Read Mayhem in Christmas River: A Christmas Cozy Mystery (Christmas River Cozy, Book 2) for Free Online Page A

the right moment to tell him the things I wanted to tell him
    I took another sip of white wine.
    Was being married really as bad as I was making it out to be? Was most of the trouble the fact that Evan hadn’t been the right one for me?
    Kara had been married, and she didn’t have any hesitations about walking down the aisle again if she found the right man. But then again, she hadn’t split with her husband because he’d been cheating on her with her friend. 
    Being betrayed like that might have made her a little more hesitant to say I do again.
    I put the empty glass down on the table next to the chair and listened to a lone bull frog sound its guttural croak. 
    I could justify myself all night, finding ways to make my decision sound logical and practical in my head, but it wasn’t going to make me feel better. Not really.
    This was a night that would require not only wine, but also inordinate amounts of ice cream.
    I got up, went to the freezer and pulled out an old carton of Tillamook Marionberry Pie ice cream, and grabbed a spoon.
    I went back outside to my chair, sat down, and dug in, shoving away spoon after spoon of the stuff like there was gold at the bottom of the carton.
    It might hurt the next morning, but it couldn’t be any worse than the way I felt tonight.
    In the back of my mind, I was secretly hoping that Daniel might show up on my doorstep. That he might come and tell me that it didn’t matter. That a piece of paper wouldn’t change things one way or another between us. That all that mattered was that we had each other. That he’d return the ring and buy us a trip to Hawaii instead, or a new Cuisinart blender for me, or new hardwood flooring for his house. Something useful that didn’t carry with it so many expectations. Anything but a ring.
    But as the dusk faded into blackness and the night filled with stars, I slowly realized that that wasn’t going to happen.
    I was alone tonight.
    And maybe not just for tonight. 
    I dozed off to the sound of the crickets buzzing, Johnny still playing on the record player, singing about a troubled mind.
     

Chapter 12
     
    The aspen above me quaked, its leaves rubbing together like sandpaper in the breeze. I lay beneath it, picking at a patch of grass, looking up at the soft summer sunshine dancing through the canopy.
    Somebody was frying chicken next door. The heavenly smell drifted over the fence and saturated the neighborhood. I dreamed of eating that fried chicken with the family making it. Sometimes at this hour I could hear them laughing and talking through the fence while they ate dinner on their patio table. Sometimes I wondered what it would have been like to be part of that family.
    I was alone in the backyard, waiting for somebody to come home.
    I grabbed my book and started flipping through the pages. I found the creased page where I left off and tried not to think about my rumbling stomach.
    These summer days always felt long to my stomach. They always felt long, period.
    Suddenly, I heard a voice.
    “Hey, kid. Catch!”
    I looked up from my book, dropping it just in time to catch the large white softball flying at me.
    He had a big fat grin plastered on his face.
    “You’re a natural,” he said. 
    For once, he wasn’t looking tired. For once, those eyes didn’t look empty.
    And then I heard the sound of breaking glass.
     

Chapter 13
     
    I sat up gasping for air as if my lungs were filled with water. The wine glass slipped out of my hand and crashed to the deck, shattering into a hundred jagged pieces.
    “God damnit,” I muttered.
    My hair was standing straight up on my arms.
    A noise coming from the woods had jarred me awake.
    I got to my feet, feeling lightheaded and slightly woozy. I stood still for a moment, listening hard.
    The only noise was the sound of the croaking bull frog. Nothing more.
    Nothing suspicious or sinister about it.
    But something didn’t feel right. 
    I crept slowly across the backyard, trying to avoid