“It’s possible. Don’t forget that he’ll be playing the part of a lifetime.” Mike leaned through the window and touched his lips to Hannah’s. “I’ve missed you, Hannah.”

“Because you were busy working on the murder investigation and I wasn’t with you?”

“Yup.” Mike moved forward and kissed her again, a little more deeply and a lot longer. “Guess I should’ve deputized you after all,” he said.

Chapter

Chapter

Thirty-Three

Hannah glanced in the mirror as she fastened the pendant Ross had given her around her neck. The red stones in the miniature cherries sparkled brightly in the sun that was streaming in her bedroom window and flashed scarlet streaks against the wall. Ross had presented her with the pendant the previous night, right before he’d left for the airport and his flight to California. “Think of me every time you wear it,” he’d told her. “If Crisis in Cherrywood makes it to Cannes, I’ll send you a ticket.”

Then he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed her, and Hannah had been spared a reply. Of course she wanted to go to Cannes. Who wouldn’t want to go to Cannes? But wanting and actually going were two different things. She’d thought about it for hours after Ross had left, imagining what it would be like to be an important producer’s date at a gala movie premiere.

It seemed as if she’d just fallen asleep when the phone had rung this morning. It was Andrea and she’d sounded on top of the world when she’d invited Hannah to join them for a family brunch. It would be the usual crowd and Norman would pick her up. And now Hannah was sitting at Sally’s largest table at the Lake Eden Inn, directly across from Bill, who was resplendent in his raspberry pink shirt.

“I should have brought sunglasses,” Norman said under his breath, and Hannah hid a grin. Norman was right. On the linear brightness scale, Bill’s shirt was only a point or two short of eye-popping. Mike, who was sitting on Hannah’s other side and had overheard Norman’s comment, stifled a chuckle with his napkin.