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I turned to him and shook my head. “Actually, I trust you to be honest,” I said, surprising myself at my words. “I’ve only shared my work with my sisters so far, but I do trust you will tell me the truth.” I smiled at him. “I can bring a file up on my phone and show you something, if you want.”
“I’d love that.” He nodded.
I grabbed my phone and opened my Dropbox account and looked through my files. I wanted to show him a piece of writing I was proud of. I wanted to show him a piece of writing that was more polished.
“Polly Campbell, is that you?” The soft, dramatic tones made me look up. I was shocked to see the blond, tousled locks of Molly, my sister Harriet’s friend and former coworker in the aisle.
“Molly, hey. What are you doing here?” I asked, slightly taken aback at the knowing looks Molly was giving me. Molly was like my sisters and me on crack. She was a lovely girl but completely self-absorbed and slightly ditzy. It was her dream to make it as an actress in Hollywood, and she lived her life like she was about to be scouted at any moment.
“I’m on the way to San Francisco for an audition.” She grinned. “Quentin Tarantula wants to put me in one of his movies.”
“You mean Quentin Tarantino?” I questioned her.
“No, I wish.” She giggled. “Quentin Tarantula…you know him…he’s big on TikTok.”
“Sorry, no.” I shook my head. “Never heard of him.”
“Who’s your friend?” she asked, nodding at a bemused-looking Max. She batted her long, fake lashes at him and played with her hair, which looked a lot longer than usual. It was then that I noticed that she had extensions in her hair. Very cheap-looking blond extensions. She didn’t wait for a response before she held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Molly. One of Polly’s friends. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”
“Nice to meet you, Molly.” Max’s voice held amusement as he shook her hand. “I’m Max, Polly’s boss.”
“Ooh. I thought you were her secret lover or something.” Molly giggled. “I was about to say, Polly stepped up in the world.”
“Oh?” Max grinned, looking over at me. “You met Ben?”
“Who’s Ben?” Molly looked at me. “Not another loser? Nah, I’m talking about her ex Patrick. He was such a doofus. Does he still owe you two hundred dollars, Polly?”
“Yes,” I hissed at her. Molly had absolutely no discretion.
“And he wasn’t hot like you. I was like wow, Polly, you finally picked a good-looking one.” Molly winked at him. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, they were okay looking, but you, sir, are gorgeous.” She paused and licked her lips. “Single?”
“Molly.” I glared at her. “We were in the middle of discussing a case. We’re on a business trip and—”
“Oh, well, why didn’t you say?” Molly giggled and placed her hand on Max’s shoulder. “If you want to meet up in San Fran, Polly has my number. I’m practicing some monologues tonight, but maybe you can help me.” She played with her extension again, and I saw the clip was about to fall out. “There’s a scene from9 1/2 Weeksthat I’d love to—”
“Molly,” I cut her off and glared.
“What?” she asked innocently. “I’ll let you both get back to work. Maybe Al Pacino or someone is on the plane and will see me and want me to costar in their next movie.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Very likely to happen.” I watched as Molly walked over to her seat and looked back at Max. “So sorry about that. She wants to be an actress, and she’s very eccentric.”
“And flirtatious.” He laughed. “Is there something in the water in Port Sunshine that makes all you women crazy?”
“I should take offense at that.” I laughed. “But I won’t.”
“Good,” he said with a small smile. “Now, can I please read some of your work?”
“Yes,” I said softly, handing him my phone. “It’s not great, but…”
“Let me be the judge of that.” He smiled. “I’m sure it’s going to be great.” He leaned back in his seat, and without thinking about what I was doing, I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He turned to me with a surprised expression on his face. “What was that for?”
“Not being the jerk I initially thought you were,” I said with a smile and then reopened my book to find out if Miss Marple or I would solve the crime first.
Chapter23
The pilot announced our imminent landing, and I fastened my seatbelt. My heart was in my throat as I realized that Max was still reading my book. I had no idea what he was thinking. He hadn’t whispered a peep for hours, and I’d been half afraid that he’d fallen asleep reading my book.
“We’re about to land.” I tapped his shoulder lightly. He looked up at me slowly, his eyes warm as he smiled at me.
