A series of popping noises come from baby Bear’s bottom, and Mom holds him out at an arm’s length.
“Oh, come on, Miranda,” Carlotta teases. “Afraid of a little thunder from down under?”
“Come here, you,” Keelie coos. “Did baby Bear make a stinky?” She wrinkles her nose my way. “That’s how I know he belongs to his daddy.” She winks as she and Mom scuttle off, arguing over who’s going to change the baby’s dirty diaper.
Carlotta holds out her phone. “I gotta get Harry on the horn.” She winks my way. “Now that I’m a bestseller, I’m feeling a little frisky. Me thinks this author is about to get herself a whole lotta lovin’ tonight. We’ll call it research for my follow-up book.” She takes off, already tapping into her phone.
I step in a notch toward Juliet. “Fun fact about Keelie: she married my old high school boyfriend. His name is Otis, but he goes by Bear. He made sure I cried myself to sleep each night for three years straight. He was a horrible cheat. But he’s cleaned up his two-timing ways. Or at least he better have. He’s married to my best friend.”
We share a warm laugh on Bear’s account.
Bear really is a good guy now that he’s on the straight and narrow. He owns his own construction company and he’s the one Everett and I hired to build our dream home on the land where our former homes burned to the ground. Instead of rebuilding two separate houses, we’re building one mega structure. We were neighbors, so it worked out perfectly that our lots were right next to one another.
“I haven’t had much luck with men myself,” Juliet offers. “But not because I had a bad boyfriend. I’ve always been too busy with work to go out and meet anyone. Verity, on the other hand, always seemed to have a bad boyfriend in the wings. We got to witness Chad in action last night. How horrible was it that he was berating her that way, and on her very last night alive? I talked to him afterwards, and I could smell the liquor coming off his breath. He seemed pretty shaken up about her passing. We all were—still are.”
“It’s a terrible thing. I guess we’ll know what happened once the coroner releases the information. You wouldn’t happen to know if she had any allergies, would you?”
“She never mentioned any to me.” Her lips pinch tightly as she looks over my shoulder. “But let’s face it. I don’t think Verity died from a simple allergy. The girl had a way of turning people against her.”
“Such as who?” I’m half-expecting her to say Chad. Okay, so I’m fully expecting Chad, but I hold my breath just in case she decides to surprise me.
She hitches her nose to someone behind me. “Sugar Hartley.”
“Sugar?” I turn to look at the girl with the cuddly koala still clinging to her neck.
“They had an odd relationship,” Juliet whispers. “Verity used to tell me stories. And by the sound of it, Verity relished being cruel to the girl. You heard Sugar yourself. She was practically forced to hand over her beloved pet to Verity. And there were other things cooking between them, too.” She buttons her lips before she spills the goods.
“Like what?”
Juliet shakes her head. “That’s not my story to tell.” She glances to her phone. “I’d better get back. The sign says I’d be back in fifteen minutes and my time is up. It was nice meeting you, Lottie. I can’t wait to get to know you better. Lucky for the both of us, I’m addicted to sweet treats. I’ll be a boost to your business, just you wait and see,” she teases as she takes off out of the bakery and into the snow.
Noah walks up and picks up my hands.
“You look worried.” He frowns as he studies me.
“I am,” I say as I watch Sugar wrap up her conversation with Evie and take off with a wave.
Noah sighs. “How about you tell me all about it on the drive over to the hospital?”
“The hospital?” I look back over at him and then it hits me. “The birthing class is tonight!”
“In half an hour.” Noah warms my belly with his hand and the baby gives him a hearty kick. “Looks like someone is ready.”
My heart thumps wildly. “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
“Faster than I could have ever imagined and yet not fast enough, if that makes any sense. I can’t wait to see this baby—hold this baby.” A sorrowful smile graces his lips.
“Me either,” I whisper. “All right, Coach. Let’s grab a slice of pizza and make tracks.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Hey”—I give him a playful sock on the arm—“that may just be what landed us in the predicament to begin with.”
We share a warm laugh as I gather my purse and coat. I ask Carlotta to take Evie home for me as Noah and I take off into the icy Honey Hollow evening.
Verity Prescott never made it to the hospital herself last night. She went straight to the morgue.
I tell Noah everything I gleaned from Juliet on the way to his truck.
“It looks as if Sugar Hartley is our first suspect,” Noah says as he helps buckle me into my seat.
“Does that mean you’re going to investigate this case with me, Detective Fox?”
“Darn right. I’ve always thought we made a good team.” He dots a kiss to my forehead. “Tracking down killers and making babies. Two things I always thought we’d do together and here we are.” He glances to my swollen belly with a pained look in his eyes. “It must be fate.”
It might be fate if this baby is Noah’s indeed.
One thing is for sure, whoever killed Verity Prescott should be shaking in their winter boots. That little furry koala, Noah, and I are about to team up to winnow the killer right out of the shadows. Their days of freedom are numbered.
They too will soon meet their fate—behind prison bars.
Lottie
Honey Hollow General Hospital sits at the edge of town like a large white box that dropped right out of the sky and was set snug among the evergreens.
Noah and I speed into the building and follow the arrows on the ground floor into a large conference room with mauve carpet and pink walls. A few chairs are lined up against the periphery of the room, and there’s a refreshment table with water and coffee set to the side. And as soon as Noah and I put down the boxes of cookies we brought over, it has a little bit of dessert on it, too. The fresh brewed coffee smells like heaven, but it does very little to dampen the sterile hospital scent that’s layered just beneath it.
A few couples are already here and more seem to be pouring through the door with every second. Each round belly looks that much more swollen than the last, and I can’t help but look at all of the women who happen to be in the same predicament that I’m in.
In the front of the room there’s a queen-size bed, complete with a crimson brocade comforter and pillows. And about six different women are eyeing it as if they wanted to sprawl out on it more than they wanted their next breath. I can’t blame them. I’m feeling the same way. It takes a lot of energy to grow another human being, and as of late, I need three different naps just to make it through the day.
And just as I’m about to test out the springs on that mattress, my perky sister waltzes into the room with a wave.