Free Pineapple Lies by Amy Vansant Page B

suggestion.”
    “They like alliteration. Sorry.”
    “ Crime Committee might have been good.”
    “I think they hoped the sensational name would attract more attendees. They once had a committee to discuss hiring a new organic lawn service and called it the Deadly Poison Club .”
    “Well, at least they didn’t call Mom’s committee the Corpse Club . That sounds like a teenage paranormal series.”
    Charlotte laughed.
    “Well, whatever they call it, it isn’t necessarily a bad idea. A lot of the older residents have been here since before your mother’s murder, and someone might remember something. You never know.”
    “That would be great. They’ll probably find very little evidence with the bones. I don’t have high hopes.”
    “I brought you a flyer,” said Charlotte. She handed him the pink sheet of paper with Corpse Committee across the top in bold letters. Beneath the title was a picture of a chalk outline.
    Declan looked at the flyer and then back at her.
    “Wow.”
    “Sorry. But the date and time is on there if you want to attend.”
    “I will,” he said, folding the sheet. “My uncle will, too.”
    “Your uncle lives nearby?”
    “He’s moving back from Miami. He’s retiring here.”
    “Oh, well I bet it will be nice to have him near.”
    “We’ll see about that,” he said, nodding his head from side to side. “He’s a character.”
    Charlotte looked around the store, unsure what to say next.
    “Okay, well, I thought you’d like to know about the group and the bullet. Maybe you could bring some photos of your mother? They might jog someone’s memory?”
    “Good idea. I will.”
    Charlotte took a few steps towards the door.
    “And you could bring your, uh…significant other, if you like,” she said, turning.
    He smiled. “My dog?”
    “Do you have a dog?”
    “No.”
    “Oh, well I wouldn’t anyway. Some of the ladies carry their little rat dogs around with them and they don’t get along with other dogs. By other I meant if you had, you know…someone special in your life.”
    “Someone special in my life,” echoed Declan. “You sound like a greeting card.”
    Charlotte opened her mouth, frantic to better phrase her thought. He held up a palm to stop her from speaking.
    “Got it. I was just messing with you. I know half of Pineapple Port thinks I’m gay.”
    Charlotte took a deep breath and puffed her cheeks, exhaling with a pop of her lips.
    “I’d say it’s closer to sixty percent…but I’m guessing you’re not by the way you phrased that?”
    “ Just by the way I phrased that?”
    “Well, you have to admit you hit a lot of the stereotypes. You’ve got a nice haircut, your nails are buffed, you’re well dressed, you look like you work out, you’re handso — ”
    Charlotte stopped and glanced at Declan to see if he’d registered where her last word was heading.
    He laughed. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ve had it all wrong all these years…”
    She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her hand. “Sorry,” she said, shaking her head.
    “Don’t worry about it. I get it. You like your men a little more rough around the edges. A little more lumberjacky.”
    “No! I mean, that’s not what I meant…” she paused. “Lumberjacky?”
    He shrugged. “If it isn’t a word, it should be.”
    “Well, I’ll alert the Declan’s Sexual Preference Committee that they have it all wrong.”
    “No! Don’t tell them. I don’t discourage the rumor. I may en courage it from time to time. For one, it makes them think I have better taste than I do. They also used to try to set me up with their granddaughters…”
    “Oh…” Charlotte recalled Katherine planning to do just that. “Well, what’s wrong with a little match-making? Maybe the woman of your dreams is one of their granddaughters.”
    “Maybe, but I was running out of polite ways to decline. I didn’t want every failed setup to lose me a potential customer, and I imagine the