Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
AIDEN
M y breath turns slightly rough as I stand in the small trailer next to Tinsley Humber. Even without high heels, she’s tall, slim, and fit. A blonde bombshell Barbie doll with big hair and brown eyes. Her voice is like honey, but she’s not sweet. More like sweet adjacent. Like she was born smart and sweet but left it behind in the home library she described from her childhood.
“Where are you going to sleep?” I notice, not for the first time, that she has a slight gap between her two front teeth.
My lips part slightly as I try to think about my answer and not her lips. “Where am I going to sleep?”
She nods slowly, having transformed the pout she wore when she saw that “My place” is a trailer affectionately named Toby. I can thank Bess for that and the welcome mat. Now, Tinsley wears a look of curious caution like a cat who discovers a paper bag on the floor and is really tempted to see what’s inside.
I have to admit that it’s kind of cute.
I get us each a can of sparkling water from the fridge. I crack mine and take a much-needed sip. Is it possible for a woman to make you thirsty while at the same time somehow quench a thirst you didn’t know you had?
I visibly reacted when I saw Tinsley for the first time, partly because I recognized her from the case, but also because she’s undeniably attractive. As the day has worn on, loose pieces of her hair fall out of the messy bun she wears. I found a sequin stuck to my arm and tucked it in my pocket. Evidence. As she gets more and more comfortable, even though this isn’t the kind of luxurious comfort she’s used to, she’s somehow gotten more attractive.
She looks at me, still waiting for my response. I give my head a little shake. “Right. Where am I going to stay? I have a place through there.” I gesture vaguely through the woods.
“In your car? On a hammock in the forest? A cave?”
I chuckle. “No, I’m building a house. It’s a work in progress, but the bathroom is doable, so I’ll be fine. Though I think I may have to shower down here.”
“Is it safe?”
“The shower? Yes. Clean water. I had it tested. This used to be a hunting camp, so they had an RV hookup.”
“No, I mean, what if a bear comes or a Sasquatch?”
Like when I choked on the bug on the ride over, I cough on my sip of water. “You don’t have to worry about a Sasquatch.”
“Do you have them around here?”
“I think the more important question to ask is are Sasquatch real.”
Tinsley has flashbulb eyes as she looks over my shoulder. Concerned I’m about to see the answer to my question staring through Toby’s window, I twist in that direction. My arm brushes hers, sending tingles through me.
Instead of a hairy beast, a flame from the grill lights up the night. “The steaks!” I hurry outside and am happy to say that’s the last of the excitement for the night.
We eat the steak and a salad I got at Mulberry Market when I picked up some cat food. I go over the plan for the next day for me to drive Tinsley to town for her first day at Sweethearts Bakery and Café before she and I head over to Bubba’s.
“Don’t forget your change of clothes. We can go into Savannah on the weekend so you can get some more stuff,” I offer. I also wouldn’t mind taking her to River Rocks, a waterfront restaurant with great seafood.
“You don’t have to chauffeur me around.”
“Do you have another driver willing to do the job?” As soon as I ask this, given the tidbits she’s fed me about her childhood, I wouldn’t doubt that were the case.
She bites her nail and then shoves her hands into her lap. “I’m guessing Mother and Father won’t send anyone.”
“You’re not kidding.”
“Sadly, no. They’re yachting at the moment, but as soon as they find out about my, uh, scandal—” She shakes her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“What about your parents?” she asks.
“They live in Virginia so my dad could be closer to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He loves planes. He went into insurance but missed his calling in the aircraft field. However, Mom is getting tired of their weekly visits and misses home. I’m aiming to move them here.”
“To the trailer?”
I laugh. “No, but I want to build them a house on this spot. I have a feeling once they meet Taylor and Mae’s baby, Dad will decide to stay. That way the whole family will be in one area.”
“Bess lives here too?”
“Yep, she moved down from North Carolina not long ago. She and Cassian had what she affectionately calls a ‘Meet Ugly.’ She crashed into his car, became his housekeeper, got him to dust off his heart...and the rest is a prince and princess happily ever after story. Literally. They live in a castle a few miles away.”
“There’s a castle in Butterbury?”
“Sure is. His grandparents built it. If you haven’t noticed, this town is a special place.”
“Seems like you and your family are close. Your friends too.”
We’re close enough except they don’t know what I really do for a living. “We went through a little rough patch after we moved here from New Hampshire. The grandparents needed some help. It was Mae’s senior year. I’m about ten years older and was happy to help, but I was ready to be out on my own. Had to quit college. That’s what we do for family. Embarrassingly, I resented it for a time. Came to my senses though.”
“Seems like even without schooling, you did okay for yourself.” She eyes the Maybach.
“Yeah. I do alright. Everyone has setbacks and can either figure out a way forward or...not.” The Maybach was part of a prank on a previous case. Liked it so much that I decided to keep it.
Tinsley nods like she’s thinking about the way forward part. I have a feeling the chauffeured life doesn’t quite fit anymore.
“What about your family?” I ask because I’m curious to hear her talk as well as wonder if there’s some connection to Governor Pickering and the case.
“My brother recently reminded me that my father grew up poor. The story goes that at nine, he talked a neighborhood kid into letting him take over his paper route and drove a hard bargain to keep seventy percent of the earnings.”
“Enterprising, entrepreneurial.”
Tinsley nods. “But then when things started looking up, he was sent to an orphanage. There, he made lemonade out of lemons, or more accurately, he organized the other kids to make ornaments out of felt and sold them on the corner. He took on every job he could, eventually putting himself through law school.”
I tap the air, realizing where I’ve heard the last name Humber . He’s a leading corporate lawyer and word has it he invests well, possibly with thanks to insider trading, but that’s not my case. At least not this time.
Tinsley tells me she recently learned he and her mother met when she was working as a maid at a motel down in Texas.
“Kind of like Bess and Cassian.”
“Though I’m not sure they have a happily ever after. Granted. Mother and Father are still married, but it’s like their lives are a game of chess. Meanwhile, I was living mine like it was Candyland.” Tinsley looks at me like she’s wondering if there’s a middle ground.
“Life doesn’t have to be a game,” I say as if mine isn’t.
“No? But isn’t it a stage?” she asks, referencing Shakespeare.
“It doesn’t have to be,” I say as much to her as to myself. I’m not an actor in the classical sense, but I do play a role. At least for now. But the longer this day gets, the more the lines feel like they blur. I can only let myself flirt until I wrap up this case.
“We should probably clean up. You must be exhausted.”
“I think I’ve bypassed exhaustion and stepped into the Twilight Zone.”
We both get up at the same time and our knees bump. The internal rumble just won’t quit. Not when I’m near her. Warning signals are loud in my mind, especially since I told myself I can only wade into the water with Tinsley. No further. Nothing more. Nonetheless, my gaze drops to her lips and then lifts to her eyes before they shift back again.
I struggle to return to the thread of our conversation. My breath is ragged when I say, “The Twilight Zone? No, Tinsley, this is real.”
“I’m afraid so,” she says nearly as breathless.
As if both sensing where this is going, we shift apart and then start to clean up. However, being elbow to elbow in the kitchenette doesn’t help matters. I go to the car to get her bag and when I return, I find her on her phone. The smile she wore for most of the evening slowly slips off her face.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
She tucks her phone into her lap. “Yeah. Totally. Just—” She looks around. “This is just different.”
“Yeah. The night noises take some getting used to. You’ve traded police sirens and honking cars for crickets and frogs. But how about we trade numbers? If you need anything, I’m a phone call away.” I already have hers, but keep that to myself.
After we swap, Tinsley takes a deep breath. I leave her in the doorway of the trailer before getting on the four-wheeler and starting it up.
“The keys are in the car,” I holler, hoping I find her and it here in the morning.
The new house is a little more than halfway done. For now, four walls, a roof, and bathroom plumbing are in minus the shower. That’s good enough for me. It smells like freshly cut pine and damp drywall joint compound. I love it...and I hope Tinsley loves Butterbury as much as I do.
For now, I feel like I made the right choice not showing her my own version of a castle. I think she needs to find the middle ground for herself. Will it be in a trailer in the middle of the woods? I’ll find out in the next thirty days.
As I drift toward sleep, my thoughts linger on how it felt like showing Tinsley around Butterbury and bringing her here was the same amount of nerve-wracking as it would be to introduce her to my parents. No, that’ll be easier.
From there, I mentally cruise to how I was acting a little off when we got to my car. The Maybach is slightly ostentatious, but it’s part of my bachelor-in-finance persona. Plus it goes fast. Though my motorcycle is even more fun. Can’t deny I enjoy putting down the pedal on these empty roads.
However, I’m just as happy driving Judy—that’s the pickup truck behind Toby. The name is also with thanks to Bess. I don’t want Tinsley to think I’m a rich, flashy guy. I’ll heed Taylor’s warning to an extent. I’d like her to like me for me and not anything I own.
Good thing I’m lying down because that last thought slams me like a runaway tractor tire—happened to Bubba’s brother who lived to tell the tale.
Hold up. I want Tinsley to like me?
Moving on. It’s hard not to notice her phone remains silent even though she goes on it frequently. No one has called to see how she’s doing. I checked her social media accounts—for work, I swear. She’s quite a presence, yet she’s here. Why was she passing Butterbury where the only person she knows is Taylor? I don’t get homewrecker vibes unless she’s playing some kind of twisted long game. No, I sense she’s been rejected. Turned away by family and friends.
Is she alone?
I must fall asleep before I answer the question because the next thing I know, my phone beeps repeatedly and it’s not the alarm setting.
Bleary-eyed, I glance at the screen. Tinsley.
I rocket out of bed, tug on my pants from yesterday, grab my sidearm, and am on the four-wheeler in less than sixty seconds.
Possibilities rev in my mind as I focus on the uneven terrain in the dark. It never occurred to me that one of Puma’s fans or a troll might try to hassle or harm her.
Toby is dark as I approach. The four-wheeler’s lights shine on the white metal exterior. I’d like to have made a quiet approach, and imagine I scared off whoever was here, but they couldn’t have gone far.
Toby’s door flies open. “Stealth. I said to be stealthy. Didn’t you check your phone?”
My concern turns into consternation. “No, I didn’t because I wasn’t about to waste a second getting down here. It’s four am. It’s not like I thought you were calling for room service. I figured it was an emergency.”
Previously puffed up, she deflates a little and her arms fold in front of her chest. “If you’d read the message, you’d have known that I heard something scratching around out here.”
“Like a critter?” I check around with my flashlight but don’t see any signs of an animal—human or four-legged.
“I don’t know.” Panic fills her voice.
“Well, it’s long gone now.”
“But it’ll be back. Next time, please try to be quiet. Could’ve been a Sasquatch,” she says in a whisper.
With a tired chuckle, I shake my head. As I get back on the four-wheeler, I have to admit I like the idea that there might be a next time. Not because I want her to be afraid or to be woken from a dead sleep. Rather, that she’ll be sticking around for a while.
Morning comes too soon. I head down to the trailer to shower. I find Tinsley asleep, wearing blue cotton pajama shorts and a coordinating camisole. Last night, fired up with adrenaline, I didn’t even notice. I try to be quiet as I go to the tiny bathroom, but she sits up, eyes fuzzy and with a pillow crease on her face. There goes the rumble in my chest. Hopefully, she can’t hear it.
In a word, she’s adorable. Vulnerable, but not in a way that would make someone take advantage of her. Rather, like without makeup and all the sparkle and polish, she’s a regular person. A beautiful one at that.
Maybe even more so without all the fuss.
“I, uh,” I gesture over my shoulder and my arm feels floaty, disjointed like it belongs to someone else. “Shower,” I manage to mutter.
While the water cascades over my muscles, I can’t stop thinking about the woman at the other end of the trailer. I didn’t know the kind of woman I was looking for—classic, humble, honest, funny, silly, smart...all of it. More? I don’t know, but I think I found her in the most unlikely of places, but will I be able to make her mine?