Smiling, Henry put one arm around Nico and the other around Baxter. “Welcome to the Significant Others of Psychic Women Club, Nico.”
Nico squeezed the other men tightly. “I’m struggling, guys. I don’t even know if I’m her significant other. She said we have a ‘thing.’ What the hell does that mean?”
“Very imprecise labeling.” Baxter straightened his glasses, which had been jostled. “I understand your confusion.”
“If the girls get Wine Wednesdays,” Nico said, “I’m calling for Scotch Sunday.”
“I can get behind that.”
“I do enjoy scotch.”
Megan shook her head. “You three are ridiculous.”
“And cute,” Toni said. “Very cute.” She waddled over to Henry. “Okay, handsome, take me home. I’m about to fall over.”
“That’s because you’re off-balance.” He put a hand under her belly. “You need something here that rolls. Maybe a wheelbarrow.”
Toni walked up the stairs and toward the front door. “A wheelbarrow? Really?”
“It’s just an idea.”
Nico looked at Megan. “You going to let the kid sleep here or take him home?”
“I’ll wake him up and ask what he wants to do.” She nodded toward the door. “Want me to walk you to your car?”
“Hell yeah. We need to sort out this thing thing.” He winked at Katherine and reached for Baxter’s hand. “You two are great. I’m sending both my kids to you when they annoy me.”
Katherine smiled. “Please don’t do that.”
Megan walked with Nico out the front door and toward the faded brown pickup he’d parked on the corner. He unlocked the truck, opened the driver’s door, and turned to her. “So what’s our thing?”
“Our thing?” Megan shook her head. “Maybe we ought to put all this on pause in the middle of a—”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Don’t agree. If you wait for the perfect time to go after the things you want, you’ll never get anywhere.”
“I just think there’s a lot going on right now, and I need to prioritize my kids.”
“Okay.” Nico nodded slowly. “And what about you?”
Megan put her hands on her hips and huffed out a sigh. “What about me?”
He swept his eyes over her, letting her feel the heat of his gaze. “You heard what Adam and Ethan both said earlier today. They think we’re cool.”
“They’re fifteen and seventeen,” Megan said. “I think we can both agree that teenage boys don’t always know what’s best for them.”
“And apparently you don’t always know what’s good for you either.” Nico leaned down, his lips hovering over hers. “When was the last time you did a purely selfish thing, Megan Alston-Carpenter?”
“Last night,” she whispered. “Staying with you all night was selfish.”
“Wrong. That was good, Atlanta. We’re good.” He pressed his lips to hers, gently but firmly. “I’m fine with going slow, but I don’t want to go backward. I finally found someone I can be real with. I found someone I admire. Not just how fantastic your ass is—which is very fantastic, by the way—but the kind of person you are. You’re the kind of woman I want my daughter and son to look up to. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. And yeah, I know that’s pretty sad.”
“Then I’m sad too,” she blurted out. “Even when I was trying to make things work with Rodney, I knew he wasn’t the best person. I knew I didn’t want Adam to grow up to be like him. I knew I didn’t want my girls to marry anyone like him. He was… arrogant and boastful and selfish.”
Nico bit his lip. “I can be an arrogant ass sometimes. I need to work on that.”
“One, you admit it and yes, you do need to work on that. Two—and I am only going to say this once—if you’re arrogant, then you at least have something to back it up.”
The corner of Nico’s mouth turned up. “Say it again.”
“Never. I will never say that again.” She pressed her lips into a firm line. “Be grateful I said it once.”
Nico stared at her. “Careful, Atlanta. When you put on that attitude, it just pushes me closer to falling in love with you.”
Megan put a hand on his chest, felt his heart beating into her palm. “Slow down.” She met his eyes. “I’m telling you I need to go slow. We don’t need to go backward, but I gotta keep my head clear. You get me?”
Nico took her hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed her palm. “Didn’t I tell you last night? I know how to take my time.”
Chapter 23
Katherine and Megan were downtown, sitting across Drew Bisset’s desk in his small office at the back of the Moonstone Cove Police Department.
“Angela Calvo.” Drew pursed his lips. “I can’t lie—I looked at that woman top to bottom when her fiancé was murdered. There was something about her that rubbed me wrong, but I couldn’t find any connection between her and Whit Fairfield’s actions. As far as I could find out, she had no knowledge of the caves at the Dusi winery or Fairfield’s attempts to sabotage Toni’s cousin. She had no motive to want the man dead.”
“But she inherited most of his estate,” Megan said.
“Not most. Not even the majority. Just what they’d invested in together. In fact, the way his estate was planned, she would have gotten a much bigger portion if she’d killed him after they married and not before. Trust me, I looked at her hard. She just wasn’t the killer. Plus she had an ironclad alibi.”
“What about now? What about the current case?”
Drew’s eyebrows went up. “Now? You think she’s the one behind the vine theft?” He sat back in his chair. “I’m listening.”
“My son found out about the Poulsard vines because he was eavesdropping at a family dinner at Nico’s one Sunday. The next day, he tells his father about the vines. Rodney, he doesn’t have land or any reason to steal grapevines other than maybe just messing with Nico.”
“Which is a possibility,” Katherine said. “Even before Nico and Megan started seeing each other, she was working for him. Rodney might have wanted to hurt that relationship.”
“What does your ex have to do with Angela Calvo?”
“They’re dating,” Megan said. “He calls her his girlfriend. I even had lunch with her one time because she said she wanted to meet the kids.”
Drew was nodding. “Okay, so your son told his dad about the grapevines. And you think his dad told his supposed new girlfriend—”
“Why do you say ‘supposed’?” Megan asked.
Drew shrugged one shoulder. “I just remember interviewing that woman and feeling cold all over. You say she was friendly with you, but I can’t see it. Now maybe she was just defensive when I spoke to her. Maybe she doesn’t like cops. Maybe she was in shock. But there was something very clinical in how she reacted to Fairfield’s death.”