Free Single Elimination: A Cozy Mystery (Brenna Battle Book 4) by Laney Monday Page A

having a great time just being kids, and I thought about Blythe. I quietly left the mat, picked up my phone, and texted her. But before she replied, the lock turned on the back door and she came in, keys in hand, looking just as put together as ever.
    I gave her a hug. “Come and be with the kids,” I whispered. “It’ll make you feel better. They love you, Blythe.”
    “I know.” She smiled. “Maybe we should get in on this.” She eyed the circle of bigger kids mischievously.  
    “Go ahead,” I said. “I’ll keep order.”
    There were good-natured squeals of protest against Sensei Blythe entering their contest. Of course, she came out victorious. It was so good to see the smile back on her face. Jake still affected her—deeply.
    And she doesn’t even know the half of it. The thought sent a pang of anxiety through me. Some day, I had to tell her. Or did I? I shrugged off the debate I’d had with myself so many times. That I’d lost sleep over so many nights. One thing I knew for sure, now wasn’t the time. She wasn’t ready. I could worry about it later. Always later , that little voice inside me nagged. Shut up , I told it. What’s so bad about later?

11

    I rapped on Will’s door. I heard Chloe scuttle across the entryway, nails clicking on the hardwood floors, barking happily.
    “Come in!” Will called from the kitchen.
    I let myself in and gave Chloe the attention she demanded. I found Will in the kitchen, standing in the open refrigerator door. “Ready for second dinner?” he said.
    “Yes! What are we having?”
    “Steak, of course.”
    Will’s specialty. Okay, just about the only non-breakfast main course he knew how to make from scratch. If the two of us ever got married, we were really going to have to expand our cooking repertoire. Wait…did I just think that? Married? The thought did give me a happy little bundle of butterflies in my heart. I wanted to be married someday, to have kids of my own. But thinking about being married to a specific person, bound to them for life—wow, that scared me like nothing else. It didn’t before. Before I discovered just how wrong I could be about a person. A person I’d known half my life.
    Will shook a bulk-sized bottle of steak rub vigorously over two generous portions. “You look tired.”
    “Thanks.” I took an onion from the bag on the counter. “Not as tired as you look.”
    “I’m fresh as a daisy, as always.”
    “Ha.”
    “You know why I’m tired. But what’s going on with you?”
    I began peeling the onion. Will would want it caramelized. Well, I wanted it caramelized, anyway. I could already taste the browned butter. “Blythe’s ex showed up today,” I said.
    “Oh. He came all the way from Arizona? How was that?” Will said cautiously.
    I’d never told Will about Jake. Not even about Blythe and Jake. All he knew was that he was her ex-husband and my former coach, and that she’d divorced him shortly before coming here. Looking at Will, realizing he didn’t even know for sure whether Blythe seeing Jake today was a good thing or a bad thing, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the messy pile of my baggage Will was completely in the dark about. How much of who Blythe and I were was tied to Jake and everything that had gone along with him for the last decade? Could a person really know either one of us, without knowing that?
    “Brenna?” he prompted.
    “It was a little…”
    “Awkward?”
    “It was awful. Blythe was really moving on, but…”
    “But she invited him out here?”
    I laughed dryly. “No way. He just dropped by. A very Jake thing to do. But I didn’t think it would happen as long as we were a couple of states away. Maybe we should’ve moved to Maine. Or Instanbul.”
    Will leaned in behind me a nuzzled my neck. “I’m glad you didn’t move to Istanbul.”
    We got a little carried away, expressing just how glad we were that the two of us were here, together.
    Will kissed me one more time, then