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I sigh in frustration. “Kate?—”
“You’ve had a spring in your step ever since you started working on this case. Now, I know you enjoy solving mysteries more than the average person, but something tells me that’s not thewholestory.”
I glance up at the board of teas. Kate already has her Bicentennial menu up and running, the chalkboard decorated with swoops of color and cursive tea names like “Town Histor-Tea” and “To-Many-More-long.” Oh Kate, sweet, sweet Kate.
She grabs my arm, narrowing her twinkly green eyes. “Something happened.”
Oh no…
Kate smiles devilishly. “True?”
Wow, when she puts it like that, she makes it impossible for me to conceal anything. SheknowsI can’t lie. “You’re the worst.”
She bounces on her toes. “Oh, Constance, tell me, please, please, please.”
“Okay, okay.” I pause to quickly weigh the pros and cons of telling Kate what happened. On one hand, those two kisses probably shouldn’t have happened, but on the other, I might die if I have to keep them to myself.
Kate doesn’t give me a chance. “Youkissedhim.”
“What? How did you knowthat?!”
She grins. “I didn’t. I just guessed and since you can’t deny anything…”
“Okay, so what? It was research. Objective research.”
Kate’s freckled nose squinches. “Kissing isn’t?—”
“Yes. It is. I had to test whether or not it would make me feel a certain way so?—”
“That certain way beingromantic?” Kate teases.
“N-not necessarily.”
“Someone has a crush…” she says in a sing-song voice.
“I–I–” I drop my elbows onto the counter and my head into my hands. “I’m doomed.” That second kiss last night was a mistake. I could have lived with the “what if.” But now I know. I know how good it feels to be close to him. Yes, it’s been a long time since I’ve been romantically involved with a man. And yet somehow two kisses with Rory have eclipsed all of that.
Knowing that makes everything more difficult.
Kate rubs my shoulder. “That’s so not true. This is great.”
“It’s not great! We work together, we?—”
“Not forever! And it’s not like you’re on the same payroll.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It is simple!”
I shoot her a look. “It’s not simple. Not at all. Not only do I not have room in my life for a relationship, but I can’t complicate this investigation any further. And besides, who knows if he feels it’s anything more than a kiss? People kiss all the time and it doesn’t mean anything, right?”
Kate’s eyes harden on me. “You know, he didn’t have to come out and help you, but he did. I think that says a lot.”
I swallow.
“Speak of the devil,” Kate says, eyes dropping to the counter.
I whip around, expecting Rory to walk in. “Oh no.”
