Page 63 of A Poisonous Plot

His face cracked into a smile. “Let’s change the subject.”

They descended into silence again.

Finally, Flynn leaned onto the table, looking at her with a face full of mischief. “Have you ever done the friends with benefits thing?”

She laughed loudly. “I thought we were changing the subject!”

“Nothing else came to mind. And I’m curious.”

“I haven’t,” she said, shaking her head.

He pursed his lips, looking thoughtful. “You only sleep with people you’re in a relationship with?”

“Yes.” She cursed the way her cheeks heated.

He must have noticed, because he held his hands up in a defensive gesture. “I’m not hitting on you. I’m being a curious friend, that’s all.” Silence lingered for a moment before he spoke again. “Should we talk about what happened the other day?”

“Which day?” Lily asked, feigning ignorance.

“The day on the sand dunes,” he said, arching an eyebrow. “When you begged me to kiss you and then things got weird between us.”

“I did not beg you!” She glared at him. “I barely suggested it and you jumped me.”

His eyes sparkled, and she was secretly happy that they were joking about it. “I don’t like it when things are awkward between us,” he said in earnest.

“Me neither.”

“Can we agree that you shouldn’t beg me to kiss you again?”

She fought a grin. “Only if you agree not to stick your tongue down my throat because I mutter the word kiss.”

“Mutter the word!” He cracked up laughing. “You’re delusional. You do realise that?”

She beamed at him and drained her coffee before she stood. “I have to eat ice cream.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I wasn’t offering you any. I’m checking another batch to see if it makes me ill.”

“That’s really disturbing, you know?”

“Yes. I know. It disturbs me the most. But this is the dark side of owning an ice cream shop that no one thought to warn me about.” She wandered into the back room to fetch a container from the freezer.

“What else have you got planned for the day?” Flynn asked when she walked back in.

“After this exciting task, I’m going to pay Gordon Pengelly a visit. Hopefully, he’s at the garden centre today.” She plucked a bowl from the cabinet and set it aside while she waited for the ice cream to become pliable enough to scoop. “And before you ask, you can’t come with me. I get better results when I talk to people alone.”

“I’m working in half an hour, anyway.” He stood. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Arriving at the garden centre,Lily felt a deep sense of trepidation and hoped she’d be able to catch Gordon alone. His radio interview continued to play on her mind, and she’d like to discover if it was also him who’d spoken to the press on the mainland. If so, she’d be quizzing him on his motives for that.

Surely he could see that the adage of no publicity being bad publicity wasn’t always true. Spreading the word that the islands weren’t safe for newcomers wasn’t the right approach, even if it was true. What they should work on was making sure that the islands were safe.

“Good morning, Lily!” Arthur called out to her as she passed the roses.

“Hi.” She couldn’t help but smile, given the openness of his features. “How are you today?”

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