The Sex On Beach Book Club by Jennifer Apodaca

See if you like having an assistant?”
    This was what being soft brought. She should never have offered to help Tanya. She should have kicked her ass as soon as Tanya jumped her. She should have—
    â€œYou could put her on my payroll. Just while you’re working on my case.” Wes stood up from the couch and walked over to stand at the end of the desk to look at Tanya. “It’d be temporary while Holly’s working for me.”
    She was getting a headache. “That won’t work.”
    Tanya ignored her. “Oh! Thank you! You’ll see, Holly, I’ll be really good. I can organize your files, handle your phone calls, um, clean the office…”
    â€œJust don’t touch my Milky Way bars.” God, how did she get into these things? And why wouldn’t Wes just shut up?
    â€œTanya,” he said, “you can get started by helping us figure out who killed Cullen.”
    Her bottom lip slid out like a three-year-old kid’s did, and her big blue eyes pooled.
    That was it. Holly slapped both hands onto her desk and snapped, “Stop that right now. In this office, we don’t cry over dumb-ass men! You can throw something, call him names, or just be damned glad the bloodsucker is out of your life, but we don’t cry.”
    Tanya’s eyes rounded. The she sniffed once and said, “Okay.”
    Holly nodded, purposely refraining from looking at Wes, who was standing by her desk. He might not like her methods, but she didn’t care. To Tanya, she said, “Good. Now get it through your head that Cullen used you. He didn’t take one look at you across the table at the book club and fall in love. That is not the real world.”
    â€œBut—”
    She glared at her. “No buts!”
    Tanya sat back in her chair. “Stop yelling at me. I get it.” She looked down at her lap. “Last night was the first and only time I slept with him. He spent a week making me feel like I mattered to him.”
    Holly rolled her eyes and sighed.
    Tanya looked up and said, “I know he seduced me for sex and nothing more.”
    That was better. “Good. Now tell us about Cullen. Did he have any plans after you left him last night?”
    Tanya picked up her coffee then sat back. “No, I assumed he would go back to his boat. I thought I wore him out.”
    Ugh. Holly took a drink of her coffee to try to burn that image out of her brain.
    Wes jumped in. “Can you think of any reason he would be in my bookstore that late at night?”
    She shook her head. “He never said a word about your bookstore or meeting anyone.”
    Holly cut in, “I saw Tanya leave and followed her. I think we have to assume that Cullen must have gone into the bookstore right after dropping Tanya at her car. He was right there.”
    Tanya went a little pale. “You followed me home? Isn’t that kind of creepy?”
    What did the chick think investigating was? “Creepy or not, I’m the one who told the detective that I watched you go into the house, turn out all the lights, and stayed for another twenty minutes to make sure you didn’t leave again.”
    â€œOh.” Tanya looked sheepish. “My alarm system for the house records when it’s disabled. It showed that once I came home, it wasn’t turned off until the morning. But thanks. I wouldn’t want to be a suspect.” She shuddered.
    Wes got her focused again when he asked, “Any idea if Cullen might have gotten a key to my bookstore? Did he have a key you didn’t recognize with him when he dropped you off? Anything like that?”
    Tanya shook her head. “He had keys on his key ring, but I didn’t know what they were all for. Sorry.”
    Holly decided to try another tactic. “What did Cullen talk about that night?”
    Tanya thinned her lips and said, “He talked about himself. Well, first he talked about me, how beautiful and