Welcome to another week of MFRW Book Hooks. This week’s edition highlights Her Ladyship’s Ring, the second book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries.
In this excerpt, Harmony is having supper with her friends, Freddie and Sarah, and her ex, Jake.
Excerpt:
Amazingly enough, no one extra showed up. So the four of us sat around my table and acted like we were old friends and nothing was wrong. Except I caught Freddie scrutinizing Jake when he thought Jake wasn’t watching. And Jake took every opportunity possible to touch me, and each time he did he let his fingers linger a moment too long. Sarah was the only one who didn’t feel the tension. Either that or she was a better actress than I’d realized.
“Did you hear about the snow sculpture contest in the park?” she asked.
“No,” I said. How did I miss that? “Who’s sponsoring it?”
“Oh, it’s unofficial.” She put more grated cheese on top of her spaghetti and passed the container to Freddie. “Started with some little kids building old-fashioned snowmen, and then a bunch of high schoolers got involved. Pretty soon parents got into the spirit of things as well. Now there are dragons and castles and all sorts of creations scattered on the shore of the lake. Makes me hope the cold weather sticks around so they last longer.”
“You and I should go see them tomorrow,” Jake said smoothly, touching my forearm.
I would have loved to go, but not with Jake. “I really need to go to the library tomorrow,” I said. “If I get too far behind, I’ll never catch up. I have a deadline coming up in a day or two.” I hadn’t even checked my email to see if I had any new requests.
Sarah sighed. “It’s not like you have to punch a time card. Sometimes you take yourself too seriously.”
We’d had this discussion before, and I had no desire to rehash it now.
But Sarah was on a roll. “You loosened up for a while, now you’re slipping back into your old habits.” She winked at Jake. “You were good for her, except for that whole drug and attacking the police stuff.”
Was she flirting with Jake in front of Freddie? She’d hardly touched her wine, so she couldn’t be drunk. Unless she’d been drinking before she and Freddie got to my place.
I glanced at Freddie. His expression was more puzzlement than anything else. He caught me looking, and barely shook his head. He didn’t know what she was up to either.
Jake, on the other hand, winked back at her. “I’ll try to change that.”
“Yeah, the whole long-distance relationship thing she’s got with Eli isn’t working out if you ask me.”
“Sarah!” I hissed.
Jake leaned towards her, ignoring me. “What makes you say that?”
“Do you know they haven’t had sex yet?” She giggled. “At least the last time we talked about it. But it might have changed when he was here a couple of weeks ago.”
My face burned as she reached for her wine. Freddie distracted her by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Did you take one of your pills today?” he asked.
Sarah had occasional bouts with a panic disorder but the prescription her doctor gave her usually helped. She laid a finger across her lips and looked thoughtful. “Yes. I had a really bad day today. In fact, I may have taken two. One this morning, and one before we came here.”
That explained it. “Let me get you something else to drink, Sarah,” I said, rising. “How about some ice water?” A trip to the refrigerator would give me time to regain my composure.
“Why, am I acting loopy?”
Blurb:
Harmony Duprie is back, and so is trouble in Oak Grove.
When a man is murdered in the back yard of the old Victorian house she is remodeling, Harmony is determined to locate his next-of-kin so he can be put to rest properly. But with her ex-boyfriend Jake out of prison, back in town and one of the suspects in the murder, she takes on the challenge of solving the crime.
With Eli, her current love interest, in Florida and Jake close by, old emotions come back to haunt her. Can Harmony clear Jake’s name and solve the mystery of her own heart?
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Interesting scene here. Something is going on but what exactly?
That’s part of what Harmony has to figure out!