Cupcakes Series

One day I was bebopping along, jamming to the music in my head while wondering if my thighs could handle grabbing a cupcake on the way home. The next thing I knew, my entire world crashed and burned. I used to wake up at night in a sweat, crying because I'd dreamt that my husband was cheating on me or that he hated me and resented my kids. He'd always hold me close and tell me it was all just a dream, that he loved me and our family and that he'd never let me go. He was a f--king liar.

I was out with my girls enjoying a much-needed ladies night, wondering if one more dirty martini would push me over the edge. The next thing I knew, I was in the club’s bathroom listening to a woman screaming "no" and a man’s voice growling, "I know you want it." That asshole picked the wrong restroom at the wrong time. Little did I know the asshole was Cade’s VP, and although we saved that woman from his clutches that night, she’d be found floating in a motel pool a month later.

They sell you on the drinks with little umbrellas, dolphin watching, and long walks on the beach. Which probably happens, if you’re that lucky schmuck living out your dream with your destination wedding, but if you’re a fish out of water PI like me, there’s no time for relaxing because trouble is never far behind. Instead of cocktails, I ended up dealing with the seedy underbelly of The Big Island. And I didn’t see one damn dolphin while undercover on a boat, which was spilling over with drug dealers, kingpins, and pedophiles.

For the first time in a long time, life is good. I've got a smokin'-hot motorcycle man as my fiancé, the best friends a woman could have, a couple of great kids, and things have been relatively quiet on the PI front. You know what that means...the other shoe was bound to drop sooner or later.... Just when I was ready to settle down and plan the coolest wedding Greenswood has ever seen, the shit hit the fan, and hit it hard.

They say the first year of marriage is the honeymoon phase, where you tread carefully as you get to know your new roles and navigate living together as a married couple.