No Hiding Behind the Potted Palms! A Dance with Danger Mystery #7 by Sara M. Barton

to buy your shares of stock for a
hell of a lot less than they’re worth. We need to know if he’s a
part of this conspiracy while there’s still a chance to nail the
bastards!”
    “We still shouldn’t open his
mail! For all we know, George is trying to rip him off, too. Maybe
George thinks he can fleece Ralph the way he fleeced me. Come on,
Bosco. Can you really be sure?”
    “I just want to have a
closer look at that envelope. Maybe we can read it if we hold it up
to the light. You should have told me about it when I picked you
up.” He glared at me as he pulled up to the stoplight. “You’re
always giving people the benefit of the doubt when you should be
worried that they’re out to screw with you.”
    “Is it wrong to want to live
in a nice world?” I shot back. “Did it ever occur to you that it’s
not necessary to be so damned cynical?”
    “Did it ever occur to you
that you invite trouble by being so naive? What kind of woman has
her boyfriend move in that soon after meeting him? You spent how
much actual time together before he arrived with his
suitcases?”
    “That’s mean!”
    “It may be mean, but it’s
true!” Bosco insisted. “We went together for how long before we had
sex? And you jumped into bed with this guy after how many
dates?”
    “That’s none of your damned
business!”
    “And yet, I’m the guy who’s
supposed to have your back! Now your buddy Ralph wants to buy us
out, and we’ll lose money on the deal, so it’s affecting my life,
too!”
    “Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll
take the money and move on, and you won’t have to worry about me
messing up your life any more!”
    “That’s not what I’m saying,
Dori. I’m saying people aren’t necessarily as nice as you think
they are. If Ralph is offering to buy us out, he’s not doing it
because he’s a nice guy. He’s doing it because it benefits him and
screws us!”
    Those words stung. I was too
angry and hurt to respond. We drove the last two miles in tense
silence. I knew that Bosco was going to be Bosco, whether I liked
it or not. He was looking to assign blame, because that’s his
nature, because he’s used to hunting down bad guys. And as much as
I hated to admit it, there was some truth to the fact that I leaped
into my relationship with George without looking. There was also a
part of me that suddenly distrusted Ralph, even before Bosco said a
word. But as I sat there, going over things in my mind, I realized
something that was stunning.
    “You’re mad because your
theory fell through. You thought this was about you, about Feed the
World. Instead, I got ripped off because I screwed up,” I told him,
knowing full well he was going to explode. I waited for the missile
to leave the silo, but Bosco remained silent. He pulled into the
parking lot, steering the car into a spot well away from the
Dynamic Productions entry. His hands gripped the wheel long after
he turned off the engine. I started to get nervous. This was not
the reaction I was expecting. When he did speak, they were not the
words I expected to hear.
    “No, that’s not why I’m
mad.”
    I waited for him to go on.
It took him a minute to continue.
    “I’m mad because I let you
get away the first time,” he told me. “I promised myself that if I
ever got another chance, I wasn’t going to blow it. I wanted it to
be because of me, not because I’m a self-important jerk, but
because I would have a legitimate reason for helping
you.”
    “What are you saying? You
can’t help me unless it’s your fault?”
    “No, I’m saying I would have
a built-in excuse for hanging around if my investigation of Feed
the World caused you to lose your savings, and I’d have a chance to
redeem myself by fixing the mess.” Bosco’s brown eyes were on me,
and there was no doubt of how deeply his pain went. “All I’ve
wanted for the last three years has been the opportunity to
convince you that I’m still worthy of your love.”
     

Chapter