“It was foolish pride. I was embarrassed that she broke my nose and pissed that we had to cancel our anniversary dinner plans because of it,” Nadine replied while looking me straight in the eye as if she had nothing to hide. “I do regret the way I acted in the salon, at the station, and a lot of other things.”
“Nadine, you said you were once close to Georgia, so can you tell us if there was anyone in her past that would want to hurt her?” Adrian asked.
“No one from her past that I could think of,” she replied after several moments of contemplation. “I think she was seeing someone though.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked, wondering if she suspected it was her husband.
“The gossip hags made it known that she’d ordered some new lingerie from the boutique in town. Why would a single woman order lingerie?” Nadine asked.
I could only shrug because I didn’t have an answer, although I suspected she was right. I mean, I knew next to nothing about women and thought it could be possible that wearing pretty things might just make them feel better about themselves, but I didn’t know.
Well, we wanted to get an idea on whether Nadine suspected her husband was cheating on her with his first wife. Either she didn’t know or she was a brilliant actress. It was still supposition at that point, as we had no physical evidence to prove that Rocky and Georgia were sleeping together; only the word of a bereaved woman who disliked Rocky immensely – okay, she hated his fucking guts.
I looked over at Adrian to see if he had any more questions for her and he shook his head slightly indicating that he didn’t. We rose to our feet at the same time. “Thanks for your time, Mrs. Beaumont,” I said politely.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to talk with Rocky when he returns from his hunting trip in Tennessee.”
Her surprising words almost made me turn around and ask her to repeat herself, but I could tell by Adrian’s posture that I heard her correctly. His secretary said he was in Columbus at a mayoral convention and his wife said he was hunting in Tennessee. Furthermore, an appointment had already been established for him to speak with us that she knew nothing about. Either she was a good liar or she was fucking clueless. From what I was learning about thegoodmayor, I was betting on the latter.
“We sure do, Mrs. Beaumont.”
WEDNESDAYS WERE USUALLY SLOWERdays at the salon with a more laid-back vibe, but not that week. Everyone who wanted to come in the day before to stick their nose in my business, but couldn’t, showed up. Included in the mix were a few hair emergencies that needed my immediate attention, like the four-year-old girl who cut her own hair with a pair of scissors or the client who was too impatient to wait for her appointment and took the hair color dye into her own hands. Praise Jesus she didn’t use permanent color because five hours and $250 later, she looked like a brand new woman. The mother of the little girl had fared much better than my DIY client. The little girl was stopped before she got to her bangs, so I was able to give her a cute inverted bob that mom adored and wanted for herself on her next visit.
I was pleased with the success I achieved, but it also meant that I got very hangry when I worked long past my lunch break. I wasn’t one to use annoying hip terms like bae or fleek, but I loved the word that could properly express how grouchy I became when I let my blood sugar get too low. I didn’t eat after I fled from Gabe’s house and I missed lunch because of the two emergencies I handled back-to-back. It was well after two in the afternoon by the time I made a quick escape to Edson and Emma’s Diner. Luckily for me the place had thinned out pretty good that late in the afternoon.
My waitress, Daniella, stopped by my table with a tall glass of sweet tea. She didn’t need to ask what I wanted to drink. “A little late for lunch today, aren’t you, Josh?”
“Hair emergencies,” I said, as if that explained it all.
“Ahhh,” she replied. “Chicken salad on a croissant, potato chips, and a pickle, right?”
It was what I normally ate on Wednesday, but a little voice in the back of my head told me to shake things up a little and go outside my comfort zone. “I think I’ll take a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of vegetable beef soup instead.” Daniella narrowed her eyes, assessing to see if I was joking. “For real,” I told her. “Soup sounds amazing and no one makes a better grilled cheese than Emma.”
“Oookay,” Daniella said slowly. She looked at me as if I had just told her that I was a straight man after all. She finally walked to the kitchen to give my order.
Emma peeked out the window between the kitchen and dining room. “Are you feeling all right, Josh?”
“Perfectly fine, Em,” I replied, although I was anything but fine. I had to play it cool though or she’d call my mom in Boca Raton and get her all riled up.
Nothing about the situation with Gabe was fine and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I had forced thoughts of him out of my mind all day long and focused on work. Unfortunately, I had nothing to keep my mind occupied while I was waiting for my food, so naturally Gabe was the only thing it wanted to concentrate on.
The first thing my brain wanted me to admit, but I refused, was how well-rested I felt that morning. I hadn’t slept well since I was attacked in my room by the man who killed Bianca. I kept referring to him as “the man” because I didn’t want to know his name or anything about him. It was hard enough getting past what happened when I didn’t know a single detail about him; I feared he’d haunt me forever if I knew even the slightest thing about him.
I wasn’t about to give Gabriel Wyatt credit for my good night’s sleep. Nope. I was exhausted after a chaotic day that wore me out. I blamed the exhaustion for the reason why I showed up on his doorstep anyway. I would’ve run right on past his house had I been functioning on full steam. I knew the feeble-ass excuses were lies, but I’d never admit that to anyone, let alone Gabe. I couldn’t let that man have the upper hand in whatever was happening between us.
I decided to lose myself in trivial shit on Facebook while I waited for my sandwich. I looked at the time on my phone and realized I’d already been there for ten minutes. How the fuck long did it take to scoop chicken salad onto a plate and add chips? Shit! I remembered that I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and soup instead. I had an appointment soon and I didn’t want to be late. I loathed running late. I looked suspiciously at the kitchen window and noticed it was pretty damn quiet in there. I had a sneaky suspicion that Emma was up to no good and was about to get up and investigate when I saw Daniella walk by the window with my lunch.
“Here you go, honey,” Daniella said. “Sorry it took so long. I had to take a few carryout orders.”
That was a relief because I had convinced myself that Emma had snuck outside on her cellphone to call my mom, who just happened to be her best friend since kindergarten. The last thing I needed was Roberta “Bertie” Roman dialing me up and threatening to come back to Ohio to fix whatever was bothering me. She might’ve been over a thousand miles away, but she was still my mom and I was her only child. I was on the receiving end ofallher maternal focus and attention and it got to be a little much at times. It was really unfortunate that my parents didn’t have more children after trying for years, but it just hadn’t been in the cards.
I bit into my grilled cheese and all my cares momentarily faded away. My only thoughts were on buttery toasted bread and the cheesy goodness in the middle. I must’ve moaned my appreciation out loud because I heard a male chuckle coming from behind me.
“Good stuff, huh?”
I wanted to hang my head in resignation or perhaps crawl beneath the table to avoid the conversation that I knew was about to take place. How the hell did I miss the big hulking figure of the hunky town vet when I walked into the diner? I blamed Gabe for that too – for everything odd that happened in my life since the moment we first spoke.
Sure enough, I heard the scraping sound of a chair being scooted back from a table followed by footsteps that got louder as they approached me. Finally, Dr. Studly stood in front of my table smiling down at me. “May I?” He gestured to the empty booth across from me with his hand.
