Key Lime Pie Read Free Page A

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.
    Pete said nothing, just waited for her to look back at him. “So, no dinner and movie, huh?” he asked, sounding both sympathetic and disappointed.
    Sadie opened her mouth to say, no, it wasn’t a good night, and yet right on the heels of that was her own question. Why not? How would it help Eric for her to cancel her evening plans?
    You are not a part of this, she told herself, ignoring the stab of disappointment she felt inside. Was she really so arrogant as to feel left out somehow? For being a woman in her mid-fifties, she still had a lot to learn about what made her do and say and think the things she did and said and thought.
    “Of course we’ll still go out,” she said. She looked toward the street where Eric had disappeared before smiling up at Pete whose expression was unreadable. “There’s nothing I can do,” she said. “I know that.”
    “You’re sure?” Pete asked, but she could hear the relief in his tone. He didn’t seem to want her to choose worrying about Eric over spending a night out with him. Sadie hated that if he knew what had happened on the courthouse lawn a few minutes earlier, he’d be even more insecure. Should she tell him? Had he seen them?
    She and Pete weren’t serious—they’d never discussed being exclusive or anything—but neither of them were seeing anyone else either. Why did it have to be so complicated? The almost-kiss played in her mind again and she searched Pete’s face, but couldn’t determine what he might or might not have seen. He guarded his expressions well.
    She wished there were a delete key in her brain for things she really didn’t want to ponder on. And yet, even as she thought it, she felt her toes tingle at the memory of Eric’s face so close to her own. Argh! The man had ruined her! “I just need to get those last two flowers in the ground, and then I’ll clean up. I’m sorry.”
    “No apology necessary,” Pete said, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. His hand was soft and warm against her skin and when he opened his palm, she leaned into it, absorbing the comfort