Everett takes a breath, and I can tell he’s as stressed out as he’s ever been.
“No problem.” He glances to the door. “I think I’ll head out front and see if I can spot Fiona.” He brushes a kiss to Lottie’s cheek. “If he tries to steal second base again, knee him in the cookies.” He takes off, and Lottie presses out a shy smile.
“I’ve been given strict orders,” she teases.
The music shifts to something moodier, and I hold out a hand her way.
“Can I have this dance?”
“I would never deny you,” she says, falling into my arms, and it feels right.
As if it were a reflex, I plant a kiss over the top of her head.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Lottie.”
“Same to you, Big Boss.” She gives a cheeky wink, and we share a warm laugh on Cormack’s behalf.
I swallow hard as I take in her beauty. “The thing I wanted to tell you is that—you own me, Lottie Lemon.”
“And you very much own me, in a very strange way, Noah Fox.” She shrugs. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t ever apologize for giving me the best news ever.”
Her stomach jumps, and I feel it up against my hip.
“Whoa.” I land a hand over her stomach and can’t help but grin. “Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, kiddo. I guess we’re going to meet you soon enough.”
“Noah”—Lottie breathes my name in a sigh—“it’s all happening so fast, I can’t bear it. And yet it can’t get here fast enough all at the same time.”
“I feel the exact same way.”
“And don’t worry.” She gives my tie a playful tug. “I want you to know that whether or not this is your baby, you are going to play a vital role in its life. Just like you are with Evie.”
I give a solemn nod. “Thank you for that.”
Lottie blinks up at me with those doe eyes of hers, and I can’t help diving in and getting lost in them.
Here I hold the holy grail to Everett’s defense, and a small, selfish part of me says don’t give it. Let him go away so I can have Lottie all to myself. And try as I might to stomp that horrible, fiery thought out of my mind, the flames keep popping right back up again.
A part of me wishes someone else had thought up the defense, that the burden of Everett’s future lay in anyone else’s hands other than my own. But at the end of the day, Essex Everett Baxter is my brother just as much as Alex is. And I need to protect him. I need to save him from this unfortunate position that I landed him in to begin with.
Lottie pulls my head down to hers, and for a moment I think she’s going to plant one on me. Not that I would stop her. Not that I could stop Lottie Lemon from doing just about anything. But she rests her forehead against mine instead, and I appreciate the proximity to her lips nonetheless.
“Noah”—she whispers—“I’m so very grateful to have you in my life.” She sniffs back tears. “I don’t think I could bear to not have you in it. You live in my heart now and you will forevermore.”
And just like that, Lottie gives me the best gift I could ever ask for.
A cool breeze moves past us, and we look up to see Everett and Fiona Dagmeyer stepping this way.
It’s showtime.
Everett
Noah has his arms wrapped around Lemon as if he were about to pull her from a burning building. No doubt I’m the raging fire looking to burn down Noah’s world.
I can relate, I thought the same of him for almost the entire duration of time he was with Lemon.
Fiona clears her throat, and Noah is slow to remove his grip on Lemon.
“Detective Fox”—Fiona lifts her chin— “if you don’t mind speeding things along, I don’t like to hang out in haunted houses any longer than need be. What is this saving grace you purport to have?”
“Yes, Noah,” Lemon says as her arms fall to her side, and I take her into my arms for support.
A part of me wants to believe Noah somehow pulled a miracle out of his rear for me. And yet another part of me wants to keep my feet firmly rooted in logic.
Whatever Noah is about to suggest will be mediocre at best. The odds of this trial going in a positive direction for me are not in my favor.
Noah’s shoulders sag as he looks my way, and I can see a twinge of regret in his eyes over whatever it is he’s about to spill.
“Sleepwalking,” he says it short and sweet, and the three of us give a lengthy pause as we look over at him. He glances to Fiona. “Everett used to sleepwalk as a kid—right through high school, in fact. His mother wasn’t all that thrilled. She took him to see a shrink. There’s medical evidence that Judge Baxter is unstable, unbalanced, and out of his right mind from the moment he closes his eyes at night until he fully wakes up in the morning. They can’t charge him for willfully stealing Florenza Canelli’s body if he didn’t know what the heck he was doing.”
Fiona gives a sharp look my way. “It’s perfect. Not guilty by reason of somnambulism. It’s a bulletproof defense.”
My heart begins to thump irrationally, and my mind races with the possibility as I try to spin through the Rolodex of cases that I’ve seen in my courtroom. I’ve seen some outlandish defenses, but this one takes the cake.
“No,” I say, quickly cutting it down. “I don’t want to lie.”
“Then don’t take the stand,” Fiona shoots back.
“It’s a lie by omission,” I tell her.
“If it’s happened before, then it’s something we can sink our teeth into.” Lemon expires a quick breath. “Everett, is this true? Is this real?”
“Yes.” I shake my head. “It’s true as gospel.” A spiral of hope infiltrates me, and I cautiously let it. “I saw a doctor out in Fallbrook a handful of times. He prescribed some sleeping pills to knock me out in hopes my body wouldn’t wake up without me, and it worked. I took the pills for a couple of years, but midway through college, I decided to chuck them.”
Lemon’s eyes bulge. “Everett, this is perfect. Do you have any idea if it’s happened since you stopped the pills?”
“He doesn’t know. And that’s where we’ll leave it.” Fiona tips her dark bun toward Noah. “Well done, Detective.” She lands those serious eyes over mine once again. “We’ll work around the notion that your subconscious mind is trying to remove Noah from your life. We’ll play the love triangle angle.” She glances to Lemon’s midsection. “The baby will work perfectly in this scenario, as will that hot mess hashtag brouhaha the three of you have running.” She gives a single nod. “I think we have something real we can work with here, Essex. All we needed was a shadow of a doubt that you were willfully stealing that body. I’ll move on this. I received the court date this morning. We go to trial in six weeks.”
“Six weeks?” Lemon leans in as if she misheard.
“Yes.” Fiona gives her an incredulous look. “As far as court cases go, that’s moving at lightning speed. It could have taken up to a year.” She looks my way. “Enjoy your impromptu vacation. Noah, Lottie, enjoy the rest of your night.”