Page 2 of Honey Bee Library (Sweet Tea and a Southern Gentleman #7)

WILLOW

I’d seen enough murder mysteries to know this was how they started.

A stranger enters your life, builds your trust, and then lures you out of your home in the dark of night.

Could Cole be a serial killer? It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

But the likelihood felt slim. After all, how many serial killers made you homemade chicken noodle soup and played Hot Wheels with your son?

Regardless, my spidey sense was tingling as I watched Cole walk in front of us across the gravel parking lot. He was carrying our duffel bags on each shoulder. As I studied the back of his head, his words echoed in my mind.

You’re coming with me.

I normally don’t take kindly to people telling me what to do.

Which was why my first instinct was to fight the man.

To tell him off and walk in the opposite direction.

But I was exhausted and I was tired of making all the decisions.

I was ready to rely on someone else for a change.

I needed someone to tell me what to do. And apparently, Cole Watkins was the man for the job.

Surprisingly, Jasper didn’t complain. He was half walking, half skipping next to me as I held his hand.

“Do you want to drive separate?” Cole asked as he lingered by my trunk, waiting for me to open it.

“Um, yeah,” I said as I fished my key fob out of my purse and clicked the trunk release button.

Autonomy was best on the off chance that Cole really was a serial killer luring us to an abandoned barn complete with knives hanging from the wall. Having a getaway car was how to survive a murder mystery 101.

And I’d seen the kind of car Cole drove. Jasper and his sticky fingers would wreak havoc on the interior of a Jaguar. There was no way I could pay for the detailing after my son trashed the inside.

It was better to keep Jasper in my car, where he could be a tornado and I wouldn’t care.

Cole set our stuff inside the trunk. “Okay.” He straightened and slammed it shut. Then he turned and held his hand out expectantly. “Let me put my address into your phone just in case we get separated.”

“Okay,” I said as I pulled my phone from my back pocket and held it out for him to take.

He punched in his address and handed it back to me. “I’ll drive slow so I don’t lose you.”

I took my phone and then glanced down at the location he’d put in.

Of course it was in Rosehaven Park. The gated community on the rich side of town.

The place where celebrities or politicians stayed when they came to visit.

Common island folk were prohibited from entering as anything other than the hired help.

The fact that he was staying there left a sour taste in my mouth.

“Okay,” I said. Part of me was waiting for him to laugh and declare that his offer to stay with him had been a joke. We were from two different worlds. He had to know that.

Plus, I doubted that Cole really understood what he was getting himself into.

Jasper was a boy. He was a five-year-old boy.

He wasn’t made to stay in houses that cost multiple seven figures.

Jasper thrived in a two-bedroom house with worn carpet and thrifted furniture.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d bought a new anything.

Staring at the address of Cole’s rental was planting seeds of doubt in my mind. There was no way I was going to be able to relax there. I was going to spend all of my time walking behind Jasper with my hands out just to stop him from breaking things.

But the opportunity to decline Cole’s offer disappeared the moment Jasper climbed into the back seat of my car and slammed the door. If I told him to get out now, the tantrum would be ruthless. I didn’t have the energy to deal with one of those tonight.

Plus, the thought of sleeping in a bed was overpowering my reservations. My body felt numb as I made my way to the driver’s door and climbed in behind the wheel, waiting for Cole to lead the way.

I was a simple woman. Dangle the carrot of a warm bed and a hot shower in front of me, and I would do just about anything. So, for tonight, I was going to ignore the warning bells going off in my mind. I was only spending one night at Cole’s place. What was the worst that could happen?

The drive from the diner to Cole’s rental took about fifteen minutes.

My car idled behind Cole’s as he talked to the security guard at the gate.

The guard glanced over to my car a few times during their conversation.

He didn’t have the most inviting look, and there was a moment where I thought he was going to reject me and send me back to my side of town.

Instead, he nodded, and the gates opened.

As I slowly drove up, he waved for me to open my window and handed me a parking tag.

He told me to keep it visible at all times.

I slipped it around my rearview mirror and then drove through the gate after Cole.

We took a few turns, and my eyes widened at the house attached to the driveway that Cole drove up. When I’d fully absorbed Cole’s rental, I almost threw up. The fact that he thought it was appropriate to bring a little boy to this place just showed how little this man knew about kids.

The house was chic and modern with crisp black lines and a white stucco exterior. It was two stories with a garage in the front, and most of its walls were made up of floor-to-ceiling picture windows.

I swallowed as I stared at the obscene amount of glass. I could only imagine how long it was going to take for me to clean each pane after Jasper wiped his fingers all over them.

This house was a bachelor pad—a rich bachelor pad—not a family-friendly or kid-friendly house. The idea of a warm bed and a hot shower, which had tempted me earlier, became overshadowed by the number of dollar signs I was going to have to pay for each item Jasper broke.

Coming to this house had been a bad idea.

“Mommy.” Jasper’s whisper from the back seat had me glancing over my shoulder to see him staring out the window with his eyes wide. “Is this where we get to live now?”

I wanted to say no. I wanted to turn my car around and drive as far away from this place as I could.

I wanted to erase the image of this house from his mind because there was no way I would ever be able to afford anything close to this.

I didn’t want my son to be disappointed in what I could provide. Even if he was only five.

Once again, I waited too long to act. Jasper pulled open his door and was climbing out of the car before I could stop him. As soon as his feet were planted firmly on the cobblestone drive, he slammed the door.

I sighed. The genie was out of the bottle and I was never going to be able to stuff it back inside. Jasper and I were staying the night.

Cole didn’t appear to be having any regrets.

He’d parked his car inside the garage and was making his way toward us when I finally climbed out of my car.

He didn’t say anything as he approached.

I half expected him to take back his offer or declare that this had been some sort of sick joke.

Instead, he lingered next to the trunk, waiting for me to press the release.

“Is this your house?” Jasper asked. He was standing next to Cole but was turned so he could stare at the mansion in front of us.

Cole glanced down at Jasper. “It’s my rental. My house is in Miami,” he said as he pulled one of the duffle bags up onto his shoulder, followed by the second one.

“Are you a prince?” Jasper’s eyes were wide as saucers as he turned to study Cole.

Cole chuckled. “Naw, not a prince.”

“But you live in a castle.”

Cole slammed the trunk shut. He paused as he smiled down at my son. “Wanna see the inside?”

Jasper whooped and jumped into the air with his left fist raised. Cole laughed and started up the cobblestone walkway to the front door. Jasper raced to keep up with him. Not wanting to leave this man alone with my child, I hurried to join them.

The inside of the house was just as breathtaking as the outside. The soft glow of lamps lit up the dark rooms, but from the sheer number of windows, I could only imagine what this place looked like with the sun streaming through them.

Cole set our duffle bags down in the foyer while Jasper made a beeline for the living room straight ahead. Not wanting him to climb on any of the white furniture with his shoes on, I hurriedly kicked my own shoes off and followed after him.

“Jasper,” I said as I reached out and caught his arm, “we need to take our shoes off.” I pointed to his feet.

Jasper complained, but I didn’t respond as I led him back to the front door. He must have realized that he wasn’t going to get anywhere until he obeyed, so he dropped down onto the floor next to my shoes and began loosening his laces.

Once they were off, he popped right back up. “Can I go now, Mommy?” he asked as he stared up at me.

“Show me your hands.” I needed assurance that he wasn’t going to leave a mark on Cole’s furniture.

Jasper jutted his hands out and then flipped them back and forth a few times. “They’re clean,” he complained.

I grabbed onto his wrists and studied his palms. I was surprised to see that they were actually clean. “Okay,” I said as I dropped his hands. Jasper was mid sprint when I hurried to add, “No jumping!”

I looked over to see that Cole had been watching me with a mildly amused expression. I frowned as I dropped my gaze before slowly bringing it back to him. “What?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Okay,” I said slowly.

That’s when I realized I might have made a slight miscalculation. Yes, staying with Cole meant finally sleeping in a bed and taking a hot shower. But I was beginning to realize that it also meant talking to the man. Was I ready to have full-blown conversations with him?