“Cynics are also broken romantics.”
“That too. Which are you?”
“Both.” He slipped one hand behind her neck, leaned in and covered her mouth with his. He lingered in the kiss, tasting her sweetness, feeling her respond. Coffee and chocolate and heat.
They parted, and Roz made a little whimpering sound. And let out a sigh.
He could hear her make those sounds all day. Or all night. He grinned, expecting a lecture about public displays of affection, but she just looked up at him under her eyelashes with a coy half smile before she reached down to dig her computer out of her bag.
“Are you writing?” she asked, nodding at his open laptop on the table.
“Trying to draft some kind of story. It’s not easy. Mae told me a lot but kept asking me to keep it off the record. I only have a few bland nuggets about Wayne’s personality and Enolia being awesome. And guess what? Enolia is her aunt.”
“What? For real?”
“For real,” Alden said. “That’s one reason Enolia did a signing in our little town. And Mae—who says hi, by the way—told me Enolia promised to invest in the bookshop, which needs cash. She didn’t say it was a dire situation, but that was the impression I got.”
“And Mae knew Wayne?”
“A little. She said he was likable and handsome. She might’ve even gotten a little flustered when she said that, but I could be imagining things.”
Roz stared at Alden. “Do you think she had a thing for Wayne Vandershell?”
“I don’t know. What did you get from the Esquivels? Did you find Wayne’s partner?”
Roz’s face lit up. “Sebastian Esquivel didn’t just direct me to Wayne Vandershell’s partner—he is the partner. Or was.”
“No kidding. And they were working on a movie studio?”
Roz nodded. “But they didn’t get that far, partly because Wayne wasn’t meeting his financial obligations. Though apparently he had hopes of raising money to make the project go forward. They even built part of an outdoor set to entice potential investors, though Sebastian never saw any come through. He said he would show us around and we can take photos.”
Alden smirked. “That’s awfully nice of him.”
“Your cynicism is showing. You think he’s being open about the studio so we won’t look into other things?”
“I distrust anything that’s so easy. But I’m willing to go.”
“Good. I’ll contact him in a bit to see when we can do it.” A tiny wrinkle formed in her brow. “And this is kind of weird, but when Nicole took her kids to the bathroom prior to Enolia’s signing, apparently she left them all in there alone for a few minutes while she disappeared. I’m wondering where she went.”
“Who told you that?”
“The oldest boy, who’s only about five. I know, not a reliable source.”
Alden crossed his arms and leaned back, thinking. “So she could’ve gone to see Wayne? Why?”
“I don’t know. I hope it wasn’t for romantic reasons. Sebastian seemed like a nice guy. Except he got pretty angry talking about Wayne. And I think part of the reason is Nicole. And this part was off the record?—”
“Of course it was.”
Roz chuckled. “I know. Anyway, Wayne promised to produce Nicole’s screenplay if Sebastian agreed to the movie studio deal, which apparently wasn’t the best contract Sebastian ever signed. He didn’t want to tell her that’s why he agreed to partner up with Wayne. He was just trying to make her dream come true.”
All of this skulduggery hurt Alden’s head. “Did you ask her whether she went to see Wayne in back of the bookstore Saturday morning?”
“No. She was busy with the kids, and my interview with Sebastian was over. I want to know more before I bring it up.”
“So you haven’t talked to Duke again?”
“Ooo, good point.” She took another sip of her mocha, then dredged her phone out of her bag and tapped the screen. She held it to her ear, and Alden got to hear very little of the conversation, with Roz’s short answers and questions and Duke inaudible. But her eyebrows seemed to lift higher with every answer.
