A Christmas To Die For: A Culinary Travel Cozy Mystery by Beth Byers & Ann Warren

Author:Beth Byers & Ann Warren [Byers, Beth & Warren, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

JONAH GOLDE

I liked Mia. I’d liked her for a while. I liked her pretty hair and her blue eyes and her wide smile. I even liked her dog that she had to carry on long hikes. I thought it was both funny and awesome that she spent so much time with her aunt, since I basically live in Griff’s pocket.

But…did I want to fall in love? Dad told me once that to fall in love, you just had to want it. The world abounds with wonderful women, Jonah. Look up. I’d scoffed at the time, but I’d stumbled into Mia and now she was there. Was I being a giant wuss if I was afraid to like…look, look?

I was only thinking this because Bruce was proposing to his high school girlfriend and suddenly it felt like I was old enough to do it, so did I want to? I would ask Griff what he thought, but he’d messed up with Sam so bad, you could still smell the smoke from that fire.

I muttered a curse and hopped out of my mom’s car, wishing I was driving something better while home, but it had seemed dumb to bring my car when Griff and I were both going from Kansas City to Abilene.

I let myself into Bruce’s house, calling out for his girlfriend, Christina, so she didn’t accidentally stab me as an intruder. “It’s Jonah. Just stopping by.”

Christina shouted, “We’re out back.”

I walked through the familiar house, a tiny place Bruce had bought and had been slowly turning from a trash heap into something decent. It didn’t have anything but beautiful refurbished floors, one rundown couch our grandma used to cover in plastic, and a card table with a few folding chairs our high school had sold at a rummage sale. Bruce had gone through and pulled all the ones we’d defaced when we were idiots in high school.

“Hey Chris,” I said to Bruce’s girl, trying not to stare at Mia’s breasts. She usually dressed so modestly with sweaters, classy blouses, and the occasional funky t-shirt. I was pretty sure her entire slew of t-shirts were ironic thrift store finds, concert t-shirts, and t-shirts from the burger places she and Sam hunted down.

Now she was wearing a tank top that flashed a little more of her chest than I’d seen so far, and I knew I needed to jerk my gaze to her face.

“Hey there.” She grinned, laughing at something her grandpa had said. “Did you find him?”

“Not yet.”

“Bruce said he wasn’t going to let you play with him. He says I’m going to play with the boys when he goes to work, and I’m half-convinced they have those plastic army men in trenches they’ve dug themselves, having epic, imaginary battles.”

“I think it’s more drunk drivers and domestic situations,” I said. “And now a hefty little theft.”

Mia’s gaze was on me, so I grinned at her again. “You two need anything to drink?”

They were fine, and I followed them back to the little rental they’d taken.

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