The Fountain of Infinite Wishes (Dare River Book 5) by Ava Miles Page B

wants to meet them, and the other part is scared spitless. I’m a mess of contradictions.”
    Her sister put on her sunglasses, and Sadie rummaged for her own in her purse.
    “Let’s cross that bridge when we get there,” Shelby said matter-of-factly.
    Her sister was right. No use worrying over something that might not come to pass. “You and Vander took an awfully long time making tea and coffee,” she pressed.
    Her sister kissed her on the cheek. “I’m going to the gym. We can give J.P. and Susannah an update once we hear back from Vander and Charlie.”
    “Unless they ask us beforehand,” Sadie said dryly. “If I were them, I wouldn’t be able to wait past tonight.”
    “Well, you aren’t them,” her sister said, “which is why you’re here with me. Thanks again, Sadie.”
    Her sister might be a little abrupt sometimes, but she had a heart of gold. “You too. Have fun at the gym. I’m going to go home and design a quilt for Gail. Do you think Vander might like one too? Or is that silly?”
    Shelby lowered her sunglasses to the edge of her nose. “Why ever would you want to make him a quilt?”
    She shrugged. “Because it’s how I say thank you.”
    “He’s getting paid, Sadie,” her sister told her. “It’s not like he’s doing this from the kindness of his heart.”
    “Goodness, you sound jaded when you speak like that,” Sadie told her. “He’s been kind to me, and I’d like to do something for him. Maybe some jam then. Men like food stuffs.”
    Her sister sighed. “He doesn’t strike me as a quilt or jam kind of man, Sadie.”
    “What kind of man do you think he is then, Shelby?” she asked, hoping to get a little more out of her this time.
    “Not the kind you’d know what to do with,” she said, blowing her a kiss and taking off.
    “What about you? Would you know what to do with him?”
    Her sister ignored her, and she seemed to march rather than stroll off to Pearl, her convertible. Shelby was riled up by Vander, no doubt. She only sniped like that when she felt backed into a corner.
    No good could come of it, if you asked her.

Chapter 8

    “What have you found out?” Vander asked, pretty much stalking into Charlie’s office.
    She looked up from her computer and gave him the don’t-rush-me look. “The McGuiness girls only left an hour ago—and from a meeting you could have easily had on the phone.”  
    Her pointed remark about him making up a reason to see Shelby was best ignored. His motivations weren’t completely pure, and he knew it. “I know how fast you are, Charlie.” He sat on the edge of her desk, his favorite place when they were researching a case together. “Let me remind you that we don’t call our clients girls.”
    She blew him a raspberry. “I’ll add that to my list of Vander’s Dos and Don’ts. So far, I’ve found a brother, Virgil, who died two years ago at age sixty in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There’s also the mother: seventy-eight-year-old Lenore McGuiness living outside Memphis. She has a handicap Tennessee license plate for a 1971 Ford LTD, and while she owns her own trailer, it looks like she’s delinquent in paying her property tax.”
    “Good work.” Memphis was only a three and a half hour drive. “What else?”
    “The sister, Deedee, did some jail time for shoplifting. She lives out in Texas now, in Abilene. Tons of speeding tickets. She’s the only one of the immediate family I’ve found on social media. Her Facebook page is a cautionary tale about bleached hair, the toll hard living takes on a woman, and drama of balancing multiple boyfriends and kids. The kids have Facebook pages, but all I’ve found are photos of their immediate family and various racist political opinions guaranteed to curl your toes.”
    “Wonderful,” he said, shaking his head. As P.I.s, they were used to seeing the full swath of humanity from the seemingly well adjusted to the radical, militant elements. “They’re probably not close