Kiss and Tell Read Free Page B

the loud music, with a smile that quickly faded. “Uh-oh, what’s wrong?”
    “My brother’s choice of friends, that’s what.” Leila stole a glass of wine from a nearby tray and took a long sip. “And these stupid plastic shoes are killing my feet.”
    “Are you and Marsh Devlin fighting again?” Frankie asked. “Of course you are. Dumb question. You two are in this year’s revised copy of the dictionary under the word
argumentative.
You’ve been fighting ever since that very first vacation Marsh took down here with his dad.”
    “He is such an infuriating snob,” Leila seethed.
    “I don’t know,” Frankie said mildly in her gentle southern accent. “He’s been real polite to me whenever I talk to him. But he’s got that upper-class British thing happening, you know, as if his collar’s too tight around his neck. Still, that doesn’t make him a snob. He’s just all backed up. I seriously doubt he acts that way intentionally.”
    “Yeah, well, what he does do intentionally is push my buttons,” Leila said. “The man
loves
to torment me.”
    “I always thought he had some kind of thing for you. I swear I’ve seen him looking at you like he wants to gobble you up.”
    “Chew me up and spit me out is more like it.” Still, an unbidden picture of Marsh’s face as he told her
he
could give her a baby leaped into her mind.
    Frankie smiled. “How are you?” she said, looking closely at Leila. “You look great. A little pale, but a few days on the beach’ll take care of that. So where’s this Yankee friend of yours?”
    “Don’t ask,” Leila said.
    “All right, I won’t.” Frankie changed the subject. “How’s your mom? Simon told me she spent Christmas with you in New York.”
    “She’s doing all right. It’s hard for her to be here on the key now that Dad’s gone, especially at this time of year. She’s visiting relatives out west for a few weeks, then she’s going on a cruise with my aunt Carol. She won’t be back on Sunrise Key until February.”
    “She’s smart,” Frankie said. “Why stay here and get depressed?”
    “Exactly.”
    “Hey, did you hear I got my private investigator’s license?”
    “Yeah. Congratulations. Simon told me the news. But…”
    “There’s not a lot of cases to solve here on Sunrise Key,” Frankie finished for her. “I know, a place like this isn’t exactly rampant with crime. But last week, Liam Halliday’s office hired me as a consultant.” She laughed, her dark brown eyes sparkling. “I picked through the school dumpster, looking for the Tennison girl’s orthodontic retainer. Found it, too. A few more solid cases like that, and I’ll be ready to write my memoirs.”
    “Liam Halliday.” Leila took a handful of celery sticks from a platter on the bar, and shifted her weight to her right foot, the one that hurt the least. “The name rings a bell, but I can’t place him.”
    “He’s the sheriff,” Frankie said. “Tall, broad shoulders, dark hair, brown eyes…?”
    Leila shook her head.
    “Cowboy hat, Texas drawl, parties too hard…?” Frankie continued.
    Leila shrugged. “Maybe I’ve never met him. Or maybe I did and I just don’t remember.”
    “If you’d met him, you’d remember him,” Frankie said dryly. “He’s cute as hell, a real goodtime, good ol’ boy. He’s asked me out a few times, but I found excuses and turned him down. Going down to the Rustler’s Hideout and slamming back a six-pack or two isn’t my idea of a fun night out. I’m looking for a man who likes to spend a quiet evening at home, watching foreign films—and I’m not talking about Japanese monster movies.”
    “Good luck. Are you seeing anyone at all these days?” Leila asked.
    Frankie shook her head and her big earrings jingled. “Nope.”
    “You’re not still carrying a torch for Noah Kavanaugh, are you?”
    “Too bad for me, if I were.” Frankie rolled her eyes. “You know, he and Kim are having a baby. She’s already a week