Read Our Red Hot Romance Is Leaving Me Blue for Free Online

grown man break into tears. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    Debbie Sue and Edwina took seats in the wingback chairs opposite him. Debbie Sue was studying her notes when Turnup began to pace and bark insistently.
    “Excuse me,” Justin said, rising from the sofa. “I wasn’t expecting anyone. I’ll just go see who’s outside.”
    He walked out onto the porch and watched as his brother-in-law, John Patrick Daly, drove into view, his black Porsche Cayenne SUV ginning up whorls of white caliche dust.
    Justin normally welcomed the occasional visit from Rachel’s brother, John Patrick. He was the only person from the Daly family who treated him with decency. But Justin had never mentioned the strange happenings in his home to his brother-in-law and he sure wasn’t ready to admit to anyone that he had enlisted the aid of detectives to unravel mysterious happenings.
    After the Cayenne stopped and the driver’s window quietly slid down, Justin approached it. “Hey, J. P., how’s it going?”
    John Patrick eyed Debbie Sue’s red truck with interest.“Damn, man. Am I just in time for the party or am I too late?”
    John Patrick was known for his carousing ways. In his mid-thirties, unemployed but married to wealth and long-bored in that union, if a party was going on, he wanted to be included, especially if women were present.
    Justin believed his brother-in-law became a hard partier to compensate for his small frame and short stature. He was five feet six and probably didn’t weigh a hundred thirty pounds. The guy suffered a Napoleon complex in a big way. Knowing his appearance wouldn’t win him favors, John Patrick talked loud and long about his family’s money and power in Midland, as well as that of his in-laws, though he had neither money nor influence of his own. Still, he had been good to Justin, more like a brother than an in-law, and Justin was grateful. He could overlook John Patrick’s flaws.
    Justin laughed, glancing at the red truck parked in his driveway. “Naw, that’s just a couple of folks from Salt Lick. They, uh…they came to look at Rachel’s horses.”
    “You’re not selling them, are you?”
    “Oh, I’d never sell those horses.” Remembering Debbie Sue’s scolding, he said, “These folks are going to exercise and groom them for me. It’s not right keeping them penned up and I can’t keep depending on the neighbors to do it.”
    “Oh, sure, yeah. They do need the attention. Well, if you’re busy, I’ll go. I was headed home and just stopped by to check on you.” After Rachel’s passing John Patrick and his wife had moved to a vacant house about five miles up the road, ostensibly to be near Justin for moral support.
    Justin smiled and hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “Everything’s fine, J. P. Thanks for asking. I’ll holler at you later.”
    “One more thing,” John Patrick said. “Did you ever hear any more from that oil and gas company, the one that left the business card on your screen door?”
    “Lone Star Oil and Gas? Nah. They were probably just fishing around. I figure if they’d been really interested in drilling on this place, they would’ve gotten back in touch by now.”
    “Right,” John Patrick said. “You’re probably right…Well, I’d better go.”
    He backed in an arc and drove away. Justin walked back to the house, feeling guilty for the lie by omission to his brother-in-law.

four
    G lancing in his rearview mirror, John Patrick Daly watched as Justin’s house grew smaller. He agreed it was about time Justin got someone to look after those damned horses, because John Patrick knew Justin had little knowledge of taking care of horses. Rachel had always done it.
    John Patrick hadn’t recognized the red truck parked in the driveway. For some reason he couldn’t shake a bad feeling about it and what really was going on at Justin’s house. The truck looked like dozens in the area. Nothing unusual about the make or model. John Patrick did note that no