Caught in the Frame
Read Caught in the Frame Online
Authors: ReGina Welling,Erin Lynn
Tags: #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Mystery, #Amateur Sleuths, #Cozy, #Animals, #Crafts & Hobbies, #Women Sleuths
Caught in the Frame
Ponderosa Pines Cozy Mystery Series
Book 3
Erin Lynn
ReGina Welling
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2016 Erin Lynn, ReGina Welling.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Chapter 1
“…and then he kissed me.” Chloe LaRue paused for dramatic effect, remembering the way Nathaniel Harper’s hands had tangled in her hair; the love that poured from his lips and sent her senses reeling. Twin sighs escaped the mouths of her two girlfriends, Veronica and Mindy, as they listened with rapt attention. Chloe relished the rare chance to gush about her up-until-recently non-existent love life.
A large pizza, so far untouched, rested on the coffee table, surrounded by an array of snacks that, if polished off in one night, would send all three of them into total sugar shock. Veronica sipped a bright pink cocktail through a makeshift Twizzler straw, her cornflower blue eyes opening wide over the rim as she absorbed every word of Chloe’s story. Mindy sat stick-straight in a lotus position, her feet tangled, pretzel-like, in front of her. Chloe and Veronica were so used to the yoga instructor’s mannerisms they barely noticed anymore when Mindy twisted herself into spontaneous poses at the oddest of times.
“What happened next?” Veronica wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, correctly deciphering the blush rising to stain Chloe’s cheeks a delicate pink. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let it go without ribbing her friend just a bit. After watching Nate and Chloe engage in a two-decade-long mating dance they had nicknamed the Will They, Won’t They Waltz, Veronica and Mindy were delighted the pair had finally realized their true feelings for one another.
Pining for each other since puberty—but having lived most of that time on opposite corners of the world—the two of them had now permanently returned to the tiny town of Ponderosa Pines, making a long term relationship possible. However, miscommunication and a healthy dose of insecurity made the transition from
friends
to
more than friends
difficult, to say the least.
Chloe rolled her eyes and raised her right eyebrow at Veronica, shooting her friend a glance correctly interpreted as “Duh”, and continued. “I haven’t had enough of these to go into the gory details,” she raised her glass for emphasis, “and I don’t intend to. But, we definitely took our relationship to the next level. A couple of times.” Chloe grinned sheepishly, and her friends dissolved into giggles.
Three short days ago, Nate had burst through her front door to officially declare his love. Chloe would have been quite content to continue spending every possible second since then devoted to memorizing the long lines of his spectacular body. Instead, reality and responsibility pried them out of their love nest, and forced Nate back to his assignment of training Ponderosa Pines’ newest lawman. Rather than sit around and wait for him, Chloe had turned her phone back on, answered the dozen or so messages that had accrued on her voicemail, and acquiesced to an impromptu girls’ night in.
As the last—or second-to-last, if you counted her very closest friend, EV Torrence—one of the group to lose her single status, Chloe couldn’t deny the desire to
tell
someone about the incredible weekend she had just experienced. So what if they were all thirty-something, and probably too old to be giggling like school girls; you were only as old as you felt, and it still made them all happy to act like teenagers every once in a while.
Veronica, whose near-perfect marriage produced five beautiful, rambunctious children—and Mindy, childless by choice, but very much in love with her longtime boyfriend—were over the moon about the recent development in Chloe and Nate’s relationship. Now, if only EV could sort out her own love life, all of Chloe’s closest friends would be coupled up. Of course, EV had twenty years on the rest of them, so her situation was a bit more complicated than the others.
“You two can pull those canary feathers out of your mouths, by the way. EV already told me you were in on her little plot. Dragging me into situations where I’d have to see Nate was bad enough, but setting me up to date a bunch of losers and make Nate look like the better choice…jerks.” Her grin showed she bore no malice. “I already knew he was perfect, I just let fear get the best of me.”
“Should we expect retaliation?” Veronica smirked. “What you did to EV wasn’t so different from what we did to you, Miss Pot Who Calls Kettles Black.”
Chloe had to admit submitting her best friend’s profile to an online dating service probably went a bit beyond nice. Yet, she defended herself, “As if EV’s one to talk. She and Dalton are perfect for each other, and you can tell he’s totally in love with her. Too bad she’s still holding him at arm’s length.”
“That’s not what I heard!” Mindy sing-songed. “There’s a rumor going around that he was seen leaving her house after a torrid night of lust—at least that’s what Lottie Calabrese’s been telling everyone. Care to confirm?”
Chloe rolled her eyes but conceded, “Yes, it’s true. But they hit another bump in the road, and still have a few issues to work out.” How much should she tell them about recent developments?
Almost no one knew that former resident, Remy Vincent—who just happened to also be EV’s ex—was suspect number one in Ponderosa Pines’ first mystery of note. Unless the evidence lied, Remy had masterminded an attempted coup that would have forced their beloved town into being dissolved and absorbed by neighboring Gilmore. Remy’s blackmail attempt failed miserably when its victim, Evan Plunkett, turned up dead—murdered by the cuckolded husband of Evan’s most recent paramour. Everyone knew that part of the story—just not that the shadowy figure attempting to play puppet-master with their town had such close ties. Until Remy was caught, EV and Dalton had agreed to put their budding relationship on hold—a decision Chloe thought bordered on the ridiculous. So what if Dalton’s job as deputy meant he had to keep certain bits of evidence from EV? It wasn’t like she told him everything either.
“I have every intention of lending a hand; what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
“Lending a hand?” Mindy practically snorted out the words. “You mean meddling in their business.”
Chloe put on her best innocent look—Bambi eyes and all. “It’s done out of love.”
If EV had been completely happy as a vibrant, single woman, Chloe would have let the topic drop. And, until a recently-single Dalton came into the picture, a series of short-term relationships satisfied EV’s occasional craving for companionship. Enter Nate’s partner, the caring Deputy Dalton, and everything changed. For the first time since the disaster of Remy, EV let someone into her life who might just become permanent.
Unfortunately, Remy Vincent still stood between them. Suspecting she was at the heart of his vendetta against Ponderosa Pines, EV had pulled back from the relationship with Dalton. Until all that was laid to rest, they were in a holding pattern. Chloe sighed to herself, hoping silently that everything would work out in the end, and pushed the thought from her mind in order to focus on more pleasant matters
* * *
“G’night, you guys.” Chloe hugged first Veronica, and then Mindy. She watched them for signs of alcohol-induced impairment, saw none, and let them skip down her front steps to begin the short walk back to their own houses.
“Love you!” Veronica called over her shoulder.
Chloe glanced at the clock, which read 1:15 am, thought better of her plan to clean up the mess in her living room at a more reasonable hour, and grabbed the garbage can from the kitchen. The sudden trilling of her cell phone stopped Chloe in her tracks. Veronica and Mindy should be home by now, and who else would be calling at this hour? There was only one option that didn’t have her worrying about the safety of everyone she held dear: Lila.
Her mother’s cheerful “Hello, love” confirmed Chloe’s suspicions that Lila had once again forgotten the time difference between Ponderosa Pines and whatever European country in which she was currently ensconced.
“Hi Mother, is everything okay? You’re aware it’s the wee hours of the morning here, right?”
“Everything is lovely, darling. You know I’m lousy with time conversions. Besides, this couldn’t wait.”
“There’s an app for that.” Chloe could hear the excitement in Lila’s voice, and braced herself for an explanation.
Lila brushed the dry suggestion aside, “Javier proposed! I’m getting married in three weeks, and I want you and EV to come to Ireland and be my bridesmaids!” Chloe’s stomach dropped. Heat born of concern rushed through her veins for a split second before reason won out and cooled the fire. It wasn’t the first time Lila had enamored herself with a new man—most of them unsavory in some way. She seemed to attract men who only saw the shine and the money, but not the perfect heart underneath. But, this
was
the first time Lila had actually agreed to marry any of them, even though she had been proposed to more times than Chloe could count. You could feed a small country on the accumulated worth of Lila’s rejected engagement rings.
What could this man possibly have that the horde before him had lacked? Chloe wished she hadn’t been so dismissive the last time Lila called; she knew she hadn’t been paying any attention to her mother’s description of Javier, believing that he’d be out of the picture soon enough. Now, she was left wondering what her soon-to-be s
tep-father
—Chloe cringed at the word—was like.
“Congratulations, Mom!” she replied brightly. If this was what Lila wanted, Chloe wouldn’t take even one iota of her happiness away. At least not until she had good reason; soon enough, she would be there in person to watch closely and stop her mother from rushing headlong down the path toward disaster. “Of course I’ll come, and I imagine EV isn’t going to miss it either. Do I get a ‘plus one’?”
“
You
want to bring a date?” Lila’s voice rose an octave, her incredulity evident even from across the Atlantic.
“Nate and I finally worked out our issues. We’re officially a couple, and I think getting away from the prying eyes of everyone in town for a few weeks is just the thing we need. Of course, that is, if Javier doesn’t mind Nate tagging along with him while we’re attending to wedding details.” A plan had already begun to form in her mind. Nate’s assignment would be to spend time assessing the groom, while leaving Chloe and EV free to deal with Lila, and what was sure to be a spectacle of a wedding.
“Well, the sky must be falling. I didn’t want to push the issue with you before, since you’re so freaking
sensitive
about it, but I hoped you’d figure it out eventually. Of course, bring him along, darling. I’ll overnight vouchers for all three of you. We’re flying out tomorrow ourselves. Come as soon as you can; I can’t wait to see you.”
Bidding her mother goodbye, Chloe took a moment to get over the shock. She shook her head picked up the phone to dial EV’s number before realizing it was now closing in on 2 o’clock in the morning. Though it would be fun to interrupt EV’s sleep for once—her friend had a knack for waking Chloe at the butt-crack of dawn every chance she got—the news could wait until morning.
* * *
