He’d been down that road before and always lived to regret it. That didn’t mean he was willing to kowtow to Maude’s whims. “You have an hour.”
Maude balked. “Excuse me?”
“You have an hour,” Nick repeated. “Get rid of it. Whatever it is, I don’t want to see it. If it’s illegal and I see you with it, I’m going to arrest you.”
Maude was agitated but she didn’t believe that threat for a second. “Whatever. You’re not going to arrest me because it would upset Maddie and we both know you don’t want that.”
“I don’t,” Nick agreed, shoving the bags under his arm and starting for the side of the house. “I want her happy.”
“Which is why you’re gardening.” Maude’s manner was derisive. “You’re all about making her happy.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Despite Maude’s determination to irritate him, Nick picked an easy pace so the elderly woman would have no problem keeping up. “I want Maddie happy. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”
“Well, if that’s true, you’ll keep her away from the flower bed on the other side of the house until at least tomorrow.”
Nick heaved out a sigh. “You are so much work.”
“Yes, but I’m worth it.” Maude’s eyes twinkled in a way that made Nick smile. “Just keep her busy until I give you the go-ahead to hit that flower bed. It won’t be that difficult.”
Nick was resigned. “I’ll see what I can do. Make sure I don’t see whatever you’ve got in there, though. I’d like to at least pretend I’m a good cop.”
Grave Danger (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 12) Page 1
