Beach Blanket Homicide (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 1)
Page 50
“There’s another phase?”
“Oh yes. We’ll be sending a camera crew to your kitchen. To get a feel for the locale, that kind of thing. You’ll receive an email with an attachment that explains everything.” I can hear her shuffling some papers around. “Let’s see…your café is called The Bistro by the Beach, and you own it along with a Sarah Powers?”
“That’s right.”
“Fabulous. Of course, we’ll need Sarah to agree to the filming, and she’ll need to sign all the waivers.”
“Sure! She’s just as excited about this as I am.”
“Marvelous. We’ll be in touch soon. Ciao!”
I click the disconnect button in a daze.
“Are you on the show?” Will asks eagerly.
“Not yet. There’s one more phase to the auditions.”
“Lucy, that’s awesome.”
“It is, isn’t?”
And then because it feels natural, I reach out and hug him and he gives me a quick sisterly hug back. I wish he didn’t feel so solid or smell so good. My life would be a whole lot easier if Will and I were on the same page here.
“Do they go to all the contestants’ hometowns before they decide to put them on the show?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe this is part of the intro package. You know, when they’re telling the audience about the contestants. Only you’d think they’d only film those with the people they’ve already picked.”
“Seems to me that you’re a shoo-in.”
“Thanks. But you have to say that because you’re my best friend, which reminds me, if I win Muffin Wars, I’ll be able to pay you back the money you loaned me for the down payment on The Bistro.”
“No worries. Pay me back whenever you can.”
“No worries? Ten grand had to have put a big dent in your savings.”
“It’s a great investment,” he says, sounding uncomfortable the way he always does whenever I mention the loan. “Have you thought about how you’re going to fake like you’re talking to Abby Delgado’s spirit?”
/> “That’s the easy part. I just have to watch Ghost again and get my Whoopi on.”
“That’ll make, what? The hundredth time you’ve seen it?”
Will knows that Ghost is one of my favorite movies. The pottery wheel scene between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore always makes my heart do flip flops. I’ve made him watch it at least three times. He pretends that he hates it, but deep down, I know he gets a big kick out of the whole who’s-good-and-who’s-bad theme.
“So I’ll make it a hundred and one. Your job is to convince Brittany to let us use her key to get into the building.”
“That’s if she even has a key.”
“I have every confidence in your abilities to persuade her.”
He shakes his head. “Sometimes being your best friend is a lot of work, Lucy.”
“But you wouldn’t want it any other way. Right?”
He hesitates just a fraction of a second too long before he answers. “Right.”
Chapter Seventeen
After I leave Will’s house, I take Paco to the park, where he behaves like a perfect little gentleman. Every five minutes I check my phone to see if either Will or Travis has called to update me on their respective assignments.