Tied With a Bow and No Place to Go (Tizzy/Ridge Trilogy Book 3) by Ann Everett Page B

feet to the floor. “I’ll save the rest
for tomorrow.” She carried the concoction back outside.
    He folded his arms over his chest and gazed at Tizzy.
“Vienna Sausage Pie, huh?”
    “Therapy.”
    “You cured?”
    “Yep.”
    “Good. Now, let’s get Gracie to your parents. I’m ready for
you to dunk me.”
    Just after midnight, Ridge and Tizzy lay naked on a floating
pool mattress, her arm and leg flung over his body, her head resting on his
shoulder. He slid his hands over her lush curves so soft and warm against him,
and for a moment he forgot the report he’d received.
    He lifted her face to his and kissed her. She sighed against
his lips. He got lost in the way she settled into him and the touch of her hand
as she dipped it in the water and stroked his chest. These were the moments he
lived for, when the world went away and there was nothing but her. Loving him.
Wanting him. Needing him.
    “You’re quiet,” she said. Her warm breath floated across his
neck.
    “I’m thinking how at the end of a horrible day, holding you
makes everything right.”
    “You’re treading on dangerous ground. You know how sweet
talk gets me hot, so unless you want me to dunk you again, you’d better change
the subject.”
    He whispered a laugh. “It’s still early in the
investigation, but the three ex-wives and the mayor are possibilities. I’ve got
to check into the loan and question the other two exes, as well as every other
classmate in town. Molly being so eager to point her finger at everyone else
makes her look mighty guilty.”
    “I heard today during the luncheon they’re going to try for
a funeral or memorial service on Sunday. The family wants to have it while his
friends are in town.”
    Ridge shifted his weight. “A more pressing problem is Nana
and Om.”
    “I told you when Nana brought Om home from her Hawaiian
vacation he was trouble. But no—you told me the woman’s eighty years old, and
if she wants to have a live-in boyfriend, so be it.”
    “How the hell did I know he’d get her involved in making
Boom Brownies?”
    “Are you sure they were?”
    “No, but it puts me in a terrible position along with your
brother, the sheriff. We can’t send a sample to be analyzed without connecting
it to a case, so I’m not sure what to do.”
    “Jinx.”
    “What about Jinx?”
    “I’ll send him to her house to search the place. If he finds
plants, he’ll get rid of them. Right now, it’s just a suspicion without proof,
so ethically, you haven’t crossed any lines.”
    “Great idea. The thought of arresting your Nana had me
worried. You’d never want to dunk me again if that happened.”
    “You wouldn’t arrest her. Om, yes, but not Nana. You’d do
everything in your power to keep her out of it.”
    He remained silent. He needed to approach the next subject
with caution. Since the Department of Public Safety required thumbprints from
every person getting a driver’s license in Texas, fingerprints found at crime
scenes were quickly processed. He’d heard that soon, the state planned to put
in place taking a full set of prints. “You’re right, and that brings me to my
next dilemma.”
    “What’s that?”
    “I got the prints from the whiskey bottle that came from the
crime scene.”
    “And how is that a dilemma?”
    “There were only two sets.”
    “Uh-huh,” Tizzy’s voice sounded as if she were almost
asleep.
    “Jay Roy’s and . . .”
    She pushed up at his hesitation. “And?”
    He let out a long sigh. “Your mom’s.”
     
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
     
    A noise coming from the bathroom woke Ridge. At first he
thought it was wind from the earlier storm, but then realized it was a blow
dryer. He smiled and thought back to skinny dipping in the moonlight. Too tired
to shower when they got home, they’d fallen into bed, asleep within minutes.
    He sank deeper into the feather mattress. A shaft of light
streaked across the ceiling, and split in two as Cuddles climbed up the
comforter.