Stolen in Love

by G. G. Andrew

  But out he stepped from his sea-green hybrid, in a light blue shirt, unbuttoned navy blue jacket, and jeans, his hair damp from the rain.

  Her mother straightened to standing, removed her gloves, and shielded her eyes from the sun as she glanced down and across the street. He opened the backseat, and a minute later out came Lily, followed by two other little brunette girls. The trio looked a little rain-soaked, but happy and talking in high pitches a mile a minute.

  “Hello, Scott!” Diane called, with a friendliness that Kim couldn’t help but notice had been absent from her greeting to her own daughter.

  Scott raised a hand in greeting. Then he took Lily and one of the girls by the hand and started to walk to them!

  The gazelles in Kim’s belly did a tap dance.

  “Hello, Diane,” he said as he drew near. His eyes found hers. “Kim.”

  It was only a moment, and though his eyes burned bright with something, she couldn’t read his expression. But that glance made it feel like June.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “We just got back from the park,” he said, like he hadn’t screwed her inside his patrol car two days ago. “We all got a little wet, but looks like it’s getting nicer out.”

  “It does,” her mother agreed. “At least, we hope so. We’ve got the barbecue going out back. Gary’s got some chicken on the grill. We’re just waiting for Laurel and Jamie to get here.”

  “So that’s what that smell is.” He smiled briefly. “So how is everything going?”

  Her dad came out of the house behind them then, and thank God. She was about to pass out from awkwardness.

  “Hello, Scott,” her father boomed. “Looks like you’ve got a gaggle of girls here.”

  Kim, her dad reminding her that Scott wasn’t the only person in the yard, looked down at his daughter. “Hi, Lily!”

  “Hi, Kim!” she said. “We got rained on at the park.”

  “Oh, no.” She smiled. “Did you bring some shampoo so you could wash your hair while it got rained on?”

  Lily giggled. “No…”

  “Well, you should have. It’s really trending right now. All the celebrities are doing it.”

  “All the celebrities are not doing it,” Diane said, her voice amused, but with a hidden tightness that was meant for Kim’s ears. She gestured to the two other girls. “Who do we have here?”

  “This is Sophie and Sierra,” Scott said. “They’re friends of Lily’s from school. They stayed over last night, and their mom is on her way to pick them up. She should be here any minute, actually.”

  As if on cue, two cars came down the street from opposite directions. Laurel and Jamie pulled up in front of the Xaviers’, with Jamie at the wheel. A Plymouth minivan coming from the opposite direction paused in front of Scott’s, then drove a little further to brake in front of the house, too.

  “There’s Taylor right now,” Scott said.

  “That looks like Taylor Stiles,” her mother said.

  Kim giggled nervously. “Taylor?”

  Scott glanced at her.

  “She and Kim went to school together,” Diane said. “Come on, Kim, let’s go say hi.”

  Laurel and Jamie were getting out of the car as Kim followed her mother, Scott, and the girls to the minivan. Sure enough, Taylor Stiles sat in the driver’s seat, a pair of sunglasses propped up on her head and a smug smile on her face.

  Kim shot her sister a desperate look on the way, and Laurel moved towards them, a question on her face.

  “Hi, there,” Scott said to Taylor. “We survived.”

  “Hi, girls!” Taylor said. “I didn’t know you lived by the Xaviers, Scott. Hi, Diane.” She finger-waved at Kim’s mother. “Hi, Kim.”

  “Hi, Taylor,” Diane said. “It’s great to see you. Are these your adorable girls?”

  “Yes, they are. And I see your whole family’s here. Hi, Laurel.” She waved to where she stood behind Kim, and they exchanged pleasantries for a minute or two while Taylor got the girls inside the car and buckled in their car seats.

  After she’d gotten back into the driver’s seat and buckled her own seat belt, Taylor gave Kim a quick glance and addressed Diane. “It must be nice to have the whole family back together.”

  “What?” Diane said, her eyebrows knitting together.

  “You know, having Kim home and everything. It just must be a great feeling, is all.”

  “Yes.” Diane smiled, but Kim was pretty sure if her mother’d had a shank and known how to use it, Taylor would’ve soon been missing one of those fingers she was so fond of waving with.

  Damage done, Taylor faced Scott. “Thank you so much for watching the girls, Scott.” She looked behind her to the backseat. “Say thank you, girls.”

  “Thank you, Officer Culpepper.”

  Taylor drove off. Scott, still holding Lily’s hand, gave Kim a perplexed look.

  “Taylor and I go way back,” Kim explained.

  Laurel said behind her, “God, what a bitch.”

  Diane rounded on her daughter. “Watch your mouth, Laurel.” She nodded down to Lily.

  “Oh. Sorry.” Laurel skittered back towards Jamie, who’d been standing a few feet behind, scuffing his shoes against the sidewalk. He wasn’t very comfortable with suburban settings—Kim couldn’t blame him—and he was also prone to dreamy lapses of silence, which Laurel had explained to her often meant he was envisioning street art designs in his head. Kim wondered what Taylor had inspired in him. The image of a winged harpy on the sidewalk, probably.

  Scott threw another glance in Kim’s direction. “Well, we don’t want to keep you from your barbecue. Come on, Lily.”

  “Wait,” Diane said, “why don’t you and Lily join us? We’ve got plenty of chicken and salads, especially since Ian has to work. We bought a big watermelon, too. It’s a little unseasonal, but I thought we’d celebrate the warmer weather.”

  “Daddy,” Lily said sotto voce, “they’ve got watermelon.”

  “Well, if you think it’s okay,” Scott said, not meeting her eyes. He didn’t seem hesitant at all, not like he was trying to weasel out of it. Was he really saying yes to a barbecue at her parents’ house, under her mother’s sharp eyes and her sister’s knowing gaze?

  None of them knew what was going on between her and Scott—not even Laurel. She’d avoided her sister by running errands the past couple of days. Kim didn’t think she could keep her sister from guessing that she’d had sex with this man when they were in the same yard. Already she felt like she and Scott were acting weird around each other, like casualness on steroids.

  “Yes, we’d love to have you,” Diane said. “Right, Kim?”

  Kim wanted to say she had already had him, but she couldn’t find a socially appropriate way of wiggling out of this. “Sure,” she said, smiling weakly.

  Diane smiled, obviously pleased that they could do something for Scott. Ever since Kim was young, she’d wanted to present their family as the together ones, the ones that helped others and not the other way around. In the few instances they were given something, the Xaviers paid back their debts, with interest. Her mother must’ve considered Scott helping Kim as a debt. She was never good at accepting charity.

  Diane led them through the gate to the backyard, where the smell of grilled meat and veggies reached Kim’s nostrils and made her tummy growl. Beside the grill, Diane had set up a table spread with a white linen that held bowls of green salad, pasta salad, and wedges of watermelon. A punch bowl of lemonade sat beside the dishes, with a clear glass ladle and wineglasses nearby.

  “Help yourself, Scott, Lily,” Diane said, waving her arm expansively before turning to her husband. “Gary, can we throw a few more peppers on the grill?”

  Scott helped Lily to a plate of food while Kim dawdled nearby talking to her sister and Jamie and trying not to stare. She bit back a smile as she watched Scott nervously help Lily get herself lemonade in one of her parents’ fancy glasses. He set her up in one of the Adirondack chairs w
hile he went back to get his own food.

  “So, long time, no see,” Laurel said to her. “Did you get all those errands done that you were running yesterday?”

  “Um…”

  Scott’s gaze snagged on hers. He was helping himself to a big spoonful of potato salad, but he paused with the spoon in mid-air a moment.

  His eyes bore into hers. Had he guessed she’d been tracking down more women?

  He’d be right.

  ~

  Melody Brady, the second-to-last person on the list Prue had given her, had been different than she expected. She was around Kim’s age, late twenties, and she owned her own cupcake shop. Kim had known this from the document, and Saturday morning she’d gone to find her, vowing not to screw it up as bad as she had with Destani.

  A little bell dinged as Kim walked into the cupcake shop, inhaling the scent of sugar frosting. The shop was small, and a single woman stood behind the counter, whom Kim guessed to be Melody. She was soft and curvy, with dark skin and her hair pulled back into a ponytail. A few strands had come loose around a kind face.

  “Hello,” the woman said pleasantly.

  “Hello,” Kim said.

  “How can I help you?”

  “Let’s see…” Kim peered into the display case, pretending to be considering from the array of pink and lilac and baby blue frosted cupcakes. She exhaled and squeezed her eyes shut a moment.

  She looked back up at Melody. “I didn’t come for cupcakes.”

  “No?”

  “No.” She took a deep breath. “Are you Melody Brady?”

  The woman nodded. “Yes.”

  “Okay,” Kim said. “Look, this is going to sound super weird, but I found this list of women whom I think are being harassed online. And your name was on it.”

  Melody swallowed a moment, her eyes darting around the shop before she met Kim’s gaze. “I know.”

  “You do?”

  Melody sighed, got out two purple cupcakes, walked to the entrance, and flipped the shop’s sign to Closed. She sat down with the cupcakes and nodded for Kim to sit with her.

  “It’s Matt, isn’t it?” Melody asked.

  “I don’t know who’s doing it. I just have this list. I met another woman yesterday, a Destani Jenkins, who might’ve been harassed too,” Kim said, then added, wondering if the two women had dated the same guy, “Do you know her?”

  She shook her head. “Matt’s my ex-boyfriend,” she said as she looked down to unpeel the wrapper from a cupcake in front of her. “We dated for a few months last year, and then I broke up with him. I didn’t think we were very compatible, but he took it hard. Kept emailing and texting to ask what he’d done and why, like there was some complicated reason or conspiracy behind it all. But this wasn’t JFK and the grassy knoll; I just wasn’t into him.”

  Kim nodded and picked up the cupcake closest to her to nibble on it.

  “Eventually that stopped,” Melody continued. “At least I thought it did. I stopped hearing from him, and I thought he’d moved on.” She shook her head. “Then in December I hear from a customer that they went to leave a review of Melody’s Cupcakes online, at one of those big review sites? They saw all these one-star reviews there, from a bunch of different accounts, with people saying horrible things. Saying the cupcakes are awful, but also calling me a whore.”

  Kim set down her cupcake, her stomach turning. “You knew it was Matt?”

  She nodded. “He’d call me a whore after we broke up. It had his stamp all over it.”

  “So you think he posted all those reviews?”

  Melody exhaled. “No, that’s the thing. I could see Matt posting a review under one account, but thinking to do it under multiple accounts?”

  “What about friends of his?”

  “Maybe. But he didn’t have a lot. I doubt he’s saavy enough to open up different accounts to post what looked like legitimate reviews. One time, his computer froze, and he had to call me so I could instruct him to turn it off and back on again.” Melody rolled her eyes. “I think he paid someone to do it.”

  Kim’s stomach churned more. That’s what she thought too, but she was hoping she—and Prue—were just being paranoid, because the idea of these guys paying a person, or people, to harass others online on their behalf was strange. And sick.

  “Did you go to the police with this?” Kim asked.

  Melody shook her head again. “No, I didn’t. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t know what they could do, since I didn’t have much proof. Maybe my cupcakes just suck that much, right? Plus, I didn’t want to make Matt come after me more.” Her brown eyes gazed out the front of the shop. “This has been my dream, opening this place. You wouldn’t think a dozen outlandish reviews online would make a difference, but it has. I’ve seen a drop in sales. And I keep thinking that if Matt’s still angry at me, what’s going to stop him from showing up here someday? That’s why I installed that bell.” She pointed to the door and chuckled. “Though now every time I hear that ring and I’m in back, my heart starts beating real fast.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Kim said. A flash of anger ignited her voice. “What he’s doing is wrong. I hope you know that.”

  “I know that.” Melody nodded. “I just don’t see what I can do about it.”

  Kim took a deep breath. “I have a friend who knows internet security and how this stuff works. She may be able to contact that website, see if some of those reviews can be taken down. I can give you her name.”

  Melody pursed her lips, considering. “Okay.”

  Kim grabbed a small pink napkin from the dispenser at the table, scribbled Prue’s number on it from her phone, and handed it over.

  “I also know a cop,” Kim said. “Can I give him Matt’s name? I know you don’t want to draw more attention to yourself, but he may be able to hunt around, see who’s been helping Matt do this.”

  Melody looked skeptical, but she gave a short nod.

  ~

  At her parents’ house, Kim had learned that the best defense was a good offense. So when Scott gave her the questioning look about her so-called errands, she excused herself from talking to Laurel and Jamie, grabbed a plate, and started piling on food two feet away from the officer. Everyone else was seated and chatting on the other side of the lawn.

  “Errands, huh?” Scott said under his breath as he picked up a salt shaker to season his food. He kept his voice low.

  “Uh-huh,” Kim said.

  “These errands wouldn’t have to do with a certain list, would they?”

  “In fact they did.”

  Scott plopped a piece of watermelon on his plate. “Kim, you need to be careful. What I said the other day—maybe I didn’t emphasize the point enough. We don’t know who these women are.”

  Kim scooped salad onto her plate, then paused to put a cherry tomato to her lips. “I have a name for you. A man who was harassing Melody of Melody’s Cupcakes and may have paid someone to up his game. Do you want it?” She popped the tomato in her mouth.

  His face was stern, but his eyes also watched her lips as she chewed and swallowed the juicy fruit.

  “I want it,” he said.

  “Good.”

  She took a step closer to him and reached around his body to grab her own watermelon wedge. He didn’t move, and as her arm brushed against his navy jacket, a shiver of desire ran through her. When she looked up at him, his eyes were heated. They drifted down her body, lingering at her décolletage which because of his height probably afforded him a view of even more of her breasts than she intended. She didn’t mind.

  “Careful, Culpepper,” she whispered. “This is a family event.”

  His eyes cut to the side, making sure the rest of the group wasn’t within earshot. “Come to my place. After. We can talk.”

  Talk was probably the last thing Scott had planned, judging by his expression and the hunched way he now stood, hand shoved in his pocket, probably to hide the desire he too felt. At least there were some advantages to
being a woman.

  Teasing was another. Flippantly, she smiled and said, “I might be able to do that. Let me check my schedule and get back to you.”

  “Be there,” he nearly growled.

  Laughing, she turned on her heel and walked away to sit with her family, adding an extra sway to her hips.

  But halfway to the group of chairs where her family sat, she caught Laurel’s eye. Her sister was sitting on Jamie’s lap, but she was staring at Kim, her mouth wide.

  O.M.G., she mouthed.

  Shit. The women in her family were pretty much Sherlock Holmes when it came to figuring out things you didn’t want other people to know, like whom you were sleeping with. Kim had no doubt Laurel had observed her and Scott’s posture as they stood by the food. Maybe even read their lips, because she was snoopy like that.

  Kim cut a glance at her mother, wondering if she knew too, but Diane was laughing along with her father about something Lily had just said and seemed unaware. So at least there was that.

  Avoiding her sister’s gaze, she sat in a chair and ate her dinner while chatting with the rest of them. A minute later, Scott followed suit.

  Lily regaled them with stories from her field trip to see a play that week; Laurel talked about her burgeoning landscaping business; her mother politely asked Jamie about his latest artwork with almost none of the suppressed judgment that was normally there; and Scott asked after some of the neighbors.

  The officer had an easy way with her parents that Kim had never had, and she told herself that’s why she was watching him in such fascination. Twice, when everyone else was embroiled in conversation, their eyes met in a secret moment. Kim had to fight off a smile when that happened.