Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (19 page)

Thinking about Maddox made me think about Solomon. Tall, brooding, quiet Solomon. I wondered how he spent his weekends; if he hung out at home and did normal things. I couldn't imagine him dragging out a lawn mower on a Saturday morning, or tending a garden. I
also
couldn't imagine him stripping drywall, or painting, or cooking or going shopping at the mall. I was fairly certain he could do all of those things, because men like Solomon could do anything. It just didn't fit with the image in my mind of him disappearing off on some kind of commando mission at the drop of a hat.

"I don't know," I said. "I guess if
Maddox
wants me, he'll find me."

"Hope you're naked when that happens."

"Lily!" Still, I had a hard time struggling with how that could be a bad idea.

She stuck out her tongue and changed
the
subject
.
"You want to come to my spin
class tomorrow to work off the pizza?"

"Is the hunky instructor going to be there? The one with the dreadlocks?"

"Anton? Yeah. He's the only reason anyone goes." Lily sighed.

"Count me in."

Chapter Six

My bedside phone woke me at what felt like the crack of dawn. I stuck a hand out from under the covers and grappled for i
t
. I
knock
ed
it out of the charger
first
,
forcing me to lean o
ver
the edge of the bed to search for it on the floor. I found it, hit
“
answer
”
and pressed it against my ear as I shuffled back under the covers.

"What are you doing?" asked Serena, her
condescending
tone
barely
spared from
becoming a sneer.

"Hello to you too," I said, stifling a yawn.

She cut
right
to the point. "We need to talk baby shower."

"Aren't I supposed to be planning it?"

"You are
,
but I want to
make sure you get it right.
I have a scrapbook of
ideas and a list of places
you need to scope out
for the venue
."

"How thick is this scrapbook?"

"Seventy-
six pages." My brain winced. "It's divided into boy, girl and neutral. We don't know what it is yet though."

"So we just need to look at neutral?" I asked hopefully.

"No! We need to look at everything because maybe we'll do a boy/girl theme with neutral elements. We need to decide on food and drinks. I'm thinking mocktinis."

"What's a whattini?"

"A mocktini. It's a cocktail
,
but without alcohol."

"
Won’t
you
be
the only pregnant one there?" I asked, because it seemed unfair that the rest of us should be punished for Serena's nocturnal activities.

"No, there will be other ladies from my birth
ing
group. Ted and I are doing Lamaze."

"Did you find your way out yet?" I
joked
. I could almost imagine Serena wrinkling her forehead trying to decide if I w
ere
sassing her, or really just as thick as she thought.

"Very funny," she said, with a sigh. "We'll need to decide on five hors d'oeuvres, three mocktinis and games."

"There
are
going to be games?"
I wondered if we could do a murder mystery. It seemed appropriate.

"Of course. It's traditional."

"We're not doing the melted chocolate in the diaper one," I said, putting the k
i
bosh on the grossest game known to adult women
, bar dating
. "Anything but that one."

"That is not a problem," said Serena, in agreement for once. "We'll probably do a crafts table instead."

"Are babies into crafts?"

She thought about it. "I don't know. We've only signed the baby up for Mandarin, classical music appreciation
,
and baby ballet so far."

Sheesh. Poor kid. "Don't babies love all that finger
-
painting stuff?"

"It's not
exactly
Ivy League," Serena pointed out. "Plus
,
we've already passed womb Beethoven, so classical appreciation is the next stage
;
the ballet is to encourage fluid movement
;
and given the state of world affairs, Mandarin immersion is essential from birth.
Maybe we’ll do art appreciation, too.
Thanks for the suggestion.
"

"W
hoa!
Back up! Your b
aby's not even born yet and it
already passed a class?" Boy, did I ever feel like a failure.
At this rate, the baby would probably
earn
a decent salary before I did.

"Ted and I want to be
very
proactive parents. So, can you meet me at Alessandro's at one and we'll go through the scrapbook?"

I thought about all my other plans for the day. Spinning with Lily to assuage
last night’s
pizza guilt, maybe some yoga for the wine guilt
,
and shopping to cheer me up after all the guilt.
On the other hand,
Alessandro's was pretty nice; the type of place where ladies lunch
ed
and men t
ook
their dates when they want
ed
to impress them. They serve
d
the best lasagna in the world, the waiters
we
re polite and deferential
,
and everyone
wa
s smart and pretty. I didn't go there a lot because it was pricey and I was on a temp's budget, but Serena was on
a
first name
basis
with most of the staff.

Serena sweetened the deal.
"Lunch is my treat and we can get the dough balls you like
for an appetizer
."

"See you at one."

Hanging up, I glanced over at the clock and realized I had scant minutes before Lily would come knocking at the door. I got out of bed with a groan, padded into the kitchen to add fresh grounds
, which
I'd scrounged from Lily to the coffee pot, and then into the bathroom to brush my teeth, wash my face and tie my hair into a high ponytail. As a concession to Anton, the hot instructor, I added a slick of mascara and a swipe of lip gloss
before putting on
my yoga pants and a stretchy top that was starting to look unforgiving around the middle. Just as I laced up my sneakers, Lily knocked on the door and I let her in.

Despite our late night, Lily was impossibly perky. Dressed in knee
-
length
,
stretch pants and a short
,
cropped top, she displayed as much toned flesh as she could get away with. She'd matched the look with a sports watch and a cute headband in stretchy material. There wasn't a pimple
or eye bag
on her
flawless
face,
but I loved her anyway.

"Ready?" she said.

"Ugh."

"Excellent. Let's get that coffee to go." She rooted through the shelves and pulled out two travel mugs, prepped our coffee
,
and dragged me out the door, leaving me just enough time to grab my
tote bag
.

An hour and a half later
,
I
felt like
I was probably going to die. I'd gone from half asleep to fe
eling enthused about the class—
especially when Anton bent over to pick up his class registration list and
flaunted
his taut buns—
to
all of
my muscles screaming for mercy.

"Maybe I should go back to the beginners
’
class," I said, staring at the ceiling from my prone position on the
dressing
room floor. It seemed less embarrassing to pass out in here, should I need to, than in the gym lobby.
Two skinny women stepped over me without breaking stride and carried on around the bank of lockers. Lily held a hand out and hoisted
me back up onto my Jell-O legs
.

"No way, you just need to go more often. I spin three times a week."

"You're a headcase!"

"You still got through the class," Lily pointed out. "You weren't the first to wimp out."

"But
now
I might
die
."

Lily flicked water
from her bottle
at me. "You will not die."

"I might not be able to move for the rest of the weekend. I hate Anton. He's a sadist."

"Go home and take a bath and a nap. You'll feel better, I promise. Do you want to come to Body Pump tomorrow?"

"I don't know what it is
,
but
it sounds horrible."

Lily drove me home while I muttered and winced, a
s I
massaged my aching muscles. My thighs had stopped screaming
,
at least, but I felt, literally, like
my legs had turned to rubber
.

I
never “got”
the exercise thing. I did it because I had to, because I was starting to feel the spread
and I needed to fit into my clothes
;
but no amount of exercise could make me love it. Maybe if I saw the effects faster and had a bod like Lily's, I'd appreciate it more, but as it was, exercise
and I
enjoyed, in the loosest possible sense, a love/hate
relationship
.

"Have you heard from Maddox yet?"

"No, I kind
of
expected him to call last night
,
but nothing."

"Maybe he called while we were out," said Lily, t
urning the Mini
onto our road. "Did you check your cell phone before you went to bed?"

Actually I hadn't. I'd crawled up the stairs, thrown my clothes on the
floor;
put my
pajamas
on inside out
,
and fallen asleep. "Want to come up and find out?"

"You bet."

We were both disappointed when I let us into my apartment and the answering machine didn't have a flashing light
.
M
y cell phone didn't show any
messages either
. "Maybe later," said Lily. "Maybe he's been
to
the morgue. Or maybe he's got loads of paperwork."

"Maybe." Or maybe I wasn't as
useful
to Maddox as I
hoped
. Maybe I didn't have a part in this investigation at all. Maybe they were just humoring me so I didn't poke my head where
it
didn’t belong
…
l
ike
at
Dean's house.
I wondered if they’d found the body yet.