Noah’s cheeks flicker. “I’m sure a man who wears a dress for a living—with a face like yours is pretty popular in gym class, too. I wouldn’t be so smug, Judge Baxter.”
Carlotta and Flo gasp and chuckle. I’d join them, but I know better.
Everett shakes his head as he shovels at lightning speeds and the hole grows deeper by the moment.
“I’d be a dead judge in there, Noah. And you’d be a dead cop. Evie and that baby would be fatherless. Lemon would be left to pick up the pieces. So I suggest you keep your nose to the grindstone and stop busting my cookies just because I’ve got bigger biceps.”
“Bigger biceps, my ass.” Noah spikes his shovel into the ground and a loud ping emits as his shovel stops cold. “Hit a rock.” Noah pulls his shovel out, only to reveal the head is missing. “Great.” He reaches down and plucks it out. “Looks like it’s all you, Mr. Sexy.”
The hint of a smile flickers on Everett’s lips. “It’s always been all me from the beginning.” His eyes hook to mine as he nods, and I know that’s an homage to our relationship.
Everett keeps digging while Noah hoists the body bag over his shoulder and heads back to ground zero.
“Let’s see those biceps dance,” Noah teases with a vengeance. “Speed it up, Princess. I’ve got a bedtime I’d like to adhere to.”
Everett’s eyes glance up at Noah. “Call me Princess one more time. I’ve got a shovel to clobber you over the head with and an open grave to cover up the crime. Try me.”
“Stop your bickering,” I shout as I give a panicked look around at the shadowed evergreens. “Just keep digging.” I can’t catch my breath. I can’t hold onto my sanity another moment longer.
Everett wipes the sweat from his brow, his shirtless body gleaming under a midnight moon. “If anyone finds out what we’ve done, we’re going to lose everything.”
Noah lets the body fall from his shoulder, right into the pit. “Give me the damn shovel and I’ll finish the job myself.”
“I’ll finish the job.” Everett takes a moment to glower at Noah before flicking his gaze my way. “The things I do for you, Lemon.”
And he looks as if he regrets every single one.
Everett fills that hole back up and Noah grabs a pitchfork from the garage as they land a mound of snow over the unmarked grave, making it look as if nothing had ever happened in the first place.
Carlotta and I make our way down from the porch and the five of us look down at the spot where Florenza Canelli lies buried underneath the frozen earth.
“I’d like to say something.” Carlotta clears her throat. “God rest ye merry gentlemen.”
“Carlotta.” I wrinkle my nose her way. “That’s a Christmas carol.”
“All right, fine.” She turns to the hot pink apparition among us. “How about you and I get schnockered with whiskey, kiddo?”
Flo shudders at that nefarious mound of snow. “I thought you’d never ask.”
She and Carlotta take off, and it’s just Everett, Noah and me.
Everett collects the shovels and pitchfork. “I’ll hose these off and put them back.” He takes off, and Noah wraps his arms around me. His eyes hold a supernatural glow, and it makes this entire scene feel like a very bad dream.
“I’d do anything for you, Lot.” His voice is threadbare. “And this helps everybody in Vermont. Don’t forget that. We did it for the greater good.” He lands a brazen kiss right to my lips and pulls back slowly. “If anything goes wrong, I was the only one involved.”
Everett comes back and quickly puts his clothes back on in haste.
“No.” I shake my head at Noah. “I would never let it go down that way,” I say as Everett navigates me to the front and we move our cars back where they belong.
By the time we get in the house, all of Evie’s guests are gone, the house is dark, and both Pancake and Waffles are asleep on the ridge of the sofa.
Everett takes me by the hand and walks me straight to our bathroom. He runs a hot shower and peels off both his clothes and mine and pulls me in with him.
The steam rises around us as Everett lands those cobalt eyes over mine and he holds me for a very long while, no words, just the deep penetrating, heavy, heavy stare that says so much all on its own. It says what have we done? What have I done for you? Who are we? What have I become?
Everett takes a breath—first one it seems like in hours—and his hands ride over my back before he floats a hand over my belly and the idea of a smile crests his lips. In that moment, the questions in his eyes disappear. He has his answer.
Everett lands his mouth to mine and gives a careful kiss that quickly burns as bright as the sun, just as hot and dangerous.
Everything about me is dangerous these days.
It begs the questions what kind of a wife am I? What kind of a mother?
My downfall feels as inevitable as gravity.
The only real question left is who will I take down with me?
The Hearst curse has nothing on me and my bad luck. I should cut and run—spare both Noah and Everett the horror of prison—the humiliation of losing their careers forever. And poor Evie…
What have I done?
What have I pulled us into?
When will this all finally come crashing down around us?
And it will.
Cosmic justice demands it.
Chapter 9
The Ashford County Courthouse is quickly becoming the bane of my existence.
The irony in that being it’s the very nexus of what Everett loves, or at least in part.
Everett and I clear security and head in the general direction of his courtroom. He came in a little later than usual so I wouldn’t have to sit around for hours waiting for the trial to start. He usually likes to pour over his cases, and any briefings he may have, but he did it all remotely from home this morning. He says he plans on doing a lot of that once he gets back to work after the baby is born.
Both Noah and Everett have told me they plan on taking paternal time off regardless of whose baby it turns out to be. When I think back to last June, a part of me wants to cry despite the fact it’s sponsored what will be one of the greatest joys in my life.
Back in June, I had just told Noah that I was going to give Everett and me another shot—upon his insistence, but it was ultimately my decision. Let’s just say Noah and I shared a rather heated goodbye.
And well, Everett and I shared a rather heated hello all within a very short span of time. And now, in just a little over two months, I’ll be a mother. As excited as I am to finally meet my little sugar cookie, I’m terrified of what the outcome of those paternal results will do to one of those men. Both Noah and Everett already love this child so much. They have spent nights reading children’s books right to my belly. They’re emotionally invested, and the last thing I want to do is emotionally devastate one of them.
Everett pulls me to the side and takes up both my hands in his. His dark coat makes his eyes sing an electric blue, and that smile flirting on his lips is all for me.
“You’re going to do amazing, Lemon.” He lands a kiss to my lips and lingers. “I’m not going to lie, having you in my courtroom is the first treat of the year.”