I let myself into the house through the mudroom.
Jayne and Andy were engaged and planning a wedding next spring. I was going to be a bridesmaid.
I was happy for her. I was happy for him. Their engagement happened very quickly, but they’d been good friends for a long time, and I suppose when like turns to love, you know it’s right.
Things in our lives would change, but they wouldn’t change too much—not at first anyway. Jayne assured me she had no intention of leaving Mrs. Hudson’s.
We’d toasted the happy couple with excellent champagne and talked about wedding plans. Ashleigh and I had then gone back to the Emporium, and Fiona and Jocelyn began cleaning up the restaurant. Andy headed to his own job, and Jayne announced that she planned to get a couple of hours of baking done for tomorrow.
I’d had one last piece of investigating to do in the Anna Wentworth case, and earlier I’d made a phone call and arranged an appointment for six o’clock. I was getting home from that appointment now. I dropped my purchases on the kitchen table.
Violet sniffed at my legs. Something was up—she could smell it on me, and it wasn’t news of Jayne and Andy’s engagement that had caught her attention.
“You might as well come with me,” I said. “I’ve something to show you. Lives are changing, and yours is about to also.”
I opened the passenger door of the Miata.
Violet’s ears rose in shock.
I reached in and picked up the white bundle of fur. A rough pink tongue licked at my face.
Violet barked.
“Violet,” I said, “meet your new brother. This is Peony. He was abandoned at the Humane Society, and he needs a new home. We’re it.”