Page 71 of Murder on Charity Lane

“Chili dogs and calzones?” CJ suggested.

“Whoa!” Hamilton rocked back on his heels. “I see why Ocean’s falling for you.”

Lily-Ann caught Ocean throwing a sharp glance at him, but she didn’t respond. She appeared to be avoiding CJ, or perhaps simply giving her space.

“Er, there are drinks in the kitchen,” Hamilton continued. “Kombucha and lemon water and beer, except I forgot the beer.”

“Why do people persist in thinking they can improve upon wine?” Lily-Ann asked, pouring herself a glass of the local Syrah she’d brought along.

“Kombucha is like wine,” Hamilton told her. “Except without grapes. And with a symbiotic bacterial growth and yeast culture in a mat of biofilm.”

“Yum,” Ocean said.

“Who wants a glass?” Hamilton asked, a little forlorn. “Anyone? No?”

“Yes,” Anthony said.

Hamilton brightened and poured a glass of murky liquid, then everyone started chatting and eating and Lily-Ann watched for a moment before joining CJ and Sophie at the table near the window. She listened to them talk about the New Vic, then about how CJ sometimes went to trivia nights.

“You’d like that,” Sophie told Lily-Ann.

Lily-Ann preferred puzzles to facts, so she said, “Hamilton would.”

“I’ll invite him next time,” CJ said.

Sophie made an apologetic face. “That won’t work.”

“Hamilton doesn’t leave the house,” Lily-Ann explained.

CJ stopped mid-sip. “Not ever?”

“Only in case of a medical emergency.”

“Oh, well…” She gave a little smile. “Let’s hope he stays healthy.”

Lily-Ann liked that response. She tapped her fingernail on the table, trying to think of something to say that didn’t involve Frank DeYoung’s death. “Have you had your colors done?”

“I’m sorry?” CJ asked.

“Your colors.”

“Oh, Lily-Ann,” Sophie chided. “Not yet.”

There was an awkward pause before Ocean appeared with Miles in tow. “Hey, CJ, look who’s eager to say hello.”

“Hello!” Miles told CJ. “Also, I didn’t not want to say hello.”

“I dragged him out of a dungeon,” Ocean said.

“It was a feast in the great hall of a castle, Oma.”

“Speaking of feasts,” Sophie stood. “I’m getting more food. Take my seat, Ocean.”

“Are you playing Baldur’s Gate?” CJ asked Miles.

“Ooooh! Are you a gamer? We should start our own guild! There’s me and Hamilton, except he’s already got a guild, and Anthony, except he doesn’t play. He just watches, because he doesn’t like playing, and actually it’s Realm of Rangers.”

“I haven’t tried that one.”