Page 15 of Sweet Temptation (Honeysuckle, Texas #3)

Rachel drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, eyeing the tidy brick home across the street.

They’d been sitting here for twenty minutes, no closer to a concrete plan than when they’d left Honeysuckle.

A sleek silver Mercedes sat in the driveway.

Unless the guy kept a sports car and a practical car, it had to belong to the wife.

“So,” she glanced sideways at Jackie in the passenger seat and Angela hunched forward from the back, “now what?”

“We ring the doorbell and tell her the truth?” Jackie’s words lacked conviction.

Angela snorted. “Right. ‘Hi, you don’t know us, but your husband proposed to me last week, and broke up with her not long before that. Want to help us destroy him?’”

“When you put it that way…” Jackie winced.

“Maybe we should just—” Rachel stopped mid-sentence, straightening in her seat. “She’s coming out.”

A slim woman with shoulder-length blonde hair stepped out the front door, locking it behind her. She wore white capris and a navy blouse, looking every bit the polished suburban wife.

“That’s her.” Jackie slinked down in her seat. “That’s who answered the door when I showed up looking for Brad.”

“Looks like he has a type.” Rachel’s gaze narrowed on the casually elegant woman as she slid into her car. “Tall, blonde, and confident.”

“Never in my life have I looked that confident.” Jackie straightened in her seat as the car backed out of the driveway.

“So. I repeat, now what?”

“Follow her.” Jackie pointed. “Maybe if we get an idea what she’s like it will help us decide how to deal with her.”

Rachel had her doubts but it made more sense than sitting here watching an empty house waiting for the wife—or worse, Brad—to return. “Just so we’re clear, if she spots us and calls the police, I’m throwing you both under the bus.”

Following the luxury sedan, Rachel tried not to get too close, and prayed the woman didn’t notice them on her tail. A few more miles and the Mercedes signaled and turned into the parking lot of the Harvest Market grocery store.

“Perfect,” Angela whispered as Rachel found a spot several spaces away. “Grocery stores are great for casual run-ins.”

“Because nothing says casual like three women following you down the cereal aisle,” Rachel muttered, but she found herself caught up in the absurdity of their mission.

Inside, they grabbed a shopping basket as cover and spotted their target examining organic produce.

Grabbing a shopping cart, Rachel looked to the woman who would soon be her next sister-in-law. “So what exactly are we hoping to learn from this mission?”

Stopping a few feet behind Brad’s wife, Rachel feigned interest in how much sugar was on the label of the first can she’d grabbed. Too bad the label gave her no clue to what she was holding. Maybe it was time to find her grandmother’s canning recipes.

“There she goes.” Jackie and Angela quickly placed the products they were not really interested in back in the cart.

In the baking aisle, Rachel tossed a bag of ordinary white flour in the basket, noting that Mrs. Brad purchased almond flour. Further down the aisle, the woman in their sites carefully perused the sugar section.

Muttering through closed teeth, Angela leaned into her two cohorts. “What’s so difficult about buying sugar?”

Stealing a gaze down the aisle, Rachel squinted at the product the tall blonde had placed in her cart. “Coconut palm sugar.”

“You get sugar from coconuts?” Angela fell into step beside the cart.

With a casual shrug, Jackie hurried on Rachel’s other side. “Apparently.”

“Who knew?” Angela sighed. “I’m getting a clearer picture on why this woman looks so… sleek.”

“I may have to cut back on Alice’s cinnamon rolls,” Jackie mumbled to no one in particular.

Rachel understood. Working from sun up to sun down on a ranch helped keep the calories in check, but sitting behind a desk three days a week did little to keep the sweet tooth pounds at bay.

They continued up and down the aisles behind this woman.

She preferred organic fruits and vegetables, clearly liked to bake, believed in storing up her omega fatty acids with plenty of fresh fish, not only preferred almond flour, but also almond milk and the frozen food aisle was not on her radar.

Unfortunately, none of this gave an inkling of why Brad Peters was two, or was it three timing her?

Or of how the woman would react when she learned about her hubby’s extra-curricular activity.

And none of it gave any indication of whether or not she’d want to join the rest of them in teaching her husband a well-deserved lesson.

As the wife went through the check out lane, the three spies hurried quickly through a nearby lane, their attention on the woman.

“Did she just pay for all that with cash?” Angela asked.

Looking over, Jackie nodded. “I guess they’re not cash poor.”

“At least she isn’t,” Rachel commented.

Doing their best not to draw attention to themselves, they strolled out of the store, practically tossed the bags of groceries they didn’t need into the rear of the car and belted themselves in. The silver Mercedes was still parked a few spaces over, but no sign of the wife.

“Where did she go?” Jackie leaned forward, scanning the lot in front of them.

Looking over her shoulder, Rachel squinted at the sun. “How could we lose her? She was right there.”

A tap sounded on the front passenger window and the three of them whipped their heads to the right.

Diane Peters stood at the side, her fingers waving like a mom entertaining a toddler, her smile as plastic as the credit card she didn’t use.

Quickly, Rachel hit the button to lower the window.

Once the glass disappeared into the door, the woman’s smile slipped.

“Who the hell are you people and why have you been following me?” Her free hand shifted her purse in front of her.

“And if you’re wondering,” her hand gently tapped the side of her luxury brand leather purse, “I carry more than cash in this baby.”

“Whoa.” Jackie held up both hands; this was definitely not the way she’d expected the day to go. Certainly not having a pistol-toting ticked off wife confronting them. “We’re not here to cause trouble.”

“Really?” The upset woman’s eyebrow arched perfectly. “Three women stalking me through a grocery store, then racing out to your car to watch me? What exactly would you call that?”

Angela leaned forward from the back seat. “We’re the other women.”

“Well,” Rachel shrugged one shoulder, “not me, them.”

Diane’s perfectly composed expression faltered for just a moment. “Excuse me?”

“I’m Jackie Drake.” Thankfully, Jackie’s voice sounded steadier than she’d expected knowing there was an angry woman inches away from her with a loaded gun handy. “I dated your husband in Houston until I found out he was married.”

“You came to the house.” Anger slowly shifted to confusion as brows buckled, Diane stared at her.

Jackie nodded. “That would be when I learned Brad was married.”

“And I’m Angela Simpson.” Angela pressed fully against the front-row seats. “Your husband proposed to me last week. I live in Honeysuckle.”

Diane’s face cycled through confusion, disbelief, and then—unexpectedly—resignation. She glanced around the parking lot.

“I’m sorry if we’ve hurt you.” Jackie latched onto the shock she felt when she’d found out Brad was already married. “But we felt you needed to know what’s happening; I just hadn’t meant to blurt it out in a public parking lot.”

Closing her eyes a moment, Diane nodded. “All right. You’ve done your good deed for the day. I’ll take it from here.”

“Actually,” Jackie straightened in her seat, “we were thinking more along the lines of helping you—and karma—along.”

Her gaze narrowing as she studied Jackie’s face, she seemed to weigh the truth of her words. Then, offering an almost imperceptible nod of her head, her stance eased and her hand fell from her handbag to her side. “I’m listening.”

Jackie turned left then right, taking in every passing shopper in the parking lot. “Perhaps we could do this somewhere else?”

“You look more nervous than a cat in a room full of rockers.” Jackie’s grandmother sat at the kitchen table, enjoying her lunch with his mom and brothers.

The fork in Garret’s mom’s hand stilled halfway to her mouth. “Did something go wrong with the irrigation system?”

“Nope,” Preston answered. “Small patch job set everything right again.”

His mom’s shoulders relaxed a moment before she stiffened again. “A problem with the fence lines?”

This time Carson looked up. “Everything’s fine, Mom. Why are you suddenly so spooked?”

His mother looked from Jackie’s grandmother to Garret and back. “Eleanor is right. Garret looks like he’s sitting in a room of rattlers waiting to strike.”

His mom’s analogy was closer to the truth than Eleanor’s.

For all he knew, Brad’s wife Diane might very well strike like a rattler and that thought had him more than a bit unsettled.

He’d hoped to hear from them by now. If not a call, a text, anything to let him know things were not going to hell in a hand basket.

“I’m just thinking about some challenges at school. I’ll figure it out.”

“I see.” His mom studied him a moment before accepting her son’s reply and returning to her lunch.

As if everyone’s concern had summoned Jackie, his phone dinged with a text. All is good. We’re on our way back to town.

A moment later, Eleanor’s phone buzzed. The older woman continued to eat, ignoring her phone. While he admired her determination to avoid the distractions of cell phones when eating or visiting with folks, right about now he wanted to know if Jackie had more news for them.

Another minute or so and his phone dinged again. Another text from Jackie. Tell Grams to meet us at Heaven Scent. Jillian is expecting everyone.

Everyone? Who was everyone and why were they meeting at Jillian’s candle shop?

Another text came through. You too.

Well, at least maybe now he’d get some answers. What he wasn’t so sure of, was whether or not he would like any of what he was going to learn.