Description
Harlan "Harley" Saltz is a writer with a problem. He's invited to a wedding. Weddings make Harley nervous. Especially when the bride is the woman he still loves...and she's marrying another man.
Harley notices the details, the small moments that make up a minute, an hour, a single day. Losing Teri was his decision because, frankly, he couldn't afford to keep her in the style in which they both feel she should be accustomed.
Life is full of ironies. She's like the tax man, she gave and took. For example, she was the one who put the greeting card program on his trusty computer. He takes a long time to compose a proper wedding card for her. After all, what do you say to a woman who still has your heart but is walking down the aisle with some other guy?
And she took. Oh, yeah. She took. The love she gave to him...who killed it?
Harley is pondering all this as he manages to get through Teri's wedding with the aid of his mad, drinking cop buddy, Whitey and a lost weekend in Vegas...
He thinks he might be able to move on and ponder a different sort of life without Teri, without etiquette, greeting cards, or wedding dances. Maybe he can find a new love, fresh hope.
And then Whitey breaks the news that Terri has been murdered.
His L'il Bisquit is gone.
Harley never really contemplated a world without Teri, the echo of her silent footsteps strong in his mind. He has new questions on love and who killed it.
Why did Teri die?
So many things left unsaid.
Numb to the news, he's trying to absorb her death in what may or may not be a random homicide. He struggles to accept her loss. Is there an app for that?
Harley is working hard to finish writing a book. It's called When he Walked Through Fire. Suddenly, he really is.
He senses a deadly menace around him. Whoever killed Teri is probably around him...probably knew them both.
Harley keeps drinking, pondering the nature of silence and suffering. Women swirl around him, like the country dancing he's fond of. Old faces, new faces, pretty faces, sad faces...swirl around him as he sorts through his grief and tries to live. Just live.
Teri's death has had a profound effect on a lot of people. Death has a way of doing that. Even people who weren't necessarily close to her have been changed. In some small way, she's killed love for them, too.
He and Whitey want to uncover her killer, but already someone new in Harley's life is in danger and he seeks to protect.
And when he comes face to face with Teri's unexpected killer he learns just who killed love and the crazy reasons why. He wishes, just wishes that he still had his angel. That she had slapped him with her feathers and embraced him with her wings...