Free A Dark and Stormy Murder (A Writer's Apprentice Mystery) by Julia Buckley

it. “I suppose Camilla has filled you in on the reason for my celebrity status?”
    “Only minimally. She told me of an unfortunate label you’ve earned in town, and she scoffed at it.”
    Carly the waitress was back with Sam West’s coffee. She didn’t bat an eye at his change of location. She set it down in front of him, and I ordered a waffle with extra butter. She jotted it down and said, “Your breakfasts will be out in a jiff.”
    We thanked her, and she whisked off again to make her rounds. I wondered if she had sore feet by the end of the noon rush.
    Sam West opened a creamer packet and poured it into his coffee; he stirred it in with a thoughtful expression. “Camilla is a good woman. I respect her.”
    “That seems to be mutual.”
    He nodded. “Has Camilla hired you, then? Is this a permanent position?”
    “It seems to be a good fit.”
    “Good, good.” He took a sip of his coffee and ran a belated hand over his disheveled hair.
    “I’m very excited about her latest book. It’s spectacular, as they always are.”
    His eyes met mine for a moment. “How did she happen to find you?”
    “It’s a strange story,” I said.
    “I’d love to hear it,” said Sam West, leaning back in his chair with his coffee cup.
    So I told him: of my lifetime devotion to Camilla’s books, of my friendship with Allison, of Allison’s marriage and relocation, and then of Allison’s life-changing phone call and my own unexpected move. “So, in the end, it can’t be called anything short of serendipity,” I concluded.
    “Indeed. As though you were destined to meet this woman you idolized.”
    I felt the hugeness of my own smile. “I still can’t believe it, to be honest. That I’m living in her house, and reading her work in progress, and dining with her at mealtime.”
    “Except today.”
    “Today I was supposed to meet Allison and fill her in on everything.”
    “And here I thought it would be a young man meeting you here.”
    “I don’t know a soul in this town, aside from Camilla, you, and Doug Heller.”
    West’s face grew shuttered. “Ah, yes, Detective Heller.”
    “You two don’t seem to like each other.”
    “We don’t.”
    Carly appeared with a plate of eggs, sausage, and hash browns for West and a preposterously large waffle for me. I was torn between greed and embarrassment. West saw my expression and laughed—a surprisingly youthful sound.
    I rolled my eyes and then grabbed the syrup, which I slathered over the divine-smelling waffle. “Why are you at odds? Does he suspect you of something?”
    West speared some eggs with his fork and ate them. Then he said, “Let’s just say he’d prefer that a man with my reputation not sully his idyllic little town.”
    “It’s not his job to make assumptions.”
    “No, but he has to save the populace from me. He stakes out my place sometimes.”
    I had been about to consume my first bite, but I paused. “That’s an invasion of your civil rights.”
    He smirked. “I should hire you as
my
personal assistant. You’re very persuasive.”
    I ate a piece of my waffle, then a few more pieces. “God, this is good.”
    “You make eating look like a very pleasurable experience.”
    “I refuse to be self-conscious. I’m going to eat this whole giant waffle in front of you. However, I will offer you one bite.”
    “And I’ll take it,” West said, surprising me. He sliced off a corner of my breakfast with his fork and shoved it into his mouth. “Mmm. You’re right.”
    He smiled at me, and I realized that his eyes were a truly beautiful shade of blue. Something twisted in my stomach—a familiar feeling that had me panicking and seeking a conversational topic.
    “Anyway, back to Allison. I had a million things to tell her, and now I don’t know when I’ll get to do it.”
    “A million things, including your splendid move—and then a murder in your backyard.”
    “Yes—that’s right at the top of the list of things we were going to