Page 17 of Peach Cobbler Confessions
“So”—Ridge leans back to get a better look at me—“tell me how this works.” He motions to the two men seated by my side. “Last night you said you were Noah’s girlfriendandEverett’s wife.”
“I am.” I grimace over at both Noah and Everett. “I mean, I was. I’m just Everett’s wife now.”
“Just?” Carlotta pounds her hand to the table as she gags on her laughter.
My fingers rise to my lips. “I’m so sorry, Everett. I didn’t mean that.” I shake my head over at Ridge. “This is all new and rather bumpy territory for us.”
Noah sighs. “And now we’re about to have a baby. Things are about to get bumpier.”
I open my mouth in an effort to tell them the truth, but I don’t think this is the time or place. I’ll make sure to tell them once we get home.
“A baby.” Ridge looks dazed at the thought. “It looks as if Noah Fox has been keeping busy.”
Carlotta wraps an arm around Noah. “That’s our Foxy—doing the deed and spreading his seed.” She leans toward Ridge. “So when can we come by and watch you tape one of your shows?”
I groan at Carlotta’s distasteful euphemism.
The pizza arrives and we each pull a slice our way.
Ridge takes a breath. “I don’t usually film with an audience, but I am scouting a location to shoot the season finale. I’m thinking somewhere with a spooky flair. It’ll be a recap of our other cases, and now with the tragedy upon us, my team and I thought it would nice to highlight Dane’s case as well. What do you think, Detective?”
Noah swallows down a bite. “I think it’s a great idea. Most open homicide cases would kill to have that kind of exposure—pardon the pun.”
“Did you say spooky flair?” Carlotta slaps her hands together as she ogles Ridge. “You should come up and tape your next episode at the Honey Hollow B&B. It’s haunted, you know. And Lottie’s real mama owns the place. I’m sure we can get you an all-access pass to the place.”
I’m amused to no end that Carlotta just referenced my mother as my real mama. She’s not wrong.
“Haunted?” Ridge looks suddenly intrigued. “Is that the place where they’re charging an arm and a leg to get a tour of the place?”
“That would be it.” I close my eyes a moment. It’s true. My mother charges eighty bucks a pop to give tourists an upstairs/downstairs haunting, and the ghosts that linger around that place do not disappoint. And then, after my mother is done scaring the socks off of the tourists, she puts them on a bus and sends them to my bakery for what she’s dubbed as The Last Thing They Ate Tour. Suffice it to say, business is brisk because of it.
“I’m in.” He points my way.
“I’ll tell my mother.”
Everett nods to Noah. “Any news on the case?”
“Nothing.” Noah looks disgusted with the fact. “And get this. The security cameras at the civic center all went down just twenty minutes into the event. Security noted it but decided to have their team work the room with extra precautions.”
“Not enough precautions,” I say. “Noah, you don’t think the security cameras going down was a coincidence, do you?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. Not when the night ended in murder.”
“Geez.” Ridge lands his pizza to his plate as if he couldn’t take another bite. “Why in the world would someone think they could get away with something like that—at an event like that, no less? And to plot it out? I don’t know. But I’ll be honest, Dane could be divisive. Every time he turned around, he had a new enemy.”
“I didn’t know the guy,” I tell him. “But I’d have to agree with you. I saw”—I stop shy of mentioning the fact I saw him having a disagreement with Dane—“a couple of women who looked pretty angry with him last night.”
“Jade.” He pulls his lips back. “I guess Dane accusedherof cheating, and she wasn’t too happy about it. The poor guy was desperate to find out who it was. In fact, while the ceremony was going on, he actually accusedmeof being the other man.”
I glance to Noah. That must have been the exchange I saw between the two men. No wonder it looked pretty heated.
“There was a blonde, too,” I say to Ridge. “I think I saw her slap him.”
A sharp bite of laughter comes from him. “I’m sorry. But in this fog of grief I’ve had, that’s a bit of a bright spot. That’s just like Dane Gannon, getting it handed to him, even on the last night of his poor life.” He sobers up quickly and sniffs back tears. “I think the blonde was probably Samantha Brewer.”
“Yes!” I say, snapping my finger his way. “He called her Sammy.”
“Yup,” Ridge agrees. “Sammy is a secretary by day and dancer by night. That’s where Dane met her, at some nightclub in Leeds. Red Lace or something of that nature.”