Page 7 of Take a Hike
“Civic improvement?” Daisy repeated.
“Where’s the lie?” Lou asked, and the others looked at each other and shrugged.
A car pulled into the lot, and everyone stared suspiciously as it rolled into a parking spot, making Lou laugh. “Guys, guys—it’s a customer.”
“Oh,” Charlie said, easing up on her deadly-laser glare. “Oops.”
“Off you go,” Lou ordered. “Don’t want you scaring off the customers.”
“Since when?” Fifi asked. “I seem to remember—”
“La-la-la, can’t hear you!” Lou turned toward the woman who was warily approaching the door that Lou still blocked. “Hi, Mavis. Sorry about all the weird looks we were giving you. We’re uh…practicing for a play.”
“Oh!” The woman sounded much too interested. “A play? Can anyone audition?”
Giving them ahelp melook over Mavis’s head, Lou continuedimprovising. “It’s already cast, sorry. I can sign you up on the Simpson Drama Club email list if you like though.”
The door swung closed behind Lou and Mavis.
“Lou’s going to have to start a drama clubandput on a play now, isn’t she?” Charlie asked, torn between amusement and horror at all the work in Lou’s future.
“Yep,” Fifi said matter-of-factly.
They were all quiet for a moment of sympathy before shaking it off.
“Need a ride?” Charlie asked Daisy.
“No thanks.” Daisy headed for the coffee shop door. “I still have forty-five minutes before I need to be at the gym, and I’m going to use every one of them watching Lou dig her drama-club-sized hole even bigger.”
Charlie laughed. “Enjoy.” Turning to Bennett and Fifi, she asked, “Honeymoon-suite time?”
“You do know you’re not actually going to be staying in the honeymoon suite with us, right?” Fifi asked, looking amused.
“I’m not?” Charlie put on her best shocked face. “Why not? Bennett knew when he married you that we were a package deal.”
“No, I didn’t.”
At Bennett’s interjection, Charlie turned to him. “Well, you should’ve assumed it. Fifi and I goeverywheretogether—trashy motels, dark back alleys,honeymoon suites…” She gave him a meaningful look, but he just sent his best deadpan stare in response.
“He called you ‘Charlotte’ up until after we were married.I doubt he had any idea what he was getting himself into,” Fifi said, heading for the left front seat. “You don’t mind if I drive, do you, honey? You know I love these curvy mountain roads.” Her smile—and his return one—were full of secret meaning.
“Hmm…” Charlie frowned at Bennett in mock concern. “You’re going to have to step up your game when it comes to background checks on the women you stalk.”
“Woman,” Bennett said, finally tearing his gaze from his wife.
“What? And shotgun.” Charlie quickly slid into the front seat before Bennett could take it.
“I don’t stalk ‘women.’ Just one woman.” Leaning into Fifi’s open window, he kissed her before getting into the back seat without complaint.
Charlie twisted around so she could eye him doubtfully. “Isn’t your job basically stalking people? So approximately fifty percent of the time, you’re stalking women professionally.”
“Investigating,” Bennett corrected her. “Iinvestigatepeople, and it’s more like seventy-two percent men.”
“Makes sense.” Turning back around, Charlie looked around with interest as Fifi drove through town. “Guys do tend to do shady things more often.”
His grunt could’ve been agreement or disagreement, but Charlie decided to believe he supported her theory. They’d already reached the edge of Simpson, and the road curved up and to the left. Eyeing it, Charlie started to smile.
“So, Fifi,” she said without taking her gaze off the rocky cliff rising next to the right side of the road. “Let’s see why you likedriving these mountain roads so much.”
