Not Quite Mine by Lyla Payne

Author:Lyla Payne [Payne, Lyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

It’s been two days and Ellen hasn’t shown up again. I’m not sure where she’s gone or how she thinks I’m supposed to solve this thing by myself, but I haven’t been able to make any headway without her. I need to know if the baby lived, for one thing, and if it was a boy or a girl, for another. Those things will help me narrow down what I’m looking for, at least, but without any real direction from her, finding this baby is like finding a needle in a haystack.

It’s becoming painfully clear to me that Will is right about me not being a detective. All of the “cases” I’ve helped close, from Anne’s to the Whistling Doctor’s to Nan Robbins’s…none of them would have been solved without help from my ghosts.

That’s okay, I think. I’m not a detective. I’m something else.

Yeah, something else.

I snort. Maybe someday soon I’ll be able to figure out what.

Nerves swish in my belly at the thought of our double date tonight. Agreeing to it could have been a mistake, I realized soon after I mentioned it to Beau. He seems fine with the whole thing and it’s unsettling. Maybe he wants a chance to show Leo how good the two of us are together, or maybe we both want to size up Victoria. I’ve managed to find out in the past couple of days that she’s a home health care nurse with the VA, she’s the first one in her family to finish community college, and she hates coffee.

The last was relayed by the women in Westies, and I loved her for the amount of outrage the fact seemed to engender. I can’t blame her. Victoria’s lack of affection for coffee may not anger me, but it seems like as good a reason to distrust her as any.

Amelia pops into the bathroom where I’m finishing getting ready. Our eyes meet in the mirror, and she cocks her head to one side, approval clear on her pretty features. “You look good, Grace. You always were the pretty one.”

“Yeah, yeah. The plain one, you mean. This is just makeup.”

“You’re an idiot.” She plops down on the toilet seat while I play with a couple of rogue curls. “You must be nervous if you’re taking this much time to get ready. You know Beau can’t keep his hands off you no matter what.”

“It’s not that.” I make an effort to stop fussing with my appearance and turn to face her. “I don’t know. I feel like this is a bad idea.”

“You mean because Beau feels slightly threatened by your friendship with Leo?”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Why would you say that?”

Amelia waves a dismissive hand. “Because I’m not an idiot? Leo’s handsome and he’s tied to your past, but unlike Will, he’s not happily married to someone else. It’s only natural that Beau feel a little threatened.”

“But there’s nothing romantic between Leo and me. Never has been.”

“I understand that, and so does the mayor, most likely.

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