A Widow in Paradise & Suburban Secrets Read online

  “We’ll have to go out the front door,” he whispered back. “Wait for my cue.”

  To get to the front door they’d have to run directly in the line of sight of the kitchen.

  Rose opened a can of cat food and dumped it into a dish on the floor. Then she sat down at the kitchen table and started sifting through her mail.

  Guy nodded. They moved for the front door, crawling, staying below the half wall. Dannie’s heart pounded in her ears.

  Halfway across the darkened living room Dannie’s cell phone rang. Out of habit, she’d stuck it in her jacket pocket.

  Rose leaped to her feet. “Who’s there?”

  Dannie and Guy reached the front door. Guy fumbled with the doorknob, only to realize the security chain was in place. The world shifted into slow motion. Dannie watched Guy fumble with the chain as Rose moved toward the light switch in the living room.

  Dannie’s cell phone was still ringing.

  Guy and Dannie burst out onto the front stoop just as the living room light came on, and they took off across the yard at breakneck speed. Halfway to the car Dannie ran smack into a cement donkey pulling a flower cart. A blinding pain exploded in her shin. Her teeth rattled in her head.

  She kept going, spurred on by the sight of Guy’s back moving farther ahead of her with every step.

  Rose was out on the stoop now, yelling. Dannie couldn’t hear what, and wasn’t about to stop and try to figure it out.

  Guy jerked open the door to the van. Dannie flung herself in the driver’s side door, tumbling over both Guy and the center console as Guy jammed the key into the ignition and peeled out.

  Dannie looked in the rearview mirror at Rose, who squinted out into the night.

  “What if she gets my plate number?” Dannie said, panting. She held her shin, biting her lip against the pain.

  “She won’t,” said Guy, his words coming in staccato spurts. “She’s blind without her glasses, and the car was a good distance away.”

  “Do you think she recognized you?”

  “I don’t think so. But if she did, I’ll hear from her.”

  Dannie’s phone rang again. She hadn’t been aware it had ever stopped. Maybe it had happened when she’d maimed herself on the cement donkey.

  She answered the phone. “Yes, Kristi?”

  She tried to keep her voice even. Not give away the fact that she’d been out breaking and entering. Or at least entering.

  “So now I can’t find the kids’ pajamas.” There was a note of hysteria in her voice. “The big girl said they usually sleep naked, but you don’t seem like the kind of mother that would allow that. Am I right, or what?”

  Dannie closed her eyes. “You’re right. The pajamas are in the dryer, remember?”

  “Cool.” Kristi hung up.

  Guy squeezed her hand. “I’ll take you home.”

  “Screw that. I need a drink.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I’LL HAVE A MARGARITA. Frozen, please.” Dannie gave her order to the waitress at Finnegan’s, one of those fake Irish pubs that had popped up like blemishes in recent years near every shopping mall. It had been the first place they’d come across after leaving Rose’s.

  The waitress, a twentysomething in black pants, a visor and a purple shirt covered with collectible pins, wrote Dannie’s order on her pad in painstaking, curly handwriting. She smiled shyly at Guy. “Something for you?”

  “I’ll have a Toasted Almond,” he said.

  “A Toasted Almond?” Dannie said. “First of all, you’re putting alcohol in your temple?”

  “I think I deserve it tonight, don’t you?”

  “Why not? But a Toasted Almond? Couldn’t you order something a little bit more manly?”

  “Hey, what can I say? I don’t know the names of many drinks. Lisa used to drink Toasted Almonds, and I know I like them. You have a problem with that?”

  The waitress patted Guy’s arm. “I personally think it’s nice you’re so secure in your masculinity.”

  “What is this, psych 101?” Dannie said. “Just get our drinks, okay?”

  The waitress gave Dannie the mental finger, winked at Guy and sauntered off in the direction of the bar, her size-zero hips swinging as seductively as size-zero hips can swing.

  “Do women hit on you everywhere you go?” Dannie said, annoyed with herself for being so annoyed.

  “Apparently so.”

  Dannie gave a frustrated sigh.

  Guy grabbed her hand. “Hey. It’s not like I take them up on it. I just have a way with women. That’s why I’m in the spa business.”

  “Not yet,” Dannie said. “Not until you get your money back.”

  “Right.” Guy drummed his fingertips on the high wooden table. “So let’s take a look at what you found at Rose’s.”

  Dannie pulled the little notebook with the phone numbers out of her pocket and tossed it on the table between them. She pointed to one of the numbers. “This exchange is Cuatro Blanco. Even if it didn’t say it on the phone bill, I’d recognize it from all the calls I’ve had to make there since Roger died.”

  “What about the other one?” Guy said.

  Dannie shook her head. “The phone bill said Costa Rica. I don’t recognize that one.”

  Guy pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “So let’s call it.”

  The waitress arrived with their drinks, serving them along with another shy, flirty look for Guy. She hovered around the table as he took a sip of the Toasted Almond.

  “Is it okay?” she asked.

  “Very good.”

  “Thank you for your concern,” Dannie said sarcastically. “Now, can we have a moment, please?”

  The waitress stalked away.

  Guy took a healthy slug of his drink before punching the Costa Rican phone number into his cell. He motioned Dannie over.

  She climbed down from her tall stool and stood beside him as he held his phone out for her to hear. She leaned her head close to his, listening.

  A recording, in Spanish, streamed out from the phone.

  “It’s a bank,” Guy said.

  “A bank?”

  Guy nodded.

  “Why would Rose call a bank in Costa Rica? There were at least four calls to that number.”

  “What month was the phone bill?” Guy said.

  “Last January.” A lightbulb went off in her head. “A month before Lisa left.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So Lisa could have made those calls.”

  “I’m betting she did.” Guy drained his Toasted Almond. “Let’s call the other number.”

  She resumed her position near his phone, and they listened in as another recording in Spanish played.

  “Disconnected.” Guy raised a hand to summon the waitress. He caught her attention—or perhaps had never lost it—and pointed to both his and Dannie’s glasses.

  “Wow, do you really think you should?” Dannie said. “Those Toasted Almonds are wicked.”

  “Okay, smart-ass. So do you want to see what I found?”

  “Absolutely.” Dannie sucked frozen margarita through her straw until she had brain freeze. She wasn’t about to get out-lapped by a man drinking Toasted Almonds.

  Guy pulled a business card out of the back pocket of his jeans and flicked it onto the table. It slid to a stop under Dannie’s pinkie finger.

  She picked it up, blinking. “I…I don’t understand.”

  Guy shook his head. “I don’t, either.”

  “Why would Rose have one of Lyle’s business cards?”

  “You tell me.”

  Dannie thought for a moment. “Maybe Lisa got it from Roger.”

  “So why would Roger give Lyle’s card to Lisa?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she needed some office supplies.”

  Dannie tried to make light of it, but her stomach churned. Why would Rose have Lyle’s card? Even she didn’t buy her own explanation.

  The waitress showed up and set their drinks on the
table. She slid the black leather billfold with their tab in front of Dannie, and touched Guy’s shoulder. “My shift ends in ten minutes, so if you want anything else, let me know. Anything at all.”

  “Excuse me,” Dannie said. “You can see me sitting here, right? Me, his date?”

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were a couple. You don’t really look like his type.” She walked away, giving Guy a little wave over her shoulder.

  “How rude,” Dannie said.

  “Are we really on a date?” Guy asked.

  “Of course not. But she didn’t know that.”

  “Well, we’ll have to do that sometime,” Guy said.

  “Do what?”

  “Have a date.”

  She felt slightly dizzy. She hadn’t eaten much dinner—she’d been too nervous—and that first margarita had gone straight to her head. “We have to figure all of this stuff out first.”

  “What stuff?”

  “All of it. Like where Lisa is, and what really happened to Roger.”

  “You’re starting to believe me, then?” Guy asked. “That he might still be alive?”

  “Of course not. But I do think something suspicious happened. That’s probably why I can’t get a death certificate. They’re still investigating everything in Cuatro Blanco.”

  “Why wouldn’t they just tell you that, then?”

  Dannie took a sip of her drink. “You’ve seen how they operate. Everything moves in slow motion. If they told me they were investigating, they’d probably worry that I’d come down there and try to make them hurry.”

  Guy stared into his drink. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “I know I’m right.” She finished her drink. “We should get out of here.”

  “Your place or mine?” Guy said.

  “Mine. I have to get home and make sure my kids are still in one piece.”

  Guy tucked some money into the leather billfold the waitress had left. “I think you should be more worried about whether the babysitter is still in one piece.”

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED BACK at Dannie’s, Kristi was lying on the couch with a pillow over her head.

  Richard, wielding a pair of kitchen tongs dripping with water, emerged from the bathroom. “I’m sorry, Mommy.”

  Oh, boy. That was never good. “What are you sorry about?”

  “I was playing with my submarine, and it got stuck in the pipe.”

  “Oh, God. What pipe?”

  “The one in the potty.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Guy followed Richard into the hall toward the bathroom.

  Betsy, dressed in nothing but a clear raincoat and galoshes, ran past, pulling Quincy by his leash, who in turn was pulling the twins in a plastic laundry-basket carriage rigged with jump-rope reins.

  “You gave them ice cream, didn’t you?” Dannie said.

  Kristi teared up. “Okay. This job is so not fun. I’m, like, completely wiped.”

  “Welcome to my world.” Dannie grabbed Betsy by the hood of her raincoat as she ran past, stripped her naked and told her to march upstairs.

  She scooped the twins out of the laundry basket and handed one of them to Kristi. “Come on. I’ll show you how I do things.”

  Forty minutes later the kids were all in bed, Guy was driving Kristi home and Dannie was the one lying on the couch with the pillow over her head.

  The phone rang. She was tempted not to answer it, but it went against her nature.

  “Hello?”

  “Dannie. Where have you been?” It was Lyle, sounding annoyed.

  Dannie’s blood pressure shot up. How dare he act annoyed with her? She was tempted to ask him about the business card Guy had found at Rose’s house, but how would she explain being in Rose’s house? Plus, it would bring up the whole thing about Guy again, and she wasn’t in the mood.

  “What do you want, Lyle?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really, no. I’m tired, and I have a headache.”

  “Let me come over and take care of you. I’ll make you something to eat, and we can watch a movie or something.”

  The doorbell rang.

  Guy.

  She got up and hurried to the door.

  “Was that the doorbell?” Lyle asked.

  “No. I’m picking up the kids’ toys. One of them made a noise.” She opened the door and held a finger to her lips so Guy wouldn’t talk. She mouthed “Lyle,” and pointed to the phone.

  “So how about it?” Lyle said. “I can be there in ten minutes.”

  “I don’t think so. Not tonight.”

  Guy leaned in and kissed her neck. She closed her eyes. It was hard to breathe.

  “Okay, then. How about tomorrow night?” Lyle said.

  “Maybe. I’ll call you,” she mumbled.

  Guy’s tongue swirled in her ear. Her knees went weak, and he caught her around the waist to hold her up.

  Wow. A couple of Toasted Almonds brought out the animal in him.

  Lyle exhaled. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. I just…I want to go to bed.”

  Her voice trailed off as Guy took the phone from her hand and pressed the off button. The phone clattered to the hardwood floor. Guy pulled her against him and kissed her hard on the mouth.

  “What are you doing?” she mumbled.

  “Just continuing what we started in the van.”

  “I thought we agreed we wouldn’t.”

  “I never agreed to that. Besides, aren’t you the one who told me to loosen up and let somebody get on my rides?”

  “Ah, yes. The amusement park.”

  “So what do you say? You wanna try the Wet ’n’ Wild?”

  All reason left her. Especially the reason telling her this was a bad idea.

  So the man was the complete opposite of her idea of what a man should be. He cut hair. He wore pink. He drank Toasted Almonds. So what?

  And he was partners with Jimmy Duke—the man who just might have killed her husband. But she had no proof of that. And it sure seemed as if he wasn’t thrilled to be tied to Jimmy Duke in any way.

  And he was the husband of her husband’s lover. Was there anyone more appropriate to sleep with, really? An eye for an eye, right?

  Besides, he was such a good kisser. She could only imagine the rest of his game was just as good. And she was slightly tipsy, and very horny, and really, really lonely.

  She might regret this tomorrow morning, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to regret it tonight.

  “You want to go to bed?” Guy whispered.

  She nodded.

  He picked her up in his arms, turning the switch for the living room light out with his elbow on his way up the stairs.

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS.” Guy lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.

  “I’m sorry,” Dannie said. “When it came down to it, I guess I just wasn’t ready.”

  “It would have been nice if you could have told me that downstairs,” he said.

  “I didn’t know it downstairs. I thought…” She sighed. “I like you, Guy. Very much. But this is so strange. And we’re here, in the bed I shared with Roger, and I just—”

  “Stop,” he said, touching her mouth with his index finger. “You don’t owe me any explanations. I was being a jerk.”

  “No, you weren’t. I led you on.”

  “Hey, once you get all your hair cut off, you can’t put it back on. At least, not without paying some serious money for extensions.”

  “What?”

  He rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow. “You changed your mind, that’s all. At the salon, women change their minds all the time. But once they get their hair cut off, they can’t get it put back on. And once we sleep together, we can’t undo it. So we’ll wait until you’re ready.”

  Dannie gave him a grateful look. “Okay. So what are we going to do next?”

  “Well, I guess I should go home….”

  “No, I meant wh
at are we going to do about this whole thing with Lisa?”

  Guy played with her hair, his breath soft on her cheek. Dannie was sorely tempted to ignore her misgivings and just sleep with him. She knew it would be good. Really good. And God knew, she needed something good right now.

  “We should go back to Cuatro Blanco,” Guy said.

  Dannie rubbed her eyes. “I can’t. My in-laws just watched the kids for that long weekend. Besides, I don’t have the money.”

  “You know your in-laws won’t mind. And we don’t need money. Not much, anyway. We can hitch a ride on the charter with my new friend. And we can use the free week we won in the dance contest.”

  “What if there aren’t any rooms?”

  “I doubt that will be a problem, considering it’s hurricane season.”

  “I don’t know…”

  “It’s the only way. We’ll never find anything out by calling the Cuatro Blancan authorities.”

  It was true. She’d gone that route for the past nine months and it had gotten her nowhere. If she was going to accomplish anything, she was going to have to go back to Cuatro Blanco.

  Only, this time she wasn’t taking Lyle. She wouldn’t even tell him until she got back.

  “Okay,” she said. “We’ll go.”

  “Good. I’ll call and make the reservations at El Pelícano tomorrow.” When he rolled out of bed, Dannie got a good look at his amazing body.

  It was tempting—too damned tempting—to invite him back into bed. But she made a silent vow that she would control herself.

  At least until all this was over. Then all bets were off.

  Chapter Fourteen

  THEIR PLANE LANDED fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled, which Dannie took as a good omen. Anything that happened ahead of schedule in Cuatro Blanco was a small miracle.

  She and Guy made their way through the tiny airport and onto the shuttle bus—no delusions about a comfortable, air-conditioned taxi ride this time—and squeezed into one of the bench seats.

  Guy’s thigh bumped against hers every time they hit a rut in the road, which was about every three seconds. His T-shirt clung to every damp, sculpted muscle, and the scent of his cologne was driving her crazy. Her mind kept flashing back to the night in her bedroom, when she could have felt his entire body move against her, not just his thigh.