New York Cheesecake Chaos (MURDER IN THE MIX Book 8) Read online

  Big Boss?

  “It’s a little early for Santa.” Everett pumps a dry smile my way, and my stomach bisects with heat. I can’t help it. He’s achingly handsome, and those smiles of his are few and far between.

  “Not Santa.” Britney karate chops Cormack away from Noah. “It’s her bratty sister, Landon.”

  Cormack sucks in a breath as she looks to her new bestie—or perhaps more accurately, her new nemesis. Do I sense dissension in the ranks?

  Cormack takes a breath as she glances my way. “Landon is my younger, wiser, far saner sister, and she is nothing but a pleasure to be around. She’ll be staying right here at the B&B with me while I house-hunt.”

  Both Noah and Everett tip their heads back and nod as if accepting their fate.

  My insides tense for a moment. It’s bad enough having one Featherby around but two?

  “I’m sorry. Did you say house-hunting?” I ask as if I were just coming to. “You mean in Fallbrook, right? I mean, that is where all people of affluence reside. Right?”

  Please, God, don’t let her mean Honey Hollow. That would make no sense! Why, I can’t think of a single reason in the world Cormack would want to move to this little corner of Vermont.

  Everett and Noah catch my eye, and then just like that, I think of two.

  “I’m talking right here in town.” She looks my way. “In fact, I’m looking at a few homes near Country Cottage Road.”

  “Country Cottage Road?” I squawk. “That’s where I live.” As does Everett and Noah, but I leave those two seemingly important and painfully obvious details out of it for now.

  Britney takes a breath and steps over to Noah, wrapping an arm around him as if they were still a couple. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt this morning. I cannot imagine a world without you in it.” He takes a step back, and her hand flops down to her side.

  Ha! Take that, Brit. And newsflash, you could have still had Noah by your side if you didn’t feel the need to populate your world with a boy toy or two.

  She nods to him as if speaking a silent language only the two of them understood. “I’ve made a request to the judge who’s overseeing our case. I want a round of counseling. I’d like to see if there is any way we could make things work. My lawyer seems to think the judge will agree to it.”

  Noah inches back. “What does that mean?”

  Everett takes a breath. “It means she just hit pause on the exit nuptials. You’ll be forced to endure a short stint in therapy. It’s completely at the judge’s discretion, of course.”

  “That’s right, sugar.” Britney tips her head down, and an entire waterfall of blonde hair closes off half her face like a butter soft curtain. Her lips are painted a robust shade of red, and she’s wearing an off the shoulder matching dress. Her heels are black patent leather and as tall as stilts. Suddenly, it’s clear why Britney has pulled out the big guns tonight. She’s hoping to hunt down a Fox. “Speaking of sugar, I’d better hit the buffet before those cheesecake bites all up and disappear. I might as well give myself a reason to get on that bike in the morning. Ta-ta for now!” She winks at Noah.

  Cormack glowers at her as she leaves. “I just knew she couldn’t stand the fact we’re together again.” She sneers my way. “The closer the Big Boss and I got, the angrier—and blonder Britney got.”

  “Blonder?” I shake my head, wondering if that bullet did more damage than I realized.

  Cormack averts her eyes. “She’s pulling out all the sultry stops to try to trap my man.” She pulls Noah in by the collar. “But don’t you worry, Bossy Pants. I’m not letting your little legal tangle keep us apart.”

  Noah looks perturbed as he cranes his neck in the direction Britney took off in. “Lottie, would you excuse me? I have to straighten this out before it turns into another natural disaster.” He takes off, and Cormack huffs in his wake.

  “He’ll come around. I won’t let up until he does.” She bats those doe eyes at Everett. “I’m throwing Landon a surprise divorce party right here at the B&B in just a couple weeks. She finally dumped that lead weight she leashed herself to for an entire six months. You’ll have to be there. She simply adored you.” She looks my way. “And your mother says your cakes are to die for. We’ll be using you to cater the event. You’re welcome!” She gives a fluttery-fingered wave as she trots off in Noah’s direction.

  I turn to Everett, and a breath hitches in my throat as I look up at those stormy blue eyes.

  “Everett, I think I owe you an apology.” I bite down on my lower lip a moment. As excited as I am to take the next step with Everett, I’m exactly that—nervous. “I didn’t mean it when I said we were friends.”

  He inches back, his brows dipping down as if I caught him off guard.

  “I mean, we’re not friends.” As much as I try my best to put an emphasis on it, I just seem to be making things worse. “You know—we’re not friend friends.” Why does the phrase three strikes and you’re out come to mind?

  His attention is diverted a moment as he looks just past me and nods as Lainey, Meg, Keelie, and Naomi head this way.

  “How about I get us both a drink?” he offers.

  “Perfect.” I can’t help but scowl at how proficiently I seem to be botching things up.

  No sooner does Everett make a beeline for the refreshment table than the girl gang descends upon me.

  Keelie grabs ahold of my hands. “Are the two of you official?”

  “Please”—Naomi scoffs—“she’s not Essex material.”

  Meg grunts as she looks to Naomi, “My sister can do a testosterone takedown like the best of ’em.”

  I just love how Meg sees just about everything through the wonderful world of wrestling.

  Lainey is quick to agree. “That man is a good judge of character.” She gives a sly wink my way as she cleverly tosses Everett’s legal career into the mix. “And it’s clear he adores you, Lottie.”

  Keelie leans in with that crazed look in her eyes that she gets when she’s about to rocket into the sky with excitement. “What the heck are you waiting for? Jump to it.”

  A grin flickers over Meg’s lips. “And by it, she means him. What are you waiting for?”

  Naomi growls as if it’s my fault that she’s waiting around herself. “Everyone knows you don’t keep a man like Essex waiting. But then, the longer you wait, the more you’ll bore him and the faster he’ll come running my way. On second thought, you keep doing you, Lottie Lemon.” She trots off to Lily with a spring in her step as if she suddenly had a burst of hope.

  “Don’t you listen,” Keelie scolds. “You just need to remember that Everett wants honesty. He’s based his entire life around the concept.”

  Lainey nods in agreement. “In the least let him know where he stands with you. Men like mystery to a degree, but a little too much mystery and you start to rock the boat. And I don’t think any of us need a road map to know you’re interested in him. Sure, you like—love Noah, whatever. But he’s still tangled in that spider’s web his wife has expertly woven. It’s as if fate opened a window for you and Everett.”

  Meg bears into me hard with those icy blue eyes. “You have to be spontaneous. This is your chance, Lemon.” An entire string of giggles bubbles out of her just the way they did when she was little.

  The sound of silverware tapping gently against crystal garners our attention, and we turn to find Mom waving the room to attention while Rich Dallas stands impatiently by her side. He’s clad in white—white dress shirt, white pants, and when juxtaposed against his orange faux tan, it’s an unnerving sight.

  “The love of my life, Rich Dallas, has something he’d like to say.” She takes a step back and graciously gives him the floor.

  Rich scowls, growls, and glowers at my mother all at once, and Meg twitches as if she might need to run over to save her.

  “Miranda Jean Lemon!” he barks out her name as if he were hunting her down.

  Then out of the blue he drops to the ground, and a se
nse of relief fills me as if maybe he’s having a bodily malfunction or something. A heart attack? A stroke? Maybe a combination of the two? And, believe you me, I know exactly how horrible that sounds.

  Lainey smacks me on my bad arm. “He’s down on one knee!”

  “Down on one what?” I shake my head in disbelief at the potential nightmare I’m witnessing—we’re all witnessing—continues to unfold.

  Rich Dallas shoves his hand into his pocket and comes up empty. “Ah, dammit!” he growls. “Miranda Lemon, I’ve made up my mind. You’re going to be my wife!”

  Meg grimaces. “That sounds like a threat.”

  I lean in. “Believe me, it is.”

  Mom jumps and screams, twirls and squeals like a sixteen-year-old who was just asked to prom by a very aggressive senior—and how I wish this nightmare would be relegated to just one music filled night rife with underage drinking and an overpriced limo.

  “Yes!” she screams. “Yes, yes, yes!” The room explodes with congratulatory cheers, and even Greer and Winslow show up to knock a few glasses over in a ghostly display of jubilation.

  I might just have to employ them to exclusively haunt a certain man who is far too anxious to be my stepfather.

  Lainey sighs as she shrugs it off. “You can’t really blame him. It’s spring. Love is in the air. It can make people do really crazy things.”

  “Like say yes.” Meg’s upper lip twitches with what looks like disdain.

  Love is in the air.

  I find Noah and Everett standing next to the fireplace carrying on a conversation with Hook and Curt. It all looks so normal, a reality that I’m not sure I could live without—the part about Noah and Everett at least.

  Britney heads their way and does her best to engage her husband in a conversation. She must really still love Noah if she’s willing to fight to get him back. And I’ll be the last person who will stand in her way. But what happens if and when the divorce finally does go through? What happens to Noah and me—to Everett and me?

  Is there an Everett and me?

  I think it’s about time I do my due diligence.

  Late that night, I take a quick shower in an attempt to get the grime of the dizzying day off me. My shoulder is completely fine. My arm is all but back to normal as I slip into the carnation pink silk robe that Keelie gave me for my birthday this year and head out to get cozy on the couch with a good book, some of my favorite chamomile tea, and my sweet cats, Pancake and Waffles. I’m about to plop down between the two furry beasts when I spot a light still on in Everett’s living room.

  Meg’s words come back to me. You have to be spontaneous.

  Keelie and her words of encouragement spring to mind as well. What are you waiting for? Jump to it.

  And lastly, Lainey’s profound statement. It’s as if fate opened a window for you and Everett.

  Pancake tips his head my way, his eyes squinted, and he lets out a soft rawr as if he too were imploring me in the effort.

  My heart starts to race. My adrenaline kicks in, and it feels as if I could fly to the moon.

  “What says you, Waffles?”

  Waffles purrs audibly, and I take that content sound to mean he’s on board with the plan.

  Without giving it another thought, I run right out the door and into the warm spring night, down the street, and straight up to Everett’s door. I give a few brisk knocks, but there’s no response.

  “Everett?” I shout, and still nothing. I try the door handle, and it’s unlocked so I let myself inside. “Hello?” I call out as the door clicks softly behind me. Everett’s home is immaculate, all steel and marble, dark hardwood floors.

  “Lemon?” Everett struts out from the hall with nothing but a white fluffy towel cinched around his waist. His hair is slicked back, and water beads off his impeccable, impossibly hard, well-chiseled body, and my mouth falls open at the glorious sight.

  A thousand words beg to bubble from my throat, but I can’t seem to squeeze a single letter out. Instead, I do something unexpected, dare I say, spontaneous, as I let the pink silk robe I’m wearing drop to the floor. And here I am, standing tall in Everett’s living room wearing nothing but my birthday suit.

  Everett’s lips flicker with the hint of a devilish grin as he takes me in from head to toe.

  He drops his towel, and it hits the floor as if its entire purpose on this planet was to do just that, and I’m treated to, well, everything.

  It’s safe to say the rumors about his gavel have not been exaggerated. My God, this man is perfectly lethal in every single way.

  Everett swoops over and lands a searing kiss to my lips that says this is happening, we are right, welcome to the new us, the us we were destined to be all along. This kiss—it’s so much more potent than any other kiss he’s ever gifted me, and believe me when I say they have each been potent in their own right. But this one, it’s muscling its way to the top, doing its best to erase every other kiss that I have ever been gifted, and it’s darn close to doing just that. There is just something about Everett that is just—mmm.

  He whisks us to the bedroom, and it’s instant heated magic—all nuclear fission and supernovas, and about a dozen shooting stars thrown into the mix.

  This is—WOW.

  It’s—OH MY GOD.

  Delicious, steamy, sultry, acrobatic, and a little bit deranged.

  It’s safe to say this man does not play fair.

  Holy smokes, was half of that even legal? I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same after that carnal display. I’m not sure I want to.

  Everett is an expert with his hands, his mouth, his everything, and I’m left panting and breathless and delightfully dizzy from the glorious aftermath.

  “Well done, Essex.” I look up as he hovers over me, and a laugh bubbles from my throat as I tease him with his formal moniker.

  A wicked grin glides across his lips, and his chest rumbles with a laugh. But before he can say a single word in response, someone pounds up a storm on the front door.

  Everett growls as if he were a lion on the prowl and something was about to get in his way.

  I wrinkle my nose up at him. “Maybe they’ll leave?”

  But the pounding only picks up in tempo. The door sounds as if it’s about to be kicked off its hinges—come to think of it, I think whoever it is has been kicking the door all along.

  Everett closes his eyes a moment too long. His jaw tenses, and I can’t help but note he looks aggressively handsome in the process. “I’d better see who it is.”

  He jumps in his boxers and heads on out, and I do a quick search for something other than a sheet to throw over myself. I settle for a baby blue dress shirt Everett has set out for work the next day. A man who sets out his clothes for work and is capable of doing those magic tricks he just showed off in bed is definitely the man for me.

  In fact, as soon as he scares off whoever it is trying to break their way inside, I think we should have a talk about the two of us, but only after we have a repeat performance of that earthquake he just inspired in me.

  I can’t believe we’re finally happening. Heck, we already happened in a significant, magnificent way. It felt safe with Everett. It felt remarkably right. And it was.

  No sooner do I hit the hall than I hear a familiar voice rattling on a mile a minute.

  “I said Lottie is missing!” Noah shouts at the top of his lungs. “Her door was wide open and the cats were out on the lawn. Lottie would never do that. She’s been kidnapped or something very, very bad has happened to her. We have to find her, Everett. We need to leave now.”

  I take a few staggering steps forward, cinching closed the oversized shirt that fits more like a dress on me, and Noah cranes his neck past Everett.

  “You’ve got a girl?” Noah huffs. “Figures. Fine. I’ll find Lottie on my own.”

  Everett takes a step back, inadvertently giving Noah an eyeful of just who that girl might be—me.

  “Lottie?” Noah’s eyes ride up and down my bod
y, confused and pained as if he couldn’t quite wrap his head around what he’s seeing. It’s only then I realize he’s holding my cats. He takes a quick breath and sags as he lets Pancake and Waffles down, and they run into the house and hop onto the couch as if they’ve done it a thousand times.

  He looks to Everett and burns all of his hatred into him, heated and filled with rage—a very real threat in the making. “This isn’t over. There will be hell to pay. And I’ll make sure you do just that.”

  He looks back my way. The hurt in his eyes is palpable. “I’m sorry, Lottie. I can’t help it. I still love you.” Each word is bathed in a tender ache. His eyes linger over mine for what feels like an eternity. His agony weighs heavy on me with the heft of a thousand boulders. “Enjoy the rest of your night.”

  Noah takes off, and my heart breaks all over again.

  Everett closes the door with a soft click that sounds so very final, as if he were closing it on my past entirely.

  Maybe he is.

  ***Be sure to pick up Lethal Lemon Bars (Murder in the Mix 9) now!

  ***Haven’t read the rest of the MURDER IN THE MIX mysteries? Start at the beginning! Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies (Murder in the Mix 1)

  A Note from the Author

  Thank you for reading New York Cheesecake Chaos (Murder in the Mix 8). If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review at your point of purchase. Even a sentence or two makes a difference to an author. Thank you so very much in advance! Your effort is very much appreciated.

  ***Pick up Lethal Lemon Bars (Murder in the Mix 9) now!

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