Page 15 of Immortal By Morning

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“Gina,” Abril breathed, dropping to sit on the couch. “Sorry. I was in the laundry room and my cell phone is in the kitchen. I didn’t hear it ringing.”

“The laundry room?”

She wasn’t surprised at the query in her boss’s voice. Gina had only left the morning before, and Abril had only stayed since the night before that. Itwouldseem odd that she’d need to do laundry already, and what else would she be doing in the laundry room?

“Yeah,” she said now. “I let Lilith loose to run around the yard while I was talking to you earlier and she decided to explore the excavated area. It hadrained after the men left, the ground was muddy, she was digging and was filthy by the time I got off the phone and found her there. Then she... dug up a bone,” she finally settled on. It was the truth, just not the whole truth, but would do for now. There was no sense upsetting Gina during her vacation, she told herself as she continued, “Lilith wouldn’t come when I called and I fell in the mud while trying to get her. In the end, we were both chocolate brown all over, both needed a bath, and my coat and clothes needed washing. Hence why I was in the laundry room.”

“Oh no! You poor thing,” Gina said sympathetically. “Well, there’s nothing urgent that needs taking care of today. You take the rest of the day off, make yourself a tea, put your feet up, and watch a movie cuddled up with Lilith on the couch.”

Abril glanced at her watch to see that it was only 3:00. She usually worked until 6:00. Actually, she usually worked until well past 6:00, but the point was she’d already wasted two hours today with the police and whatnot—she blushed as she recalled the “whatnot” she’d enjoyed with Detective Delacort in the laundry room, and then pushed the memory aside and said, “Thank you, Gina, but that’s not necessary. I still have a couple of things I wanted to get done today and—”

“And you can do them tomorrow,” Gina said firmly. “I’m your boss. What I say goes, and I say you’re taking the rest of the day off and relaxing.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Abril said solemnly, her gaze wandering to the large picture window at the front of the living room. It gave her a perfect view of Detective Delacort and his partner talking as they followed a leashed Lilith around the grass on this side of theyard. She watched them for a moment, worrying over what they might be talking about. Surely Delacort wouldn’t tell Roberts about what had happened in the laundry room, would he? It had just been a kiss. One hell of an explosive, carnal kiss maybe, but still just a kiss. Besides she was single and he was single... Wasn’t he? How the hell would she know? She didn’t even know his name.

“Don’t you think?” Gina asked.

Pulled back to her conversation with her boss, Abril frowned as she tried to catch up on what she’d missed while distracted by staring at Delacort. What had Gina been talking about?

“I mean, I gave him my number in case ofemergencies. But Jackson deciding he wants to sit in on the casting for the commercial just doesn’t seem like an emergency to me,” Gina continued. “Especially when that won’t be happening for another month at least. Honestly! People are such a pain in the ass at times. I don’t have the patience for them. That’s why I usually make you deal with them. I should have done the same with Jackson and given him your number instead of mine.

“Anyway,” Gina continued, “I explained I’m out of the country, can’t deal with him right now, and he should call the office. Of course, he knows the offices are in my house, so immediately asked who was at the house if I was out of the country in this ‘Aha! I caught you!’voice. He’s such an ass,” she said with disgust. “So, of course, I told him it was you. That you’d be there overseeing the renos the entire time I’m gone. Then he started asking all these questions. What was going on at the house? Why was there an excavatorthere and people coming and going, etcetera. I realized then that the real reason he called was to get the scoop on the renos, so cut him off, said my friends were waiting and I had to go and hung up.

“Annoying man,” Gina muttered. “Honestly, remind me never to accept a job with anyone who lives on my street again. He’s been nothing but a pain in the ass from the beginning, sticking his nose in everywhere and wanting to know everything I was having done at the house.” Gina huffed out an irritated breath, and then said apologetically, “So, I thought I’d better call and give you a heads-up that Jackson will probably call, or maybe even show up at the door to grill you on what’s going on since I didn’t answer any questions.”

“Thank you for the heads-up,” Abril said with real appreciation. She couldn’t stand Jackson either. There was just something about him that gave her the heebie-jeebies.

“Feel free to let his calls go to voice mail and not answer the door to him,” Gina added. “At this point, I think I’d be fine with losing him as a client. I just wish I could lose him as a neighbor too.”

Abril smiled faintly at the claim.

“Anyway, I should go. They’re waiting on me to go to dinner.”

Eyebrows rising, Abril glanced at her watch again. Italy was six hours ahead of London, Ontario. “Isn’t it a little after 9:00 there? That’s late for dinner.”

“Not in Italy. Italians usually have dinner between 8:30 and 10:30. The restaurants that open before 7:00 are catering to tourists and we don’t want tourist food, we want real Italian food.”

“Ah,” Abril said with understanding. “Well, have a nice dinner then.”

“I will. Thanks. Call if there are any issues. Otherwise, I’ll call again tomorrow to check in.”

“Okay,” she said, and responded to Gina’s ciao with goodbye before hanging up.

Dropping back to lean against the couch, Abril considered everything for a moment. There were skeletal remains in the garden. Police vehicles were cluttering the driveway with a swarm of forensics people presently all over the house, or at least the side yard. A handsome detective who may or may not have a first name, and who may or may not be married had rocked her world with a simple kiss. And she might have to deal with the creepy and annoying neighbor, Jackson, who presently was also a client.

Great, she thought. It was all kind of a mixed bag of crap to her mind. Although, the kiss hadn’t been crap. It was just that she knew so little about the man who had done the kissing that she was feeling vulnerable and even a bit embarrassed, but she still had to deal with him. Unless he too was embarrassed and uncomfortable and left his partner to deal with her from now on, she thought. For some reason, that possibility alarmed her.

Muttering under her breath about her own wishy-washy nature, Abril pushed herself to her feet and headed for the kitchen, only to change direction and head for the front door instead when the doorbell sounded. She’d expected it to be Detective Delacort returning with Lilith, so was surprised to open the door and find Officer Peters there.

“Your coffee cup. Thank you. It was delicious and helped warm me up,” he said, holding out the empty cup.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” Abril said as she took the cold mug, and then feeling guilty, admitted, “Actually, I made the pot of coffee, but Detective Roberts was good enough to pour you a cup, and doctor it himself while I was busy getting info for them, so it’s really him you should actually thank.”

“He told me, and I did thank him,” Peters said with a smile.

“Oh, okay.” She paused briefly and then offered, “Would you like another cup?”

After a hesitation, he admitted, “I’d love another cup. But I’m afraid it would make me need to relieve myself and there won’t be a porta potty here until tomorrow and—”