She takes off, and he wraps his arms around me before searing my lips with a heated kiss.
“Mmm,” I moan into it with a dreamy sigh. “What planet are we on again?”
“Apparently, one that’s occupied with aliens.” He ticks his head back toward the café. “Why do I get the feeling I was being put back in the friend zone?”
“You are not in the friend zone—you are so far out of the friend zone. There is not one part of me that wants to be friendly with you. In fact, I want to be darn right mean.” I give his tie a quick yank along with a little wink.
“You don’t have a mean bone in your body, Bowie.” He almost smiles. “But I have a feeling you have a naughty one.”
“We should get together sometime. I’d like to prove you right.” I glance to the café. “What’s up with Regina? What is it that she doesn’t want you gossiping about?”
He winces. “It’s nothing.” He presses out a heavy sigh. “Believe me, I don’t want to worry you over anything so silly.”
“Then tell me.” I shrug. “Trust me when I say, I know how to keep a secret. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve taken secret keeping to new heights. I even have a secret safe word—meow.” I do my best impression of a cat on a hot tin roof. And believe me, I’m not too far off, thanks to my hormonal overdrive.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” He glances past me. “It’s just—I don’t want it getting in your head and ruining your holidays. It’s your first Christmas in Starry Falls. I want to make sure it’s special.” His lids hood low, and suddenly he looks like a starving man eyeing a hot Italian meatball sandwich, extra provolone.
Shep lands another kiss to my lips and makes me forget all about Regina Valentine and her secretive, gossipy ways.
He pulls back and examines me as if soaking in my features. “I was going to pop in for lunch, but I just got a text from Nora about the new case. I might be late. Rain check on the meal with you?”
“Rain check on the exploration of that naughty theory. There’s only one list I’m hitting this year, and I’ll give you a hint—it’s not the nice one.” A dark laugh brews in my chest as my fingers glide down his tie.
Detective Nora Grimsley is Shep’s co-worker down at the homicide division. She’s also his ex-fiancée, but they seem to have had a mature parting, unlike the excess baggage Regina is trying to hold onto. Before I arrived in Starry Falls, Shep and the she-devil, aka the necrotic Valentine, had an on-again, off-again something or other. And by the looks of it, Regina is very much wishing it was on-again.
“I gotta go.” Shep lands those luscious lips over mine once again just as Tilly bolts out of the café.
“I know where she works!” she blurts the words out, and I’m quick to slit my throat with my finger in an effort to keep her from spilling my evening plans to my newly minted boyfriend. But Tilly’s lips contort every which way, because let’s face it—she’s an unstoppable force of nature. “Uh—I—um—that new customer who left her purse here works at the dry bar down the street.” She lifts her shoulders. “I’ll let you two get back to that mouth-to-mouth thing you were doing. Bowie is looking a little blue in the face. You’d better ramp up the efforts, Detective.” She gives a cheeky wink as she dives back into the café.
“What’s a dry bar?” Shep looks both curious and irritated by the fact he’s devoid of this knowledge. And if I know this man, he darn well suspects something is up.
“A hairdresser’s nightmare. Don’t work too hard.” I bite down on a smile. “Boyfriend.”
A crooked grin ignites on his own face. “How about we celebrate with lasagna later—girlfriend?”
“I’ll bring the wine.”
He frowns at the thought. “You don’t drink.”
“It doesn’t mean I don’t want to get you nice and loaded.” My expression sours. “I hear that’s when you can get the best-kept secrets out of someone.” It’s true. They don’t call it truth serum for nothing.
He takes another deep breath. “Don’t worry, Bowie. Believe me when I say, it’s nothing.” His lips purse. “Any chance of you sharing that secret of yours with me? If you need more time, take it. I just thought—I just want to help, Bowie. I want to fix it for you.”
“Oh right, that.” As in my big sibylline surprise. “I promise I’m getting close. In fact, expect to be bowled over by it soon enough.” I don’t see why I should put off the inevitable. God forbid Tilly or Opal vomit it at his feet. Or Regina, but I’m not entirely sure how she would find out.
“Looking forward to it.” He offers me a firm embrace. “Stay away from the Wright case. It’s not for you, Bowie.”
We share another heated smooch—the kind that says if this keeps up he’s going to have a problem to deal with that hopefully he won’t exclude me from handling. But instead, we part ways, and I watch as he takes off.
Shep says the secret Regina shared with him was nothing.
Since when is it nothing if your boyfriend shares a secret with another woman?
But, then again, I have a secret of my own—a whopper that I’m pretty sure could eat Regina’s secret for breakfast.
Regardless, for now I choose to focus on a much smaller secret. I’m headed off to finish that chat I started with Carol Bransford yesterday.
And who knows? I might just have a Christmas gift to give to Shep a little bit early this year—the most wanted gift on just about every homicide detective’s wish list—a shiny new killer.
Chapter 5
DoReMi Karaoke Bar
