Page 72 of Spark
He needed to focus, before everyone in this room saw directly through him and his filthy-dirty thoughts.“Okay, shoot.”
“I needyourwrist”—Chloe looked at Tyler first, then his mother—“yourexpertise, andthatlasagna.”
“That sounds like a very weird heist that will probably go wrong,” Tyler said, a laugh escaping as he followed Chloe and his mother down the hallway, the happy chatter that always accompanied the pre-game to Dempsey family dinners getting louder with every step.
“I’ll let Esme explain it.Well, everything except the lasagna, anyway.I just want that because it’s my favorite.”
She wiggled her fingers, grinning when Tyler handed the pan over, then laughing when he didn’t let go right away.“Okay, but I want a finder’s fee,” he warned.“You’re not the only one addicted to cheese and carbs.”
“Consider a trade for some red velvet cookies?They’re on the counter in the butler’s pantry.”
She didn’t need to tell him twice.“I’ve got a sudden urge to take a detour.If you’ll excuse me, ladies.”
Giving Chloe a surreptitious wink, he aimed himself toward the kitchen.Lou and Carleen had done a huge renovation to knock down most of the walls on the first floor of the house way back when Tyler and Ryan were still in high school.Save the bathroom and a small study, the whole main level was one large, open space, custom-built for family gatherings.The dining room, with its farmhouse table big enough to seat twelve—fourteen, if they all squeezed in, which they usually did—was on Tyler’s right, a smaller table for extra guests or an overflow of casserole dishes and serving bowls close by.The living room stood opposite, with a huge navy-blue sectional couch and three lighter blue chairs arranged around a stacked-stone fireplace, the space cozy and inviting despite its spacious size.
But the heart of the Dempsey house had always been the kitchen, with its massive center island that housed a food prep sink and a breakfast bar, light gray clapboard cabinets, and ginormous stainless steel fridge that Tyler had helped Ryan raid no less than two thousand times over the past fifteen years.Pausing only to say hello to Lou, and Chloe’s brother, Jack, who were both up to their elbows in dinner prep, Tyler made a beeline for the small alcove between the pantry and the laundry room, just far enough from the crowd of Dempseys for him to sneak a few cookies as a warm-up snack before dinner.
And ran smack into Addison.
“Look who it is!My favorite best man,” she said, her blond brows waggling as she pressed up to her tiptoes to hug him.
He took in her T-shirt, which readAll You Need is Love…and Cupcakes, and her sparkly baby-blue beaded bracelet with BRIDE spelled out in block letters, and laughed.“Not to argue, but I’m pretty sure I’m your only best man.”
“Details.You here for the red velvet cookies?”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Listen, if cookies are wrong, I don’t ever want to be right,” Addison said, passing him a zip-top bag full of red velvet cookies before turning her attention to an identical one loaded with brownies.He scooped two cookies into his palm, taking a bite of the sweet, chocolatey goodness.
Addison pulled a brownie from the bag in front of her on the counter, breaking it in two and popping half into her mouth.“Oh, hey,” she said between chews.“Things have been really crazy between this investigation and the wedding, but I meant to thank you for all your help with the case.”
Tyler finished his bite and shrugged.“Of course, although I’m not sure how helpful a dead-end on the arson was.”
In truth, the whole thing had been bugging the shit out of him since he’d gone to the scene with Chloe, like there was a lead right on the edge of his awareness, only every time he tried to nail it down, it disappeared like smoke in the wind.“Is Capelli getting anywhere with the hacker?”
“The guy is really good, which you know Capelli is taking as a personal challenge.Nothing actionable, yet, though.But that’s not what I was talking about,” Addison said.
“What else is there?”Tyler asked, regretting the question almost immediately.
“Well, let’s recap.”She licked a brownie crumb off her thumb before using the rest of her fingers to start keeping score.“You took Chloe to the fire scene to give her enough information to clear her head.You went with her to give Esme case updates—twice.You were miraculously with her at ridiculous-thirty the morning after the party, then helped move Esme in here.Shall I continue?Because I keep excellent case notes.”
“Uh,” Tyler grunted.Damn it, of course she’d noticed what was going on.She was a fucking detective.“Well, it’s a tough case.Of course, I wasn’t going to leave Chloe high and dry.Plus, this guy deserves to go to jail for what he did.”
Addison hummed in agreement before sending her gaze across the kitchen and into the dining room.Esme sat at one end of the table, with Ryan on one side and Carleen on the other, all of them focused on a clear plastic box full of what looked like beads.Her expression was tough to read, which wasn’t really a shock, considering her defenses were pretty much the Great Wall of China.But she met Tyler’s eyes and lifted her hand in greeting, and even though it probably didn’t even qualify as a wave, his heart lurched at the gesture.
“Oh, we’ll get him,” Addison said quietly.“I don’t think Chloe will rest until we do.But you’ve really had her back on this one.As a cop working this case, I wanted to thank you.”
Tyler nodded.“Sure.”
He looked up, then, his eyes zeroing in on Chloe.She’d made her way over to the dining room table with his mom, her smile easy and wide.Her auburn hair hung over her shoulders in a glossy curtain of waves, her blue eyes dancing with laughter, then rolling upward at something Ryan had just said.She leaned in to sort through the beads, murmuring to Esme and nodding enthusiastically.Her happiness sizzled and sparked, as bright as a Roman candle in the middle of the night, and Christ, he’d feel her smile even in the dark.
“So, when are you going to tell Ryan you’re falling for his sister?”Addison asked, sending his pulse into a freefall.
“It’s not like that.”
“Oh, Gatesy.”She patted his arm, the edges of her mouth moving into a knowing smile.“It’s exactly like that.”
Fuck.Fuck.“It might be a little bit like that,” he said.“I don’t know.It’s also not so easy.I’ve got…” He broke off to run a palm over the back of his neck, settling on, “stuff in my past that makes it complicated.Not to mention the whole, you know.Ryan trying to castrate me thing, which I’d very much like to avoid, since I’d like to keep my nuts intact.”
