Money Creek by Anne Laughlin

Author:Anne Laughlin [Laughlin, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635557961
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2020-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Jo lived in one of the few apartment complexes in Money Creek. It was a relatively new neocolonial building, two stories high with a center entrance and a parking lot in front. Freya stood at the door, raising the courage to press the buzzer. The last time she’d seen her had been over a week ago, and then only briefly for coffee. Since then she’d been getting increasingly desperate texts from Jo asking, and then demanding, that they get together to talk. She couldn’t put if off any longer.

As soon as she pressed the intercom she was buzzed in. She could hear the door opening to the second-floor apartment as she climbed the stairs. Jo stood at the door, one hip jutted out and her arms crossed over her chest. It was like walking to the principal’s office.

“Hello, stranger. I was wondering if I’d ever see you again.” Jo’s tone of voice was ominous.

Freya walked through the door. “Don’t be like that, Jo. I’ve been busy on this case.”

“What else is new?” She closed the door and followed Freya into the living room.

“There’s a lot going on.”

Jo flopped onto her leatherette sofa. One end of it had an attached La-Z-Boy chair. Freya sat on the edge of it. Last night’s takeout was on the coffee table, and there was a sickening sweet smell from an air freshener.

“There’s being busy and there’s being absent. I can feel the difference,” Jo said. Her voice was firm, but her eyes looked frightened. “You never answer my texts anymore. Are you so busy you can’t type a few words?”

Freya was silent. The situation seemed so obvious to her, but Jo was going to need to have it spelled out for her. It had been a couple of weeks since they made love and practically no communication on Freya’s part since then. She didn’t like being a cad, but she knew Jo was not the woman she wanted.

Jo carried on. “It seems to me you can’t say you’re dating someone if you never hear from them, never see them.”

“I agree with that. I think we should quit pretending we’re dating.”

Jo sprang up from the sofa. “I knew it. It’s Clare Lehane, isn’t it? This all started when she arrived in town.”

“Clare is straight. There’s nothing going on with her.”

“Wake up. She’s about as straight as I am.”

“You think she’s queer?” Freya barely managed to keep the hopefulness out of her voice.

“I know you think so,” Jo said. “Otherwise why have you been sniffing around her?”

Freya nearly laughed. “Sniffing around? In your imagination maybe.”

“The dinners, the running into each other, who knows what else.”

Freya wondered if Clare thought her interest was as obvious as Jo did. She hoped not. She didn’t want to seem like she was pursuing her. She still wasn’t sure what she thought of Clare after her drunken night with Ben. She should be cautious, but something about Clare made her want to be reckless.

“There is no what else. As I said, Clare’s straight and I have no reason to believe she’s thinking of joining our team.

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