Acorns and Alibis

Detective Tony Perez catches criminals all the time. Catching the right moment to tell his best friend he loves her? That’s another case entirely.

It’s practically a law of nature: every time Dahlia Peterson and I come close to crossing the line between best friends and something more, disaster strikes.
Sometimes disaster looks like Dahlia’s annoyingly perfect ex-husband showing up at exactly the wrong moment. Other times, it’s my ex-girlfriend bragging to everyone about how she intends to hang onto me for a few seasons before tossing me aside and finding a newer model.

This fall, however, disaster has outdone itself.

Our neighboring small towns are preparing to duke it out over whose fall festival reigns supreme. The mayors are treating the rivalry like an international crisis—and threatening to fire me if I don’t catch the prankster turning the festivities into an applesauce-soaked crime scene.

Through it all, Dahlia and I have continued doing what we do best: spending every spare minute together while pretending neither of us wants more. That is until my meddling abuelita volunteers me for the festival’s bachelor auction—and Dahlia pays four thousand dollars to go out on a date with me.

Four. Thousand. Dollars.

Suddenly, I’m wondering whether fate has finally declared a cease-fire and given us the green light.

Unfortunately, confessing my feelings isn’t as simple as flashing my badge and presenting the evidence. Dahlia’s ex-husband is circling, and Veronica—a holy terror in heels with a yappy chihuahua and no concept of personal boundaries—is determined to keep us apart. She’s even holding my mother’s dream job hostage until I agree to become her personal handyman.

Then there are the two feuding mayors threatening to run my partner and me out of the county if we don’t catch the festival prankster before the entire celebration becomes an autumn-themed crime spree.

Losing my job could send me to some podunk police department where the biggest crimes involve tipped cows and stolen irrigation water. Losing Dahlia could be worse.
Because if we take a chance on love and it all goes wrong, I won’t just be left without the woman I’ve loved for years. I could ruin the friendship that’s kept me sane in a town full of people willing to commit murder over pumpkin pie.

But after waiting this long, I may have to risk everything to prove that Dahlia and I are one mystery worth solving.