Page 45 of Misadventures Of A Single Mom

“Hello!” Goldie called out. “Let us know if you need any help.”

She turned back to me and looked me up and down. “I’ll say you weren’t prepared. When you came to pick up those boxes for the party last night you wore black pants and a white shirt. You call that date-wear? Someone might have taken you for a waitress.” She all but glared daggers at me. “How are you going to land a man in an outfit like that, let alone win over his parents?”

“I don’t think they would have noticed what I wore with a chopped up dead body in their pig sty.”

Goldie moved her head from side to side, contemplating. “You have a point there. But”—she pointed her finger at me—“you’re not having sex with his parents.”

“I’m not having sex with Ty either,” I grumbled.

“I know how to take care of that.”

“Not another box!”

“No, but that couldn’t hurt either. Wear something sexy and I guarantee that will change.”

A man wearing a camo T-shirt with jeans interrupted us. Mid-twenties. I pegged him for a video rental. “I’m looking forTappin’ that White Ass 2. Do you have that in stock?” Yup, video.

“Karl, how are you tonight?” Goldie asked the man, making small talk as she walked behind the main counter. “Have you seen the first one yet?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“All right then.” She turned to the wall of DVD’s, looked under the T’s and found the film. “You know, I think there’s something else you might like.” She hadn’t turned around because she was still searching. “Here it is.” She placed it on the glass counter and smiled. “Bubble Butt Buffet. On the house.”

“Thanks, Miss Goldie.” Karl handed over his money and left, two videos in a brown paper bag.

Goldie liked to treat her customers right. She knew Karl would be back. She did the same for almost everyone. Andalmost everyone treated Goldie right. If they saw her in the grocery store, they said hello. If she needed help, people lined up to offer her aid. It paid to be nice. And offer buy-one-get-one-free porn.

A few more customers came through, buying and browsing. After an hour, we were back to restocking, this time various tubes and bottles of lube.

“What did Ty learn about the dead man?”

I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” she wondered.

“You. Only you would ask about my dating wardrobe before a dead body.”

“Well?”

She wasn’t deterred.

“Fine. It was Morty Moore. Ty said he could be identified, once the parts were cleaned off of pig junk, pretty easily. The hacker didn’t do a very good hacking job.” I grimaced. “Besides, I guess his wallet was left on top of one of the fence posts.”

“His poor parents.” Goldie took a moment to be sad, knowing what his parents were going through, but brightened back up. “That’s some stupid killer. Why would you go to all the effort to chop him up and leave the ID? Even I wouldn’t do that. I’d even chuck the head, the hands and feet in different places so he couldn’t be identified.”

I wrinkled my nose and looked at Goldie funny. “You’re gross.”

“Aren’t I right?”

She was, but that was beside the point. “Yeah, but Ty and the police think he was meant to be identified. Morty had nothing to do with the Strickland’s ranch. It’s nowhere near where he lived or where he worked. Ty thinks they dumped him there as another message.” I rubbed my finger over the letters on the plastic lube bottle absently. “Whoever is doing this knows Tyand I are…are something. They know the quickest way to get to Ty would be to mess with his family. He thinks the killer is telling him he knows about Ty’s interest in me and what can happen. To all of us.”

“Well, hell.”

“Let me guess, Goldie called you,”I grumbled when I opened my door to Kelly the next morning. I should have been surprised to see her, but I wasn’t. I’d spent the night in my own home, doors locked. I liked Goldie and Paul, but I wasn’t moving into their house while this fiasco was resolved. Ty had been home, but probably snoring by the time I’d gotten off work. Having him two doors down had been reassuring, although in my bed would have been better.

“Show me the coffee.” She pushed past me into the kitchen and stopped short, pointing at the gnomes sitting on the counter. “What are they doing here?” Sounded as if they were some bad guys screwing up my life. Maybe they were.

“The boys wanted to bring them when we went to the airport. I brought them in from the car and left them there.”

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