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“Your mother is a drama queen.” Sug studied her fingernails. “I’m surprised she was concerned.”
“So you’re not…” Kitt couldn’t bring herself to say dying. “Of course Mom was worried. Dad said she was alarmed after he told her what you said about your ‘failing health’.
“What I’d like to know is why you told him.” Kitt leant forward. “Why didn’t you talk to your sister? Don’t tell me you two still aren’t speaking.” Seeing the stubborn set of her aunt’s jaw, Kitt threw up her hands. “What in hell’s wrong with you and my mother?”
“She’s the one that got her feathers ruffled. Just because I didn’t attend her and Jim’s fortieth anniversary celebration at some fancy-schmancy club in Arizona, she got all bent out of shape. Flying across the whole United States for a party is her style, not mine. I didn’t go. So, big deal! She and your father should have stayed in Florida. It’s sunny here too.”
“I never understood why they moved either, but they claimed it was a dryer climate and better for Dad’s asthma. If he wanted ‘dry’ they shouldn’t have flown off to rainy England where he’s accepted some kind of fellowship for the summer. Nevertheless, I wish you two sisters would make up.”
“Tell your mom that.”
“I will. I suppose it would have been an expensive trip for you.”
“I could have afforded it if I wanted to.”
Rising, Kitt kissed her aunt’s forehead. She was a proud woman who lived modestly and it would have stretched her income, but of course she wouldn’t admit it. Somehow, Kitt had to reunite these two bull-headed sisters before Sugar died, if she was that ill. “I’m sure she regrets the tiff as much as you do, but one of you has to relent.”
“One of us wasn’t in the wrong.” Sug stuck her nose in the air but only briefly. “Was she really upset when she heard I might have cancer?”
An alarm went off in Kitt’s head. If her aunt had actually mentioned the big C word, it was no wonder Mom insisted Kitt come. “She had one of her infamous headaches.”
Sug smiled and tapped her cup again. “Could I have some more coffee please? And could we talk about Rob Harrison now that you’re finished giving me the third degree?
“I hear he’s done okay for himself. No one knows where he got it but he has money, and plenty of it. He’s been back here a couple of weeks, arrived in a fancy car, and Jonesy says he leased a condo through Barker Realty. Can you imagine? The Harrison’s rickety house is empty and Rob’s old beater still stands in the driveway, all the tires flat. His dad and mom have both passed away, so I don’t know why Rob came back here. His brother left town when he was sixteen and as far as I know, he never returned. I haven’t heard whether he or Rob came back for the funerals.”
Sug stopped babbling and took a breath. “Did he happen to tell you what he’s been doing to get rich?”
Kitt shook her head. “He told me about the condo and I saw the car. Thank heavens he didn’t wreck it last night, or end up in jail for DUI. We just talked about old times and our…uh…friendship in high school.”
“You were hot for him, but you can call it a friendship if you want to.”
“You said he was just making the best of what God gave him, but the way he strutted and smirked, I still don’t know why he turned me on.”
Sug rose and took her dishes to the sink. “I was always a sucker for that bad boy image as well.”
“Uncle Ned? A bad boy?”
“Are you nuts? Who’s talking about Uncle Ned? I married a solid, family-type man, and you see where it got me. Nowhere and he died ten years into our union, leaving me to a life that was even more boring.”
Kitt sat back in her chair and tried to digest that news. Lionel had a steady job and he was intelligent, reliable and thrifty. He took an interest in his appearance and cultural and civic affairs. She was fond of him and thought if they spent more time together, it would grow into love. Maybe not the kind that curls your toes but…
“I was talking about that old flirt, John Henry,” Sug said. “No one ever turned me on like he did.”
The only one who did that for Kitt was Rob and marriage to him would definitely be a roller coaster ride…with all the thrills she craved in life. But more than likely the highs and lows and twists and turns would be more than they could survive.
Chapter Three
Auntie was dutifully resting, and Kitt was curled up in a cushioned rocker on her wraparound porch with her laptop, notebook, pen, and cell phone. The sweet citrus smell of lantana danced on the soft morning breeze, to the accompanying tinkle of wind chimes tucked under the eaves. Life was good in small town America. The slower pace of Summerville was a welcome change from the bustle of Orlando where her apartment windows looked out on a steady stream of traffic and her locked VW hovered in an underground parking garage. Here, she parked in the drive and left the keys behind the visor.
Kitt played with the button on her pen, pushing the point in and out. She hadn’t actually told Dan that Sugar was terminal, but Kitt did let drop info about how really worried her mother was. And he’d come to his own conclusions.
She was as underhanded as Sug. Maybe it ran in the family. Grinning, Kitt wiggled her bare toes and was immediately reminded of Rob and last night, and she had to fight down her desire for sex before she could concentrate on what was supposed to be the biggest thrill in her life right now. A real case of her very own.
She read over her notes again. Tracking down a man who’d bilked his girlfriend and took off with another wealthy woman was pretty much routine work, as far as seasoned private eyes went, but it was a challenge for a newbie. And if she could solve this case, Dan might assign her a bigger one. Then, if she proved herself, she hoped he’d hire her fulltime so she could quit her school librarian job to work at Ace.
A murder would be nice. She’d loved criminology, her minor in college, but she hadn’t foreseen it as her future career. And now that she’d discovered—a little late in life—that thrills were what she craved, she’d vowed to go after what she wanted.
“Thrills” brought Rob Harrison to mind, again. Rob was exciting and a challenge just like detective work, but combining the two could be a lethal mixture. He’d never approve of her skulking around tracking criminals, especially at night. He’d worry about her the way he did when he thought she might turn to other guys if he didn’t make her climax. There it went, that tingling again. She wanted Rob’s penis inside her. She longed for his body against hers. Kitt sighed.
