The Greatest Gift (A Darcy Sweet Mystery) by K.J. Emrick Read Free Book Online

since we split up, and every night I get more and more certain that I did the wrong thing by taking the job over in Oak Hollow."
    Darcy's fingers tingled where his hand touched her.  She was sure her face must be red right up to the tips of her ears.  He was saying exactly what she wanted to hear.  All the right words in all the right ways.
    Before she could try to put her own thoughts into words, Rita came back over to their table.
    "Anything else for you two?" she asked them.  "The sandwiches okay?"
    Jon sat back, taking his hand away, and Darcy wished they had met somewhere more private where they wouldn't be interrupted.  Suddenly she was aware of a dozen pairs of eyes around the room, watching.  "No, thank you," she said to Rita.  "We're good."
    "All righty then."   Rita winked at her, then snapped her fingers.  "Hey, Darcy, could you tell Belinda I said hi?  Maybe mention I'm still available to help her out around the house if she needs it."
    "I suppose I can do that."  Darcy man aged a smile.  A thought had occurred to her. "Why did you stop working for Belinda?"
    Rita leaned in closer in a conspiratorial way.  "Oh, she said she was running out of money.  Fixed budget, and all that, you know?  But I heard different."  She lowered her voice to a whisper.  "Supposedly there was a lot of money that her husband left to her.  The man was a real tightwad from what I heard.  Had lots of money to pass on.  So, when she's ready to have someone help her out again, you tell her I'm ready to come back."
    Rita certainly sounded eager to get back into Belinda's employment.  "I'll tell her," Darcy promised.  Rita winked a thank you and went off again.
    That whole thing about Dominic building up a big nest egg to leave Belinda when he died nagged at Darcy.  Belinda certainly didn't live like a rich woman.  Maybe, she thought, Belinda could be running out of money.  Dominic might be haunting her now to make sure his wife was taken care of.
    Or he might want to protect her from someone.
    It all made sense, and at the same time, it didn't.  Darcy knew there was something more to all of this.  She just didn't know what.
    Jon was watching her again with that same look in his blue eyes.
    Darcy fidgeted and stared down at her sandwich.  "Stop it," she said, but with a smile playing across her lips.
    "You think she has something to do with what's going on at Belinda Franco's, don't you?"  It wasn't really a question the way he said it.
    She chewed a bite of food and thought it over.  "I think she might.  She's very interested in getting back into Belinda's house again.  I can't imagine what connection she would have to Belinda other than being an ex-employee, though."
    "She would have had access to Belinda's house when she worked there.  Right?" Jon asked her.
    "Right.   So if there was anything in the house, like say a hidden stash of money, Rita would know about it."
    "Hidden stash of money?"  He raised an eyebrow at that.  Darcy explained to him what she h ad figured out so far, about Dominic's spirit telling her he had saved all of his money to buy Belinda the house of her dreams, and about Belinda's poltergeist ransacking her house.  Yet, Rita had just said Belinda claimed to be broke.  Darcy had to wonder if the rumored money was the key to this whole thing.
    "Couldn't Belinda have spent any money that Dominic left her?" Jon asked.
    "Maybe.  But wouldn't Rita know that?  Wouldn't the whole town have known it?  You know, my mother actually said she remembered Dominic came from money but never acted like he did.  So then the real question becomes, where is this money?"
    "If there ever was any," Jon added.
    "Right."
    Darcy was enjoying this give and take between them as they worked together on another mystery.  They had always clicked, complementing each other in every imaginable way.  Now here they were again, like no time had passed at all.
    She realized, in that moment , how very much in love