Thirty-Six and a Half Motives: Rose Gardner Mystery #9 (Rose Gardner Mystery Series) (37 page)

“Gardner Sisters Nursery, Maeve speaking. How can I help you?”

Hearing her cheery voice helped ease some of the tension in my back. “Maeve, I was wondering if I could borrow Anna for a bit. Are you too busy to turn her loose?”

“Of course I can spare her, Rose. But she’s really not dressed to be digging.”

“I actually need her in the office.” Then I filled her in on the details.

“Oh, dear. I’ll send her over right away.” Then she paused and lowered her voice. “I haven’t talked to you in over a week. How are you doing?”

“I’m great. Good.” And I was. Mostly. My ex-boyfriend Mason—Maeve’s son—and I had broken up four months ago, and he’d moved back to Little Rock. My heart had been broken, but I’d moved on. Mostly. Even if I still refused to consider dating anyone, much to Neely Kate’s dismay. “How about you?”

It was no secret Maeve had moved from Little Rock to tiny Henryetta to be closer to her only living child. She’d been lonely and eager to feel wanted and needed again. But she’d found a place for herself here, and despite Mason’s decision to leave, she’d stayed. Still, I knew she missed her son something fierce. I’d kept my distance, mostly out of guilt. I couldn’t help wondering if she secretly blamed me for him leaving.

“Good. I’m excited about Violet coming back.” But I heard the wistful tone in her voice.

While her position had only been temporary, she’d been working full-time for the past four months and seemed to love every minute of it. “You know, Violet won’t be back to one hundred percent,” I said. “It occurs to me that we’ll still need help. Would you be willing to stay on part-time?”

“Of course. I’d love to.”

It warmed my heart to make her happy. Maeve had been like the mother I’d always wanted. I missed her. “Well, then that’s settled. You’re an official permanent employee at Gardner Sisters Nursery.”

“I’ll send Anna right over. And Rose…thank you.”

“No, thank
you
. I have no idea what we would have done without you these last four months.” I hung up and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. “Anna’s on her way.”

“Well, now that this is taken care of…” Neely Kate said, brushing off her hands. “Let’s go talk to Raddy Dyer.”

I held up my hand, blocking the exit. “Hold up. We’re not going anywhere just yet.”

“But Anna’s coming to clean up, which means we can go.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“I’m really sorry about Marci,” Neely Kate said with a sigh.

“Everyone deserves a chance. I’m sorry if you’re in trouble with your aunt for firing her.” It was hard to hold this against my best friend. I’d met her aunt. I probably would have hired Marci too.

She waved it off. “I might get stuck with the burnt ends of Aunt Jackie’s raccoon roast next Christmas, but I’ll manage.”

I almost blurted out,
raccoon roast?
but I wisely kept my mouth shut. Neely Kate’s family was one of a kind.

She shuffled her feet and shifted her weight before giving me a hopeful look. “I checked the weather on my phone, and it looks like the rain won’t clear off until this afternoon…which means we have some time to talk to Raddy Dyer.”

And there it was.

I sighed. “Neely Kate—”

“Now, before you say no, let me plead my case.”

“Funny choice of words,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m listening.”

Excitement filled her eyes. “You and I have solved cases before—” I started to protest, but she held up her hand, “—let me finish.”

“Okay.”

“I know we accidentally stumbled into some bigger things last fall and winter, but we got out of all of them, right?”

Stumbled into some bigger things
was an understatement. But she was right. We’d uncovered who had been behind my kidnapping attempt, what had happened to her missing cousin, and who had tried to steal the throne of the king of Fenton County’s underworld. And every single instance had been dangerous. After last February, I’d vowed to leave danger behind and live a quiet life.

Only Neely Kate was bound and determined to make me live boldly.

“Neely Kate…”

She held up her hands. “You said you’d listen.” When I didn’t answer, she lifted her eyebrows. “Over the last four months, we’ve solved some mysteries that had nothin’ to do with us. Not to mention they were completely harmless.”

“We found a missing garden gnome, a lost dog, and figured out a dispute between two neighbors.” And I couldn’t deny I’d loved every minute of it.

“So why won’t you consider this?” she asked in frustration.

“This is different. From what Marci said, this man thinks his ex-wife is holding his grandmother’s jewelry hostage. It’s not a mystery. It’s a hostage negotiation. You should tell Carter Hale,” I said, referring to our defense attorney friend. “It seems more like a situation for a law shark, not two landscapers.”

“We’re not just two landscapers. We’ve solved mysteries before. You’ve worked with the crime lord of Fenton County, for Pete’s sake. Missing jewelry should be a piece of cake.”

“Neely Kate…”

“Let’s just talk to the guy, okay?” she asked, hope filling her eyes. “We can find out what he wants.”

“He wants us to get his jewelry back. His ex-wife has it. Where’s the investigation? Maybe he expects us to beat the jewelry out of her with our shovels.”

“Please?” She gave me a pout, then her eyes widened. “If it makes you feel better, you can have a vision. See how the meeting goes.”

She had to be really desperate to ask me that. I was capable of seeing visions, images of the future through another person’s eyes when I touched them, but after everything that had happened four months ago, I avoided having them whenever possible. But now that I wasn’t “forcing” them as I’d begun to do last winter, they were spontaneous again—coming out of nowhere. Seeing as how blurting out whatever I saw was part of my gift, it often put me in embarrassing situations.

Still, I had no desire to force one now.

I groaned. “Fine.” When she started to get excited, I held up my hands. “We’ll talk to him.
That’s all
. Then you and I will talk about it and decide where to go from there.”

Her head bobbed as she nodded. “Sure. Of course.”

I’d seen that look before. I suspected she’d already texted Raddy Dyer and accepted the case.

My phone began to ring and I pulled it from my jeans pocket, surprised to see the initials SM—Skeeter Malcolm—on my screen. I shot Neely Kate a glance before I answered.

“James, I haven’t heard from you in a while.” Several weeks, to be exact.

“Lady,” he said, his voice tight. “We’ve got a problem.”

* * *

C
heck
Out One Paris Summer by Denise Grover Swank!

S
ophie Peterson knows
that she should be excited to spend a summer in Paris, but she only feels anger—anger at her father for divorcing her mother and moving to France. When a friendship with a boy named Mathieu starts to turn into more, Sophie will need to decide if she can stay in France, whether she can forgive her father enough to live with him, and how much she should trust her heart with her first love.

N
ever say never
. . .

Romance isn't an option for Holly Greenwood. With her wedding planner career on the line she needs to stay focused, and that means pleasing her demanding boss, not getting distracted by her mind-alteringly hot neighbor . . .

Ex-Marine Kevin Vandemeer craves normalcy. Instead, he has a broken-down old house in need of a match and some gasoline, a meddling family, and the uncanny ability to attract the world's craziest women. At least that last one he can fix: he and his buddies have made a pact to swear off women, and this includes his sweetly sexy new neighbor.

After one hot night that looks a whole lot like a disaster in the light of day, Kevin and Holly are about to learn that true love doesn't play by the rules . . .

I
hadn’t planned
to write acknowledgments—I haven’t with my past several books—but this book seems to monumental to let slip by.

This series was born in the Lee’s Summit, Missouri DMV back in June 2010. Had I known then how many people would read and love the Rose Gardner Mystery series, I probably would have fainted dead away like Rose did in the first chapter of Twenty-Eight. (Okay, not really, but I probably would have stumbled a bit.) I’m always astounded that NO ONE in the traditional publishing world wanted that first book. But my beta reads LOVED Rose, so I took a chance and self-published
Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
in July 2011. I sold 200 copies that first month. I felt like a bestseller.

I’m sure most readers don’t know that I almost gave up on this series. In September 2013, I released
Thirty and a Half Excuses
with lackluster sales. As an indie publisher, I had to look at the hard facts—my urban fantasy series was selling better. I either needed to figure out how to find more readers or focus on urban fantasy. But my Rose series had fantastic reviews, which told me the issue was discoverability. Readers just needed to find her.

I’m so happy I didn’t give her up.

This series has always had the support of Trisha Leigh/Lyla Payne. We’ve been critique partners and best friends since 2010, after we “met” on Twitter. She critiqued the first book and has helped me brainstorm that book as well as the others When I finished the revision of this book—which I finished at Starbucks—I texted her that I had to leave because I couldn’t stop tearing up. She called me as I drove home, consoling my broken heart, as I literally broke down and cried.

Not only did Rose lose the love of her life, but I felt like I’d lost mine too.

I went home and emailed Angela Polidoro, my developmental editor, who has edited the series since
Thirty and a Half Excuses
. I told her I wasn’t sure if it was my emotions speaking, but I had to wonder if I should end Rose completely with this book. The ending seemed TOO perfect. Maybe I needed to let love make me strong enough to let Rose go.

Angela’s answer: “Rose’s story isn’t over yet.”

Have I mentioned how much I love Angela?

So I gave myself a day, and the first two titles for the new series, as well as a plot for
Family Jewels
popped into my head. (I hope you read the first chapter.) After I grieved (that seems the best description of how I felt) I was ready to consider the new series.

I hope you’ll consider it too.

But if you don’t, I understand. Or maybe you need some time to get grieve and process too. Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as I have. I realize that there are more than three million eBooks available out there, and you chose mine. That is NEVER lost on me.

Thank you for inviting me into your ereaders, into your lives, and hopefully into your hearts. I hope you’ll continue Rose’s journey with me.

We aren’t done with her yet.