Читать книгу Killer Classics - Kym Roberts - Страница 11

Chapter 2

Mateo stuck around after my daddy and the others left. There wasn’t much to pick up, but I was avoiding the tearoom, the boxes in the corner, and any conversation they might inspire. Mateo was clearly waiting for the right time to bring it up. I was hoping that time never arrived before I had Cade’s permission to talk about the reason the tearoom was closed for business. I’d done a pretty good job of deflecting Mateo’s attempts at an interrogation for the past twenty minutes. Except now the loft was back in order, and we were alone.

Mateo reached around me and took the book from my hand, placing it down on the table. Then he pulled me back against him and nuzzled my neck as his arms wrapped around my midsection. I couldn’t resist holding them in place.

“Do you realize that none of your friends know we’re dating?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t told a single person that we are dating.”

I spoke up without hesitation. “That’s not true.” I turned around in his embrace and looked him in the eyes. “Daddy knows, and Scarlet knows. Everyone else would have to be blind not to know.”

“And yet not one of them felt uncomfortable talking about you getting back together with Cade in front of me.”

I heard the front doors open and glanced down to see who was coming in the store. When I saw her signature purple clothing, I sighed. Liza Twaine was back. I squirmed in Mateo’s arms. His gaze followed mine, and he tightened his grip. “If she sees us together, she won’t bother you about Cade.”

I pulled away. “If she sees us together, the gossip will be like wildfire. That’s not the type of PR we want for the store.”

Mateo looked skeptical.

“Besides, I don’t think that’s type of PR you want either, going into your next election.”

Mateo didn’t have a chance to respond before Liza Twaine’s heels clicked up the stairway. “There you are. I was hoping to get a quote about your relationship with Cade Calloway for the evening news. I understand the mayor’s moving in with you?”

I groaned as Mateo picked up one of the boxes I didn’t want him to notice. I saw him frown as he stared at the shipping label.

Fuzz buckets.

Liza didn’t seem to notice since she was on a mission. She stuck her phone in my face, and I could see a voice recorder app ticking away the time. Even Liza would have had more tact then to blatantly accuse me of infidelity in front of Mateo…if she knew Mateo and I were dating.

I glanced at Mateo. He was wearing an I-told-you expression. Drat the man.

“Mayor Calloway moved some of his belongings”—Liza moved her phone closer to my mouth as I spoke—“from the old barber shop down the street into our tearoom. He’s remodeling the building and needed some storage space. We were more than happy to help him out after everything he’s done for the Book Barn Princess and the town.” To finish my interview, I turned toward Mateo and put my arm around his waist after he set the box down on the table. Although his grin was barely visible, his arm snuck around me. My silent announcement of our relationship squelched any questions he had.

Liza took notice, then turned the direction of her interview. She moved toward Mateo with her purple phone. “Did Mayor Calloway apply for permits to remodel the building, or is it another behind the scene private negotiation between friends like what he did with the Enchanted Inn?”

Mateo’s smile disappeared. His arm dropped. “Don’t move, Liza.”

“I hardly think my question rises to the point of being bullied, Sheriff. The people have a right to know if the businesses of Hazel Rock are making deals under—”

“Liza, if you know what’s good for you—”

Liza sputtered. “Are you threatening me, Sheriff?”

I looked at Mateo wondering what the heck he thought he was doing. She was recording for Pete’s sake! Mateo, however, wasn’t looking at either of us. Nor was he focused on her phone. He was looking at Princess who had just arrived at the top of the steps with a friend—her friend. Not mine. And her friend didn’t talk, it waddled like her. But her guest wasn’t another armadillo. It was a skunk.

“Holy schnikes. Shut up, Liza,” I whispered.

Liza was about to argue until I pointed behind her.

“Don’t move.” Mateo inched away from me and reached for the box he’d set on the table. The box was filled to the brim with stuff I didn’t want anyone to see. Especially Liza. Nor did Cade for that matter. Besides, dumping the box without spooking the skunk was next to impossible.

“Not that box,” I ordered, but Mateo ignored me.

To make matters worse, Liza had never listened to anyone telling her what to do a day in her life. As a former kindergarten teacher, I knew exactly which kid she would have been in my classroom—the one who wreaked havoc during nap time. Reading time. Game time. Liza Twaine was that one kid who was the bane of existence to all teachers. As an adult she continued to challenge authority, much to Mateo Espinosa’s chagrin. And mine.

Liza turned around, took one look at Princess and her new friend, and screamed. The skunk perked its ears, twitched its nose, and chattered as it lifted its tail and stomped its feet in response. Liza ignored the warning. Again, I pictured that kindergarten student who just didn’t know when to quit. Liza shooed with both hands, and the skunk lifted its back legs in what looked like the most threatening handstand I’d ever witnessed. Liza saw it as a bigger target for a field goal between the two handrails of the steps and cocked her purple pump. The skunk was going to be her football.

I yelled, “Liza don’t!”

Mateo forgot the box and turned his attention toward Liza to stop her. Or maybe, it was to save her. I’m not quite sure. Princess however, decided to attack her. She rammed her little head into Liza’s support leg. The only leg the reporter had planted on the floor. It didn’t succeed in knocking her off her feet. It just knocked Liza off balance, and her purple phone went flying in the air as her kick went wide, and Mateo tackled her. I had a split second to grab Princess before she ended up beneath the pile, and as I reached for my pet, the skunk turned around.

It was one of those slow-motion moments in life. Liza’s garbled cussing filled one ear as she and Mateo hit the floor, while a distressed squeal from Princess filled my other ear as we saw them land precariously close to Princess’s friend.

I wouldn’t say it was an accusatory look Mateo gave my retreating form, but it was definitely one that I’d remember for a long time. Liza’s phone hit the skunk on the back, and it was done being patient. I heard a distinct hissing sound, like someone decided to spray several aerosol cans at once as I ran for the door that connects my apartment to the store.

Liza screamed again, and Mateo, bless his heart, let loose a trail of Spanish words I was unfamiliar with, though I could guess their meaning.

I looked back to see Liza crawling in my direction, Mateo dumping the box on the floor while rubbing his eyes, and a faintly yellow mist in the air. Liza reached toward me, but I was not exposing my apartment to that odor. I closed the door, locked it, and jammed a towel at the base of the door. Then Princess and I ran around to the other entrance. I made it down the stairs and to the front of the bookstore just as Sugar came running outside. She didn’t seem to be wearing any new form of perfume in the scent of eau de skunk.

She stopped me from going inside. “Mateo said to keep everyone out.”

“He’s going to need my help.”

“He said he would take care of it.”

I was afraid of what that meant. Did it mean he would kill the skunk, whom Princess had somehow lured into the Barn? Or did it mean things were so bad, he didn’t want me to be anywhere near my store? Or did it mean something else altogether?

I didn’t have time to think about it before the front door to the Barn swished open, and Mateo came out with a box in his hands. His new cologne reached us before he did, and I hate to say that Sugar and I took a step back.

Mateo’s eyes were red and running. He squinted and rubbed his left eye on his shoulder as he held the box out in front of him. We all took another step backward.

He looked completely distraught. Hopefully he couldn’t see my reaction, but I seriously doubted that he missed it.

God in heaven…he stunk.

“I’ve called animal control to relocate our delinquent,” he said.

Princess squealed at his feet and then pawed at his combat boot.

“I think that’s her friend.”

“You want him?” He took a couple of steps in my direction.

“Don’t you dare, Mateo Espinosa!” I warned as I backed up into the street.

He smirked. At least his sense of humor hadn’t failed him.

Princess followed him and began chatting up a storm. The box answered. It wobbled in his grasp. A violent struggle for freedom ensued. Mateo hugged the box as the weight shifted, and Sugar and I ran behind the police car. Mateo lost the battle and barely got the box near the ground when the skunk escaped through the top and ran for the back of the Barn with Princess on his tail.

Fuzz buckets. She was going to smell worse than ever when she came home. Just like Mateo.

“You lost your man,” I said.

Mateo scowled in my direction. He looked as if he wanted to respond, but Liza exited the Barn.

She didn’t look bad. Just a little rough around the edges with a scrape on her knee. Her body spray, however, could have been named Eau de Salaud. Aromatic Stinkard.

Liza eyed the onlookers who weren’t about to approach her. Then she spotted me behind Mateo’s unmarked patrol car and stomped in my direction. As she moved closer, Sugar went the opposite direction I did, and one thought came to mind: Liza’s scent wasn’t light like an eau de toilette. It wasn’t even in line with an eau de parfum. Liza was wearing the strongest variety of heavy-oiled perfume money couldn’t buy. She smelled even worse than Mateo.

I grimaced and moved around the cruiser. Sugar decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge. Her blond ponytail bobbed along with her across the street.

“This is your fault!” Liza accused as she followed me around the car.

“It was an act of God.” It wasn’t like I had control over the skunk entering the store.

“Your pet led that thing right to me!” Liza continued to stalk me.

“But you’re the one who tried to kick it and threw your phone at it.”

“It was going to spray me!” she sputtered. “And I wouldn’t have thrown my phone if it hadn’t been for someone kicking my foot out from under me!” Liza’s face was pinched. For a pretty woman, she was rather unattractive when she was angry.

As she rounded the passenger side of the car, Mateo stepped in front of her. “I told you not to move,” he said.

“I thought you were denying the freedom of the press!”

Mateo winced at the high pitch of her voice. He held her back as he shot me a warning with his eyes over the top of his car.

“I’m sorry you got sprayed, Liza. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. If you’d like, I’ve got a bunch of leftover tomato sauce that wasn’t used at the spring picnic. You can use our outdoor shower at the back of the Barn.”

Liza’s eyes bulged into saucers, then turned to slits as her voice filled with indignation. “Your outdoor shower!”

My hands rose in surrender. “Sorry, I just thought you wouldn’t want to go home smelling like…”

Liza tried to step around Mateo, but he blocked her path once more.

I’d offered enough help for one day. “I’m just going to go check out the store,” I said and made my escape.

The moment I walked in the front door of the bookstore, however, I was hit with remnants of Princess’s bad choices in friends. The entire store reeked of skunk. I coughed then coughed again. Airing the store out was going to be brutal. I flipped the sign to closed and propped the doors open. I pulled my shirt over my nose and mouth and made a beeline for the tearoom. I didn’t want to open the side door and let anyone wander inside and see Cade’s stuff, so I opened the two windows and headed for the back door.

“O.M.W.,” Scarlet gagged. “I ran into Liza and Mateo, but I had no idea they’d had an encounter inside the Barn.” Scarlet was holding her beauty shop apron over her face. She had on a one-piece, sleeveless, summer pantsuit that hugged all her curves, and her ginger-colored hair fell in loose ringlets over her shoulders, accentuating her rosy complexion.

“You may want to go back to the beauty shop,” I yelled to her as I made my way to the back door and propped it open.

“I have an industrial fan if you’d like to use it,” she responded.

I coughed as I passed the loft. “I would love it, thank you.”

“I’ll be right back.”

An hour later, Scarlet’s fan was clearing the air, and I was boxing up Cade’s signs that had spilled all over the floor in the loft. Sugar had volunteered to help, but she was working at the Tool Shed that night, and I honestly didn’t think it was fair to ask her to stay. No one would tip a waitress whose hair smelled like skunk. She was better off staying away.

The buzzer sounded at the front door, and I looked down to see Mateo enter the store. He looked tired and frazzled. If I wasn’t mistaken, the scent of skunk got stronger the closer he got.

“I thought you’d be up here,” he said as he came up the stairs.

“You haven’t showered yet, have you?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

I backed up. “Don’t you think you should?”

“I lost my sense of smell almost an hour ago. It doesn’t really bother me anymore.”

“Too bad all of us aren’t so blessed.”

“Are you saying that I stink, Charli Rae?”

“You’ve smelled better.”

He stalked me, and I put the table between us. “We haven’t reached that place in our relationship where I can embrace the type of stink you’re emitting.” I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to get past that odor—even if my own child wore it. Which was a sure sign of me not being ready for parenthood.

Mateo stopped. “I’m not sure I’d be able to handle it if you smelled like Liza Twaine did this morning.”

I laughed. “At least we’re on the same page. Would you like to use our outdoor shower?”

“That’s why I’m here. It’s either that or my office, and I’d rather not go there. I’ve received enough ribbing over the radio to last through the rest of my career.”

I grinned. “Daddy called and said he’d heard it over the scanner.”

Mateo groaned as we headed downstairs. I grabbed the tomato sauce before we went out the back of the store. All the businesses on Main Street had backyards butting up to the Brazos River. The Barn had a privacy fence on two sides, so the yard was only semiprivate. We used the shower fairly often after kayaking, but I never stripped down naked when I used it despite the small wooded enclosure surrounding it. Mateo, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid to get down to his birthday suit.

I handed him the first jar of tomato sauce, and he dumped it over his head and worked it into his hair.

“You wouldn’t look half bad as a ginger.”

Mateo peeked with one eye. “You want me to dye my hair red?”

“I didn’t say that…”

“Dios mio, you’re a fickle woman.” He continued to scrub his head with his eyes closed and held his hand out for another bottle of sauce.

“Excuse me? Did you just call me fickle?”

Mateo’s lips were pressed together in a firm line. With his palm open and his fingers arched, his arm bounce on top of the wooden shower wall, punctuating his impatience for the next bottle. The jar opened with a pop, and I poured it over his head and waited in silence for him to respond.

He didn’t. Possibly the wisest decision he could have made. I took pity on him and decided he’d had a bad enough day without me compounding it. After all, the man now smelled like a skunk bathing in tomato sauce.

“That’s not working,” I said.

“I’m well aware of that,” he ground out. “Have you used it before?”

“No.”

Mateo glanced up at me, his face and arms tinged orange. “I thought you knew what you were talking about.”

“They say to bathe in tomato sauce.”

His hands stopped scrubbing and dropped to his sides. “Who’s they?”

“Everyone.”

Mateo closed his eyes and sighed heavily before asking in a controlled voice, “Could you Google how to get rid of skunk scent?”

I looked it up on my phone. “Oops.”

Mateo froze. “What do you mean ‘oops?’”

“It says that tomato sauce doesn’t work. It just turns your hair and skin orange.”

He shoved his head under the spray of water and began rinsing his body without looking at me. The only sign of his irritation was the force he used to scrub his head. I needed to find the right recipe—fast.