by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
From Killer Cravings Chapter One My stomach rumbled and my mouth watered. Thoughts of jelly filled donuts danced in my head, only to be pushed aside by a chocolate-covered old-fashioned. No. A sprinkle-laden maple donut. Ugh! Stop. I couldn’t get these sugar-encrusted thoughts out of my head. Cravings when I was pregnant with Laurie weren’t particularly strong, but every once in a while, I’d go nuts for something; usually something salty. One night, I’d eaten two jumbo bags of pretzels for dinner, but that was about as far as it went when pregnant with her. Pregnancy number two, however, was a totally different story. Currently, I was sitting outside a small suburban home, my car parked with the lights out. I was supposed to be working a case, but all I could think about was getting something sweet. And, what made it worse, was that I couldn’t quite figure out what sort of sweet I wanted. But, it was bad. Like, really bad. I couldn’t concentrate to save my life. My phone buzzed, so I put the light on dim to check it. I am undercover, after all. It was a text from Kenny, our next-door neighbor teenager turned nanny. I laughed out loud to see a picture of Laurie fast asleep in her crib with her finger up her nose. She was six months old now. Six months old, and I’m pregnant all over again. This pregnancy wasn’t exactly planned, and the mind-boggling fact that we were having another baby before Laurie was even old enough to walk put me into full panic-mode. Even so, Jim and...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? Did you miss part one of Chapter Three? From Killer Cravings Chapter Three Continued,,, “Paula, simply amazing,” Tony said. “I’m glad they hired you.” “Very talented,” Nate said. “I especially love my little bar.” She stood up and hurried behind the bar. “This right here is my charac‐ ter’s personal spot.” “I have arrived!” a man’s voice called from the audience. “Ricky!” my mother called. “Oh, Kate, this is Director Ricky. He is doing a fabulous job, if I do say so myself. Ricky, this is my daughter Kate, and my granddaughter Laurie.” Ricky was a fairly young guy. He was younger than some of his cast members, but he had a certain commanding tone about him that let me know he was in charge. “A pleasure, Ms. Kate,” he said and smiled down at Laurie. “Hey, cutie,” he said and then looked up at Paula. “Paula, I have to say, I’m in love with this set.” “Thanks for the opportunity,” Paula said. “Of course,” he said and reached into his coat pocket. “Here, these are for you. Tickets for the after party on opening night.” He looked at me. “Would you like to come?” “Me?” I questioned. “Your mom is one of the stars of the show,” he said and reached into his pocket, pulling out two tickets. “You are already coming to opening night,” Paula said. “Plus, a little birdy told me that Cassandra’s Cookies is catering the party.” My eyes widened. “Cassandra’s Cookies? As in—” “As in the café that you’ve had Jim run out to,...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? From Killer Cravings Chapter Three After lunch, we caravanned over to the theater. On the drive, Laurie giggled and did her cutsie baby babble, putting me in an unusually chirpy mood. We pulled into the back-parking lot of the theater, and I parked next to Paula and my mom who’d ridden there together. I scurried out of the driver’s seat and removed Laurie’s portable car seat from the car. As soon as she got near me, she went straight for my earring. “Ack!” I yelped, taking hold of her tiny wrist. “Sweetie, no – no!” I said, and my mom hurried over to step in to my aid. “Yeah, I never wear earrings anymore,” Paula said as she locked up her car. “Laurie, let go of your mommy’s earring!” my mom said, laughing a little too hard at my uncomfortable misfortune. “I suppose I should know better by now,” I groaned as my mom wiggled my earring and the lower half of my ear free of my daughter’s tight grasp. I passed Laurie off to my mom so I could rub my tender earlobe, then remove my earrings altogether. I tossed them into my front seat cup holder, as Laurie squealed and giggled about what she’d just done. “You little stinker,” I said to Laurie. Paula pointed to her teal necklace. “Check this out,” she said. “Def‐ initely going to snag you one of these for your next baby shower.” “What? A plastic necklace?” I asked. “It’s a teether,” Paula said, taking Laurie from my mom. Laurie went straight...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss part one of Chapter Two? From Killer Cravings Chapter Two Continued… “He did,” I said, sighing. “Uh… I… I screwed up. I’m so sorry.” He let out a deep breath. “Well, no problem. Not yet, at least. Our client is leaving town for a couple of days to visit her mother. With that sort of freedom, we’re bound to bust the guy hanging out with his side chick. He’ll feel like there’s no way he’ll get caught with his wife out of town, so you’re bound to get the shot this time.” “Good,” I said. “I plan on doing another stakeout tonight.” “Way to be dedicated,” he said. “Just keep me posted. You’re still new at this, Kate. Don’t beat yourself up too much.” “Thanks,” I said before we both hung up the phone. I was still pretty upset with myself for screwing up the way I had. I can’t let this pregnancy get the better of me! When I’d been pregnant with Laurie, I’d felt like Superwoman. It had been such an easy-going pregnancy – a few hiccups along the way, of course, but nothing like this. I need to be better prepared! My goody bag for that night was going to have to be packed full of everything I could possibly crave – including those delicious brownies we still had tucked away in the fridge. Now, just don’t forget the bag! Before even pulling into the parking lot at the café, I was daydreaming about lunch. My mouth watered, and my tummy rumbled. I was starving. That was pretty...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? From Killer Cravings Chapter Two Now that I was refreshed and ready to get going on my day, I decided I needed to write up a to-do list, and it was a mile long. TO DO: 1. Call Galigani, fess up about missing the photo op 2. Get a photo of the creepy cheater leaving his gf’s place 3. Clean the kitchen because, ew 4. Pre-make tomorrow’s baby food 5. Call mom 6. Ask Kenny to watch Laurie tonight 7. Get snacks together for stakeout 2.0 And, that was just the beginning. I continued writing down what all I had to do, and I started to grow discontent. There was no way I was going to get it all done in one day, so I just put a star next to some of the more urgent items. As I studied my ever growing list my phone buzzed. I grabbed it and saw that I had a text message from my best friend, Paula. Must meet for lunch – have exciting news!!!! I knew it must be truly exciting because Paula rarely used one exclamation point in her texts let alone four. “Sweet,” I said, but then frowned. I’d been having so many aver‐ sions to… everything. It was so strange. I hadn’t had this problem with Laurie at all, but now I had to really watch what I ate. “Sounds good,” I spoke as I typed the words. “Where?” Lol – what can you eat?!?! Mexican? Even more exclamation points. She must be really eager to talk to me about something, I thought, smirking....
by Diana Orgain | Jun 28, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? From Killer Cravings Chapter One Continued… It wasn’t fair! How did I manage to waste so much time on this stupid craving, along with ruining my stakeout. And, now I was being rewarded with no sleep. “Kate?” a gruffly voice behind me said. I spun around to see Jim wandering into the kitchen, followed by our orange tabby kitten, Whiskers. My heart lurched to see Jim. “I’m sorry, babe, did I wake you up?” I asked, hurrying over to give him a big hug. “I missed you so much. Almost three days,” I exclaimed, showering his face with kisses. “Yeah, what are you doing? Did you ever get to bed last night?” he asked me, yawning. “No,” I said, my shoulders slumping from tiredness. “And, I screwed up the stakeout last night too!” Tears welled up in my eyes, and I covered them with my hands. “I feel like crying – call it the hormones,” I said. Jim put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “Aw, honey. Don’t cry. What can I do? Did something happen?” I spun around, pulling my hair to one side, to let Jim massage my shoulders. “You promise not to laugh?” “I promise,” he said, moving his hands from my shoulders to the back of my neck. “I got this really bad craving, and I didn’t bring any food. I left, and when I came back the guy was already in his car!” I said. Jim laughed, so I whirled around and buried my head in his chest. “You promised not to laugh at me!” He stroked my...
