“That’s a yes to dinner.”
“As an actual date? I just want to make sure I’m clear.”
“Tell you what. I’m going to go home and shower, and then you can pick me up and everything.” My insides get giddy at the idea. How did I go so long without realizing how much Cam means to me? All the times I ran to him for a shoulder to cry on. All the times he held my hand when I was scared. It’s always been him. Even Quentin seemed to know about my feelings for Cam.
“Lost in your thoughts?” he asks.
“Yes, sorry. I just realized how stupid I’ve been. Or blind rather.”
“No. You were healing. And I’m glad I gave you the time to heal.” He stands up and laces his fingers through mine. “You ready to go to dinner?”
I smile and lean up on my toes. He meets me halfway in the sweetest kiss I’ve ever had. “Now I’m ready,” I say.
He continues to hold my hand as I turn off the lights and lock up the shop for the night. “See you tomorrow, Cup of Jo,” I say, kissing my hand and pressing it to the door.
“You know you’re going to have to help me furnish and decorate Cam’s Kitchen.”
“Of course, I know that. I’ve seen your apartment. You can bake anything under the sun, but you cannot for the life of you pick out matching furniture.”
“My furniture doesn’t match?” he asks, stopping at my car.
“Not even a little bit. I just assumed you got the pieces on clearance or something.”
“No, I picked them all out together. I thought I did a good job, too. Why didn’t you ever mention this to me before?”
I laugh. “Don’t worry. We’ll make Cam’s Kitchen totally posh.”
“What’s posh? Is that a good thing?”
I smile, and he raises my hand to his lips to kiss the back of it.
“Be honest. This is what Mo’s knowing tone was about when she said goodbye to you, wasn’t it?” I ask. “You told her you were going to ask me out.”
“Maybe.”
I raise a hand to my mouth. “She told you about the conversation she and I had after you left my apartment.”
“You know, Quentin isn’t wrong. You are good at figuring things out.”
“Yeah, as long as they involve other people and their feelings. It took me years to realize what I was feeling for you was more than friendship.”
“You were worth the wait,” he says. He kisses me briefly again, and I get into my car.
I give him a small wave and lower my window. “See you soon?”
“I’ll pick you up at 6:45. I made us a seven o’clock reservation.”
I scrunch my face. “Hmm, someone had high hopes that I’d say yes.”
“Well…”
“Mo,” I say and roll my eyes.
He nods and laughs.
And this is why Mo said she wanted a free pass the next time I wanted to slap her. Well, the joke’s on her. I’m glad she told Cam the truth. I’m glad everything is out in the open. Most of all, I’m glad I came home to Bennett Falls.
Now, on to my next mystery—what to wear on my first date with Cam.
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Also by USA Today Bestselling Author Kelly Hashway
Cup of Jo
Coffee and Crime
Macchiatos and Murder
Cappuccinos and Corpses
* * *
Piper Ashwell Psychic P.I. Series
A Sight For Psychic Eyes
A Vision A Day Keeps the Killer Away
Read Between the Crimes
Drastic Crimes Call for Drastic Insights
You Can’t Judge a Crime by its Aura
Fortune Favors the Felon
Murder is a Premonition Best Served Cold
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder
Good Visions Make Good Cases (Novella collection)
A Jailbird in the Vision Is Worth Two In The Prison
Great Crimes Read Alike
* * *
Madison Kramer Mystery Series
Manuscripts and Murder
Sequels and Serial Killers
Fiction and Felonies
Writing as USA Today Bestselling Author Ashelyn Drake
The Time for Us
Second Chance Summer
It Was Always You (Love Chronicles #1)
I Belong With You (Love Chronicles #2)
Since I Found You (Love Chronicles #3)
Reignited
After Loving You (New Adult romance)
Campus Crush (New Adult romance)
Falling For You (Free prequel to Perfect For You)
Perfect For You (Young Adult contemporary romance)
Our Little Secret (Young Adult contemporary romance)
Acknowledgments
First, thank you to my cover designer, Ali Winters, at Red Umbrella Graphic Designs for not only creating an amazing cover for this book but for talking to me when I got the idea for this new series and couldn’t stop gushing about it. As always, thank you to my editor, Patricia Bradley, for all your feedback and amazing insights. Your knowledge of the cozy mystery genre and my writing allows me to put out the best books possible.
To my family, thank you for putting up with me after long days of countless words that leave me talking funny. And thank you for always being excited for me when I talk about my books.
And finally, thank you to my readers, my ARC team, and my VIP reader group, Kelly’s Cozy Corner. You all make it possible for me to do the thing I love, which is writing books. I’m already looking forward to the next one.
About the Author
Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but luckily, she gets to write about female sleuths who are much more coordinated than she is. Maybe it was growing up watching Murder, She Wrote that instilled a love of mystery, but she spends her days writing cozy mysteries. Kelly’s also a sucker for first love, which is why she writes romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.
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