Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

One of our first stops was the metaphysical shop and I swear Raven could have gotten lost in there for hours.

It was a bit of a crash course in her Pagan faith which she shyly and patiently told me about, and I had to say, a lot of what she talked about made sense to me. I didn’t know if I would be converting, or signing up or whatever, but it made a hell of a lot more sense than anything else I’d encountered so far.

From the metaphysical shop we ended up in an antique shop where she perused stacks of old artwork and books. I was passing by the jewelry counter, eyeing an old lighter in the case when the ring caught my eye.

Gold with white gold accents, a square-cut diamond at its center. The thing had to be from the 1930s. Art deco period, there were a bunch of buildings in downtown Seattle with the same kind of facing and that’s what they called them. Art Deco.

“Excuse me, how much for that ring?” I asked the lady behind the counter.

“Oh, good choice!” she declared. “It’s nine-hundred-and-eighty-nine dollars,” she said pulling it from its felt and reading the tag.

“I can give you seven-fifty cash for it right now,” I said.

She blinked at me and said, “You know, it’s been here for years and I think I know who it’s for… sold.”

I grinned and handed her my reserve wad of cash out of the top of my boot, glancing around to make sure Raven was otherwise engaged, hoping that if all went well, we would be by the end of this trip.

“I hope it fits,” she murmured, handing the ring over.

“You know what, me too,” I said and handed her the cash.

“Mace?” Raven called, and I stuffed the ring in my pocket, deep.

“Yeah, I’m over here!” I called back and the woman behind the counter winked at me and drifted away to count her money and put it away.

“There you are.” Raven beamed at me.

“You find anything?” I asked her.

“Oh, lots of neat stuff, but nothing I want to try and carry back with us.” She laughed.

I hooked an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“What about you?” she asked as we wandered out the front door and back into the sun.

“Oh, I saw a thing or two. There was a really cool lighter back in that case.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked. “Why didn’t you get it?”

“I mean,” I shrugged, “how many lighters do I really need?”

32

Raven…

We walked all over Port Townsend and ended up having lunch on the breezy back deck of a pub with a mermaid for the sign. The food was fantastic, a shrimp pizza with a white garlic sauce, artichoke hearts, spinach, mushrooms, and fresh tomatoes. All the vegetables locally sourced, real farm to table fare. The cider and beers were local and craft, too, real artisan stuff. I loved it.

Afterward, we needed to walk off such a carb heavy lunch, and so we started our trek to the sea glass beach, an easy hike but one that required low tide to get around to where we were supposed to be at.

We double-checked the tide tables, figured it out, and set off down easy walking trails and eventually, over rocks crusted with barnacles and around some shallow tide pools that were teeming with life.

“Oh, would you look at that!” I covered my mouth with my hands after my excited utterance, the sea glass beach was beautiful. All white, brown, and green glass worn smooth by the sand and churning sea. Here and there it was dotted with blue glass pieces that were just brilliant.

“I wish I’d brought something to collect some,” I pouted.

“Psht! I got you,” Mace said and produced a tan Crown Royal bag out of his jacket pocket.

“Oh, my God, you’re the absolute best, you know that?”

“I try, but only for you,” he said with a grin, handing the bag over.

We chatted, and I picked glass from the shore.

“You know what you’re even going to do with this?” he asked me at one point, laughing.

“Not a clue, but I bet you I’ll find something to do with it. Something good.”

He laughed and said, “God, I love you!”

“I love you too,” I said smiling and bent to pick up a sizeable piece of blue glass worn smooth by years of turbulent ocean, polished to a silky matte finish by the sand.

“You ever think about the future?” he asked quietly, stooping to pick up a bit of green and holding it out to me. I smiled and held out the bag for him to slip it inside.

“Sometimes,” I answered. “I don’t like to too much,” I confessed.

“Why not?” he asked, picking up an opaque white stone and casting it aside when he realized it wasn’t glass.

“Because I’m afraid sometimes,” I said.

“Afraid of what?” he asked frowning.

“Afraid that this is all some beautiful waking dream and that any moment, I’m going to wake up to the nightmare,” I said quietly.

“Oh, baby,” he murmured and reached out, capturing my hand and towing me in against him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me soundly.

“It’s not a dream,” he said, looking me in the eye. “This is real. As real as it gets,” he looked me over and let me go.

The vibe suddenly shifted, and I frowned slightly.

“Mace?” I asked.

He dropped to one knee in front of me.

“I want forever with you,” he said and held up a gold ring. “I want to make you my wife and ol’ lady if you’ll let me. I want to hold you every night and wake up to you every morning. I want to make love to you as often as possible and I want to grow old with you and pinch your ass from my fuckin’ wheelchair.”

Strong emotion, the strongest I’d ever felt, seized me. I sniffed and swallowed hard as happy tears stained my lower lashes and made the beautiful ring pinched between