Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [171]
“I suppose none of that matters now,” Nic said. “The killer was apprehended. And our Midnight Killer case is closed.”
“And Lorie Hammonds is alive and well,” Maleah added. “Cathy tells me that life is gradually returning to normal for Lorie and she went back to work at their antique shop this week.”
“Hmm…I just might make a detour through Dunmore on my way to my beach house on St. George Island.” Derek winked at Maleah.
Griff chuckled. Nic rolled her eyes and smiled.
“And what makes you think Lorie would want to see you when she’s got Mike Birkett around?” Maleah asked him.
“Are they engaged?” Derek grinned at Maleah.
“No, but—”
“Maybe Mike needs a little healthy competition.”
“Maybe you need to mind your own business.”
“Maybe I’d like to make Lorie Hammonds my business.”
Maleah huffed loudly. “She doesn’t want you. No woman in her right mind would want you.”
“And no sane man would put up with you.”
Five minutes later, Maleah and Derek realized that sometime during their childish argument, Nic and Griff had left the room.
Mike had moved back home a couple of days after Tyler Owens’s arrest, but as a precaution, a deputy had remained posted outside her house every night from ten until two for the rest of the week. Although she still got curious stares and an occasional off-color comment from a few men, for the most part, the community as a whole pretty much treated her the way it always had. Some people were friendly, some ignored her, and a few were downright hostile. The Women for Christian Morality hadn’t picketed the shop since she returned to work at Treasures, thanks in great part to Patsy Elliott’s intervention.
Customers came and went on a regular basis, along with the occasional curiosity seeker. After she had granted Ryan Bonner an exclusive interview—against Mike’s wishes—and three articles about her past and present and her connection to the Midnight Killer appeared in the Huntsville Times, the media interest in Cherry Sweets and Lorie Hammonds had begun to wane.
She was, slowly but surely, getting her life back on track. Except for her relationship with Mike. It could never go back to the way it had been before, not now that they had become lovers again. And yet neither of them was sure they had a future together. She was still a woman with a notorious past, at least notorious in the eyes of small-town America. If they could move away from Dunmore, escape the narrow-minded bigotry that judged her as unfit wife and mother material, and live in a big city like New York or Chicago or Atlanta, they might have a chance of making it as a couple. But Mike’s life was here. His children’s lives were rooted in this community, and his mother’s family had lived in Dunmore for generations.
She and Mike had agreed that they needed time apart, time to recover from recent events, time to put their lives back in order and make rational decisions about their future.
He and the kids had cooked dinner for her one night and she had cooked for them another night. She and Mike had gone out on one date that had ended with a good-night kiss at her front door. And she was no longer forbidden to spend time with Hannah and M.J.
“No matter what happens between us, I want you and my children to get to know one another a lot better,” Mike had told her.
She wanted that, too.
Actually, what she really wanted was the chance to be a good stepmother to Mike’s kids, something that might never happen.
“I’m off now,” Cathy said as she retrieved her purse from under the checkout counter. “My appointment is at four o’clock.” She grabbed Lorie’s hands. “I’m so nervous. I’ve taken four home pregnancy tests and all four were positive, but I want to hear Dr. Evans tell me that I am definitely pregnant.”
Lorie and Cathy laughed like schoolgirls.
“Jack is so excited,” Cathy said. “He missed out on the whole experience when I was pregnant with Seth,