Free Dusted by Holly Jacobs

than a greeting or waiting for an invitation to come in, he stepped inside, kicked the door shut and swept me into his arms and kissed me in the least chaste kiss I’d ever had. “I need you,” he whispered.
    “I need you, too.” That was an understatement. I wished like anything that I could strip his clothes off right here and have my way with him. But my mom, Dick, and the boys put a damper on that impulse. “But you’re going to have to settle on being needed to partner with me at Trivial Pursuit. The boys, my mother, and Dick are all waiting to play.”
    He groaned. Actually groaned. As if the thought that he couldn’t haul me off to bed was the worst news he’d ever received.
    I felt terribly desirable.
    “I know it’s not quite the same, but since you’re here, come on. Mom will be happy to get to spend time with you.”
    And thus the end-all, be-all game of Disney Trivial Pursuit began.
    The boys paired up against Mom and Dick and me and Cal.
    It was a no-holds-bar, no-mercy-shown game.
    In the end the boys won.
    “I feel I get to claim some of the credit, since I obviously did a superb job training them in all things Disney,” I said.
    “By that faulty logic, I get to claim credit for you solving Mr. Banning’s murder or get to claim it when you solve the forgeries mystery, since I raised you to be such an intelligent, inquisitive woman,” my mother joked.
    Most days I’d be marveling at the thought of my mother joking and helping me with an investigation. But right now, I simply cleared my throat wildly as my mother spoke, hoping Cal couldn’t hear her.
    The teasing and gloating continued, but I glanced at Cal who seemed to be annoyed. More than annoyed, to be honest. I knew my throat-clearing hadn’t been loud enough to cover my mother’s statement.
    “I really have to go,” Dick announced. “I’ll talk to you, Quince. Don’t get up. The boys will see me out.”
    The boys were aware of the sudden tension in the room and quickly agreed.
    That just left me, my foot-in-her-mouth mother, and my very angry boyfriend.
    My brilliant, insightful mother didn’t seem to realize she’d just made a faux pas, because she forged ahead and added, “So, Cal, when are you going to make an honest woman of my daughter.”
    This time I groaned, and it had nothing to do with unrequited lust. “Goodnight, Mother. Tell Cal goodnight before you immediately walk down the hall to my room.”
    My mother looked from me, to Cal, whose face had turned an ever deepening red, then back to me. “I don’t know what I said, but I do know it’s time to follow Quincy’s advice. Goodnight, Cal. It was so good seeing you again.” Then she kissed his cheek.
    I’m pretty sure my career-oriented, very serious mother had been replaced by a game-playing, kissing-people, gumshoe-assisting pod-person. Seriously, that was the only explanation for the way she was acting this visit. I mean, I’d officially seen her kiss and hug more times today than I’d seen my whole life prior to today.
    She left and presumably headed to my room.
    I waited for Cal to say something.
    He was silent a little too long. As if he were fighting to stay calm…and losing.
    Finally, with a tight, pinched quality to his normal Sam Elliot sort of voice, “You’re investigating the forgeries?”
    “Not really investigating as much as looking into them.”
    “Which is investigating.”
    “No, it’s simply looking at the information to see if there’s anything I can give to your detective friend.”
    “Quincy…” He didn’t say anything more than my name, but in it I could read his thoughts. I was driving him nuts. He worried about me. I should leave the detective work to real detectives. He wished we were alone in the house so he could make wild, passionate love to me.
    Well, that last part could have been me projecting my wants onto him.
    “Cal, I—”
    He interrupted me by barking out, “When I saw the information on the board the other