I turned further into his embrace. “They never do in person.”
We watched the fountain together, letting the time pass slowly. I wonder who decided to install a pineapple fountain in the middle of a city park? Did they know about the pineapple’s hidden innuendos?
“What are you thinking?” Dane asked.
Did he really want to know? I told him anyway. “Pineapple sex.”
“Why have I not learned to stop asking that?” he said with a headshake.
Who knew? He was normally a smart guy.
I glanced at Dane and then gave him a good once-over. I’d seen him all morning at the courthouse, but nerves made it too hard to appreciate the form. He had his light shirt rolled at the sleeves. His calm, solid expression comforted me. Dane was the guy who helped me chase killers, ghosts, and held me together through each case.
We’d returned to Charleston a year later, not just older but changed.
In love.
“You think the jury is going to buy her story?” he asked.
Who knew with juries? “It’s possible. She’s got a decent lawyer and reasonable doubt.”
Even I had a hard time believing Donna Lee killed William. If she hadn’t given me her confession herself, I might have a different opinion.
“I think they’ll believe us,” Dane said.
I smiled at him and rested my hand on his chest. “We’re believable people.”
And it wasn’t just us testifying against her. It turned out that Lonny wrote the second note with his wife’s location. He heard one of Donna Lee’s late-night ghost gabs with William and put the pieces together. Poor guy lost his best friend and wife.
“Hey, there’s our group,” Dane said, pointing at a woman with a red backpack as a group of ten or so gathered around her.
We walked that way lightheartedly. “I can’t believe you’re the one who scheduled the haunted walking tour.”
“When in Rome,” he said and grabbed my hand.
The group welcomed us into their fold, and we stayed quiet as the guide introduced herself. We’d gone with a different tour company than Southern Hospitality Tours. They probably had us blocked.
We made it to the first place, a long white hotel on the corner of a street. The guide told us the haunted story behind the location, and I leaned up against Dane for support.
When everyone else moved on, Dane held us back. “Remember how I told you I wanted us to do something special while we were here?”
“Yeah?” Isn’t that why we were on the tour? He stared at me, speechless. “You’re being weird.”
“I’ve been planning this for three months. You’d be weird, too.”
I blinked. What was he talking about?
The tour group stopped at another building, but we were so far back I couldn’t hear what the guide said about the building.
“Dane, we’re missing the tour.”
He dropped to one knee.
Right there, in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a haunted building—I’d have to look up the location later.
“Delaney, princess,” he started, his voice clear. “You’re the bravest, smartest, most maddening woman I’ve ever met. You’ve dragged me all over this country on outrageous trips full of ghosts, ambushes, and a bunch of haunted tours.”
I giggled. We had gone on a lot of walking tours. They were good for our step count.
