Grave Insight (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 2) by Lily Harper Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

is not what I’m doing.” Cassidy’s eyes were swimming with tears. “That is not what I’m doing.”
     
    “BALANCE it on your thigh right there,” Nick said, grunting as he hefted the rectangular unit into Maddie’s bedroom window. “They just keep getting heavier.”
    “I thought you worked out,” Maddie said. Her tone was teasing, but she was working so hard she was dripping with sweat. Her bedroom had always been tiny, and Maude had been urging her to move to her mother’s larger room, but Maddie was reluctant to change anything about the house she loved so much.
    “I do work out,” Nick said, slipping the unit into the window. “Okay, hold it here while I secure it.”
    “Okay.”
    Nick leaned around her with the screwdriver and bolt, sucking in a breath when his mouth moved to within kissing distance of Maddie’s plump, pink lips. For a moment, he was lost in the emotion associated with their close proximity. If he moved his lips, just a little, he would finally be able to get the one thing he’d always wanted.
    “Nick.” Maddie’s voice was strained, her eyes wide as his face hovered right in front of her.
    “Yeah.”
    “I … um … my hands are really sweaty.”
    “I think we’re both really sweaty,” Nick said, his eyes boring into her lips as she nervously ran her tongue between them. “It’s … is it getting hotter in here?”
    “I really think I’m going to drop this,” Maddie said.
    “Oh,” Nick said, snapping back to reality. “One minute, Mad. One minute.”
     
    “I THINK you’re just saying this to me because you want me to walk away from Nick,” Cassidy said, her heart clenching with a mixture of terror and rage. “If I walk away, then Maddie will have a clear shot at Nick.”
    “Maddie already has a clear shot at Nick,” Maude said. “That’s what you don’t seem to understand.”
    “They’re friends,” Cassidy said. “They’ve always just been friends. They never dated.” Cassidy knew she was grasping at straws.
    “That doesn’t mean they don’t love each other,” Maude said. “Cassidy, I know you’re very upset, and you feel as if you’re losing something here. You’re not losing anything, though. He was never yours.”
    “We’ve been dating for seven months.” Cassidy’s voice sounded shrill, even to her own ears.
    “He was still never yours,” Maude said. “He and Maddie are like magnets. They were both too scared to admit how they felt about each other when they were in high school. They’re adults now. There’s nothing that will keep them apart. It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”
    “He’s with me,” Cassidy argued.
    “For how long?”
    “You don’t know,” Cassidy said. “We could get married.”
    Maude shook her head. “Something tells me you don’t believe that,” she said. “You know as well as I do that he was going to break up with you tonight. That’s why you insisted on coming here with us. You knew he wouldn’t do it with an audience. You’re trying to buy time. For what, I don’t know. You really are just hurting yourself.”
    Cassidy’s heart was beating so hard she thought she was going to pass out. She jumped to her feet, tipping over the glass of iced tea in her haste. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re just a liar. I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work on me. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
     
    “IT’S secure,” Nick said, tugging on the air-conditioning unit briefly. “Pull the window down.”
    “I can’t believe how much work that was,” Maddie said, grabbing the foam strips and shoving them into the creases between the frame and the metal walls of the unit. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”
    “I think you can do anything you set your mind to, Mad,” Nick said, smiling when she straightened. “Your face is red. It looks like you just ran a marathon.”
    “That’s what it feels