Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
The three-and-a-half-hour road trip to Connecticut felt familiar. Like a bit of déjà vu for Natalie.
Liam behind the wheel of his Jeep, after he’d insisted on driving his vehicle instead of taking hers.
Natalie in the passenger seat, on her cell trying to organize her life back home as every minute took them another mile farther from Mudville.
Overnight bags in the back. Snack bag in the front.
Heat whooshing out of the dashboard vents while Liam’s choice of music, classic rock, pumped from the speakers.
It could have easily been their first road trip together, a couple of years ago now.
Then, virtual strangers with a common goal, they had been driving to find Gabe’s prohibition-era treasure and, hopefully, his murderer.
Today, as a couple, they drove to discover if Lionel had any treasure of his own. Research she could use. And, hopefully, evidence to disprove there was any murderer to find.
Two different road trips, yet so much the same.
“Are you sure you’re okay there working on the manuscript alone?” Natalie asked Harper via the cell phone pressed to her ear.
“Yes. Don’t worry. It’s going great. We’ve made a lot of progress already today. Ten chapters.”
“Ten chapters? Since I left?” Natalie asked.
It had taken her more like ten hours per chapter when she’d been working alone with Professor Perfectionist.
Lionel was going to blow his top when he returned and discovered Harper a—gasp—romance writer had worked on his book without him. If Lionel returned. Natalie still had that nagging fear that he and his body would never make it back to Liam’s lab.
But if Harper really was making such great progress, maybe it didn’t matter if Lionel didn’t return. They could get the book in good enough condition to submit to the publisher, on time, then let Lionel’s editor handle the rest.
“We might even be done by the time you get home tomorrow,” Harper continued. “Then you and I can go over it again together.”
“That soon?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’re on a roll.”
“Wow. That’s great...” Something struck Natalie as the scenery whizzed by the car window. “Wait. You keep saying we. Who’s we?”
She imagined Alice standing over Harper’s shoulder, rewriting Lionel’s words. The results of that should be interesting. Maybe it would be better if Lionel didn’t return…
“Gabe and Millie are helping me.”
Natalie drew back in surprise. “Really? How?”
“Hey! I was a history professor too, you know.”
Harper laughed. “That was Gabe. You’re on speakerphone. I think Gabe is insulted that you don’t think he can help.”
“Calm down. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just—I’m trying to picture how this is working.”
“Well, I upgraded my monitor set-up on my computer last year, so I have the research up on one screen and the manuscript up on the other. Gabe and Millie are helping with the proofreading. And since I can hear them when they’re together, they can tell me when they find a typo.
I mean it would help if they could touch the computer keys too so I don’t have to do that for them, but I’ll take all the help I can get. ”
“Wow. Okay. Good job. And thank you so much for helping. All of you.” Natalie knew Lionel was no one’s favorite person, yet both the living and the ghosts were pulling together to help. For the book. For the upcoming Mudville article. For her.
It warmed her heart.
“You better call me when you get there. I’m dying to know what it’s like pawing through Lionel’s things,” Harper said.
“He’s going to hate that. I can’t wait to tell him. It’s going to be great!” Natalie heard Gabe say.
“I’ll call. I promise.” As entertaining as it was speaking to her two best friends, one living, one dead, the GPS was suddenly talking.
They were getting close to their destination.
With the computer voice announcing the next turn making it hard to hear, Natalie said, “I better go. Talk later.”
After Harper and Gabe said good-bye, Natalie disconnected the call just as Liam flipped on the blinker and began to slow.
“Are we there?” she asked, hopeful. She could use lunch and maybe a fancy Starbucks coffee, extra whipped cream. Road trip calories didn’t count.
“Soon enough.” Liam nodded. “Everything good at home?”
“Good… for now. Harper seems happy. So I’m happy. If Lionel is going to be happy is another story.”
Liam shot her a sideways glance. “I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.”
“I won’t,” she lied. She lost sleep over pretty much everything.
Although last night it wasn’t worry that kept her up, but excitement.
What would they find?
It could be a treasure trove of materials to rival what they’d discovered hidden in her shop’s wall. It could also be every newspaper published since the moon launch, piled up in floor-to-ceiling stacks like a maze.
There really was no telling which and that’s what made it exciting.
Before she knew it the car had stopped and Liam was shifting the Jeep into park.
“We’re here?” she asked.
“We’re here. You have the landlady’s apartment number?”
“I do.”
“Then let’s go.” Liam pulled the key out of the ignition, grumbling, “I hope all the professor’s shit fits in here.”
“We don’t have to take everything home with us.
We can look for one of those clothing donation boxes and drop his clothes and shoes in there.
Unless you’d like to keep a tweed sports coat or two for yourself.
Ooo, and maybe a pair of those nice brown corduroy pants to go with it.
” She sent him a smirk knowing very well that not only was Liam a jeans and henley kind of guy, there was no way he’d want Lionel’s old clothes.
Dark brows rose above ocean blue eyes. “Wouldn’t it teach you a lesson if I did raid old Lionel’s closet and wore his professor outfits every day.”
She imagined that, Liam dressed as a young, hot professor that would make all the co-ed girls fall in love with him. Maybe with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. She didn’t hate it. In fact, she kind of liked it. Was this the female equivalent of the male hot for teacher or sexy librarian fantasy?
“No,” he said flatly.
“No, what? What are you talking about?” she asked turning to look at him in the driver’s seat.
“I can see those wheels turning in your head. You’re not dressing me up like some professor.”
“Why not? I think you’d look kind of sexy…”
Those brows rose impossibly higher. “If we’re talking role playing, I wouldn’t mind seeing you in a lab coat, a pair of stilettos and nothing else.”
She frowned, not sure whether to feel flattered or annoyed by Liam’s quid pro quo demands. She’d have to think about it.
Meanwhile, Liam was already out of the Jeep and standing next to her side of the car. He opened the door for her and she scrambled out.
The treasure trove that was Lionel’s apartment awaited...