Page 92 of A Poisonous Plot

Her stomach churned in response to his grave expression. “What?” she asked nervously, certain she wasn’t emotionally stable enough to take negative feedback.

“It’s good,” he said, raising his cone slightly.

“Yeah?” She waited for thebut.There was definitely going to be abut.

“I don’t need to teach you anything.” He shook his head and took another bite.

“Excuse me?” Lily said, wishing he’d stop talking in riddles.

“I promised to teach you about gelato if you helped me, but you don’t need my help. It’s not gelato like in Italy, but it’s… special.”

“Thank you,” she said, while her heart settled back to a more regular rhythm.

“You helped me,” he said, strolling over to the counter. “You found the person who sabotaged me. How will I repay you?”

She blew out a breath. “Cash would be fine,” she said, making Ted chuckle beside her.

Dante waved a hand as though batting the suggestion away. “Come in the restaurant sometime and I’ll make you dinner. Free of charge.”

“That would be nice.”

“Bring your boyfriend,” he added.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“The policeman,” Dante said, as though maybe it had just slipped her mind.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” She didn’t have to glance at Ted to know he was grinning.

Dante shrugged. “Bring him anyway.”

“Thank you,” Lily said. “I’ll take you up on that.”

“I’ll see you soon,” he said, reaching for his wife’s hand and leading her to the door where Denzel was just walking in.

His eyes did a quick sweep of the room as he walked to the counter. Lily caught his gaze lingering on Mirren for an extra second.

“Hey,” Lily said. “How are you?”

“Not too bad.” His eyebrows twitched together. “I heard about Gordon and everything.”

“Crazy, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’ve been with Sally most of the day.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Hard to say. She’s struggling to get her head around it all, but she’s resilient. I’m sure she’ll be okay.”

“I hope so.” She glanced at the ice cream selection. “You said you like banana, right?”

“Yeah.”

Lily was preparing him a cone of banana and hazelnut when Mirren strode over to join him at the counter. Sneaking an arm around his waist, she leaned in and planted a quick peck on his lips.

“What are you doing?” he asked, glancing nervously over her shoulder.

“It’s all right,” she whispered. “They know.”

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