Chapter 18 Lacey
LACEY
With the new key I’d had made, I unlocked the front door leading into the office.
I’d typically not worry about re-keying the locks, but with the onslaught of interest in the warehouse event space, the continued obsession of Bodie’s family with the beavers, and the pressure I’d been feeling from the past employees, playing it safe was better than playing it sorry.
Once inside, I flipped the lights and let the door close behind me.
A quick glance around the front office assured me everything was in its proper place.
What could Bodie be looking for? He’d helped out with the pet-rescue portion of the sale so if he dropped something it had to be in the front area.
I leaned down, searching under desks and chairs.
Apart from a few dust bunnies that might be mistaken for tumbleweeds, nothing stood out.
Bodie didn’t seem like the kind of man who needed a ploy.
But I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t just have me text him the information.
Oh well. At least I’d have a chance to see him before I left town.
That intimate moment we’d shared a few weeks ago had left me reeling.
I needed to set eyes on him and prove to myself that he was still the annoying bully he’d been since I moved back to town.
Anything else might get in the way of my focusing all of my attention on transforming the Phillips House and I couldn’t have that.
With so little time left before our first event, I still couldn’t believe I’d let Adeline talk me into going wedding dress shopping.
But I’d do just about anything to hold on to the hope that Ido would someday be a destination wedding site. It would work. It had to.
As I took a final look around, headlights swept through the window. Bodie.
His footsteps crunched on the gravel outside, and I heard him coming long before he knocked at the door.
“Hey.” I pushed open the door to the outside, then stepped back when I realized who he’d brought with him. “Shotgun! Hey, girl.”
The pup danced on her hind legs, trying to jump up and smother my face with kisses.
“Down.” At Bodie’s command, Shotgun stood on all fours, her tail wagging so hard the back half of her body whipped back and forth like a rag doll. “We’re working on manners.”
“I’m impressed.” I looked up at Bodie as I leaned down to pet the dog. “She seems to be doing great.”
Shotgun jumped up, cracking the top of her head against my chin. I stumbled back but a strong hand caught me before my tailbone hit the ground.
“You okay?” Bodie’s hands gripped my arms and pulled me back to a standing position. “Sorry about that. She’s a work in progress.”
“Aren’t we all?” I grinned even though the area under my chin throbbed from the impact. “Shotgun, your head seems to be as hard as a rock.”
Bodie put a hand on either side of my face and tipped my head back. Tiny pinpricks of awareness swept over my cheeks. “She got you good. You want me to grab some ice?”
I stepped back, more worried about the feel of Bodie’s fingertips on my skin than any bruising that might be forming on my face. “No, I’m fine.”
Shotgun stood in front of me, minus a bit of her previous enthusiasm, her tail no longer thrashing the air. She cocked her head one way, then tilted it the other.
“That’s the universal way of saying I’m sorry in dog talk.” Bodie reached down to ruffle the dog’s ears. “She also says maybe I should have named her Bonehead instead.”
I let out a laugh as I arched a brow. “I had no idea you could communicate with animals like that.”
“It’s a newly developed talent.” Bodie shrugged. “Just one of my superpowers, I guess.”
Bodie was big enough to be a superhero. My inner teenager had always considered his mere presence a superpower in and of itself.
The way he could make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I was in, the way he’d resort to desperate and embarrassing lengths to coax a smile.
I peered up at him as I squatted next to Shotgun.
Yeah, Bodie was all of my favorite superheroes combined.
My breath caught in my chest, making me cough on my own inhale. When did I become such a sap? I shook all cheesy thoughts of Bodie out of my head.
“So you want that checklist?” I gave Shotgun a final pat then stood, brushing stray dog hairs off my shirt.
“Yeah, that would be great. What’s on it?”
I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and unfolded it as I stepped close to the counter. “Not too much.”
His finger grazed mine as he pointed to the first item on the list. My breath hitched.
Since when did being around Bodie incite choking on air?
Since he’d stopped looking at me like a bug he’d like to squash and started looking at me as someone he might want to .
. . what? As he ran his finger over the paper, I wondered what might happen if I pressed my hand onto his.
“Moses removal?” His finger stopped on item number three. “Who’s Moses?”
I jerked my finger back as hot prickles raced across my cheeks. What had gotten into me lately?
“Lacey?” Bodie poked me in the arm. The kind of poke he might have given to my twelve-year-old self. The kind intended for someone he didn’t think of as more than an annoying little sister.
“Moses. Yeah, that’s the armadillo Adeline saw.”
“You named him after a biblical figure?”
My shoulders shook as a shiver raced through me. “It was the best I could do at the time.”
“Fill in holes in the yard? Don’t you think we should wait until item one is taken care of to do that?”
“It looks like a fairy garden graveyard out there. Can’t we fill in some of them so people don’t wonder why there are holes all over the place?”
“A fairy garden graveyard?” Bodie’s head dipped.
Then it shook from side to side like he’d never heard anything so stupid.
But I knew for a fact he had. He and Luke used to make stuff up all the time.
They once told me that an old tree in the backyard came alive at night.
I was terrified to go in the backyard alone for months.
“Just deal with the armadillos, okay? Everything else can wait until I get back.”
“We’ll have to set live traps. Do you have a budget for that?”
“I don’t have a budget for any of this. We’ve got a little bit left from the warehouse sale.” I noticed the way his shoulders hunched when I mentioned it. “Other than that we’ve almost maxed out the maintenance budget set aside for the house and property.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He folded up the paper and shoved it in his pocket. “Now, do you mind if I look around? I’m pretty sure I dropped my mini flashlight while I was here for the sale.”
“Go ahead. I didn’t see anything up here in the office so it must be in back.” I gestured toward the door to the warehouse.
“Thanks. You want me to take Shotgun with me or leave her out here with you?”
“I have to come back anyway to sort through some more boxes. We can all head out back.” Did Bodie really wince or did I imagine it?
“All right. Lead the way.” He held the door open, letting me pass through first. Shotgun bounded after me, dragging her new green-and-brown-camouflage-print leash behind her.
“I’ll be over here sorting through fake flowers. Let me know if you need anything.” I turned left to head down one aisle while Bodie went to the opposite side of the warehouse.
While I sorted through boxes and bins of silk flowers, garlands, and greenery, I couldn’t help but think about the predicament I’d stuck myself in.
If I didn’t come through for Adeline’s wedding, I might as well kiss any hope of success goodbye.
Adeline wasn’t the kind of woman who believed in doling out second chances.
She expected 120 percent effort all the time.
If a single thing went wrong, no matter how well the rest of the event went, it would shroud the evening in failure.
I took in a gulp of air and forced it down, past the tightness in my chest.
As I opened another box, a crash sounded from the other side of the warehouse. “Bodie? Are you okay?”
Shotgun barked. Bodie yelled something I couldn’t make out, and I took off in that direction.
I rounded a set of shelves to find Shotgun and Bodie engaged in a game of tug-of-war. Bodie crouched down, his hands wrapped around something Shotgun held in her mouth.
“What’s going on?”
Bodie looked up, letting go of his grip. “Damn dog knocked over a box of breakables.”
My gaze passed over the chunks of white ceramic scattered all over the floor. “What was it?”
“It was a box of beavers.” He stretched his hands to the sides, nodding toward the mix of cardboard and packing peanuts spilling over the floor in front of him. “Shotgun wouldn’t leave it alone. She jumped up and knocked it off the shelf.”
I nudged the mess with the toe of my boot. “Are they all broken?”
Bodie knelt down and sifted through the packing material. “What the hell?”
“What?” I squatted next to him.
He lifted up the remains of a bucktoothed beaver figurine. Something long and brown stuck up from the center. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
I squinted, trying to see what Bodie must be seeing. “What is it?”
“I think we just figured out why my dad and pops were so eager to get their hands on your beavers.”
“Excuse me?”
Bodie made eye contact, looking like he’d just realized where we were and who squatted down next to him. “Sorry, I mean the beaver figurines. Do you know what this is?”
I squinted again as I shook my head. “No. Are you going to tell me?”
He let the beaver’s bottom drop to the floor and held the bundle in front of me. “This makes so much sense now.”
Impatience was getting the best of me. I clamped my hands to my hips as I stood. “I’m glad you’ve figured out what’s going on. Now, do you want to enlighten me? Please?”
Still squatting, he had to look up to meet my eyes. “Have you ever seen my dad without a cigar in his mouth?”
I nibbled on my lower lip as I considered the question. “No, I can’t say that I have.”
As Bodie stood, he handed me the bundle. “Any idea what kind of cigars my dad likes to smoke?” At my blank stare, he rolled his eyes. “Cubans.”
I shrugged. “So?”
I still didn’t get it. Bodie wanted to grab me by the shoulders and shake some sense into me. Not in a creepy way. In a “come on girl, get with the program” way. “It’s illegal to import Cuban cigars into the States for commercial purposes, Mayor Cherish.”
Finally, a hint of understanding lit my gaze. “You mean your dad and pops were using the import business as a front to illegally import them?”
“I don’t know, but I’d say we’ve got some irrefutable evidence here.” He leaned over, digging through the box of broken beavers. Every single one of them had a bundle of cigars tucked inside. “How many boxes of beavers do you have?”
I looked up at the shelf towering above me. “All the boxes on this shelving unit. Plus some more against the wall over there.”
Bodie put his hand to his temple as he shook his head. “No wonder they wanted them back. There’s got to be thousands of dollars’ worth of cigars here.”
“So what are you waiting for?” I tossed another bundle onto the heap.
“What do you mean?”
My gaze shifted to where Shotgun lay on the ground, chewing up a piece of cardboard. “If what you said is true, they’re breaking the law. Aren’t you going to arrest them?”
“Not without a little more investigating.” Bodie grimaced. “I need to figure out what they wanted to do with them, where they were getting them . . . letting them know we’re onto them wouldn’t help the case at this point.”
I clamped my arms to my waist, my brow furrowed. “So you’re not going to say anything about this?”
“No”—he put his hand on my shoulder—“and you can’t, either.”
My gaze traveled to where his palm rested, making him acutely aware of the heat generated by his touch. “And why not?”
“Because if they know we know something they’ll be liable to destroy the evidence.” That would set him back, putting him even farther away from learning what his dad and pops were up to.
“You think your dad’s going to smoke them all?” My lips quirked up at the edges like I wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the idea.
“Just promise me you won’t say anything for a few days?”