Key Lime Pie (2 page)

“I’ll just bet you do,” Eric said in a dull voice.

“What?” Sadie questioned, sure she’d misinterpreted his tone.

Eric sat back, put his hands on his thighs, and looked up, glancing at Pete’s retreating back before making eye contact with her. “Is that really the kind of guy you want to be with?”

Sadie was instantly defensive. “Obviously,” she answered, folding her arms over her chest, embarrassed. She should have reprimanded Eric for asking such an inappropriate question, but she didn’t.

Eric studied her for a moment before turning back to the flower bed, stabbing the trowel into the dirt. “Huh.”

She frowned. “Huh, what?” she asked.

Eric shrugged and then jammed a poor marigold into the hole he’d just dug. “I pegged you as wanting someone who was a little more real, a little more—I don’t know—fun.”

“Pete’s real,” Sadie said even though she didn’t know what that meant. “And he’s . . . fun.”

Eric paused, then put down his trowel and stood slowly. “Is he?” he asked, hooking his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans. His tone had changed dramatically. No longer hard, it was now whispery and . . . almost intimate. He took a step toward her so they were only a foot apart. His closeness forced Sadie to look up, and although she knew she should take a step backward for reasons of propriety, she didn’t want to.

“You deserve more than a safe bet, Sadie,” he said. His breath smelled like cinnamon and a hint of cayenne. “You deserve someone who will enjoy life with you rather than just live it by your side.”

Behind the words was the implication that
he
was the kind of man she’d enjoy life with, and that brought to the foreground all the thoughts she tried not to think about him but had a hard time avoiding. All of a sudden it was impossible to ignore the fact that she was attracted to this man.

It made her feel utterly ridiculous.

“I’m older than you,” she said before realizing she’d opened her mouth. Her face instantly burned. Did she seriously say that? Out loud?

“Are you?” he asked.

Sadie narrowed her eyes. “You know I am.”

Eric made an innocent face and shrugged. “I don’t know any such thing.”

“I’m fifty-six,” Sadie said in an attempt to convince him; the words almost stuck in her throat. It was not normal for a woman to admit her age like that, but this was an emergency. She watched his face, but he showed no reaction at all. “How old are you?”

Eric shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

He
was
younger than she was! She knew it! “It
does
matter.”

“Not to me,” he said. “Is that your only reason for choosing him over me?”

Sadie cast a look over her shoulder, remembering that Pete was only twenty yards away. His car must be on the other side of the parking lot, though; she couldn’t see it from where she stood.

Eric took her chin in his hand and turned her head back to face him. He didn’t say anything, just lifted his eyebrows expectantly as he dropped his hand. He wasn’t going to let this conversation just go away.

Sadie’s head was still spinning, but there didn’t seem to be any option other than answering.

“I—uh . . .” She stumbled to find another reason, acutely aware of the fact that there were things she
couldn’t
say. She had been an educator; he was a locksmith. She was organized; he was a slob. And she was older than he was!

“You have longer hair than I do.”

Eric smiled. “I’ll cut it.”

This was not happening! And yet it was. She was not having this conversation! And yet she was. She didn’t know what to say. And yet she spoke because it had to be said. “We’re too different.”

“Not really.” Eric took another tiny step toward her; she could feel the toe of his boot against the toe of her sneaker. “You just have a hard time admitting that I’m the kind of guy you really want to spend the rest of your life with.”

Sadie stared into his eyes and when he leaned into her, she found herself steeling herself expectantly. He was going to kiss her.

And she was totally going to let him.

Inches from making contact, however, Eric paused. “Mark my words, Sadie Hoffmiller, the first time our lips meet, it will be
you
kissing
me.
”

He stepped back while Sadie tried to make sense of what he’d just said, and what he
hadn’t
done. Her eyes snapped to meet his laughing ones, and the expression on his face told her in no uncertain terms that she’d proved something he’d suspected all along.

Sadie opened her mouth but could find no words. She wasn’t used to being made a fool of and felt instant heat rush up her spine.

The ringing of his cell phone saved her from having to respond. It was some heavy metal song she didn’t want to know the title of—AC/DC she thought. He winked at her while digging the phone from his pocket.

“This is Eric,” he said, turning away from Sadie who stood with her hands balled into fists at her sides. How dare he trick her into saying things she shouldn’t have said!

She narrowed her eyes, waiting for him to get off the phone so she could tell him what she
really
thought of him, but then she noticed his eyes go wide. “What?” he breathed before going silent again. He glanced at Sadie, a pleading, scared look on his face that drained her of all her anger. “Yes,” he continued, “I can fax them to you in about ten minutes.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment before turning it off.

“What?” Sadie asked as he turned toward her. “What’s happened?”

“They found a body in Florida,” he said, looking away for just a moment and taking a deep breath. “They think it might be my daughter, Megan.”

Kickin’ Craisin Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

2 1⁄2 cups quick oats

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄2 teaspoon cloves

1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 1⁄2 cups Craisins

1⁄2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

1⁄2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add Craisins, chocolate chips, and nuts, using a wooden spoon to mix (dough will be too thick for most mixers).

Drop by tablespoons or use a 1-inch scoop to make dough balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake 6 to 9 minutes or until just browned—do not overbake. Allow to cool on pan 2 minutes before moving to cooling rack. Cookies should be crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Makes 3 dozen.

Sadie gasped and raised a hand to her mouth. She instinctively reached her other hand out to Eric, who grasped it and held on tight. Eric had told her briefly about his daughter—how she’d vanished during spring break in Florida three years ago. “They found . . . a
body?
”

Not a living person.

The tortured look in Eric’s eyes deepened. “I’ve never believed she was alive all this time,” he said. He looked at their joined hands for a moment before dropping hers. “I haven’t
wanted
her to be alive all this time.”

Sadie was shocked. “What? Of course you’ve wanted her to be alive. Every parent—”

“There are worse things than death,” Eric interjected. “And if she’s been alive all this time but unable to contact me or her mother . . .” He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.

Sadie felt her stomach drop. Three years was a long time to consider what might have happened. Sadie felt a lump rise in her throat as she glimpsed just a moment of what he’d been dealing with all these years. He held her eyes one more second before looking away. “I’ve got to get home; they need a copy of her dental records. They can’t find them in her file.”

“The Florida police?”

Eric nodded, already turning toward the parking lot. Sadie hurried to keep up with him. “Eric,” she said, running a few steps. “Where did they find Meg—uh, her . . . uh . . . the body?”

“I don’t know,” Eric said.

He had very long legs, and Sadie was in a full-on jog by the time they reached the parking lot. He pulled the keys from his pocket and headed for his Jeep Cherokee.

“So you fax the records, and then what?” Sadie asked, still trying to keep up, physically and mentally.

“I don’t know,” Eric said again. He grabbed the handle of the car door and pulled it open just as Pete called out from behind them.

“Sadie?”

“Just a minute,” she threw over her shoulder before turning back to Eric, who had one foot in his Jeep but was looking at her. “I—I don’t know what to say,” she finally admitted.

“There’s nothing you should say,” Eric replied, no reproach in his voice. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to finish the flowers.”

“Are you kidding?” she said. She paused again, struggling to find some way to . . . what? Comfort him? Support him? Say the right thing? “Are you going to be okay?”

“I just hope it’s her,” Eric said, his voice soft and full of regret. “I want to know where my daughter is.”

Sadie nodded her understanding even though she fully realized that she didn’t understand. How could she?

A hand settled on her shoulder, and she looked up into Pete’s concerned face. For an instant she thought he was worried about Eric too, then realized he was likely wondering why Sadie was talking to Eric instead of getting ready like she was supposed to be doing.

She turned to Eric and accepted that there wasn’t anything she could do to help him. They were only friends, but not exactly close friends—despite the almost-kiss. She hadn’t even known his daughter’s name.

“Good luck,” she finally said, offering him a sympathetic smile. “If there’s some way I can help, please don’t hesitate.”

“Good luck with what?” Pete asked. “What kind of help?” There was an edge to his voice that Sadie resented, a touch of envy that would have been laughable if not for the circumstances being so serious.

Eric glanced briefly at Pete, then Sadie. “Thank you,” was all he said before he got into the Jeep and pulled the door shut.

“What was that all about?” Pete asked as Eric’s engine roared to life.

Sadie felt an overwhelming annoyance at the fact that while Eric was facing a horrendous discovery full of complex emotions and realizations, Pete seemed to be caught up only in his own jealousy. “He just got a call saying the police may have found his daughter’s body in Florida.”

Pete was well aware of Eric’s daughter’s disappearance; Eric had told the Garrison police about it at the time of his and Sadie’s arrest. Sadie felt sure that Eric had hoped the information would spark some new interest in his daughter’s case, but as far as Sadie could tell, nothing had come of it.

“Oh,” Pete said simply. He watched Eric’s Jeep disappear around the corner. After a moment he looked at Sadie. “Are you okay?”

Sadie wasn’t sure. Over the last several months she’d been involved in no fewer than three murder investigations. First, her neighbor Anne had been found dead in the field behind her house. Then, on a trip to the English country estate of Sadie’s daughter’s boyfriend, a servant had been murdered. And just two months ago there had been a shooting at the Garrison Library fund-raising dinner. She was like some kind of murder magnet, not a title she wanted for herself. The Library Shooting, as it had come to be known around Garrison, was what had landed Sadie with three hundred hours of community service; she hadn’t exactly done what the police had wanted her to do that night. But it had all worked out for the best in the end—if “best” was the right word.

And now, here was another body. Only this body was all the way in Florida. She was glad to be on the outside of this one since there was no room in her life for more drama. But how could she not worry about Eric? As his friend, was there anything she could do to help?

“Sadie?” Pete asked.

Sadie snapped out of her thoughts and looked up into Pete’s concerned eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked again.

“I’m fine,” Sadie said quickly, because of course she was fine, just worried. This wasn’t about her at all. “I can’t imagine what this must feel like for him.” Talking about Eric brought back the almost-kiss from a couple minutes earlier, and Sadie had to look away from Pete’s probing gaze. She felt her face heat up all the same. Would she really have let Eric kiss her? In the more than six months Sadie and Pete had been seeing each other, they had kissed only one time—and she hardly considered it a
real
kiss due to the high-stress situation they were both in at the time.