Page 60 of Trigger Happy

When I get back later that night, I burst into the bathroom door when Lawton says come in!, ready to complain. “She’s giving me nothing, and she never leaves the house because she’s always making her stupid candles. Okay, they smell incredible, but—”

I stop.

Lawton is chest-deep in bubbles, lounging in what’s come to be my claw-foot bathtub, sitting in front of my window overlooking the hazy sunset, and using my lavender Epsom salt. He even lit one of Bobbi’s candles. Smells Like… Your Ex.

I balk at him. “You’re a bath guy?”

He drapes his scarred arms over the edge of the tub, sprawling back like he’s the king of a bubbly realm. “Damn. I haven’t felt this judged by you since you threw my cowboy boots in the recycling bin.”

His words barely compute. I’m having a hard time adjusting to the scene in front of me: Lawton, wet, naked, and covered in bubbles. Water drips from his hair and glides onto the round globes of his shoulders. I can’t believe a man with as many scars as him would use lavender Epsom salt. No wonder he smells intoxicating.

He sighs, sinking his head against the edge of the tub. “You were saying?”

What was I saying?

Right. Bobbi. Arch. I can do this. I can be unbothered, like him. I jump up onto the marble counter, trying very hard not to look at the gap in the bubbles. “Do you ever wonder if maybe Bobbi and Arch are just normal people? What if they had nothing to do with the body? Maybe we’re coming at this all wrong. Bobbi seems… I don’t know, nice? Maybe that’s why it’s been so hard to find anything incriminating.”

“Aw,” Lawton says, shifting in the tub. I will my eyes not to look in the water. “Are you actually starting to like her?”

“She’s likable, okay?” I admit, trying not to pick the gel off my nails. “It would be nice if she weren’t a murderer.”

“Who knew Killer Barbie had feelings?”

“It comes with the cyanide-infused nail polish.” I roll my eyes. “Really, though. What if the body was just a coincidence?”

Lawton snorts, blowing some of the bubbles away so I get a view of… My god. “Bobbi’s got those coordinates marked on her skin, and there just happens to be a body buried out there? No chance in hell. They’re hiding something. We just have to figure out if they’re the making-skin-suits kind of criminals or the tax-evasion kind.”

“Uh-huh,” I mumble, staring. Forget the moose, he has to be taking growth hormones or something.

A pause. “Chastain?”

“Huh?”

“You can stare at my cock all you want, but just know, he’s starting to get some ideas.”

I snap my head up to find his lips tilted into a smirk. I’m better than this—ogling a man who refers to his dick in the third person, so I gather up my dignity and stride out of the bathroom.

Laughter rumbles from the tub on my way out.

31Sabrina

30 Minutes: 3 PM Couples Horseback Riding! Saddle up, cowgirl!

I frown at the notification Bobbi put on my calendar full of fake haircut appointments and other made-up events I input just to be safe. I’ve never met a bed-and-breakfast host so desperate for her guests to have a good experience. She must be recovering from a one-star rating.

Bobbi didn’t even ask me to go horseback riding—just begged for my number and sent me a calendar invite, promising me that I’d love it!

I won’t.

Horses are clunky, hairy giants with no sense of personal space and a mind of their own, but I’m supposed to be getting close to her, so I told her, “Sounds fun!”

And that’s how I end up watching a horse roll in some dirt later that afternoon.

I had no idea horses roll.

The cedar-beamed, state-of-the-art stables are nicer than I expected, though, but they still reek of hay and manure. I hold my breath as I step into the paddock, looking for anything off. A severed finger in a haystack would be ideal, but there’s only snorting horses.

Lawton grabs a cowboy hat from a rack and plops it onto my braided hair. “Look at you, cowgirl. Now it looks like you know how to ride.”