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

two-story Colonial at the end of the block. This was truly a neighborhood for everyone. The good thing was that tall trees and overgrown shrubs ran the length of both sides of the alley, so there were plenty of good hiding places.
    We stopped behind a modest, one story brick home with a good size back yard. A chain linked fence closed in the yard and an overgrown garden sat unattended in the middle of the lot. There was a detached garage at the back of the house and the skeleton of a storage building being constructed sat next to it. There were no cars in the garage.
    “Can you believe this?” I said outraged. “How is it that John Hyatt will give a putz like Eddie Pogue a home loan, but he insists on giving me nothing but trouble?”
    “Probably Eddie Pogue didn’t have to overcome Veronica Wade,” Nick said. “All right, time to act lovey-dovey.”
    “Umm—w hat exactly am I supposed to—”
    The breath was knocked out of me as Nick backed me against the fence. He kissed me like he was searching for the lost city of Atlantis and all I could do was open my mouth in surprise and try to keep oxygen flowing to my brain.
    “Move slightly to your left,” he said, biting my earlobe. I could hear the click of the camera on his iPhone as he got off several shots of the back of the house. “I don’t see him anywhere on the premises, but he’s left all of his tools out, so it’s likely he won’t be gone long. We’ll have to come back so we can catch him in the act.”
    The jerk was working. The kiss had no effect on him at all, and I was a pitiful puddle at his feet. I shifted slightly and made sure my foot connected with his shin in the process.
    “Ouch, dammit, what the hell was that for?” he said, slipping his phone into his back pocket.
    “I don’t like being used as a distraction.”
    “Geez, what’s the big deal? It’s not like you didn’t like it.”
    Men. The fact that I liked it was beside the point, though I wasn’t going to ever admit it out loud.
    “Let’s just get out of here. I’ll have better luck catching Eddie Pogue when you’re not here to stick your tongue down my throat.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

    Monday

    I smelled the fresh aroma of coffee before I noticed the alarm blaring in my ear. I looked at the time and didn’t care that I was running a few minutes behind. School was out and all I had left was one lousy teacher workday. What were they going to do? Fire me?
    I threw on some jeans, a T-shirt and my Nike Shox because I had to get my room packed up for the summer. I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and cursed the bangs I’d thought were such a great idea.
    I’d gotten my books packed away and most of the things off the wall by ten o’clock, and I was ready to say to hell with it and not bother with the rest. Rose Marie came in just as I’d decided to sneak out for the day. My eyes crossed at the zebra print top she was wearing, so I busied myself by stacking boxes on a dolly to wheel out to my car.
    “Hey, I heard what happened at the Officer’s Gala between you and Veronica,” she said loudly.
    “Everyone’s heard about what happened at the Officer’s Gala. I got a call from Rudy Bauer at the Gazette asking if I had any comments to contribute to the article that would be in Thursday’s paper. All I could tell him was that Veronica’s tits were fake and she wasn’t a natural blonde, but he t old me he already knew all that.”
    I thought about the surprise on Veronica’s face as I ripped out a chunk of her bleached hair. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.
    “She’s not here today,” Rose Marie said. “Word has it that you ruptured one of her implants while y’all were rolling around on the floor.”
    I gasped in surprise, pulling my arm close to my body to protect my own breasts in an involuntary movement.
    “Ouch. I didn’t realize,” I whispered, horrified. “I got tasered before I could assess the damage for either one of us.”
    I got a mental impression of Veronica walking around town with a deflated boob and started to giggle. Rose Marie wasn’t far behind me, and before long we were both doubled over with tears running down our face.
    “We shouldn’t be laughing about this,” I wheezed, trying to catch my breath. “It must have been horribly painful,” I said, trying to stifle another fit of giggles.
    Tears of mirth rolled down my face and Rose Marie looked like a jolly cherub, pink and round.
    “I think this is karma,” she said.