“That, too, but I’m talking about your uncles. It’s hard to imagine that a couple of murders would bring them back together again.”
“I’m just happy it turned out all right. How’s Grady?”
“He was pretty upset with me when I called him a killer, but the second he heard about Steve, he got over it. He’s outside right now, but I told him he had to wait before he could see you.”
“Are you telling me that you’re keeping the mayor of Charlotte stewing out there so we can chat?”
“That sounds about right,” he said.
“That’s just one of the reasons I love you.”
“If you can think of any more, be sure to let me know.”
I grinned at him. “Wait until my shoulder stops killing me, and I’ll show you. Where are we going after this?”
“If you don’t want to go back to the hotel, I completely understand.” He glanced at his watch. “We can be back home in less than three hours, and that includes checking out of here and packing our bags.”
“As much as I’d love to be back working in my garden, I think we should hang around a few more days before we take off.”
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid to give up room service?”
“That’s part of it,” I said with a laugh. “But what I’d really like to do is get to know my uncle a little better.”
“He’s offered us that suite on a permanent basis, if we want it.”
“Tell him I said thanks, but no thanks.”
Zach nodded. “Too many bad memories there, I understand completely. When I told him that, he offered us another suite on that floor, and he said he’d have it decorated however we wanted. It would be rude to say no to him. After all, we don’t want to hurt his feelings, do we?”
I laughed, despite the pain. “We’ll talk about it. For now, I just want to enjoy being with you.”
“I can handle that,” Zach said. He took my good hand in his, and squeezed it gently. “We seem to have a knack for getting ourselves into jams, don’t we?”
“As long as we come out all right on the other side, I’m fine with it.”
Zach glanced at his watch, and then looked away. “Am I keeping you from something?”
“No. I just realized that you have another puzzle due in a few hours. Want me to call Derrick?”
“No, I’ll take care of that myself.”
“You’re not actually going to try to create a puzzle after all you’ve been through today, are you?”
“I don’t want to, but I need to.”
Zach nodded in understanding. “You have to wash the bad taste of Steve’s puzzle out of your mind, don’t you?”
“That’s it exactly.”
“I’ll go find you a pencil and some paper.”
As he went out on his search, I marveled at what had happened in the past few days. If it weren’t for my puzzles, Steve might never have been caught. He’d picked the wrong gal to mess with, though.
Puzzles were in my blood.
I started playing with ideas in my mind, and realized that today’s puzzle was going to have to be another simplified version, given all that had happened. Derrick wasn’t going to be happy about it, but then again, he rarely was, anyway.
It would be enough to get a new, fresh look at the puzzles I loved so much.
And that, along with my newly expanded family, was all I really needed.
