Beef Cake

by Smartypants Romance

  "So suspicious," he mused. "I'm heading that way myself, since that's where I live. If that's your destination, I can give you a lift into town. Drop you wherever you need to go."

  I eyed his truck, then his carefully smooth facial expression. It was like he knew the emotional tightrope I was walking.

  He didn’t know the half of it.

  "You could walk, if you wanted to," he said, "but it's about a twenty-minute drive, so you'd be good and tired by the time you got there. Your stomach would probably be crawling out of your own body to find some food, if you think you’re hungry now.”

  I cocked my head. "You know, Ted Bundy would've used the same logic on someone like me."

  With the patience of a saint, he reached into his pocket, fished out his wallet and then leaned forward to hand me his driver's license.

  "Go ahead," he said. "Snap a pic, send it to your aunt, it'll go through eventually, and even if it doesn't whoever finds your hypothetical body will have a record that you were with me."

  I scoffed. "Sure, until you steal my cell phone and delete the outgoing text while it's sending."

  But did I snap a picture? Sure as shit did.

  Tucker Ames Haywood, age twenty-six, from Green Valley, Tennessee.

  Huh. Exactly the same age as I was. Actually, our birthdays were two days apart.

  I ignored his expression when I handed his license back, pivoting quickly to yank the keys out of the ignition, grab my laptop bag, my camera, and purse from the floor of the passenger seat, slam the hood of the car down, and then lock the doors. I hit the lock button again, waiting for the reassuring beep of the horn to let me know it was secured.

  I lifted my chin and walked to the passenger side of the truck, keeping my eyes forward while I hooked the seatbelt. The truck smelled like him, clean and masculine, and I vaguely wondered if I could make it the entire drive to Green Valley without inhaling a single time.

  "Where we headed?" he asked, turning the key and sliding his sunglasses back onto his face.

  For some reason, I felt better when his eyes were covered. Like my body could relax, just a little bit.

  I rattled off my aunt's address.

  A smile broke over that face again. "Fran and Robert's place? Francine Buchanan is your aunt?"

  I turned and eyed him. "Why?"

  "I work with your uncle from time to time." That stupid smile widened. "I was just there for dinner a couple nights ago."

  My jaw dropped somewhere around the vicinity of my ankles.

  "Careful there, Angry Girl, wouldn't want to catch any flies with that mouth open."

  When I snapped it shut, he chuckled, low and slow, the sound catching on his southern accent in a way that I did not appreciate.

  Tucker Ames Haywood hooked a wrist over the top of the steering wheel as he started in the direction of town.

  I already kinda hated Green Valley.

  ** END SNEAK PEEK **

  Batter of Wits releases April 21st, 2020!

  Also by Jiffy Kate

  Would you like to read more books by Jiffy Kate?

  * * *

  Check out their other works:

  * * *

  Finding Focus Series (complete):

  Finding Focus

  Chasing Castles

  Fighting Fire

  Taming Trouble

  * * *

  Table 10 (complete):

  Table 10 – Part 1

  Table 10 – Part 2

  Table 10 – Part 3

  * * *

  Turn of Fate (previously titled The Other One)

  * * *

  Watch and See

  * * *

  The French Quarter Collection:

  Blue Bayou

  Come Again

  Neutral Grounds

  Good Times

  * * *

  The Rookie and The Rockstar

  (New Orleans Revelers Book 1 – standalone)

  * * *

  For Smartypants Romance:

  Stud Muffin, Donner Bakery, Book 2

  Beef Cake, Donner Bakery, Book 4

  Also by Smartypants Romance

  Green Valley Chronicles

  The Donner Bakery Series

  Baking Me Crazy by Karla Sorensen (#1)

  Stud Muffin by Jiffy Kate (#2)

  No Whisk, No Reward by Ellie Kay (#3)

  Beef Cake by Jiffy Kate (#4)

  Batter of Wits by Karla Sorensen (#5)

  * * *

  The Green Valley Library Series

  Love in Due Time by L.B. Dunbar (#1)

  Crime and Periodicals by Nora Everly (#2)

  Prose Before Bros by Cathy Yardley (#3)

  Shelf Awareness by Katie Ashley (#4)

  Carpentry and Cocktails by Nora Everly (#5)

  Love in Deed by L.B. Dunbar (#6)

  * * *

  Scorned Women’s Society Series

  My Bare Lady by Piper Sheldon (#1)

  The Treble with Men by Piper Sheldon (#2)

  * * *

  Park Ranger Series

  Happy Trail by Daisy Prescott (#1)

  Stranger Ranger by Daisy Prescott (#2)

  * * *

  The Leffersbee Series

  Been There Done That by Hope Ellis (#1)

  * * *

  The Higher Learning Series

  Upsy Daisy by Chelsie Edwards (#1)

  * * *

  Seduction in the City

  Cipher Security Series

  Code of Conduct by April White (#1)

  Code of Honor by April White (#2)

  * * *

  Cipher Office Series

  Weight Expectations by M.E. Carter (#1)

  Sticking to the Script by Stella Weaver (#2)

  Cutie and the Beast by M.E. Carter (#3)