Whiskey Rebellion (Romantic Mystery/Comedy) Book 1 (Addison Holmes Mysteries)

thinking I should protest just a little so he wouldn’t think I was easy, but then all the thoughts leaked out of my ears, and I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him back. My head began to buzz and heat shot to all my favorite places.
    Fortunately, Nick had more control than I did and he pulled back before I could embarrass myself by begging. He gave me a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and then he was out the door.
    I learned two things from the whole experience. One: I’ve never had good sex. Two: I really wanted some.
    I was tired, irritated, sore and really turned on, so I took Kate’s advice and downed a Vicodin with the hopes it would put me out of my misery.

CHAPTER EIGHT

    Friday

    It was the last day of school.
    Thank God.
    And what made it even better was that there was only a half day of classes so the seniors could have plenty of time to get ready for graduation that night.
    It was the second week of June, and summer lay over the state like a wet blanket that was suffocating the life out of everything. The weather was unpredictable, with severe storms raging one moment followed by heat waves that made citizens irritable and seniors die from heat stroke. The only thing worse than Georgia in June was Georgia in July and August.
    When I was a teenager, I used to sit at my cramped school desk—o ne that somehow always managed to have gum on the underside so it stuck to my knees—and wait impatiently for the bell to ring at the end of the day.
    As soon as I heard that glorious sound I’d grab my backpack and rush out the door. I’d head directly to my job at The Drug Mart, where I sold a lot of condoms and greeting cards, and I’d wish like crazy that I could just hurry up and graduate so I could be a part of the real world.
    Somehow, after four years of college, I’ d ended up in the same place I started, sitting at a little larger desk and needing the bell to ring worse than a wino with the shakes and a booze shortage.
    When the bell rang at twelve-thirty I grabbed my things and rushed into the hallway, taking five seconds to lock my classroom door. I turned around and ran right into Rose Marie Valentine.
    “Oooomph,” she said.
    I watched her fa ll in slow motion onto her well-padded posterior. It wasn’t pretty.
    “Oh my gosh. Are you okay?” I asked, scrambling down beside her as quickly as I could with my sore knee. We probably looked like a Vaudeville act to the casual observer. I gathered her papers and purse and tried to heft her up by the elbow, but Rose Marie was a lot of woman. It was a two handed job and I was one short, so I dropped her things on the ground again and put more of my weight behind the effort.
    “I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said, her glasses skewed at an odd angle on her nose and her breath huffing and puffing like she’d just run the Boston Marathon.
    “My goodness, you sure are in a hurry. You’d think this was the last day of school or something.” She twittered at her own joke and adjusted her glasses. “Where are you off to?”
    “I’m headed to the mall. I’m going to the Officer’s Gala tonight with some friends and I need a new dress.”
    “Oh, really?” Rose Marie said, her eyes lighting up. “That sounds so exciting. You have such an adventurous life. I just go home to my babies every day and do a lot of crossword puzzles. And then of course there’s Days of Our Lives. It’s like my second family.”
    I’d seen Rose Marie’s babies. She had framed pictures of them all over her desk. She had two Mastiffs that were the size of small horses and they each had their own bedroom in her small duplex.
    “I wish my life was as exciting as yours. I don’t even remember the last time I went to the mall.”
    Rose Marie’s eyes got all misty and depressed and I felt as low as someone who had just kicked a puppy with a pointy-toed shoe. Not to mention the fact that I had just knocked her on her ass. Before I could stop myself, I heard the words coming out of my mouth.
    “Why don’t you come with me? It always helps to have a second opinion. But we have to hurry because I have exactly seven hours to make myself presentable.”
    Geez, I was such a sucker. Her face lit up, pink and round like Mrs. Claus.
    “Why, that sounds like fun. And if we have time we can stop for lunch at that rest aurant in the mall where each room is a different continent. I like to sit in the Australia room because the waiters are almost naked and