“I will love you forever, Noah Fox.”
He presses out a sorrowful smile. “I’d take a thousand bullets just to hear that again and again.” He dots a kiss to my cheek. “Thank you for that.”
We get Noah back to Country Cottage Road, but he asks to hang out at our place. He said he’s determined to see his niece come back from the Winter Formal. So the three of us—four counting Carlotta, five counting the baby—chow down on Noah’s favorite double pepperoni pizza from Mangias and watch a movie while a fire blazes in the background.
I’ve got Everett on my right and Noah on my left as the three of us get cozy on the sofa. Both Pancake and Waffles do their best to sit in what’s left of my lap while Toby sits dutifully by Noah’s feet.
Carlotta is working feverishly on her laptop, stealing glances my way every now and again.
“How’s your book coming along?” I ask while patting my belly. It turns out, the baby is a big fan of Mangias pizza and loves to give a kick of approval every now and again.
“I’m all done. Wiley’s agreed to publish it for me as a friend, but he hasn’t agreed to take me on as a client, so I’ve really got to dazzle him if I want to make a career out of this, Lot. I’m just polishing up the chapter on throuples. Believe me, the three of you have been a bigger help than you can imagine.”
Everett glances her way. “Keep our names out of it.”
“Oh, I have,” Carlotta is quick to inform us. “I have a disclaimer right up front that I’ve changed the names and places as to protect the innocent.”
“Okay, let’s hear it,” I say. “What’s our cover?”
“Sexy, Foxy, and Naughty Clemon.”
“Carlotta,” I groan at the thought of a thinly veiled tell-all on the horizon.
Noah shakes his head. “My last name is Fox. It’s too easy.”
Carlotta shrugs. “Sorry, Foxy, it’s staying. I conferred with my attorney, and he said it was fine.” She shoots Everett with her fingers. “Thanks for the free legal advice, Sexy.”
“Everett?” A somewhat amused laugh escapes me.
He shrugs. “I thought she was just writing about Noah. And”—he winces—“she’s still within the bounds of the law.”
“See?” Carlotta says it with glee. “Trust me, no one will put two hot studs and one knocked up mama together. Besides, I said the three of you were from Funny Hollow. What genius is going to crack that code?”
A moan strums from me. “Do whatever you want, Carlotta. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. Noah, are you up for talking about the case?”
“Yup.” He gives Pancake a quick scratch on his head. “Is Flo here?”
Carlotta and I exchange a glance because neither of us has seen the shifty specter.
“No.” I pull the cats in close until their tails are whipping my nose alternately. “You would think having the murder victim come back to help find their killer would make things a piece of cake.”
Carlotta grunts, “More like a cake made of flour and hard liquor. You have a good time shoveling it in, but you regret it come morning.”
Everett glides his arm around my waist and pulls me his way a notch as I snuggle against him.
“She was shoveling something our way, all right.” He blows out a breath.
Noah glances his way. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m the one that bought into it. I could have stopped it, Lottie. But here we are. And I want to assure each of you, I’m going to singlehandedly take care of Flo’s body. I got us into this, and I’m going to get us out of it.”
“Noah.” I give the scruff on his cheek a quick scratch. “You are not responsible. It was solely me, but good try. I had the final say. And you’re not moving her body by yourself. You’re down an arm. I’ll help you.”
“Right, Lot.” Carlotta guffaws as if it was the funniest thing on earth. “I can see it now—Gimpy and Preggo starring in Night of the Living Dead in Honey Hollow.”
“She’s right.” Everett offers a stern look to Noah and me. “Neither of you is going to move that body an inch. Actually, this entire nightmare is officially done for the two of you. I’m taking over.”
“Like you should’ve done to begin with,” Carlotta adds. “You know you wanted to tack that little tidbit on,” she says to Everett. “I’ll help you with the body. Now that we got the weak links out of the way, you and I can get a move on with what needs to be done. We’re going to make a great team—just you and me, Sexy. We both know we’re the brains of this organization. The only thing these two are good at is rutting like a couple of rabbits. ”
Everett’s brows dip down in a hard V. “I’m pretty good at that, too.”
“Don’t I know it.” Carlotta gives a wistful tick of the head. “And believe me, you scored your very own chapter because of it. I’ve gone all around town interviewing women you’ve rolled in the hay with. I couldn’t go ten steps without bumping into one of—”
“All right, we get it,” I snip. “Back to solving Flo’s murder. Who do we have? Lorena and Donata?”
Noah nods. “You mentioned that Donata was still bitter about her brother’s incarceration. She definitely had a motive. Rocky thinks she’s a viable suspect.”
“Rocky still loved her.” Everett warms me with his arm. “He thought the baby could be his.”
“True,” I say. “Then there’s Nicky Knuckles. He seemed to really care for her, too. But Rocky says Nicky had cheated on Flo. He said he would have killed him, but Nicky was in the running as the baby’s father and he couldn’t do that to the baby.”
Both Noah and Everett groan and nod as if they could commiserate with Rocky’s quasi-homicidal position.
“See there, Lot?” Carlotta laughs. “You’re practically a trendsetter. Ten bucks says within a year, half of the childbearing women in this town will be knocked up and just as confused as to who the daddy might be. And I bet they try to one-up you in the candidate department, too. If I were you, I’d throw Bear’s hat in the ring just to protect your reign as queen of the paternally undecided.
I avert my eyes. “Who else is on the chopping block?”
Everett shakes his head. “You’ve covered Donata, Nicky Knuckles, and Rocky Romero. We didn’t cover Lorena.”
“There’s nothing to cover,” I say. “Flo seems more than approving of her taking over the girl mob gang they started up, the Ruthless Witches.” I glance to Noah. “And believe me, they plan on living up to their name. I bet they’ll warrant their very own task force.”
“I have no doubt,” he says, folding his hands together.
Before we can come to any sort of a conclusion, a horrible thud comes from the other side of the door.
Everett jumps to his feet, but before he can get to the entry, the knob gives a violent jiggle and Evie bounds into the room.
“I hate him!” she screams at the top of her lungs. “I hate Dash, too. I knew I shouldn’t have made friends with these hillbillies! I’m packing up my things. Ship me back to Ellington, Dad!” She runs screaming and sobbing all the way to her room and slams her door with a bang that sounds louder than a gunshot.