Page 77 of Rebels and Roses

“You don’t have a basement.”

“To keep you, I’d dig one.” He opened the car door for her with a flourish. “Drive careful, okay? I don’t want to lose you just as I trapped you into a relationship with me.”

She reached up and wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him down for another kiss. A better and longer one. Fuck those gossipy biddies at the hair salon down the block. They could talk all they wanted.

“I don’t feel trapped,” she said when the kiss finally ended. She sounded far more breathless than she had just moments ago. “Now let me go before we give this whole town a show.”

That had Cooper throwing back his head and laughing loudly enough to have heads whipping around at the sound.

“Babe, with the two of us as a team, this town is never going to be the same. They’ll be talking about us generations from now.”

As long as they were together, this town could talk about them all they wanted.

20

Jane knocked on Erica’s hotel room door, waiting for an answer. She’d offered to come speak with Erica, and it was her own idea. But frankly, if Erica had anything to hide, she wasn’t going to open up and suddenly tell the truth. Even if the truth could easily be verified by the hotel records.

It begged the question…why was Erica lying? Did she have something to hide? Had she been with Tom that night? And if so, had she been there when he’d died?

All of this situation didn’t make much sense. Cooper felt strongly that there was more going on here, although he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, only that Tom had died right after complaining of being watched and followed.

The death was suspicious. She couldn’t argue Cooper’s train of thought, although so far, they hadn’t made any progress except to find out that Tom had received a phone call the night he died. Her feeling was that the call was from Erica, who would have just arrived in town, but she couldn’t prove it.

She couldn’t prove anything, to be honest. That’s why she was frustrated.

“Who is it?”

The question was muffled by the heavy, closed door.

“Jane Taylor, can we talk for a moment?”

Erica, apparently, didn’t need any time to think about it because the door immediately swung open. The woman had clearly been crying, her eyes red-rimmed and watery. Tom had two women crying over him.

“Come on in. Fiona is here, too.”

Jane hadn’t expected Erica to have visitors, least of all Fiona. Weren’t they arguing in court about Tom’s body? Had there already been a ruling?

Erica’s hotel room was a large suite with a sitting room and small kitchenette in the main area and the bedroom and bathroom through another door. Both rooms had sliding glass doors that opened up over the pool area which was currently deserted due to the dark skies and sporadic rain that had started as Jane had driven to the inn.

Fiona was standing in front of the coffeemaker pouring two cups. When she saw Jane enter, she reached up onto the shelf and grabbed a third.

“I just made a fresh pot. Have a cup with us.”

Sitting around and sipping coffee with Cooper’s ex-wife wasn’t Jane’s idea of a good time. She didn’t, however, want to seem churlish. She liked coffee, and it wouldn’t be a big deal to have some. It did put a kink in her plans to talk to Erica. She didn’t want to bring up the issue of when Erica had arrived in town in front of Tom’s sister.

The two women were standing in the same room and being nice to one another. Jane didn’t want to be the person that rocked the boat.

“Thank you, that sounds lovely.”

“Come sit,” Erica invited, patting the cushion next to her on the sofa while Fiona brought in three steaming mugs that smelled like caffeinated heaven. “Isn’t it wonderful? Fiona cameto see me to say that she’s dropping the lawsuit. We’re going to work together to make sure that Tom gets the sendoff that he deserves.”

“That is good news.”

Color me shocked.

Fiona placed the cups down on the small table between the loveseat and an overstuffed chair before settling into the latter, hands wrapped around her coffee mug. There were cream and sugar packets on the table, and Jane doctored the dark brew with both.

“I guess I was just in shock about being an aunt,” Fiona explained. “First, losing Tom and then the news. I was just…I don’t even know how to explain it. I’m not proud of my reaction. After all, we’re going to be a family, and we need to start acting like it. I’m sure Mom and Dad are going to welcome Erica and the baby with open arms.”

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