A Coldwater Christmas Page 6

  “I won’t keep you,” Belinda said. Her voice was polite, the smile was still in place, and she took hold of his hand. Her fingers dallied over his. “I was hoping that I could fix you dinner tonight.”

  Dinner with a side dish of sex. That’s the way their relationship had worked for years. Never too frequently though, because Kace hadn’t wanted Belinda to think that there was more between them than there actually was. In fact, he just realized that it’d been a couple of months since their last dinner.

  Kace didn’t have to think hard to know that he didn’t want to be with Belinda tonight, and it didn’t have anything to do with Jana. Belinda rarely pushed for their relationship to be something more, but she was pushing now. And he doubted she would let it go as long as Jana was around. He could just wait that out, wait for things to go back to normal, but that would only end up hurting Belinda more in the long run.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Kace said, and he made sure he had direct eye contact with her. He dragged in a long breath, ready to do what he should have done ages ago—end things with her. “Belinda, this isn’t working out—”

  “It’s okay,” she blurted out before he could finish. “I have to go. We’ll have dinner some other time.” She ran off as if her pants were on fire. Considering those heels she was wearing, she got away from him fast.

  Hell.

  Kace debated going after her and finishing this, but Main Street wasn’t the best place to do that. However, he would drop by Belinda’s soon and tell her that he was ending their friends with benefits relationship. He’d been a fool to believe that he could have something casual with Belinda. It did make him wonder though why he hadn’t realized that sooner.

  He froze for a moment, repeated his mental hell, and really hoped this sudden clear sight had nothing to do with Jana. He’d meant all those things he’d said to Judd about not jumping back into bed with her.

  Kace went to his truck and drove out to Eileen’s. Because the estate was out of town and not on the main road, he hadn’t been here recently. In fact, he hadn’t been out this way since his divorce.

  He probably didn’t have reason to come here today, either.

  What he had to tell Peter was something that could be done over the phone. Clearly though, this was his day for confronting things. Of course, the confrontation with Belinda had failed, but maybe he’d fare better with getting Peter to back off on accusing Jana of trying to intimidate him into running.

  He pulled to a stop in front of the grand house and wasn’t surprised to see that it was already decorated to the nines for Christmas. And it wasn’t solely for Marley’s benefit. Eileen always decked out the place. That included a waving, ho-ho-ho-ing Santa on the roof.

  Weaving around Santa’s waiting sleigh and reindeer, Kace went to the front door and rang the bell. A maid answered, a woman he didn’t recognize, which meant she wasn’t from Coldwater.

  “I’m here to see Peter Laramie,” Kace said, tapping his badge.

  She gave a nervous nod and hurried off, no doubt to find the man, and Kace stepped inside the foyer to look around. It was as weird as it had been years ago.

  Apparently, Eileen was going through a circus art theme, complete with a seven-foot-tall juggling clown mannequin for a coatrack and a trapeze light fixture complete with dangling crystal acrobat figures. A fake elephant rug with a massive head was on the floor.

  He wondered how many times people had tripped over that.

  In the corner was a massive Christmas tree, every inch of every branch covered with glass ornaments that somehow managed not to look out of place with the other junk in the room.

  Kace had never felt at ease here in this place, and it wasn’t just because of the tacky decor. Eileen had always helped with that unease by looking down her nose at him. Something that she obviously intended to continue doing, because that’s exactly what she did when she came into the foyer. Peter was right next to her, his arm around her waist.

  Eileen hadn’t continued the circus theme with her clothes but rather had on what she’d always called her signature color. Pink. In this case, it was a skirt and a top that looked like indigestion medicine.

  Peter had gone with his black outfit but wore a dark red shirt instead of the white tee that he’d had on when he’d first shown up in Kace’s office. He looked every one of those seventeen years younger than Eileen. In fact, he looked young enough to be her son. Something that Eileen wouldn’t want anyone pointing out.

  “This is Peter’s work,” Eileen said when she noticed Kace eyeing the rug that he was stepping around. “Isn’t he talented?”

  That wasn’t the word Kace would have used. Weird fit better. And probably Eileen had paid a bundle for this weird shit. “I thought you were a painter,” Kace pointed out.

  Peter shrugged and smiled when he looked at the dangling acrobats. “I work in many mediums and like to do collections. This is part of what I call The Greatest Show.”

  Not very original. Not very good, either, but then Kace had to admit he didn’t know squat about art.

  “I hope you’ve caught the person who played that horrible prank on Peter,” Eileen said when Kace’s attention went back to her.

  Her comment told Kace a couple of things. Peter hadn’t passed on his suspicions about Jana to her mother, and the man had soft-pedaled the situation. Prank would likely worry Eileen less than Peter’s earlier assessment of foul play, and he might not have wanted to stir up an argument between Eileen and Jana. Getting between a mother and her child could blow up in his face. Kace certainly hadn’t fared so well when he’d tried to get Eileen to back off from interfering in his marriage to Jana.

  And therein lay the problem of Kace’s being here.

  Every little thing brought him circling back to things—feelings, emotions, memories—that he should be keeping at arm’s length.

  Hoping to put a quick end to this conversation, Kace ignored Eileen’s remark and turned to Peter. “I sent what was left of the stink bomb and the timer to the crime lab.”

  Kace wouldn’t mention that he’d called in some favors from a friend to put a rush on things. If he hadn’t, it would have taken months to get back the results, since this wasn’t classified as a priority investigation.

  “The brand of the stink bomb is Smelly Bobs,” Kace went on, “and it’s sold online and in a few novelty shops. There were no prints or any kind of trace evidence on it.”

  “Well, that’s not acceptable,” Eileen said on a huff. “You need to find and arrest the person.”

  Again, Kace ignored her and kept his attention on Peter. “I checked around town, and no one bought the equipment needed to put the timer on the Smelly Bob. No one saw anyone lurking around your car, either. The next step is to look into the possibility that someone in Oklahoma planted it before you made the trip here. Do you know of anyone who would have done that?”

  Eileen made a sound that could have only been disapproval. “Of course, you’d want to believe it was someone there. Then, you won’t have to investigate your own brothers. Or yourself.”

  There were few things that could have gotten Kace to purposely turn to Eileen, but that did it. “I’m going to pretend that I didn’t just hear you say that I’m obstructing justice, especially when I know you don’t have anything to back it up.” Ignoring her indignant huff, he turned back to Peter. “My brothers and I learned you were in town less than a half hour before the stink bomb. That wasn’t enough time to put together something like that.”

  Peter nodded. However, he followed it with a look that Kace had no trouble interpreting. The Laramie brothers couldn’t have done this, but it still didn’t let Jana off the hook.

  “Back to my question,” Kace continued. “Do you know anyone in Oklahoma who could have planted the Smelly Bob?”

  “No.” Peter scrubbed his hand over his face. “And trust me, I’ve given that some thought.”

  “No problems with your business partner, DeeDee Merriweather?” Kace pressed.

  “No.” But Peter hesitated just enough that it caused Kace to make a mental note to do more checking on the woman.

  He stared at Peter, waiting for him to add more, but when he didn’t, Kace turned to leave.

  “This won’t stop the wedding,” Eileen called out to him.

  “Not my rodeo, not my clowns,” Kace muttered. “Seventy-one is plenty old enough to decide who you’ll be marrying.”

  “I’m sixty-seven,” Eileen corrected, and then Kace heard her proceed to tell Peter that the sheriff had obviously been mistaken about her age.

  So Eileen hadn’t been honest with her hubby-to-be. Still, it was none of his business, and he just kept walking back to his truck.

  Kace had convinced himself to drive back to town, but then he saw Jana’s SUV parked on the side of her grandmother’s house. The place didn’t have a garage, and Jana had left the vehicle beneath a cluster of trees. While it wasn’t necessary for him to tell her about the lab report, he found himself walking in that direction when he heard some sounds.

  Squeals, maybe?

  Unlike the main house, there was nothing grand about this place. It was a simple, two-story, white Victorian house that had been built by Eileen’s ancestors around the same time they’d first settled in Coldwater. In fact, that was the reason it was likely still standing—it had landed on a historic registry. If not for that and the fact that Jana’s grandmother had left the place to her, Eileen would have likely bulldozed what she would consider an eyesore.

  Kace heard more squealing as he got closer, but it didn’t seem to be someone in distress. Just the opposite. It appeared
someone was having fun, and that fun was in the back of the house. However, what he saw on the front porch had him rethinking that notion.

  There was a broken phone on the steps. Not just broken though—smashed to bits. There was also some torn-up paper, and the front door was wide open. All that put together wasn’t necessarily a sign of trouble, but it got Kace moving faster. He didn’t go through the house but rather around through the yard and to the back.

  And he came to a dead stop.

  Jana was in the glass sunroom, and she was practically naked, wearing only her bra and panties. He didn’t have to guess the reason for her near nudity. There was a kiddie pool in the sunroom, and with Marley wearing only a diaper and toddling along behind her, they were running around in it, splashing water.

  His breath stalled in his lungs.

  Not because of Jana being nearly naked with her wet underwear plastered to her body but because of her smile. It lit up her whole face, and for just a bad couple of seconds, Kace didn’t remember the arguments, the breakup or the pain that’d followed. He got strong flashes of how damn happy they’d been before things had gone to hell.

  Still smiling and all lit up, Jana kicked up some water again. So did Marley, and the little girl giggled like a loon. After all the earlier fussing and crying, that was good to hear as well. But it didn’t last.

  Jana froze when her attention landed on him, and Marley, whose balance and running skills weren’t nearly as good as her mom’s, smacked into Jana. That dropped Marley on her butt in the pool, and while she didn’t cry, the giggling stopped.

  “Kace,” Jana said, automatically scooping up the child. “I didn’t hear you drive up.”

  He tipped his head toward Eileen’s and went into the sunroom. The room was warm, thanks to the sun blazing through the glass and a portable heater in the corner, but it certainly wasn’t hot enough to be cooling off in a kiddie pool. “I’m parked at your mom’s. I, uh, had to talk to Peter.”

  Well, Jana certainly wasn’t lit up now, and she was starting to shiver as she walked toward him. The door that led to the kitchen opened, and someone familiar came out. Bessie Tarver, Jana’s former nanny. She greeted Kace with a warm smile. A genuine one. Eileen might have been chilly to Kace, but he’d never gotten that from Bessie.

  Bessie had gray hair, and her step was a little slow, but she made it to Jana, pulling Marley into her arms and cocooning her in a towel. Bessie handed another towel to Jana.

  “No, no, no,” Marley protested, and she waggled her hands at the pool. “Back.”

  “Maybe later. Now it’s time for a cookie and some milk,” Bessie told her, and those seemed to be the magic words because Marley’s smile returned, and she no longer seemed interested in water games.

  “You want some cookies?” Bessie asked him.

  Kace shook his head. “No, thanks. I just need to speak with Jana and then be on my way.”

  Bessie didn’t waste any time taking the toddler inside, and Jana did some fast moves to wrap the towel around her body. The peep show was over, but unfortunately, Kace was going to have some trouble forgetting the image of her nipples pressed against her wet bra.

  “Sorry about this,” Jana said, going closer to the heater, “but Marley saw the pool my grandmother had left back here, and she wanted me to fill it. Not exactly winter fun, I know, but Bessie and I heated the water and added some bubble bath. We thought this would be a fun way for Marley to take a bath.”

  Kace was still trying to figure out what to say when Jana followed his gaze to her towel. “My swimsuit’s at my other house,” she explained, “and I didn’t think anyone would come back here to see me.”

  Seeing her in a swimsuit likely would have given him the same reaction. Heck, just seeing her probably would have.

  “You’re here about the investigation?” she asked.

  He nodded and moved slightly to the side in case Jana wanted to go in and put on her clothes, but she stayed put. “There were no prints on the stink bomb. Nothing that can be traced to anyone specific. It’s called a Smelly Bob, and a person can buy it in plenty of places.”

  Her gaze stayed on him. “I didn’t do this.”

  “I know.”

  Surprised, she blinked. What she didn’t do was look relieved. “You’re giving me the benefit of the doubt because of our past.”

  “No. I know that you sucked at chemistry and anything mechanical. I recall you having trouble putting a key on a split–key ring.”

  Now there was relief, and he wondered if Jana knew that she’d been holding her breath. She released her breath now, and the weariness crept back into her expression.

  “Plus, this isn’t your style,” he went on. “You’ll use any dirt you find on Peter, but you wouldn’t sneak around with a teething toddler on your hip and put that thing in his car. Too risky in case it went off while you were still holding Marley.”

  Jana stayed quiet a long moment as if gathering her composure. “Thanks for that.”

  He shrugged. “I believe you’re innocent, but Peter doesn’t. He thinks you’re the one who put the Smelly Bob in his car.”

  She muttered some profanity under her breath. “Yes, I figured as much. He’s been giving me a lot of stink eye over the last couple of days. I thought maybe it’s because I was stink-eyeing him, but I knew he had to be considering who’d done something like that to him.”

  Yep, there were enough bad vibes coming off Jana that Peter would have picked up on it.

  “Are you settling in here all right?” Kace asked, knowing it would be a lead-in to his next question.

  “More or less.”

  Judging from her tone, he was guessing less. Since that could have something to do with the other thing he needed to ask her, Kace went ahead and hitched his thumb in the direction of her front porch. “What’s with the broken phone and the torn-up papers?”

  She opened her mouth, closed it, and while dodging his gaze, Jana reached down, picked up her jeans and shimmied them on over her wet panties. He got another glimpse of nipples when she did the same with her shirt.

  “Jana?” he prompted, and he hoped like the devil that whatever had gone on didn’t have anything to do with Peter and the Smelly Bob.

  She nodded, acknowledging that he was waiting for an answer, and Jana finally lifted her head.

  Shit.

  There were tears in her eyes.

  “Kace,” she said, though it was all breath and no sound. “I’m so screwed.” On a hoarse sob, the tears started flowing and she stepped right into his arms.

  CHAPTER SIX

  JANA CERTAINLY HADN’T counted on doing this. Dang it. Waterworks weren’t normally her go-to response unless she was alone where no one could see. But she definitely wasn’t alone, and Kace wasn’t an audience she wanted for this.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered, wiping away the tears. Much to her disgust, more came sliding down her cheeks.

  She had to hand it to Kace. Even though he’d rarely seen her like this, he didn’t react with shock or demand to know what this was all about. He just stood there, letting her boo-hoo on his shoulder.

  Oh, and he put his arm around her, too.

  That surprised Jana almost as much as her own tears. She knew that Kace wanted nothing more to do with her, and yet here he was offering her comfort.

  As good as it felt to be in his arms again—and it did feel amazing—it also made this even worse than it already was. This was a pity hug, maybe something he even saw as his duty, to calm down a person who was connected to his investigation. It probably didn’t matter to him that once he’d held her in a different kind of way, that he’d had her in his bed.

  And plenty of other places.

  No, that didn’t matter. This was about getting her calm so he could repeat his question about the broken phone and the papers. In hindsight, she should have cleaned up that mess instead of looking for a quick fix to her rotten mood. Instead of clearing away the evidence of her mood and temper, she’d taken Marley to the sunroom for the play bath. It had worked, too. For some glorious minutes Jana had forgotten her troubles and just enjoyed being with her precious little girl. But the glory moments were over.