Bayou Dreaming (Butterfly Bayou 3)

He’d had that smile that threatened to melt her. It was the moment she’d decided to be as professional as possible, to not let him get away with anything or people would know. They would know she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, that she couldn’t get him out of her head.

The smile had died that night, and he hadn’t smiled at her that way again until today.

Then she’d ruined things. Again.

“It’s not illegal to be in your own backyard, right?” Hannah seemed ready to jump on anything that could save her.

“It’s not your backyard, young lady,” her father replied. “I paid for this house and I say you can’t be out there at midnight playing around with your friends. I should let the deputy arrest you.”

Yep, parents could be rough on a girl. “I’m not going to arrest her. I only want to know if she went over the fence.”

Hannah’s eyes went super wide, and Roxie worried she was about to get another round of crying.

Ashlyn held up her hand. “That was me, too. I got up on the fence to get a better shot and I dropped my phone and then the café lady came out and everyone around here has a gun, so I froze. I know I should have let her know I was getting my phone, but I was trying to keep Hannah out of trouble.”

It was a good story, but there was something about the young lady she didn’t quite believe. “You dropped your phone?”

She nodded. “Yes. I was trying to get up on the shed so I could get a better shot. I was using the camera on my phone.”

“Can I see the picture?”

A hint of pink flushed her cheeks. “I didn’t get one. I was trying but I dropped the phone and then everything went crazy.”

Something was not adding up.

“But that was at least twenty minutes before we found you standing there.” Zep seemed to be thinking along the same lines she was.

The timing was off. Most kids she knew would have fled back into the house. So what had kept them standing there?

“Well, first I had to wait until I was sure the dude with the gun wasn’t going to shoot me,” Ashlyn replied, her chin up. “I wasn’t able to get back over the fence until he went inside when the first police showed up. The hot guy. Deputy Major. It’s a terrible name for a hot guy.”

“You should not be objectifying young men,” Mrs. Belton pointed out before turning to her daughter. “I told you she was a bad influence.”

“She’s my friend.” Hannah sniffled again.

“I thought the boyfriend was the bad influence,” her father muttered.

“Who’s the boyfriend?” There had been more than one set of footprints in those bushes. If it had all happened like Ashlyn said, there shouldn’t have been all those footprints. Roxie could write it off as Dixie’s or her husband’s, but there had been an overly large set right by the fence. Dixie and Joe were both on the smaller side.

And they did have a missing teen.

Hannah’s eyes had gone wide, and her mouth opened and closed again.

“Austin Howell,” her father said with a shake of his head. “He lives a couple of blocks over. He’s a bad influence. Her grades were perfect until she started dating that moron.”

“He’s not a moron,” Hannah yelled with all the teen-in-love angst she could muster. “He’s going to be an artist. He’s going to make great films someday and you are so unfair.”

Roxie sighed and turned to the rational one as the Beltons began arguing about young love. “So the boyfriend showed up?”

Ashlyn stood and moved to where Roxie was. “Yeah. We’re working on this project together, but then mostly they made out and I had to do all the work. Typical. And he is so not the artist I am. Look, I’m sorry we scared the old folks.”

“And where’s Austin?” Roxie got the feeling she could close two cases with one simple answer.

“He’s hiding in the shed,” Ashlyn admitted. “Scaredy cat didn’t want to get caught. He walked over from his house. But could we not tell his mom? She knows my mom and she’s a bit overprotective.”

“Oh, his mom knows,” she said, pulling her cell out. At the very least she could tell Major they could all stand down on the missing teen. “Zep, could you go and talk to the teenage boy currently hiding in the shed? I suspect you’ll relate to him better than an angry dad.”

“What do you mean he’s in my shed?” Mr. Belton asked.

It was going to be a long night.* * ** * *

Hours later Roxie was fairly certain no one was going to be shot, though there were three grounded teens. She got into the truck and slid in beside Zep. “You were good with the parents.”