Peril at Pennington Manor by Tracy Gardner

Author:Tracy Gardner [Gardner, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

Chapter Ten

Avery offered to drive to Harlem Friday afternoon before heading home so Tilly could try once more to talk with Noah. Tilly turned her down. Her mood was better, but she didn’t say a word about her mysterious errand. She spent the drive home talking about weekend plans with her friends Eve, Mindy, and Chase. Given the way her friendships in London had gone up in flames, Avery was relieved Tilly still had her close-knit Lilac Grove friend group.

Home by five PM, Avery found William in his easy chair watching television through his eyelids. Everything about his behavior lately was off. Normally the TV didn’t get turned on until late in the evening, if at all. She switched it off, thinking that might wake him, but it didn’t. She made Tilly promise to make sure he ate something for dinner and sprinted upstairs to get ready for her date.

Before moving home last year, Avery had been in what her friends called a dating drought. The long-distance thing hadn’t worked well between her and Hank. Even though they’d dated since college, it had been a mutual split a few months after her career took her to Philadelphia. In her two-plus years in Philly, she briefly dated two men—the barista from her building, which ended badly and caused her a lack of good coffee, and a coworker who’d turned out to be a bigger jerk than the barista. She and Hank had picked things back up again when Avery moved home last year—he’d always been the sweetest boyfriend, something she’d learned to appreciate even more after Philly. Most of their second time around was Hank repeatedly throwing her a life preserver and Avery batting it away and continuing to drown herself and take him with her. The night it ended, she said some terrible things to him that she’d never be able to take back. Their second breakup had been inevitable from the moment he’d kissed her on the swings at Lilac Grove Park after the funeral.

Now, with their third “first date” looming in a few minutes, Avery sat on the porch in dark denim jeans and the new yellow blouse she’d bought because it was Hank’s favorite color, wondering if this was a mistake. Maybe they were crazy to try again. He was either the most misguided or most understanding man she knew. He pulled into the drive, and Halston leapt up beside her and was running over to him before he could even get out of his car. The dog loved Hank. Though, to be fair, Halston loved everyone.

She met him at the bottom of the porch steps. “Hi.”

“Hey, Avery,” he said. He leaned in tentatively, and she hugged him. He was exactly her height, solid, muscled but not obnoxiously so. He smelled of the same cologne he’d been using since college.

She stood back a little, meeting his blue eyes, and then she lightly touched his sandy-blond hair. “You let it grow.” It had been military short when she and Aunt Midge ran into him at Old Smoke.

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