• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Becca felt a jolt that landed a lump in her throat. She couldn’t breathe for a minute. Tyler was looking at her like that? A future stepmom for Sam? She cleared her throat twice before she could speak. Well, she’d known him forever and he hadn’t killed his wife, but he was a friend, nothing more than a very good friend, which was quite enough, given what her life was right now. “It’s getting late. Adam, how about—”

He interrupted her smoothly, standing, stretching a bit. “I know, Becca. I’ll be back over in a little while. I’ve got to get my stuff from Errol Flynn’s Hammock. It’s a great B and B. That guy Scottie is a hoot. You want to eat out tonight?”

“Becca and I were going to go to Errol Flynn’s Barbecue this evening,” Tyler said, and now he was standing perfectly still, his shoulders back, his chin up, ready for a fight, Adam thought, like a cock ready to defend the henhouse against the fox.

Adam grinned. “Sounds good to me. I like barbecue. You bringing Sam? I’d like to meet him.”

“Of course Sam’s coming,” Becca said, her voice firm as that of a den mother faced with a dozen misbehaving ten-year-olds. “What street is Errol Flynn’s Barbecue on, Tyler?”

“Foxglove Avenue, just across from Sherry’s Lingerie Boutique. I hear that Mrs. Ella loves Sherry’s lingerie, always in there on her lunch hour.” He shook his head. “It’s rather a scary thought.”

“I haven’t met Mrs. Ella yet,” Becca said, then to Adam, “She’s the sheriff’s dispatcher, assistant, protector, screener, whatever—but I know about every one of her pets for the last fifty years. Her job was to save me from hysteria while I was waiting for the sheriff to come.”

“Did it work?” Adam said.

“Yes, it did. All I could think about was the beagle named Turnip who died by running right off a cliff when he missed the corner chasing a car.”

Both men laughed, and the male pissing contest that had nearly made her take a kitchen knife to both of them was out of sight, at least for the moment. She would have to speak to Tyler if it turned out he was getting the wrong idea, and evidently he was. But didn’t he realize that being her first cousin meant that Adam was no threat? She didn’t need this. She could eat barbecue with them, she supposed. Thank God Sam would be there.

Sam didn’t have much testosterone yet.

***

It was just after midnight. Tyler McBride was still hanging about at the front door, and Sam was asleep in the car, his bright blue T-shirt and black kid jeans covered with the sauce from the pork barbecue spareribs. The kid hadn’t said much—shy, Adam supposed—but he’d eaten his share. He’d finally said Adam’s name when he’d taken a big bite of potato salad, then nothing more.

Would the guy never give it up and leave? Adam took a step closer to get him out of there when he overheard Tyler saying quietly to Becca at the front door, “I don’t like him staying here with you, alone. I don’t trust him.”

And then Becca’s voice, calm and soothing, and he could practically see her lightly touch her fingers to Tyler’s arm as she said, “He’s my first cousin, Tyler. I never did like him growing up. He was a bully and a know-it-all, always pushing me around just because I was a girl. He’s grown up into a real sexist. But hey, he’s here and he is big. He’s also had some training, something like army special forces, I think, so he’d be useful if someone came around.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“Look, if something happens, he’s an extra pair of hands. He’s harmless. Hey, I heard from his stepdad that he is probably gay.”

Adam nearly lost it then. The laughter bubbled up. He practically had to slap his hand over his mouth to contain it. The laughter dried up in less than a second. He wanted to leap on her, close his hands around her skinny neck, and perhaps strangle her.

“Yeah, right, sure,” Tyler said. “A guy like that? Gay? I don’t believe it for a minute. You should stay with me and Sam, to be on the safe side.”

She said very gently, “No, you know I couldn’t do that, Tyler.”

Even after that, it took her another couple of minutes to get Tyler out of