“Uh oh. You got a little bit right there…” he leaned over and licked chocolate from the corner of my mouth. You can probably figure out where this was going. “You’re delicious,” he said seductively. “I wonder how this would taste on other parts of you.”

He pulled me up and guided me over to stand in front of him. He pushed my top up to expose my tummy and I held it there. Then he dipped one of his fingers in the chocolate and swirled around my belly button. I started feeling flushed and breathing faster. He leaned in and began licking the chocolate off of me, which incidentally, felt incredibly good and looked amazingly erotic. Suddenly Bruno gave a yip and headed for the door, which was already opening as Cam and Jess came in.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“We can go to my place!” Cam said, immediately assessing the situation, and preparing to vacate the premises. Jess had a slightly surprised and very amused look on her face.

“No! You don’t have to leave,” I said, pulling down my shirt and desperately trying to reclaim a shred of dignity. “I just got some chocolate on me and Braden was helping me get it off,” I said, as if it were completely normal that someone would get chocolate on their stomach and their companion would help them clean it up with his tongue.

“Just let us quickly clean up in here,” Braden said. “Don’t let us get in your way and don’t leave on our account. We’re just planning to hang out tonight.” I guess he meant as opposed to having chocolate-covered sex in the kitchen.

“Okay,” Jess said, looking like she was trying not to laugh. “We were going to go for a drink after dinner but we changed our minds. I probably should have called.”

“That’s okay. It’s no big deal,” Braden reassured her.

“We were just going to hang out too,” Cam added. “Do you mind if …”

“No! Of course not,” I said, smiling in what I imagined was probably a rather maniacal way. I probably looked like a crazed Oompa Loompa.

They headed off to Jess’s room while she changed out of her work clothes. As soon as they were out of earshot Braden and I turned to each other.

“Good thing they weren’t a few minutes later.” He smiled.

“Yeah, or they might have seen chocolate with nuts.”

“Oh, that was bad,” he said, but he still laughed.

Later, the four of us sat in the living room talking and snuggling on opposite couches. Bruno was contentedly nestled with Braden and me as I petted him and Braden scratched him behind the ears. Incidentally, that was Chihuahua paradise. He kept sniffing at my tummy though, which was rather disconcerting. Not to mention an embarrassing reminder of earlier events. I kept subtly shooing him away.

“So what’s up with Adam lately?” Jess asked.

“I know. He seems distracted and cranky,” I agreed.

“He might just be a little stressed out,” Braden offered. “Mark mentioned that he wasn’t going out as much lately for some reason, so I guess he’s not unwinding a lot.” That would make sense. Adam was cranky because he wasn’t getting laid. The question was why.

“Maybe he needs a vacation,” Cam suggested.

“Oh wait! I almost forgot,” I said excitedly, sitting up and dashing into the other room. I came back holding the Metro, a little free newspaper that people picked up from stacks all over the city. “Look!” I handed the paper to Jess and she looked at the page I had opened it to.

“September is a popular month at Overbrook Lodge,” she read and then started skimming the article. “On the 28th of this month every year they have a conference for a group called The Truth Seekers. It says that ‘some may call them conspiracy theorists but they consider themselves people who have opened their minds to the fact that not everything is as it seems. They are most well known for their belief that politicians and powerful businessmen have been working together for decades to cover up evidence of extraterrestrial visitation’.” She read silently again for a moment and then summarized. “A flying saucer was allegedly spotted near there one September back in the forties and the aliens supposedly made contact and said they would return on that day in … ‘an upcoming year’,” she said.

“Well, that narrows it down,” Braden said with a laugh.

“Did you hear that? This is a group of local conspiracy theorists who specifically think that politicians and businessmen are working together to cover up the truth about UFO’s!” I looked around at the faces staring back at me blankly. Okay, they weren’t getting it.

“So?” Cameron asked finally.

“Politicians and businessmen. Working together. Conspiracy theorists?” Did I have to spell it out? How much clearer could it be? “Look, Braden and I both feel like someone is following us and watching us, and it’s gotten worse since our parents announced our engagement. Felicity said that someone was threatened by the idea of our fathers working together. I think maybe this guy may be a Truth Seeker!”

“What would he hope to gain by following you?” Cam asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he thinks we’ll slip up and show him where the alien autopsies are done. These people have their own sense of reality.”

“Okay, so say you’re right and whoever is following you is part of this group. What are you going to do about it?” Jess asked.

“We’re going to go and confront him once and for all,” I answered emphatically.

“We?” Jess asked, looking like she already knew the answer to that question.

“Well, I think we should all go but you don’t have to, of course. It could be a fun trip though! It’s out in rural Bucks County, PA.”

“Oh perfect,” Braden said. “Out in the middle of the woods with UFO enthusiasts. Maybe we should save that trip for our honeymoon, sweetheart.”

“Gabrielle, don’t you think that maybe this is pretty far-fetched?” Jess asked. “I mean, just because these people are conspiracy theorists, and Felicity may have been warning you to watch out for conspiracy theorists …”

“And they believe that businessmen, like my father, and politicians, like Braden’s father, are plotting together. And someone is following me and it’s starting to drive me nuts,” I answered, feeling exasperated. “I don’t have any other ideas, Jess. I’m desperate, and anything seems worth a shot. It’s pretty late notice, though. I wonder if they’re booked up.”

“Somehow I doubt it,” Cam said.

“So what do we need?” I asked, going over and firing up my laptop. “A bedroom for you guys and one for us and we’ll need to take Adam or Mark or both.”

“What would possibly make you think they would be willing to go to a gathering of UFO Enthusiasts in rural Bucks County?” Cam asked me.

“Yeah, I’m not sure I’m willing to go to this,” Braden added.

“Aren’t you curious?” I asked him.

“About what? Felicity’s conspiracy theorist, or whether the Mother-ship will finally be returning this year?” Braden asked with a smile.

“Both,” I said. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Oh hey! It says there’s also legends about ghosts at the Lodge! This place is haunted!”

“Oh great!” Braden laughed. “This just gets better and better.”

“Is Jack Nicholson the caretaker?” Cam asked, which made Braden crack up even more.

“That hotel was called the Overlook,” I pointed out. Although I had to admit that in the picture I was looking at it did resemble the hotel in The Shining a little.

“Gabrielle, not to rain on your parade, honey,” Jess said, “but if there really is a conspiracy theorist, who isn’t too psyched about your wedding plans, couldn’t it be dangerous to go hang out with him in the middle of the woods?”

“Yeah, if there really is some crazy guy watching you and following you around maybe it’s not a great idea to go socialize with him and all of his friends.”

“And what are we going to do if we find him, Gabrielle?” Braden asked. “Ask him to take us to his leader? Cross-examine him?”

“I’m tired of us being spied on and followed, honey. I want to confront this guy once and for all and tell him to leave us the hell alone. We’ll tell him that our dads aren’t hiding any spaceships or little green men so he should go find Elvis or something instead.”

“You should be excited, Braden!” Jess teased. “You’ve never been included in one of Gabrielle’s crazy schemes before. Well, other than Club 51, and that was tame by her standards.”

“Yeah, wait, is Ricky allowed to come along on Lucy’s adventures?” Cam asked.

“Are Fred and Ethel definitely coming?” Braden asked.

“We wouldn’t miss it, honey.” Jess laughed. “I want to see a UFO!”

“I’m just in it for the ghosts,” Cam said.

“Hey wait,” Braden said looking at me, “hotel sex. Okay, I’m in.”

“So we definitely need at least three rooms then, maybe four.”

“I think Mark’s ten year high school reunion is this weekend,” Cam said.

“Yeah, it is,” Braden agreed. “He’s been talking about it for a while. No way will he miss that to go to a UFO gathering.”

“Well that leaves Adam. Like Cam said, maybe he needs a little vacation.”

“I was thinking more like a trip to the Caribbean, not to a haunted lodge in the middle of the woods,” Cam noted.

“Everybody goes to the Caribbean. It’ll give him something different to do.”

“There’s a reason everybody goes to the Caribbean, baby,” Braden said. “The Caribbean is fun. Rural Bucks County? Not so much.”

“And speaking of doing something different,” I went on, ignoring them, “Jess you’ve been saying that Lily should get out more often. Maybe we should invite her too.”

“I meant go out on a date or something. Not go hunt UFOs,” she said.

“Maybe it will give her some ideas for a thriller. I would ask Beth too, but I know she’s going out of town this weekend,” I said distractedly.

“If Lily goes does that mean that Adam won’t?” Jess asked.

“We won’t tell him.” Braden laughed.

“He’s getting sneaky,” Jess teased. “Gabrielle’s definitely rubbing off on him.”

I checked out the accommodations at Overbrook and found out that while the Lodge itself was full there was still one last four bedroom “luxury cabin” available.

“Um, I don’t know,” Cam responded when I shared that news. “I’m not sure that the words ‘luxury’ and ‘cabin’ actually belong together.”

“Yeah, I agree, Gabrielle,” Braden chimed in. “It’s kind of like saying ‘luxury tent’ or ‘luxury cot’.”

“The cabins have private hot tubs!” I said, ignoring them.

“On the other hand …” Braden said.

“And a fireplace, and big screen TV, and a bar …”

“Okay, maybe that’s luxurious enough.” Cam came around too.

I reserved the last luxury cabin for Friday and Saturday night. We decided that if everyone agreed we would drive up after work. Jess had been searching for something on her own computer while I was checking out the digs and booking our accommodations.

“Ah ha! I found something we can watch tonight to get in the mood for our romantic weekend getaway.”

She went over to the TV and set up the computer stream. I came back over curiously and resumed my snuggle position. I saw the logo for the History Channel and then the name of the show – The UFO Conspiracy. Great.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Friday

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY, PENNYSLVANIA

Commonwealth v. Jennings

“Mr. Mickley, would you please tell the court what happened outside the Bucket O’ Chicken restaurant that you manage on September third?” Braden asked.

“Yes sir,” Mr. Mickley, who bore a striking resemblance to Orville Redenbacher, answered politely. “I hired the defendant, Mr. Jennings, to hand out flyers on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. One of my employees let me know there was a disturbance and I went out to see what going on. I saw Mr. Jennings arguing with another man and it became physical.”

“What do you mean by that?” Braden asked. I knew that this was another one of “those” cases and I had prepared myself mentally as best I could.

“I saw Mr. Jennings start pecking the other man.” Yes, he did really just say “pecking”.

“Would you explain what you mean by pecking?” Braden asked.

“He was wearing a chicken suit and it had a plastic beak attached to the headpiece. Mr. Jennings began vigorously nodding at the other man in a manner that looked like a chicken pecking.”

“What did the other man do?”

“He turned and started to run and Mr. Jennings pursued him.”

“What happened then?”

“The man attempted to cross the street and Mr. Jennings followed, which caused several cars to slam on their brakes. Then one of the drivers got out and yelled something and Mr. Jennings attempted to peck him too but several bystanders intervened.”

“No further questions,” Braden said and glanced at me. I stood up and walked over to question Orville.

“You didn’t hear the exchange between Mr. Jennings and the man on the sidewalk. Correct?”