Chapter 48

  

Penelope and Joey sat in the great room of the inn in front of the fire, enjoying a few moments of peace.

Jennifer came through, Janie trailing behind her. “Penelope, there you are.”

“Hi, Jennifer,” Penelope managed without sounding too disappointed at the interruption.

“Janie isn’t shutting the movie down,” Jennifer said, clearly very happy with the news.

“That’s great,” Penelope said with less enthusiasm.

“With one condition,” Janie said, stepping forward.

“What’s that?” Penelope said warily.

“I’m flying in a new writing team to work up a treatment of the story,” Janie said.

“What story?” Penelope said, shifting forward on the sofa.

“The murder of Jordan Foster, and the murders of the Forrestville Five.” Excitement clipped through Janie’s words. “They’ll have to interview you, of course, Penelope, since you have first-hand knowledge of everything that happened.”

“Um,” Penelope said. She looked at Jennifer’s hopeful face. “Sure, whatever you need, Jennifer.”

The women sat down at the bar behind them, discussing the project in hushed voices.

“I guess I’ll be here a little longer,” Penelope said.

“It’s okay,” Joey said, pulling her back against the sofa next to him.

“Did you want to have that talk now?” Penelope asked.

“Talk?”

“Yeah, you know, the levels you mentioned,” Penelope urged.

“Right,” Joey agreed, looking around the nearly empty room. “For me, the next level is for us to think about moving in together.”

“Oh,” Penelope said. “Yeah, but I have my arrangement with Arlena.”

“You can still be her chef and not live there, right? My place is only twenty minutes away, and you’re there a lot anyway,” Joey said.

“Wow, that’s a big level,” Penelope said. “I like it.”

Joey took her chin in his fingers and pulled her in for a kiss. “We can talk about the other levels when we’re alone.”

“Can you give me a hint?” Penelope asked, giving him another peck on the chin.

“You can guess, I think,” Joey said. “I want you in my life. Permanently. How you feel about that, I’m not sure. I mean, I think I know...that’s the next step for us in my mind.”

Penelope’s heart skipped and she kissed him again, freezing the moment in her mind, holding him close for as long as possible.