Free Hot Water by Maggie Toussaint Page B

work, food, clothes, and some money.”
    “Your father’s a good man.”
    His observation was on point. She cleared her throat. “Just thinking out loud here. Somehow, he went from productive to shiftless. I want to know why. I’ve got a lead on his last known associates, Ray Spivey and Frankie Miles.”
    “Go ahead and pick Spivey and Miles up. I’ve got questions for them, too.”
    “They’re in the wind. I put out a BOLO on them. They’ll turn up soon. Not many hiding places floating in free booze in Tidewater County.”
    “Good.”
    He sounded weary, and that depressed the hell out of her. “How about dinner tonight?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound desperate or needy.
    In the time it took him to answer, she mentally kicked herself to the curb and back three times. Men didn’t like take-charge females. Men liked to think they were in charge. Men liked to do the asking.
    “Dinner sounds great,” he said. “I’ll be in Mossy Bog by six. Where shall I pick you up?”
    Might as well jump off the high dive, she thought to herself. “Come out to my place. I’ll cook dinner. Any food allergies or preferences?”
    His voice deepened. “I eat anything that isn’t moving.”
    She laughed as her mind veered off on a big bad wolf tangent. The better to eat you with, my dear. Would Wyatt North eat her up? “I promise not to serve you roof shingles or road kill. Come on out whenever you’re ready. Dinner’s at seven.”
    “It’s a date.”
    The phone clicked in her ear before she could tell him where she lived. This would be interesting. She gathered up her pile of weeds and carried them to her new compost pile behind the pump house. The entire edge of the adjacent woods was fronted by a bamboo thicket, courtesy of her great grandmother.
    How resourceful was Wyatt? Would he wander the back roads of Tidewater County for hours? Would he call and admit he was lost?
    A quick glance at her watch confirmed the time. Four. He’d said he’d be back in town by six, which meant he might head directly to her place instead of stopping at his hotel. She gulped. That meant she had two hours to clean the house, bathe, dress, and cook up a hot meal for a man she wanted to impress.
    Yikes.

Chapter 16
    She’d straightened the house, thawed the shrimp, and climbed out of the shower when she heard the knock at her door. Gabby barked like Godzilla was in her yard. Laurie Ann froze. Was Wyatt here already? No way.
    “Gimme a minute,” she called.
    The knocking stopped. Still dripping, she slipped into her bathrobe, wrapping the bath towel turban-style around her head. Before she unlocked the door, she glanced out the window and saw her dad’s pickup truck.
    “Hey,” she said, opening the door to her father.
    “Got your firewood,” her dad said. “Where you want it?”
    Laurie Ann glanced out to the truck and saw her cousin Lester at the wheel. He returned her wave. Why was her dad bringing next year’s wood now? “By the fence. I’ll get dressed and be right out to help you.”
    She hurried to her bedroom. No point in putting on date clothes if she was moving firewood. She put on her cargo khakis and a black knit top, jammed her feet into a pair of rubber gardening clogs. At the flurry of activity, her cat moved out of her warm pool of sunshine and hid under the bed. After tossing the damp towel over the shower rod, Laurie Ann dashed outside, her three-legged dog bounding at her heels.
    Lester had backed the truck over to the fence, and he stood in the truck bed, handing the wood to her father. She stepped into the rotation pattern with her dad, easily hoisting the two-foot sections of oak and pine over to the woodpile. “I wish I’d known y’all were coming over. I would have waited to take my shower.”
    Her dad grunted as he lifted another log. “Decided I should deliver the wood today before I forgot. Lester offered to help.”
    With warm temperatures already, she didn’t need the wood. Something else