Chocolate Chip Cookie Conundrum (Murder in the Mix Book 32) by Unknown (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📕

an entire gaggle of women just about every age swarms them like a beehive. I clear my throat and the women look my way before frowning, and for the most part, departing.

“Lemon.” Everett straightens as he makes his way over. “Carlotta said she’d bring you right this way. Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” I tell him, albeit not all that convincingly. “I had to give the baby to my mother.” I decide to leave out the bit about Carlotta’s unibrow for now.

Judge Essex Everett Baxter is not only vexingly handsome, but he happens to be my official plus one. He’s got jet-black hair, eyes of the bluest sky, and a body that could run a ball down a football field. He’s slow to smile, quick with a witty comeback, and every woman in the room is commanded to acknowledge his presence. And we just so happen to already share a sixteen-year-old daughter together.

Everly, Evie, Baxter came to Everett just a year ago. Her birth mother, a woman by the name of Cressida Bentley, had hidden Evie away from the world and away from Everett. We were thrilled when we found her. And since Cressida wants nothing to do with her, I’ve stepped in as her mother and I’ve never been happier. I love Evie as if she came right out of my own body. And thankfully, Evie is smitten with her new baby sister, Lyla Nell.

“Hey, Lot.” Noah comes up and dots my cheek with a kiss.

And then there’s Noah Corbin Fox, head homicide detective, dark hair that turns red at the tips in the sun, eyes so green even the pine trees envy him, and he has both dimples and muscles for days.

Noah is my longtime boyfriend, or at least he was right up until I found out about the pesky wife of his. That little tidbit ripped us to pieces. We were basically on-again, off-again at that point, and oddly enough, while we were on again is when I tied the knot with Everett. It was more or less a business transaction at the time to help him meet the demands of his trust fund. Everett and I had dated before that, while Noah and I were off again, and Everett politely suggested I finish things with Noah to see if there was anything there.

And when Noah and I grew serious once again, Noah suggested I finish things with Everett to see where things would go, hoping I would tie things off with Everett for good—and well, I had come to the same conclusion. Let’s just say that the goodbye Noah and I shared may have gotten out of hand, and the hello Everett and I shared definitely got out of hand, and here we are at a sleazy talk show ready and willing to find out the paternity results live and on air.

Noah and Everett used to be stepbrothers for all of five minutes while Noah’s louse of a father was married to Everett’s billionaire heiress of a mother. Wiley bilked her for what he could before he left town, but while they were married, Noah and his brother Alex were living it up at the Baxter estate.

“Lottie.” Noah gives me a stern look. “Say the word and we’ll call this whole thing off.”

“He’s right.” Everett steps in and wraps his arms around me. “I’ll figure out a way to get your mother’s B&B back. We’ll sue,” he says. “I have an arsenal of attorneys at my fingertips who will make Cormack and Cressida wish they had never thought twice about the property.”

This talk show stunt was Cressida’s idea, and if I go through with it, my mother gets half her B&B back.

Noah nods. “And I’ve got access to a couple of jail cells in the back of the precinct. I’ll lock them up for a few days and they’ll be begging to gift it back to your mother.”

“You’re both hilarious.” I make a face. “But as it stands, Cormack isn’t giving up her half for anything. I’ve already offered her all the money in the world.” Not quite true but close. Although I’m not liquid. I’d have to sell every piece of property Grandma Nell left me, including my bakery, to get anywhere near purchasing half the B&B. It’s bad enough we’re buying out Cressida at fair market value. Cormack and Cressida bought the B&B when Noah’s wily father all but tricked my mother into selling it.

“This is your fault, Everett,” Noah says as he snaps up one of my chocolate chip cookies off the platter from the refreshment table and takes an angry bite. “If you hadn’t enticed Cressida into a full-blown obsession with you, she wouldn’t have cared about the B&B. She was trying to get closer to you and stick it to you at the very same time. She knows what hurts Lottie hurts you.”

“This is your fault, Noah,” Everett says as his chest expands with his very next breath. “It’s Cormack’s obsession with you that drove her to move into the inn to begin with.”

“So this is my fault?” Noah looks both amused and angry, not an easy combination to pull off.

“He’s sort of right,” I say. “I mean, he was dating Cormack back in high school. Had you not intervened, he and Cormack could have been married and divorced by now. And who knows? Everett may have moved to another continent to get away from his ex-wife, and you and I might have been married and had six children by now.”

Noah sheds a dimpled grin. “Hear that, Everett? She’s fantasizing scenarios in which she’s still with me and you’re clear on the other side of the planet. Don’t worry, Lot. We can still make this happen. I’ve got a gun on me and I’m not afraid to use it. I’ll shoot at his feet. How long do you think before he boards a plane to Europe?”

I’m about to stave off the shootout when Lily Swanson, my right-hand gal down at the bakery,