Page 51 of Murder on Charity Lane

You mean CJ? Your paramour?

Ocean

She’s not my paramour

Hamilton

Sorry. Your lady friend?

Ocean looked at her screen blankly for a few seconds.

Ocean

Let’s not label the situation

Hamilton

Oh, it’s a situationship. Got it!

Ocean closed her phone. “More coffee, anyone?”

26

LILY-ANN

After the hired cleaning service finished with Sophie’s cottage, Lily-Ann let herself in. She liked empty houses. She found them restful, but that wasn’t the reason she’d come. She couldn’t stand the idea of a new person moving into a dirty cottage, and she didn’t trust a service to do a good enough job. So she checked the doorjambs and the ceiling fan and the crack between the stove and the counter.

Everything looked better than she’d expected, so she focused on bleaching the tile grout.

She wasn’t sure what to think about CJ moving into the Cottages. She knew that Mrs. B enjoyed mysteries and romantic drama, but Lily-Ann imagined how awkward this could be for Ocean. Even if CJ hadn’t been suspected of killing a harmless old man. So while she was personally looking forward to questioning CJ, she wasn’t sure that inviting her to live here was wholly healthy.

When she finished with the grout, she left her cleaning supplies in the cabinet as a housewarming gift, then headed across the courtyard to Nicholas’s cottage. She wanted to talk to Sophie. She enjoyed talking to her. Sophie always chatted happily away, and if Lily-Ann said something wrong, Sophie simply laughed at her and kept chatting.

However, Nicholas answered the door, so she said, “What do you think about CJ moving in?”

“I think it’s extremely Mrs. B.”

“By which you mean what?”

“That despite being intrusive, eccentric, and inappropriate, it’ll probably get transformed by some Golda witchery into a lovely situation … ship. Also, I feel dumb for not expecting it.”

“Agreed. Is Sophie here?”

“She already left for work.”

“Can I arrange your dresser drawers?”

“What? No.”

“It helps me think,” she said.

“They’re already arranged.”

“Not really, though.”

“Lily-Ann, you can’t arrange my drawers.”

“Okay.”