Chapter 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.”
He opened the door wider. “Do you want to come in?”
“No. I wanted to talk to Sophie. I realized that I haven’t asked how her job is going, or if she’s worried about you two moving in together.”
“She’d like that,” he said.
“That’s what I thought.” Lily-Ann considered. “Life would be much easier if people just said things instead of waiting until they were asked.”
“Less of a puzzle, though,” he said.
“Oh. That’s true.”
“You sure you don’t want to come inside?”
She didn’t have any reason not to enter, and she thought that standing in the doorway was possibly impolite so she went in and said, “If CJ is guilty, what was her motive?”
“Money?”
“Ocean said it was only one hundred twenty-five thousand.”
“That’s a lot of money to most folks, Lily-Ann. People have killed for less. What if she needs the money urgently? Like, it’s not the amount, it’s the deadline?”
“Oh, that’s a good thought.” She wandered farther into his cottage. “Or what if CJ and Karina are in on this together?”
“I’m not sure we should focus on the woman Ocean’s dating.”
“Why not? Though, if they are working together, why would Karina point the finger at CJ?”
“She’s betraying her partner in crime?”
“I suppose any of them could be working together.” Lily-Ann ambled past him. “Or all of them.”
“Hey. Hey!” Nicholas said. “Stay out of the bedroom.”
She paused at the open door and recoiled at the mess. Makeup was strewn across the dresser, necklaces dangled from the standing mirror, and clothes were tossed across the stuffed chair. “She’s only been here for two days! How did she do this in two days?”
Nicholas ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly, I’ve been wondering that, too.”
“Maybe Sophie pushed the old man down the stairs.”
Nicholas gave a surprised laugh. “Lily-Ann, did you just make a joke?”
“I did,” she said, then a thought struck her. “Hold on.”
He waited, but not for very long. “Yes?”
“How’s your work going? Are you worried about Sophie moving in with you?”
“Work is annoying, and I’ve never been happier.”
She considered that. “I like having Anthony around. I don’t know why.”
“Possibly because you love each other?”
“Also, he’s tidy,” she said.
On the way back to her cottage, she thought more about what he’d said.
“Because you love each other.” Did they?
She liked how Anthony treated her. She liked how he talked to her and how he touched her.
She liked how she felt with him: steady, strong, stable.
And she liked how she treated him. She liked taking care of him, sharing her thoughts and her world.
She and Anthony made each other happy. She’d never felt that before. Everything just fell into place with them. Talk about tidy.
Maybe she shouldn’t worry so much about CJ moving in. Maybe the Marigold Cottages would have another romance instead of murder.