A Highly Suspicious Death (Seacoast Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Laura Pauling

Author:Laura Pauling [Pauling, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Redpoint Press
Published: 2016-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

19

Devon

Devon couldn’t understand why he agreed to this ridiculous mission for Fran to regain her memories, because Devon wasn’t absolutely sure he wanted her to remember everything. Even though he tried to deny it, he’d grown fond of her quite quickly. After all, she loved his French toast. But what if she had something to do with the murder of William Waterford?

When Sal Stillwater walked out to greet them, Devon sensed Fran’s reaction. He heard her small gasp of fear...or was it recognition? He knew many things about Sal Stillwater, but there were also many things he didn’t know.

Sal was a man of all trades. A chameleon. He rented out his boat when needed as he was doing for them tonight. He delivered flowers from his mother’s flower shop. If someone needed an odd job done in secret, then Sal was the man. Because of that Sal knew many things about many different people. One reason Devon used him was that Sal kept these many things to himself. If he was nothing else, he wasn’t a gossip.

Devon turned and whispered, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie.”

Fran glanced over his shoulder at Sal, and then, after shuddering, looked away. “I told you. Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Fine. Don’t believe me.” She held his gaze.

“We can’t move forward in a relationship if we hide things from each other.” Devon’s mother had impressed on him many things. One, that women were an equal gender. The second one being that any and all relationships had to be built on trust.

Fran blushed, and Devon realized she interpreted his use of the word relationship as romantic. Then Devon’s face and neck heated when he realized that maybe he did indeed, whether he meant to or not, mean a romantic relationship. After all, how often did he meet a woman who not only knew how to disguise a dead body for an evening gala but also loved his French toast?

It was quite an awkward moment, leaving both of them without words.

Sal sauntered up to them. “I don’t have all night. I got deliveries in the morning. Your wetsuits are out back. Meet me down at the water. One hundred buckeroos. Up front.”

Devon handed over a crisp one hundred dollar bill. He led Fran into Sal’s shack and into the back room where they found the wetsuits. There was no changing room.

Devon glanced awkwardly at Fran. Fran returned the blushing gaze. This is ridiculous, thought Devon. They’d shared intimate moments in pantries and they shared a bedroom. They were adults, but even so, Devon was a gentleman. “I’ll turn around so you can change first.”

He turned and listened to Fran changing. His imagination wanted to go places that would be disrespectful toward Fran, so he recited the times table.

“No peeking. Are you peeking?”

He shook his head no. Even though he’d gone through the ones and the twos, he’d wanted to peek.

When they were both changed, they met Sal down by the water. A small skiff in need of a paint job bobbed in the water.

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