Not wanting a repeat performance of her narrow escape from a concussion, I steady her. “Whoa, now. You’re spouting serious accusations. Do you have proof?”
“I do. Look at this.” She digs into her designer purse, retrieves some bunched up cotton, and shoves it into my hands.
“Sorry, not following you.” I finger the soft fabric, taking note of the dark stain and the lemon scent.
“Stacy would never take a matching pillowcase and turn it into a rag. No woman would.” Danni purses her lips and as she juts out her chin, it dawns on me what she did.
“Don’t tell me you removed evidence from their house?”
Her cheeks redden. “I had it in my hand when he walked in on me. What else could I do?”
“Oh, fuck no. Jeff saw you?” My heart races.
“Maybe. I’m not sure.”
Danni could be in real danger and if I was a different kind of man, I’d shake some sense into her. “Youdounderstand you interfered with a crime scene?”
“No. You said it yourself. It was an accident, deputy.” She spits out my title like a four-letter word.
“I also found a hammer with a nail in the claw. I’m guessing you didn’t notice the banister was loose, either.” Searching her bag once more, she retrieves a bent flathead and places it in my palm.
“I don’t have to justify our county’s procedures to a detective wanna-be but I will. We don’t go snooping around a grieving husband’s house when there’s no sign of foul play. If you do it again, I will arrest your sorry ass.”
Nose to nose, her chameleon-colored eyes turn from green to gray. Her right nostril twitches. Coffee scent reaches my mouth and we’re so close to a kiss, all I’d have to do is move a fraction of an inch.
One of her blond brows lifts and with her hand cupping my cheek, she moves forward just enough to let me in.
I pray for God to save me or for someone to interrupt us but it’s too late. I slide my lips across hers and they part. She tastes so amazing, I actually moan.
My excuse for what happens next is muscle memory. Reminded of every nocturnal ejaculation I’ve had since age eighteen, I time travel into the past. My tongue slips into her mouth, more of a question than a demand.
Sighing, she widens the gap allowing me to explore these feelings.
There, on the sidewalk, a block and a half from Main Street, I indulge in the hottest kiss since the last party of my high school year. I don’t know who stops it first but when we do, she looks as stunned as I feel.
“Oh no. No. Oh no, no, no.” Her eyes enlarge, she turns on those city heels, and with her arms out for balance, runs off toward her car.
I gape at the sexy sight. I’m no prince and those thigh-high boots don’t begin to resemble glass slippers, but I can’t break this sense of a real-life fairy tale coming to life.
“Damn.” Shaking the image out of my head, I remember my brother and his wife, waiting for me at Jeff’s house.
I need to leave Danni be, for now.
After sharing my condolences with the grieving husband, I chat with a few neighbors over a cup of coffee while staring at the place where Stacy met her end. With no one paying attention, I wander over to the railing and lean against it. Sure as hell, it’s loose. Funny how Jeff never mentioned it. Upstairs, the floor gleams and without rubber soles, I can imagine a person falling. Unfortunately, thanks to Danni, the evidence is gone and can never be used in court.
Back at work, I share what she found with the sheriff who reams me a new asshole. By his account, I’m to blame for allowing my girlfriend to sabotage our investigation.
I’m still miffed at the situation when evening falls and my brother texts me to join him for a drink. Sitting on a stool, he waves me over, and nudges a beer bottle in front me.
“You look like shit.”
“Ay-yup.” Taking a deep draught, I lean both elbows on the bar, and shoot him the look I perfected as a kid. Basically, it dares him to make conversation before I’m good and ready,
“What are you doing, bro?” Despite my face, Greg feels justified in sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.
“It’s complicated.” My love life, or lack of it, is none of his business.
“People are talking. The way I heard it, you made out in the middle of the street.”
