In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2 Read online

  “Are you sure you have to go?” Joe asked, sounding disappointed.

  I let my gaze drift to Dena for a fraction of a second before shifting it back to him. “Yeah. We’ll talk later.”

  Then I spun around and hurried out before I could say anything I’d regret, like pointing out that Dena had created a bogus excuse to come over and interrupt our coffee date. I’d done all I could do to make Joe see the light. He had to figure things out for himself.

  I slid behind the wheel of my car and, crossing my fingers, turned the key. My cousin Witt was a mechanic and had stumbled upon a used transmission that he thought might buy me more time before I was forced to get a new car. It had worked so far, but I’d had enough bad days with the hunk of junk that it felt like Russian roulette every time I turned it over.

  The engine roared to life, but before I could pull away from the curb, I saw Joe heading out of the coffee shop with Dena clinging to his hand. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and shifted into reverse as he released her hand and headed my way. She stayed back, but it was clear she didn’t like it.

  “Neely Kate, wait up.”

  I would have loved to pretend I hadn’t heard him, but the a/c was out in my car, so the windows were already down—I’d almost pay someone to steal it—and he was standing on the curb about four feet away. “I have to go, Joe.”

  He walked to my driver’s door and squatted so his face was level with mine. “I’m sorry our coffee date got interrupted.”

  “Are you?” I asked dryly.

  “What’s that mean?”

  I shook my head in disgust, then repeated, “I have to go.”

  “Wait.” He gripped the door through the open window as though he could keep me from backing up. My car was such a piece of crap, I was giving him fifty-fifty odds.

  “Joe, I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “Then we’ll talk later, but I need to know that you’re still good with Saturday night.”

  Oh God. Had he invited Dena to come to that too?

  He must have seen the confused look on my face. “You’re still planning to come with me?”

  “It’s just the two of us?”

  “Of course.”

  But for how long? “Look,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t want to be that person, but I’m gonna put it out there—if she’s coming, I’m not. If it’s just you and me, then I’m still in.”

  “I… She knows it’s just the two of us. She wouldn’t…”

  “She found a really great excuse to crash our coffee date. She would.” I softened my tone. “I’ve got to go. Despite Dena’s skepticism, there really are instances that are semi-emergent.”

  He frowned. “She didn’t mean—”

  “She did.” I sounded sadder than I’d intended. “I’ve got to go.” Then I backed out, refusing to look at him.

  The further I got from him, the bitchier I felt, but I was so tired of feeling I had to compete for attention. Was it so wrong to want someone to simply love me and want to be with me and not have to fight for it?

  I had that with Rose, but our relationship was strained lately, and I knew it was completely my doing. I was keeping secrets from her and they were coming between us. I was nearly ready to tell her everything, but I kept finding excuses to stay silent.

  Six years ago, I’d killed a man, and then I’d buried his body. I wasn’t afraid of losing her love—I knew I could tell her the whole ugly truth and she’d still love me—but I was afraid of losing her respect. I’d done everything I could to become a woman who would never fall prey to a man again. And yet there was no erasing the fact that I’d been weak. A strong woman wouldn’t have allowed her boyfriend to use her as a sex slave for nine months. A strong woman wouldn’t have let herself get into a situation where killing a man was the only way out. I couldn’t handle the pity I’d see in Rose’s eyes if she found out—or how devastated she’d be on my behalf. Rose had the biggest heart of anyone I knew, and once she found out what I’d gone through, it would break her.

  But part of me needed to tell her. I wanted her to know the whole me.

  Thank God I had Jed to help me work through it.

  Except I’d begun to realize he had secrets of his own. He’d been cagey about something the last couple of weeks, going off and doing things that he couldn’t share with me. And while he was a very attentive boyfriend when we were together, we still hadn’t slept together. I knew there were plenty of men who waited before sleeping with a woman, but I knew for a fact that Jed Carlisle wasn’t one of them.

  So why wouldn’t he sleep with me? He’d told me he wanted to wait to prove I was special, but combined with his secrets, I was beginning to wonder if he’d changed his mind, especially since he’d pulled away from me the last couple of times we’d kissed. Maybe he was feeling stuck, like we’d shared too many secrets for him to ditch unstable, needy Neely Kate. That kind of thing happens when you move a body with someone.

  Then there was the fact that we’d agreed to keep our relationship secret. I couldn’t risk Joe finding out, and Jed was worried that Skeeter’s enemies would hurt me to hurt him. It was for the best, but what kind of life could we lead if we kept each other a secret? And some part of me worried he didn’t want anyone to think he was sleeping with Neely Kate Rivers Colson…even if he wasn’t.

  I pulled into the nursery parking lot, pleased to see several cars in the lot. August was supposedly a slow month for landscaping businesses, but Bruce Wayne and his grounds crew were busting their tails to keep up with demand, and Rose and I usually had at least one consultation a day.

  I started to open my door when my phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize. I sure didn’t know anyone with a 469 area code. Figuring it was a robocall, I silenced the ringer and stuck the phone in my pocket as I climbed out.

  Maeve, the store manager, was ringing up a customer at the counter, and I could see Anna out back talking to a customer. Violet was sitting in a chair in the back of the store.

  Violet and Rose had started the Gardner Sisters Nursery together, and my brother Joe was now a partial owner after having bailed them out of a financial situation that had nearly ended their business last November. Violet had been diagnosed with some kind of aggressive blood cancer in February, and she’d come home last month after a long stay at MD Anderson in Houston. We’d all thought she was cured, only to find out there was nothing more they could do to save her.

  A couple of weeks ago, she’d been so weak Rose had feared she would die any minute, but Violet had gotten strong enough to come work at the nursery for a few hours every day. The nursery had been Violet’s dream and being here made her happy.

  She smiled when she saw me and waved me back to the cozy corner Anna had set up for her.

  “You’re lookin’ good, Violet,” I said as I walked toward her.

  She reached a hand up to the light pink scarf tied around her head.

  I squatted in front of her and grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her hand down to her lap. “Stop. You’re beautiful.”

  Tears swam in her eyes. Violet once had the most beautiful blond hair before it had all fallen out from her chemo. She was self-admittedly vain, so I knew it bothered her to lose it.

  Her gaze dipped to her lap. “Neely Kate.”

  The way she said my name, so gentle and a little sad, reminded me of the last time we’d spoken on our own. She’d called me after my miscarriage in January. While no one else had known what to say to me, she’d told me the one thing I needed to hear: She understood. Turned out she’d lost a baby too, before Rose’s niece was born.

  “I never thanked you,” I said softly.

  Her eyes lifted. “What on earth for?”

  “For bein’ there for me after I lost my babies. We weren’t really friends, yet you were the one person who actually made me feel like I’d survive it.”

  She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “It’s a sisterhood, albeit a sad one. I knew how much you wanted those babies.”r />
  My miscarriage hadn’t just sent me reeling; it had also led to the end of my marriage. The doctor had removed one of my fallopian tubes with the ectopic pregnancy and said the other tube was hopelessly scarred from my previous multiple STIs. I was lucky to have gotten pregnant in the first place, and it was unlikely to happen again. I’d hidden most of my past from Ronnie, and it turned out he couldn’t handle being married to a slut, especially one who couldn’t give him babies. He’d run off a week later and I hadn’t heard from him since. Now I just wanted to serve him divorce papers and be done with the man, but no one knew how to find him.

  “You know there was a reason we weren’t friends before,” she said. “I was jealous of you.”

  “Jealous of me?”

  “You replaced me in Rose’s heart.”

  My eyes flew wide. “No, Violet! I—”

  She squeezed my hand tighter. “Stop. I missed my sister, but it was my own stubborn fault. I chased her away. You’re a good friend to her, Neely Kate.” A tear fell down her cheek. “I asked you to meet me here because I need you to make me a promise.”

  I nodded, fighting my own tears. “Of course.”

  “You don’t even know what it is yet.” She grinned even as more tears fell. “If I’d known this dyin’ thing could get people to agree to just about anything, I would have started tellin’ people I was dyin’ years ago.”

  I started to gasp, then laughed instead. Turned out honesty was a new trait Violet was trying on for size now that she was dying. “I think I like you, Violet Beauregard.”

  “I like you too, Neely Kate Rivers.” She placed her palm against mine and laced our fingers together. “Which is why I want you to promise me you’ll always be there for my sister.”

  “I love Rose. Of course I will.”

  She shook her head, tears streaming now. She squeezed my hand tighter. “No. I mean till death do you part. You’ve been more of a sister to her than I’ve been lately. You two have a bond that she and I never had. She’s gonna need you more than ever, Neely Kate.” Her voice broke. “She’s been through so much in her life. So. Much. The things Momma did to her …” She started crying harder. “I can’t stand the fact that I’m leaving her alone.”

  I pulled her head to my shoulder and wrapped an arm around her back, feeling every rib through her thin shirt. “You put that worry to rest, do you hear me?” I whispered fiercely. “She’s not alone. I won’t let that happen and neither will Maeve, or Joe, or Jonah, or a whole host of other people. We may not be her blood kin, but we love her just the same.” I grabbed her face between my hands and stared into her eyes. “You hear me? She’ll never be alone.”

  “I’ve asked her to do something hard after I die. I need you to stand with her then.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “What have you asked her to do?”

  “She doesn’t know what it is yet. It’s in my will.”

  “What do you want her to do, Vi?” I pressed.

  She shook her head. “No. All in good time.” She released my hand and leaned back in her chair, looking exhausted. “I know she’s seein’ someone. Do you know who it is?”

  I hesitated, caught off guard. “Why do you think she’s seein’ someone?”

  She gave me a look that suggested I was a fool. “Because she has that glow a woman gets when she’s being adored by a man and is gettin’ lots of sex. Do you know who it is?”

  “I… uh…”

  She waved a hand. “Never mind. You don’t need to tell me. I’ll find out soon enough on my own. I plan on peerin’ over the edge of heaven and spyin’ on all y’all. I’ll find out who it is then.”

  I couldn’t help laughing.

  “I’d like to get to know you better before I die,” Violet said, turning serious. “I know it’s a morbid way of puttin’ it, but it’s true. I feel like I wasted time I could have spent bein’ your friend too. But maybe you’d rather not make the effort seein’ as how I don’t have much time left.”

  If I hadn’t known she only had months to live, I would have been warier. Violet was a manipulator in her own right. But what purpose would it serve now? Call me a fool, but I believed that she was trying to make amends. “Don’t go bein’ all pouty,” I said with a grin. “Tryin’ to guilt me into bein’ your friend.”

  She grinned back. “Is it workin’?”

  “You had me at dyin’, Vi,” I said, my breath hitching. “Of course I’ll be your friend.”

  “Help me up. I want to show you something.”

  I stood and offered her a hand. “What is it?”

  “You’ll see soon enough.”

  “Now you sound like my granny.”

  Violet took my hand and I pulled her to her feet, surprised she weighed next to nothing. “Hopefully I don’t look like your granny.”

  “No. She has more hair than you do.”

  Violet burst into laughter and then started coughing.

  Maeve had stuck close to the register after her customer left, giving Violet and me space to talk, but she made a move toward us now with worry in her eyes.

  Violet held her hand up and forced out words through her coughing fit. “I’m fine.”

  Maeve stayed in place, but her worried look stuck around too.

  “I’m fine. I’m not dyin’ yet,” Violet said, then took a deep breath without coughing. “I’m takin’ Neely Kate out back.”

  “Okay,” Maeve said, though she didn’t look like she thought it was a good idea.

  Violet walked without assistance, which was a one hundred percent improvement over her condition a couple of weeks ago. Rose had practically had to carry her around. We went out the back door and she led me into the greenhouse where all the shade loving plants were kept.

  “Do you know what these are?” she asked, pointing to a flowering plant.

  “Impatiens,” I said in confusion. From her dramatic declaration, I’d figured she wanted to show me something important, not a bunch of plants.

  “That’s right. Can you plant them in the sun?”

  “No,” I said slowly, drawing out the word, “they like shade.”

  “They do like shade, but you actually can plant them in the sun if you want to.”

  “Vi… maybe we should go inside.”

  “Don’t be a whiner, Neely Kate, and listen to what I’m teachin’ you. If you’re gonna work with Rose, you need to know this. I won’t be here, so you need to take my place and help her. Impatiens can go in the sun, but you need to work your way up to it. If you just plop ’em in the sun, they’ll dry up, but if you introduce it to them slowly and give them a lot of water, they’ll acclimate. What else can you tell me about impatiens?” she asked. “Do you need to deadhead them?”

  I blinked. “No…?”

  “That’s right. They clean themselves up quite nicely, something I hope Mikey learns to do sooner than later,” she said about her two-year-old son with a grin. “Now, what else do you know about them?”

  “They like lots of water.”

  She grinned. “That’s right, but if they wilt, they tend to bounce right back once they’ve had a good drink. One more thing—some of the older women like to call them touch-me-nots. If you don’t know what they’re talkin’ about, they’ll turn right around and walk out the door. How about over there?” She pointed to some begonias. “What are those?”

  She spent the next half hour grilling me over flowering plants, peppering in questions about my personal life.

  “How are things goin’ with Joe? I hear he’s datin’ the cupcake shop owner.”

  “Dena,” I said, trying to keep the hostility out of my voice. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

  “Is Joe still keepin’ you a secret from the world?”

  I gaped at her. “Did Rose tell you that?”

  “No, Joe did just the other day.” She gave me an ornery grin.

  “Oh, my stars and garters, did you have something to do with him changing his mind?”

  Her grin
spread. “I may have suggested it wasn’t his decision to make.” I stared at her in disbelief and her eyes twinkled. “Not all my meddling is bad.”

  She had a point. “He asked me if I wanted to go to a fundraiser dinner in Little Rock on Saturday night.”

  “What did you tell him?” she asked as she inched closer to the asparagus ferns.

  “I told him yes, but Dena’s makin’ me have second thoughts.”

  She rested one hand on the table and the other on her hip. “What on earth for?”

  “Well, she reminded me that I don’t have a dress to wear.” I lowered my voice. “I don’t have money to get a new car. I sure as Pete can’t afford to be wastin’ money on a fancy dress.”

  “I have a closet full of fancy dresses,” Violet said. “And shoes too. Just come over to my house and pick one out.”

  “I can’t do that, Violet.”

  “Why on earth not? I won’t be wearin’ them anytime soon. Bring Rose with you and we’ll make a party out of it.”

  I flushed. “Okay. Thanks.”

  “See? Problem solved.”

  “Not entirely,” I said. “Dena also pointed out that I don’t know anything about eatin’ at formal dinners.

  “So you learn,” she said. “Joe may have been born with a silver spoon, but he didn’t know if it was a soup spoon or a dessert spoon. He learned at cotillion.”

  “Rivers kids didn’t go to cotillion.”

  Her mouth twisted to the side. “No, but a Rivers woman can still learn.” Then, without saying another word to me, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and placed a call.

  What was she doing?

  “Mary Ellen, it’s Violet… I’m fine, but I’m not calling about me. Do you still have those etiquette classes?”

  My mouth dropped open.

  “Tonight?” She raised her eyebrows at me, and I found myself nodding. “Surely you can make an exception for me. Just this once.” Violet grinned. “Reserve two spots. No, not for me. They’re for Neely Kate Rivers and my sister Rose.”