Derby Divas (Zoe Donovan Mystery)

Derby Divas

By

Kathi Daley

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Katherine Daley

Version 1.0

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This book is dedicated to my daughter-in-law
, Brennen, who is the best daughter a woman could ever have.

Special thanks to all my Facebook friends, who show their support by sharing their opinions and encouragement. I’d like to give a special shout out to SUPER FANS:

I also want to thank my team of advance readers for taking time out of their busy lives to help me launch each new book with a special thanks to Bruce for help with the techy stuff.

And, as always, love and thanks to my sister Christy for her time, encouragement, unwavering support, and valuable feedback. I also want to thank Carrie, Cristin, and Danny for the Facebook shares, Ricky for the webpage, Rick for the info regarding classic car shows, Randy Ladenheim-Gil for the editing, and, last but not least, my super-husband Ken for allowing me time to write by taking care of everything else.

Paradise Lake Series:

Pumpkins in Paradise

Snowmen in Paradise

Bikinis in Paradise

Zoe Donovan Mysteries:

Halloween Hijinks

The Trouble With Turkeys

Christmas Crazy

Cupid’s Curse

Big Bunny Bump
-off

Beach Blanket Barbie

Maui Madness

Derby Divas

Haunted Hamlet—
coming August 15, 2014

Road to Christmas Romance:

Road to Christmas Past

“I can’t believe Zak wanted to sit next to Levi,” I complained to my best friend, Ellie Davis. We had just spent two wonderful if not hectic weeks in Maui, where we’d participated in a treasure hunt, solved a murder, and made several new friends.

“Maybe he wanted to take a break from the crazy
woman who broke his heart,” Ellie answered without looking up from the book she was reading. Her long brown hair shielded her face so that I couldn’t see her expression, but I was pretty sure she was as disgusted with me as Zak must be.

“I’m not crazy,” I defended
myself as I crossed my legs up under my body in the large and plush seat provided by the private jet Zak had hired for our flight home.

“The most eligible bachelor on the planet just asked you to marry him and you said no.”
Ellie turned and looked at me.

“I didn’t say no. I just didn’t say yes.”

Ellie rolled her eyes.

“He took me by surprise,” I tried to explain. “I know I should have said yes
, but I froze.”

“So unfreeze,” Ellie counseled. “Get out of your seat and walk down the aisle and tell that wonderful man who loves you more than life itself that you would be honored to be his wife.”

I can’t actually see my own face, but I’m certain I look like a fox trapped in a briar bush by a pack of angry dogs. I snuggled my dog Charlie to my chest and hid my face in his furry neck. For any of you who may not know me, I am a twenty-five-year-old animal rescue worker who apparently is a total idiot when it comes to committed relationships. I’ve been dating my ex-nemesis and current love of my life for nine months. After two glorious weeks in Maui, the most perfect man on earth, Zak Zimmerman, asked me to marry him. I guess you can tell by the cryptic conversation with my best friend and soon-to-be roommate that I didn’t handle things as well as I might have. You see, in spite of my many fabulous qualities, I tend to have a teensy problem with commitment. I either avoid it altogether or latch on so tight to those I’ve already committed to that I smother them with possessiveness and jealousy. My name is Zoe Donovan and I’m a complete and total mess.

“Exactly how mad do you think Zak is?” I asked.

“Any normal man with reasonable emotions would be both hurt and furious
, but knowing Zak, he’s probably just taking a moment to give you the space you asked for.”

I knew Ellie was right. After I failed to respond to Zak’s heartfelt declaration of love
, he had very sweetly let me off the hook by apologizing for springing the whole thing on me in such a spontaneous manner. He’d told me that he knew I wasn’t ready and should have waited and promised that things were okay between us. We’d walked back to the beach house we were borrowing from Zak’s friend and, although it was still early, Zak claimed he was tired and wanted to turn in. He kissed me gently, but I couldn’t help but notice the hurt in his eyes. By the time I joined him, he was fast asleep, and when I woke this morning, he was already up and busily packing our gear in the limo that would take us to the airport.

I looked across toward the back of the jet where
Zak and Levi were watching some dumb movie and laughing like they were having the time of their lives. What is it with men and slap-shot comedy? Since when is getting kicked in your private parts and squirting mayonnaise out of your nose something to roll on the floor laughing about?

I sighed. Something was definitely w
rong with me. I know, as an ovarian member of the human race, I should find such antics childish and inane, but to be honest, projectile mayo is exactly something I would normally find hilarious. Maybe I contracted some tropical disease while on the Islands that robbed me of my good judgment and sense of humor. We
had
spent a lot of time diving at fairly significant depths in our attempt to find buried treasure. Maybe I was suffering the effects of nitrogen narcosis. Then again, maybe I was possessed.

“Do you be
lieve in ghosts?” I asked Ellie, who had returned her attention to her book.

“Ghosts?”

“Yeah, you know, spirits from the undead who come to you while you sleep and possess your body, making you do things you would otherwise never have done?”

“No
,” Ellie answered definitively.

“But there are odd things that happen to people. Remember that show we saw on cable where the old woman was believed to b
e possessed by her dead husband, which was causing her to do all sorts of weird things she normally wouldn’t do?”

Ellie put her book down and looked at me. “You aren’t possessed. You
’re scared. It’s normal to be scared when we face major life changes. We all go through it, and I suppose there are times when listening to the little voice in our heads that tell us that agreeing to something we only think we want isn’t the right decision.”

“So it was really smart of me to take a step back rather than acce
pting Zak’s proposal right away?”

“No.”

“But you just said . . .”

“I wasn’t ta
lking about you. Zak is great and you should marry him. Now.” Ellie waved her hand in the air to indicate I should be on my way. “Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Just do it.”

“You were talking about yourself,” I realized.

Ellie looked back at her book and pretended to read, but I could see the moisture forming in the corners of her eyes. Now I really felt bad. Here I was jibber-jabbering about my so-called love crisis when poor Ellie so recently had been dumped by her own fiancé. To make matters worse, I suspected she had slept with the third member of our best-friend trio, Levi Denton, while Zak and I were chasing a killer on Oahu.

I’d tried to gently broach what I knew would be a sensitive topic after I’d witnessed Ellie sneaking out of Levi’s room when we returned early to the oceanfront house Zak’s friend had let us borrow, but Ellie refused to speak of the matter. I could tell that she wanted to forget the whole thing had ever happened
, and I was honoring her request for the time being.

“I’m sorry
, Ellie.” I wound the fingers of my right hand through the free hand in her lap. “Really. I’ve been thoughtless and insensitive. I know you’ve been dealing with your own stuff. Do you hate me?”

Ellie smiled
and set her book aside once again. “I don’t hate you. I’m sorry too. I know this is hard for you. I’ve been insensitive. I guess I’m angrier about everything that happened with Rob than I care to admit, and as far as the other . . .”

“You
’re scared.”

“Of course I
’m scared,” she whispered. “I ruined everything.”

“Ruined everything how?” I asked.

Ellie glanced at Zak and Levi, neither of whom was paying the least attention to our conversation.

“You know how I feel about Levi
, but nothing has changed. He doesn’t want children and I do. We can never have anything more than friendship. I understand that, and I value the relationship we have more than I can say. It kills me to think that one night of moonlight and tequila may have destroyed what it has taken us a lifetime to create.”

“Y
ou feel like you crossed a line you can’t uncross?” I guessed.

“It was worse than crossing a line. The whole thing was a total nightmare.”

“It was bad?”

Ellie paused and looked directly at me. “It
was worse than bad. It was wonderful.”

“Oh.” Given the
ir difference in life goals, I could see how wonderful could be worse than bad. With bad, you simply laughed it off and moved on. But with wonderful . . . wonderful could haunt you the rest of your life.

I squeezed Ellie’s hand in a sh
ow of support. “You and I and Levi have a relationship that is strong enough to withstand anything,” I assured her. “I know things feel awkward now, but give it some time. Things will get better. You’ll meet a new guy who wants a family and Levi will meet a girl who doesn’t, and you’ll both wonder what drew you to each other in the first place.”

Ellie looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Even I had to admit that my attempt at comforting her was lame.

“Rob is a jerk.” I tried for just the righ
t amount of best-friend outrage as I changed the subject back to her ex-fiancé. I guess I figured that outrage was an easier emotion to deal with than regret.

“He’s not a jerk
.” Ellie smiled at my less than successful attempt to cheer her up.

“Yeah, I guess not.
But your landlady . . .” I growled. “What a witch to lease your apartment right out from under you.”

Ellie actually laughed. We both knew it hadn’t been her landlady’s fault that Ellie had forgotten to inform
her that her plans had changed and she wouldn’t be moving out of her apartment at the end of the month as planned. Unfortunately, the woman had been very efficient in renting the unit while we were in Hawaii.

“My landlady is a wonderful woman who just did what I’d asked her to do,” Ellie pointed
out. “Although my oversight has put me in an awkward position. I’m never going to find another apartment I can afford on my own.”

“Don’t worry
,” I said, trying to comfort the woman who had been like a sister to me my entire life. “We’ll get you moved out of your old apartment and into the boathouse.”

“What about Zak? Are you going
to give up on him altogether?”

“No,” I
said. “But once he’s speaking to me again, we can stay at his place on the nights when we . . .” I blushed. “You’ll see,” I continued without completing my previous thought, “it will be fun to be roomies for a while.”

“Fun?”

“Sure, why not?” Charlie leaped down from my lap to join Zak and Levi, so I adjusted my body so that I was sitting sideways. “It’ll be like the slumber parties we had when we were kids.”

“We aren’t kids
anymore,” Ellie said.

“Speak for yourself,” I challenged
her. “I love slumber parties. I think I even have some peppermint schnapps in the back of a cupboard somewhere. Remember that holiday party when we drank way too much of the stuff and spent the rest of the night prank calling Levi?”

“He didn’t speak to us for a month,” Ellie reminded me.

“That was because we sent Penelope Waters over to his house.” I laughed.

“That was mean and you know it
.”

“Yeah,” I had to admit, “
it really was.”