Page 100 of The Luminosity of Loriana Harper

Good excuse to call Mitch.

Hell, no.

He’d made his position clear when he refused to show up at the party. That pain’d been compounded when Dorrie let slip—on purpose, she was sure—that the police in California’d arrested a man who they were certain was responsible for that Marjorie woman’s death.

So all that fuss for nothing.

I want to kill Colton Pritchard.

But she wouldn’t. Aside from the whole illegal thing, the guy was a good cop. He arrested bad guys. He was good with people in distress. He took his position in Mission City seriously and, over the years, Loriana’d spotted a few cops who didn’t want to work in a sleepy little town. Mission wasn’t a hotbed of criminal activity. Arrests had gone down since the federal government had legalized marijuana. Far fewer illegal grow ops.

A knock on the front door caught her attention, and she looked up to see Marnie standing there, hopping from foot to foot. Surely this cold snap was going to end soon. It’d started before Christmas and the Fraser Valley was still in the grips of a deep freeze.

She opened the door and her co-worker scurried past her.

Marnie tossed out athank youas she made a beeline for the back room.

Loriana followed at a more sedate pace. They still had twelve minutes before the library opened and no one was outside waiting. Honestly, Loriana would’ve let them in early on a day like this. She found Marnie plugging in the kettle.

“I need tea.” She didn’t meet Loriana’s gaze.

“How was your Christmas?”

“Fine.”

Truly unhelpful.

“Did you speak to your family?”

Marnie shot her an indecipherable look. The question was a gamble—Loriana’d never confirmed whether Marnie had family or not. Most people did. Yet, she knew from personal experience, that estrangements existed. Or people could be orphans. Her co-worker’d never mentioned family, yet Loriana persisted in asking.

I’m as bad as Nosy Norma.

Well, she had better intentions. She wasn’t going to spread word of Marnie’s personal life to the whole town—Norma’d do it in a heartbeat.

Finally, Marnie broke the gaze and removed her coat. She hung it on the rack, but kept her hand on it for longer than necessary. “I know what you were doing.”

Chickens coming home to roost. Mitch’d warned her, but she hadn’t listened. Yet she could try. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Marnie pivoted and her expression darkened. “The men? Seriously?” She pulled her lower lip through her teeth. “I’m not that person, Loriana. I’m meant to be alone. All those men were perfectly nice, I’m sure, but I’ll never go out with any of them. Don’t you see?”

“See what?”

The expression on Marnie’s face morphed to anguish.

Loriana felt a punch to the gut. She’d caused this distress—and she was the only one who could fix it. “I was wrong.” She broke the eye contact and moved to the sink. “Darius is dating Mallory Pritchard. I totally forgot.”

“And the other men?”

She waved her hand in the air. “I chose the wrong time.” She winced. “And I probably went a little heavy on the numbers.”

Marnie laughed, but the sound was completely devoid of humor.

Loriana turned.

“You need to promise you’ll never do that again.”

Uh…

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