Page 24 of The Shop on Hidden Lane

“And now here you are, all three of you, eating breakfast together.” Madeline snorted and gave Sophy an approving smile. “Nice work. We don’t see a lot of ménage à trois arrangements here in Mirror Lake. I do believe this is a first. It will make for some interesting conversation down at the post office.”

Ten

“What the hell happened whenRivington tried to kiss you the last time you read a scene for him?” Luke asked.

Sophy focused on the view of the road through the windshield of the SUV. Bruce was riding in the back seat, front paws braced on the console. He was clearly thrilled with the outing. Mack was ahead of them, leading the way to the site in his vehicle.

She was too warm because she was dressed for the read in her usual gear—long down coat and boots—but it was morning, not the middle of the night. The sun streaming through the windows of the SUV was heating the interior. The conversation was making things worse because it was awkward. Embarrassing. She could feel herself turning pink. Or a blotchy red. Probably blotchy red.

“So you did overhear that conversation in the kitchen,” she said.

“Hard not to. The house isn’t that big.”

“If they are standing too close, some men and some women sometimes get…excited…when I come out of a trance.”

“Sexually.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, yes. There’s a lot of energy in my aura in those first few minutes. It can send mixed signals.”

“Rivington took advantage of the mixed signals?”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Did she even want to respond?

“We’d had a few dates by then,” she said. “But they had all ended before we got to the bedroom stage. I made it clear I was in no rush. I wanted to take things slowly because I thought our relationship had real potential. I didn’t want us to get distracted by sex, not if things weren’t doomed. He seemed fine with that.”

“Definepotential.”

“You know what I mean. We enjoyed each other’s company. He seemed to respect my crime scene reading ability, even though he couldn’t bring himself to admit that I might have a sixth sense for the work.”

“He prefers to think that you just have a keen eye for details.”

“I’m pretty sure Mack has a little talent himself, but he writes it off as intuition. At any rate, we seemed to be moving toward a serious relationship. I decided to risk a stress test under controlled conditions.”

“You were planning to take off the sunglasses.”

“Yes, but I intended to do so slowly. Carefully. I wanted to try to explain what was happening and that it was just a matter of adrenaline and paranormal biophysics. But he grabbed me and things went horribly wrong.”

“How wrong?”

“My sunglasses flew off. I didn’t have time to explain anything. Mack saw my eyes. He looked like he’d seen a monster. He leaped back, stumbled, and fell. I scrambled around trying to find my glasses. But they had skidded under a table. I finally got them on but by then it was too late.”

“He ran screaming into the night?”

She winced. “No. He’s a homicide detective. Worked in San Francisco. He’s seen some scary stuff. He didn’t scream, but he was badly shaken. I knew the relationship was over.”

“A failed experiment that didn’t even get off the ground.”

“That’s a very cynical way of looking at it,” she said, annoyed. “It makes me wonder, again, why you didn’t have a problem with my eyes last night.”

“I told you, I apparently have some immunity.”

“I’m not sure I’m buying that. I know you’ve been labeled No-Talent Wells.”

He groaned. “Some nicknames really stick.”

“Trust me, I’m aware of that. They call me the Housekeeper, remember? But here’s the thing. Aunt Bea has advised Chloe and me not to believe everything we heard about the Wells family.” Sophy paused deliberately. “Something to do with their reputation for secrecy, I believe.”

“This isn’t a good time to go into the feud.”