Copper Lake Confidential

“No Scooter?” she asked instead of greeting him.

“Not this time. I was on my way home from the clinic and I thought you might like to take a break.”

He held up the bag, and she eyed it while taking a deep breath. “SnoCap?”

“Of course.”

She glanced over her shoulder, and he looked, too, seeing stacks of boxes down the hall, taped and labeled in a neat hand. She’d been busy. She’d already packed more stuff than he even owned, but he would bet she hadn’t made a dent in the job.

Since she was clearly wavering between her options, he said, “Hey, you’ve got to eat. And if you’d feel more comfortable with Scooter, we can take it to my house or I can go get him.”

Another moment passed before she smiled tautly. “Let me get my shoes.” Leaving the door open, she went to the kitchen, then returned almost instantly wearing flip-flops and carrying her cell phone. After locking up, she slid her keys into one pocket, the phone into the other, before climbing into the front seat of his car.

Lunch with a pretty woman. Maybe he wasn’t a fool, after all.

Macy wasn’t sure, but she might have drooled just a little when she caught the first whiff of the hamburgers. Greasy burgers from a drive-in hadn’t been Mark’s thing. When he wanted a burger, he’d gone to the country club restaurant and paid a ridiculous price for an Angus burger that didn’t compare in taste.

She and Clary both loved SnoCap burgers.

As they drove through the gates that signaled the perimeter of Woodhaven Villas, she felt lighter. In such a short time, she’d become used to the smothering sensation in the house. Now that it was lifted, she could breathe easier.

“While you were away, the Villains tried to put up security gates at this exit that would have kept out those of us who live down here,” Stephen said. “It didn’t endear them to us.”

“The Villains?”

His cheeks flushed. “Uh, yeah. Sorry, but…you know, like Texas and Texans. Georgia and Georgians. The Villas and Villains.”

A laugh escaped before she’d even realized it was building. “Don’t apologize. It’s a good description for most of my neighbors.”

“This street is the only access to the houses down here, but they didn’t want the riffraff driving past their houses, though they claimed it was for security reasons. They even offered to build a new street to the north to solve the access problem, but it would have tripled the distance to anywhere we needed to go.”

Macy wished she were appalled or even surprised, but she wasn’t. Like Mark, some of her neighbors had a deep appreciation for exclusivity. “I assume you and the rest of the riffraff protested.”

“We did, but it wasn’t really necessary. The town council didn’t even consider their proposal.” He gave her a sidelong look before turning into a driveway. “I assume you wouldn’t have joined forces with them.”

She smiled grimly. “I wouldn’t have. But Mark…he would’ve been leading their charge.”

Stephen’s gaze stayed on her so long that she realized at last they weren’t moving, or else they would have crashed by now. She shifted uncomfortably then unbuckled the seat belt.

“Mark was your husband,” he said finally, once again using the soothing tone that had probably calmed and comforted untold pets and their owners.

“Yes.”

The silence stretched out again, quickly becoming unbearable. He broke it by opening his door and picking up the bag of food, swinging it gently in her direction. “We should eat before the food gets cold. Prepare yourself for an exuberant greeting. Scooter’s not very familiar with the concept of company since we don’t get it very often.”

“I’ll brace myself.” As she got out, she took a quick look around. The house and the yard were small, almost doll-sized compared with their counterparts in Woodhaven. Everything was neat, though: the white paint and green trim fresh, the sidewalk edged, the picket fence faded to a soft gray. The front porch was big enough for a couple of rockers and a half dozen baskets of brightly colored flowers, though it stood empty now, and the door was painted a rich russet that welcomed guests.

Scrabbling sounded inside as they climbed the steps, accompanied by excited panting. By the time Stephen opened the door, Scooter was beside himself with anticipation. For an instant, it seemed he didn’t know which deserved his attention first—Macy or the bag of burgers—but the burgers soon won out. She couldn’t blame him. At the moment she was more interested in the food, too.

Then she sneaked a glance at Stephen and felt the need to confirm that. She really, really was.

“Welcome to my castle,” he said on the way to the kitchen. “Which is probably just a little smaller than the master bedroom in your palace.”

Probably, she admitted. The house was compact: small square living room, double doors opening right into the kitchen with its dining table, bedroom visible from the living room, second room—office, apparently—visible from the kitchen. It was cozy and snug, the shine long since worn off the wooden floors, the walls a nice neutral buff, the furniture well-worn and actually inviting. She always felt as if she should perch on the edge of the antiques in her house, but this sofa and chairs welcomed lounging.

The place reminded her of old times, before she met Mark Howard of the Georgia Howards.

She took a seat at the kitchen table as Stephen emptied the bag. He didn’t bother with plates or napkins other than what had been tucked inside at the drive-in, discarding the greasy outer ones. He sat across from her, pinched off two bits of burger to stick Scooter’s pills in and gave them to the dog, then took a hearty bite for himself before fixing his gaze on her. “How’s the packing going?”

“Slowly.” She savored her first bite—a year and a half since her last SnoCap fix!—then swiped a crispy fry through ketchup. “It’s easy to figure out what I want.” Nothing. “I’m saving some stuff for Clary, but all the antiques, the family heirlooms…”

“Does your husband not have a family that wants them?”

“His mother’s in North Carolina, but she has enough family heirlooms of her own.” And Lorna blamed the Howard family for everything her only child had done, including his suicide. She didn’t want anything associated with them. “There’s a cousin, Reece, but she doesn’t want any of it, either.” The family had cost her too much, as well.

“So what are the options? Estate sale and invest the money for your daughter?”

Macy took her time chewing. The locals probably knew she and Clary had more money than she could ever spend, but there was no need for her to admit that. So far, Stephen had treated her pretty much like a normal person—albeit needy and a tad jumpy. But money changed people’s perceptions, and she needed to be treated like any other woman.

“Probably,” she agreed, though the thought of expending even that much time on Mark’s possessions soured her stomach. “Or make some museum donations.”

He blinked and his brows arched. “Huh. I wouldn’t know a museum-quality piece if I stepped on it. And you let Scooter in the house not once but twice?”

At the sound of his name, the dog lifted a hopeful gaze, then lowered it again when Stephen snorted. “Hell, you let me in? I’m not exactly known for my dainty feet and grace.”

“They’re just things,” she said with a lift of one shoulder. Hating the sound of herself callously dismissing priceless treasures, she gestured to the room on the right. “I wouldn’t have imagined a vet could do a whole lot of work at home.”

Not that it looked much like a vet’s office. There were tons of books, but even at this distance it was obvious they weren’t textbooks. Dry-erase boards competed with movie posters for wall space, and she wasn’t sure what kept the desk from collapsing from the weight of the mess on it.

“Different work,” he said casually.

She studied the dry-erase boards, covered with cramped writing, some items circled, arrows pointing to others, then caught sight of several small plaques hanging between them. They looked like awards of some sort. Vet of the Year? Best Neighbor Surrounding Woodhaven Villains? “What kind of work?”

He gazed into the room himself for a moment before saying, “I’m a writer.”

She hadn’t expected that answer. In truth, she’d had no idea what to expect. But once he’d said it, it seemed perfectly reasonable. He had a little bit of a nerdy aura about him—the glasses, the uncombed hair, the conversations with Scooter. Sort of an absentminded-professor thing. “You write for veterinary journals?”

“On occasion. My last article was on feline diarrhea.” Said with a self-deprecating look.

“A very important subject to cats and the people who clean up after them.”

His grin was quick, boyish. It reminded her how appealing boyish could be. “Mostly I write books. Epic fantasy. A universe far, far away. Villains and quests and warriors and saving the world.”

She’d met authors before—professors in college who were published, historians come to speak to the local historical society, ditto a few horticulturists at the garden society. The Howard family was the subject of its very own book: Southern Aristocracy: The Howards of Georgia. Granted, they’d paid the author to write it and the only copies that existed outside the family were in various Southern libraries.

But a fiction writer—excluding the Howard family biographer—was different. Someone who wrote for the pure pleasure of writing, for the simple entertainment of others…that was cool.

“Have you published anything?”