Page 19 of A Midsummer Night's Ghost

I’m sure that me wanting to go to Danny O’s to investigate a crime that wasn’t even considered a crime would have gone over well with him and made a fabulous second impression of me. He had already thought I was slightly nuts the first time we met.

“Don’t talk to my friend like that,” James’s ex-wife/girlfriend said, sticking her finger in Alyssa’s face.

“Excuse me,” I said, trying to slide through between the two women. My heart was starting to race and I had serious doubts about my ability to defend myself in a bar fight. I patted my back pocket to make sure my phone was still there.

Not that I could call for help if I was down on a sticky bar floor fending off the tobacco tag team duo.

As it was, I was starting to suffocate on the overpowering scent of Stetson cologne and cheap beer. I again tried to ease past the women when the blonde made like she was going to forehead bump me into unconsciousness.

She didn’t but I still screamed, which made her laugh.

In good news, she shifted to the side.

“Hey,” Alyssa protested. “What is your problem?”

“I’ll show you my problem.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. I grabbed Alyssa’s hand and dragged her through the opening we were given, praising Alyssa’s father in my head for buying me the boring but highly practical boots.

We stumbled out of the bar and ran a full block before we stopped, winded. I was bent over gasping for air and checking to make sure we weren’t being chased when Alyssa burst out laughing.

Now that we were safe, I gave a nervous laugh as well.

“Oh, my God,” Alyssa said. “That was so…ridiculous. And a little scary.”

“Very scary. Though you were seriously badass.”

“I try. I’ve had a lot of experience with bullies. So much for our investigation skills though. All we did was give them information.”

“That really wasn’t useful at all,” I lamented.

We started walking back to my car.

“We did learn James is charming,” she said with a grin.

We both laughed again. “I think those ladies have low standards. She was dating the man she was suing for child support. That seems like a poor choice.”

“As was us coming here.”

“I will concede that point. But the ex obviously didn’t kill James. She seemed genuinely shocked.”

“One ex down. Probably seven ex-wives to go.”

She was joking, but a quick search on my phone in my car proved she wasn’t far off. “Only four,” I told her cheerfully. “How does your weekend look?”

Alyssa groaned. “Bailey. That’s such a bad idea.”

I unlocked the car. “Do you have a better one?”

“No. But I can tell you that I was actually checking that guy out.”

I paused with my hand on the door handle. “You cannot be serious. If that is true, I may need to rethink my friendship with you.”

“Not the way she was thinking though.” Alyssa gave me a sly smile. “I was looking at his forearm when he blocked blondie from beating us up. He has a brand new tattoo. You can tell because it was scabbing over.”

“Yuck. Okay. Of what? Who cares?”

“Get in the car and I’ll tell you. I’m not sure those women still won’t follow us. And there is some guy whoisfollowing us.”

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