You couldn't make those types of threats until you were way deeper into your relationship.

"She found my mom's phone number and called her. They talked for an hour this morning," he said, just letting the words fall from his mouth like he couldn't believe them.

I couldn't either. "Your mother? That's...weird." Who called someone's mother like that? "How long have you been dating?"

"Not long enough," he stumbled on the words.

I tapped my iced coffee on the corner of the drink holder before grabbing it, hoping most of the water would drop off. "Did you check her socials?"

"No," he said in horror. "I'm not a stalker."

I tapped the iced coffee again and lifted it to my lips after giving him a tsk. Water ran down the edges and dampened my jeans more. "As a bounty hunter, you should be smarter."

Tony laughed. "Have I mentioned her ass?"

"Eww, no and let's keep it that way," I said as the front doors to the bed-and-breakfast opened before a man stepped out.

His khaki pants and baby pink polo shirt gave him away instantly. I smacked Tony's shoulder with the back of my hand. "There he is."

He snorted. "Yeah, that looks exactly like you described."

"Yup, definitely Carl," I said, lowering my phone. "Matches the picture exactly."

"Wait." Tony turned toward me, but I ignored him to keep my eye on Carl. "You had a picture of him and didn't show me?"

I shrugged. "My description worked. We found him." What more did he want?

Carl turned right in front of the bed-and-breakfast sidewalk, and I snapped a photo of him with my phone.

"He's not headed to the parking lot?" Tony said, stating the obvious.

I took another photo, this one zoomed in on the back of his head, and nodded. "What do we do if he's walking?"

"Stay in the car a minute, and then we'll follow him. Let's see where he's headed first."

Carl walked straight on, crossed the street, and stepped into the parking lot on for the public beach before walking right into the sand.

"Where is he going?" I leaned forward to get a slightly better view and took another photo. "The beach?"

I guess the outfit worked.

"Do people meet at the beach for a lover's rendezvous?" I asked. Normally, I found them in seedy hotels and back bedrooms.

Tony shook his head. "You're the one who handles cheaters. I'm in charge of fleeing criminals."

"Whatever, he's slime for cheating on his wonderful fiancée." The declaration reminded me why we were here, and I vowed to catch the ahole in the act.

"You wanna take a walk on the beach, princess?" Tony already had his door open before he finished asking.

I glanced outside at the sandy area running into the white waves of the ocean. "Out there? In the sand?"

He chuckled. "That's normally how we define beach."

On an average day, I'd be all for sticking my toes in the sand but while wearing sandals. "I have on tennis shoes and socks."

Not proper sand attire.

"It vacuums," he said like a man who hadn't lived by sand their entire life.

Sand had the habit of getting everywhere. You couldn't vacuum it if you couldn't see it because it wormed its way into some unknown orifice only to pop up in ten years while you're sitting on the couch.

"Come on, princess. You're going to miss out on your perp."

Ugh. He was right. I hated it, but he was. "Fine."

I jerked open the car door and stepped out. I had two choices in this situation. I either had to walk in the sand with my shoes on and deal with the consequences later or take them off and carry them along the beach with me because no way was I walking across the road and parking lot with bare feet.

I had to take option one since I needed my hands free to take photos on my phone. Maybe I could just throw the shoes and socks away to save myself from sand cleanup?

"You'll be fine," Tony said as he caught me staring lovingly at my Skechers.

I groaned, but that made me sound like Anderson, and I didn't like it. Time to buck up, Vonnie. A little sand wouldn't keep me down. I had a cheater to catch. "You're right. Let's get this cheater."

"What?" he asked, stopping for a quick second to stare at me.

I tapped him on the arm. "Never mind, old man."

Carl cut through the sand, headed toward the water, where a group of about ten people clustered together. Two small children darted in and out of the waves, shrieking in delight every time water rushed over their toes.

"What the hell is he doing?" I asked as Carl stopped at the edge of the group and raised his hand in a short wave.

Two tall males left the cluster of people and walked toward him with smiles. They embraced with long, deep hugs before stepping back to give him a typical man hard slap on the back.

"You didn't tell me he was into weird shit." Tony whistled.

We stopped walking, but I leaned my upper body forward as if getting closer might help me make sense of it. "Who are these people?"

"I don't know, but this is about the time you take pictures, princess."

Shit. I grabbed my phone from my back pocket, attached the small lens I bought online, and engrossed myself with snapping photos of the ocean. At least that's how I made it look. In reality, all my photos had one focus. Carl and the surrounding people.

Slowly, and one by one, the other people in the original group meandered over to Carl. Each one met him with a hug, and one short woman wearing a long dress wiped a tear from her eye. I snapped a photo as my shoe-covered foot sank into the sand.

"I have to be honest, princess. Unless this is an orgy, I don't think he's cheating." He tilted his head one way and then the other. "At least not here."

I did the same. "I'm just... so confused." What were they doing at the beach? Why were there so many of them?

The crowd calmed, and after everyone had sufficiently hugged Carl, they walked to the edge of the beach where two picnic tables sat decorated with tablecloths and covered with food dishes.

"Broadrick's right. I have the weirdest cases."

Tony snorted. "You have enough evidence?"

"I guess." I lowered the phone and shoved it back in my pocket. Did any of that count as evidence?

There'd be more work ahead of me to figure out what the hell happened, but taking a hundred shots of Carl eating coleslaw wouldn't solve any of them. "Let's go."

**

Sand worked its way into the fibers of my living room rug as I removed my white socks and tossed them on the floor. How the hell did sand get into my shoes and then into my socks? What purpose did socks serve if they couldn't keep me sand-free?

And how did so much get in there in such a short amount of time?

The front door opened and my small brown and white terrier ran inside at full speed. The bandanna tied around his neck flapped in the self-created breeze. He stopped at my feet, sniffed them, buried his nose in the rug where I'd deposited most of the sand, and sneezed. His snot hit the edges of my toes. Wonderful.

"What did you do?" Broadrick asked as he watched NB paw at the rug like he'd dig his way through. He hung NB's leash on the hook by the door and stood with his hands on his hips appearing very judgmental for a man who once took his motorcycle to the carwash because he drove by the beach and didn't like how he had sand on his tires.

"Tony and I took a long walk on the beach," I said, pushing back on the couch.

He walked across the room. "In your tennis shoes."

"Yes." I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I hope he bought you ice cream after." The cushion beside me lowered as he sat on it. "Also, I fired Sidney."

I popped open both eyes. "What?"

The pink-haired dog groomer, who drove around in a pink van with eyelashes, took care of NB when he got messy-and he was always messy. Sidney saved my sanity on a weekly basis.

"Why?" I asked when he didn't immediately provide me with all the details I needed. "I was just starting to like her. She seemed nice, and NB really likes her."

We'd had our issues in the past, like when she called Broadrick after declining my credit card, but NB always slept well after one of her playdates, so I'd come to terms with her. We were quickly on our way to becoming friends. He had no reason to fire her.

"She hit on me," he said.

I stood up. "That harlot!"