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“You’re gay.”
Zach’s eyes widened. “Pardon me?”
Kipp burst out laughing.
I shrugged. “He said you don’t have girlfriends, so I thought it meant you were gay.”
“He plays, not stays,” Kipp barely managed to say through the spurts of laughter.
“Oh oops, you’re a player.” I couldn’t help but think of Caley. She’d be smitten over Mr. Muscles and the two could play each other to death.
Zach’s firm expression wavered. Clearly I’d broken through his disbelief. “Tell me the name of the last woman Kipp took to his bed?”
The question made my stomach tighten into knots, but I clamped down on that bit of silliness. I shouldn’t care one bit who Kipp’s previous lovers were. Then why do you?
I glanced over at Kipp, awaiting his answer, and he stared at me curiously, which made me wonder if my reaction showed on my face. I waved my hand for him to get on with the answer.
“Candi,” he said.
I snickered. “Candi! You cannot be serious. You slept with a woman named Candi? Let me guess, she’s a stripper, right?”
“There’s nothing wrong with the name Candi.” Kipp shifted in his seat as if uncomfortable. “She was a lovely lady.”
“I bet she was a nice lady, to you.” I gripped my middle as my stomach muscles clenched. “Candi, that’s priceless.” I sighed away the laughter, wiped the tears off my cheeks and happened to look at Zach.
He leaned in toward me with a steady gaze. “On the last cold case Kipp and I solved, what did we find with the body?”
“Only the cops who worked the case know the answer.” Kipp’s voice lifted with excitement. “Tell him we found an old antique doll.”
I mirrored Zach’s movement, leaned in and met his gaze dead on. “A doll.” One second I sat in a chair, the next Zach dragged me from the room by the arm, while Kipp chuckled behind me.
“I told you we’d get them to believe,” he said.
Within mere seconds, I’d been pushed out the front door of the station and tossed into the passenger seat of a truck. “Hey! What the hell?” I struggled to sit in a more comfortable position as Kipp appeared in the backseat.
Zach slid into the driver’s seat and looked at me sternly. “Tell me everything and leave nothing out.”
Chapter Three
The drive through Memphis went by in a blur since Zach tore the hell out of the street, traveling at insane speeds with his truck. He stopped with a squeal of his brakes and pretty much pulled me from the seat as abruptly as he put me in it. I glanced around the suburban neighborhood, stunned at the beautiful homes. Even the garden looked well-tended. A bachelor lives here?
“Come on,” Zach said, snapping me out of my wonderment.
I followed him up the porch steps and entered the house to find an open-concept modest home—gray painted walls, bamboo hardwood floors and sleek contemporary black leather couches.
The nice design astonished me. The neatness and lack of dust made my mouth gape open. “You live here?”
Zach shut the front door and walked past me. “No, Kipp and I live here.” He gestured toward to kitchen. “Want a beer?”
“I’d love one.” A hundred of them to wash away the past hours sounded even better. I settled down on the couch, quite pleased to note that neither laughter nor tears were on the brink. I had caught Zach up to speed on the past events on the drive over and he never doubted a word I said. Feeling less crazy gave me a newfound strength.
“What about the house surprises you?” Kipp asked, sitting down on the leather recliner across from me.
“Um, that men live here.” I laughed.
“Pardon?” Zach called out from the kitchen.
“Kipp and I were chatting about how your house surprises me.”
