Love Under Two Detectives

by Cara Covington

  There was only a car or two that passed as they waited to cross Main Street. One pulled in by the museum. Mary didn’t recognize the vehicle, but then she didn’t really know who drove what. Well, she recognized Aunt Samantha’s new Cadillac and Grandma Kate’s older one, but that was about it. And since the Town Trust had not yet closed off the town—something she suspected would happen very soon—sometimes people did come in from the surrounding area.

  The museum received outside visitors from time to time, as did the spa and, of course, the restaurant.

  “It’s really nice of the town to have a party for us,” Mary said.

  “It’s what they do,” Anthony grinned. “I’ve been to a few of these parties. It’s always a good family time. And the food sure doesn’t suck.”

  The calm ended with the slam of a car door. Running footsteps, some close, some farther back, preceded a voice that Mary would never forget.

  “Found you at last, bitch. Now you’ll pay!”

  All three of them moved fast, but Mary was the fastest. She spun and jabbed out her right fist—a short hard jab that connected with Thomas Northcliffe’s nose.

  Her men had drawn their weapons and Adam—who’d sprinted ahead of his family, gun drawn probably because he’d recognized Northcliffe from his mug shot—put on the brakes and pulled up short.

  They all watched as Northcliffe collapsed to the ground, out cold.

  The men all looked from Northcliffe to Mary.

  Adam shook his head and holstered his weapon. “Gentlemen, I’d call that a solid reason to not ever piss your woman off.”

  “He’s got a glass jaw, something I found out last time.” Mary looked up at her men and then shrugged.

  “Come on into the restaurant, and we’ll get some ice for your hand,” Ginny Kendall said. She, Jake, and their kids had caught up. “The menfolk will join us once they haul that to the jail.” She nodded down at Northcliffe. She turned to her badged husband. “They’ll join us, once their duty is met.” She kissed Adam on the mouth but not before Mary saw the look that she gave him.

  I bet you she sends him off to work on Monday. Mary knew she was right. For just as much as Adam loved his wife and had stayed off work longer than he wanted to, Ginny would send him off to work sooner than she wanted to—for the same reason.

  That was just how folks rolled in Lusty.

  Everyone in Lusty Appetites applauded her when she stepped into the restaurant with Ginny. Then Grandpa Noah got to his feet. “Now just where have those two scoundrels run off to?”

  Ginny gave a brief explanation, which had set some of the male cousins—led by Morgan and Henry—to whispering. “Plotting their verbal digs, most like,” Ginny explained.

  Cousin speak, Mary thought. You gotta love it. She felt herself going all sentimental inside when she caught sight of the banner hanging over the buffet. It read, “Congratulations Mary, Anthony, and Toby!” and there was a drawing of three wedding rings in the corner.

  It didn’t take the men long to make their appearance, and there was close to a full house when they arrived. Of course, Anthony and Toby were applauded, as she had been.

  “Hey, little brother, I hear you bagged yourself an escaped fugitive.” Morgan Kendall, eldest child of Samantha, Preston, Taylor, and Charles had a way of ensuring that his voice carried far as he addressed Adam.

  “Nah, I just supervised the carrying off to the jailhouse of same. The person who bagged the wily fugitive was our Mary. With a single right jab to the middle of his sniveling, deluded face.”

  Adam’s voice carried just as well as his brother’s had. Mary felt her face color as the cheers erupted.

  “Yes, indeed. Mary, you fit right in here with the rest of us,” Ryder Magee, one of Susan Benedict’s husbands, said.

  “She does,” Colt Evans, Susan’s other husband, said. “And she didn’t even need a fu….um, shovel, either.”

  Laughter rippled through the room as, at the last moment and in deference to all the children attending the party, Colt wisely chose not to drop an F-bomb.

  “I can’t take the credit,” Mary said. “The man has a glass jaw.”

  “Take the credit, dear.” Samantha Kendall raised her glass to her. “You certainly deserve it.”

  “And the bonus of this situation, of course,” Samantha’s husband Preston said, “is that those two detectives can rest easy at night, knowing Mary’s there to defend them.”

  Laughter rippled again, and then people returned to their chatter and their food and their children or grandchildren, while Adam and Jake and Anthony and Toby came over to the large table that Mary currently occupied with Ginny, who’d indeed fetched her some ice for her hand.

  Having never just punched a man in the face without being in the “zone” Mary slipped into when she practiced martial arts, she’d had no idea how sore and swollen her hand could be.

  Adam and Jake settled in after first taking the time to locate their twins. The boys were settled in a back corner, with the other kids—some of the older ones like Ben, Libby, and Bonnie, along with Libby’s new aunt Danielle Langley, had seen to procuring food and drinks for them.

  Adam nodded over to the group. “Ben’s first crush was Bonnie. Now they’re best friends, and if I’m not mistaken, he’s taken a shine to Libby.”

  “He had that crush as a much younger lad. Now he’s a teenager, and those crushes can be a bit more…interesting to deal with,” Ginny said.

  Mary grinned at her. “Especially in a town called Lusty?”

  “Boy howdy, girlfriend, you had to say it, didn’t you?” But Ginny was chuckling, so Mary knew it was all good.

  After each of them gave her a kiss and then examined her hand, Anthony and Toby went to get her some food and, because they knew her so well, a cup of coffee.

  They returned and settled in to eating and generally visiting with the Kendalls and whoever else happened to come by.

  “Are you going to keep Northcliffe in jail?” Mary asked her cousin.

  Adam shook his head. “Not for long. First, I called New York and told them you had nabbed their escapee.” He grinned at her and winked. “I may have embellished the scene, just a little. Then I got in touch with Clint Parrish of the DPS. He’s going to arrange for Thorncliffe to be delivered to the Rangers. It shouldn’t take long for the extradition papers to be filed and processed, but he might be held longer in Texas. Not that we want him, but New York is in a mess at the moment.”

  “As long as he’s going to be in custody for a good, long time, I really don’t care where he is. Well, not here in town. But Texas or New York, makes no difference to me,” Mary said.

  “We feel the same way,” Toby said.

  Robert, David, and Jillian, along with their daughter, six-year-old Colleen, arrived. They immediately came over to offer their congratulations.

  Thanks to Grandpa Noah’s filling the doctors in on Mary’s pre-arrival adventure, Robert took a few minutes to examine her hand. She hissed only a little when his fingers probed for damage.

  “I don’t think it’s broken. But why don’t you come by sometime tomorrow and I’ll take an x-ray, just to be certain?”

  “I’ll do that. Thanks, Robert.”

  The Jessops headed off to join their sons Brandon, Trace, and daughter-in-law Rachel, who wasn’t working as a server tonight. The names clicked, and Mary recalled that Libby was Rachel’s daughter and the doctors Jessops’ granddaughter.

  She shook her head.

  “What, sweetheart?” Anthony asked.

  “So many people and names and connections to try and remember.”

  “Then you know how I felt when I returned to my hometown a couple of years ago.” Mary grinned as Marc, Jeremy, and April Jessop arrived. There were hugs and backslapping between the men and congratulations as well.

  “I couldn’t believe how much Lusty had grown, and I didn’t know half of the people here.” Marc insisted that April sit for a moment. The private investigator ro
lled her eyes and then blushed.

  “When are you due?” Mary asked.

  “End of October,” April replied.

  Mary had thought she’d asked that quietly, but apparently her question hadn’t been quiet enough. More congratulations and backslapping ensued—and applause as the word spread around the restaurant.

  “We didn’t want to steal your thunder,” April said.

  Mary waved her hand at that. “You certainly have not. The more good news, the better. Especially in these times.”

  Mary looked up and grinned as her brother, Norm, and her cousin Will, along with their wife, Jacqui, approached. Of course, they had their twin ten-month-old sons, James and Keith, with them.

  As soon as the little imps saw her, they both squealed and reached for her. Mary had said that kids weren’t her milieu, and they never had been. But something about these two—one named for her father and the other for her two uncles—well, they just got to her. The boys were fraternal, not identical twins, which certainly made telling them apart a lot easier. She scooped up Keith, and she had to blink when Anthony offered his arms to James and the little guy accepted. Anthony showed, with just that one action and the way James snuggled into him, a hint of the kind of father he would someday be.

  There were hugs and congratulations and the obligatory warnings to Anthony and Toby of dire consequences, should they not treat their sister/cousin properly.

  Aunt Samantha and the uncles chose the moment that group of Kendalls headed off to get themselves some seats and food to come over and offer their congratulations.

  “I suppose I can now boast that I knew the moment y’all got together for the first time in my great room that this would happen.”

  “Did you, Aunt Samantha?” Toby asked. They had all just sat down at the older woman’s urging. Uncle Preston snagged a chair for his wife and stood with his brothers, giving the stern appearance of being Mary’s senior protectors.

  Toby slid his arm around Mary as he awaited Samantha Kendall’s response.

  “You men kept taking sly looks at Mary, and she kept taking sly looks at you. I just had a hunch that y’all were made for each other.”

  “I do have one question.” Mary thought the whole “be good to that woman” schtick a hoot. But it begged the question, so she asked it. “How come no one ever warns the woman to be good to her men?”

  Her uncles went stoned-faced, and Mary guessed that they didn’t dare offer an answer. Aunt Samantha just patted her hand. “Because, dear, we women are good to our men by virtue of our letting them into our…presence.”

  Mary waited until her aunt and the uncles had left to return to their own table. She turned her attention to Adam and Jake.

  They, too, had closed up, ceding the field to their mother.

  “It must have been interesting being one of five boys growing up with Samantha Kincaid Kendall for a mother.”

  “Mother rules the roost with a firm, but gentle hand…mostly,” Jake said. “That is, always firm but mostly gentle.” He snickered then looked rather quickly at Ginny. She snickered, too, which made all the men at the table relax.

  The door to the outside opened, and two men who were both new to Lusty, and who’d apparently become good friends, came into the restaurant. One was Mary’s cousin Christopher. The other was Cam Drake. Chris waved to his brother, William, then turned his attention to Mary.

  The two came over and greeted everyone, offering congratulations. Jake had brought a couple of chairs over and invited the men to join them.

  It made perfect sense the two would gravitate to each other. From what she’d heard they had a few common interests and similar points of view. But the main thing they shared, was that they were both survivors of great personal loss.

  Mary was glad to see her cousin more relaxed than he’d been up north. His hug of congratulations seemed heartfelt.

  “So, what do you think of Lusty so far?” she asked him.

  “The weather’s good. And I’m liking the…the welcoming atmosphere.”

  Cam gave a smile. “I’ve warned Chris about the summer to come.”

  “It’s not summer now?” Chris asked.

  “Hell, no, this is spring,” Adam said. “And a cool one it is, at that.”

  Ginny shook her head, her grin wide, and then shrugged at Chris, as if to say, “What can you do?” Chris Kendall, of course, took the cousin speak in good stride.

  Jake and Chris chatted for a bit about their legal partnership. Chris had thought Jake had invited him to come and work as an act of charity. “I really had no idea how much work there would be in this small town.”

  “Well, appearances can be deceiving,” Jake said.

  “I think that is one of the most underrated truisms of our times.”

  Mary had seen the nonagenarian enter the restaurant and wave her hand in response to all the greetings she immediately received. Mary didn’t mind admitting that she felt special because that wonderful woman made her way over to her, first.

  “Grandma Kate!” Mary got to her feet in time to hug the elderly woman. She closed her eyes as that hug made her feel safe and secure in a way that only a grandmother’s hug could.

  Then, of course, Grandma Kate moved around the table, greeting and hugging each one, and since everyone had immediately gotten to their feet, the labor of love was done in only a few minutes. Mary noticed that while both Christopher and Cam seemed startled with their inclusion, they nonetheless soaked up that granny-love.

  “I’m so delighted that the three of you found each other!” Anthony had moved down a seat so that Grandma Kate could sit next to Mary. “Especially now, when the future out there seems so uncertain.”

  “And when none of us were necessarily expecting anything like…well, this,” Mary said.

  “It’s a lovely reminder, don’t you think, that even when everything looks dark and bleak, some things—love and family especially—are eternal. And that good can come at anytime, to anyone.

  “None of us knows exactly what the future will hold for us. So we cherish those things we do know. Each other and the heart of what has been built here—more than a hundred years of family, destiny, and love.”

  “You seem a bit melancholy, Grandma Kate,” Ginny said.

  “I am, a little. A body can’t be cheery one hundred percent of the time. I am optimistic for the future. But sad, because steps will have to be taken that are necessary as much as they are loathed.”

  “Is it time, Grandma Kate?” Adam asked.

  “Yes. Yes, Adam, I think it is.” Grandma Kate looked around the table. “The Town Trust can and will do whatever it takes to keep this family—all y’all—safe.”

  “What’s happened?” Mary asked.

  Kate Benedict lifted her hands, palms up. “They’re not taking it seriously. Out there. There’s too much arguing and infighting between the so-called ‘tribes.’ Too many people, regardless of their ideologies, are too focused on what separates them instead of what binds them together. The scientists’ projections aren’t good, and we can no longer sit by and leave this town and this family vulnerable.”

  Mary didn’t know if Grandma Kate realized it, but the room had gone quiet. People began to move, first the older members of the family and then the rest, drawing closer, enclosing this table where she sat with her fiancés and her family, including Grandma Kate, in a cocoon of sorts. Mary could have sworn in that moment that love, in all its precious forms, filled that dining room and the hearts that beat within it. Love formed a barrier more invincible than any wall or fortress ever could be.

  Kate picked up Mary’s hand. “So I am overjoyed to be here with you three right now. Tonight, we celebrate—not just your love but the love that built this family, as well as the resilience of the human spirit. And make no mistake, our spirit is pure resilience.”

  Then she looked over at Adam. “As soon as Sergeant Parrish collects that odious Mr. Thorncliffe from our jail tomorrow morning, close the gates, pl
ease, Adam. Close them and man them. You know what to do.”

  “It’ll be done, Grandma Kate. This family will remain secure, come hell or high water.”

  Kate Benedict nodded. “It won’t be forever, and we’ll do all we can to help our neighbors, here in Texas and throughout this great country.” Then she straightened in her seat, and it seemed to Mary that somehow, in that moment she became taller, stronger…. invincible. “But here? In Lusty? This family, each one of us, will be secure—or there will be hell to pay.”

  THE END

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  LOVE UNDER TWO DETECTIVESPrologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty