A Humbug Holiday

by London Lovett

  His brow arched. He continued to stare at me.

  "And I won't accuse anyone of murder again either," I added.

  He nodded. "Good idea." We climbed out of the car. One of the officers greeted us before we took a few steps. He was holding up his phone.

  "Detective Jackson, you're already trending." He showed us the phone. Someone had captured video of Jackson's fast gallop through town. When he caught up to the runaway carriage, he leapt from the saddle onto the driver's seat.

  I peered up at him. "You risked your life." My voice wavered again.

  He placed his palm against my cheek and leaned forward to kiss my forehead. "I needed to save my little Bluebird."

  Chapter 37

  It was the perfect way to spend the day after Christmas. Mom and Chris sat on the tailgate of Lana's truck sipping hot coffee from a thermos as the 'kids' sledded down the hill behind the inn.

  Jackson had booked Aurora Marlin for murder and for attempted murder, which meant I would be involved in a court case. I wasn't thrilled about it, but the woman gave me the fright of my life. If Jackson hadn't stopped the carriage before the horses pulled me into traffic, I was sure I would have died. Naturally, Jackson's bravery had won a solid gold place in my family's heart now. He'd landed pretty solidly in mine too.

  "I'll race you," Jackson said as he shoved the bottom edge of his sled into the snow like a surfboard in sand.

  "What does the winner get?" I asked, always intrigued by a challenge.

  "Dinner?" he said.

  I crinkled my nose. "Kind of boring."

  "How about a cuddle in front of the fireplace, loser brings the cocoa and marshmallows."

  "You're on." I positioned the sled in front of me. Lana, Raine, Emily and Nick stood on the sidelines to watch.

  "That section there right by the sapling is really icy," Nick called to Jackson. "It'll give you the advantage."

  I put a hand on my hip. "Thank you, traitorous brother-in-law."

  Nick lifted his hands. "We men have to stick to together when manly honor is at stake."

  We lowered our sleds. I shot him a sideways glance. "I want the jumbo marshmallows. None of those puny ones."

  Lana said ready, set, go. I dove belly first onto the sled. Jackson took off just a little after. His weight helped him catch up quickly. "No fair, gravity is on your side," I yelled.

  "Yeah but you've got less wind resistance." He lowered his head.

  My sled hit several bumps, sending me airborne twice and managing to knock the breath from me on each landing.

  Jackson glided past, and I grabbed his ankle. He looked back. "Hey, no tailgaters," he laughed.

  He tried to shake me loose but ended up flipping his sled. I didn't react in time and forgot to let go of his ankle. I flew off my sled and landed in the snow, face to face and directly on top of him.

  "This plan worked perfectly," he said. He reached up and took hold of my head to bring my lips down to his.

  Nick whistled loudly as we kissed.

  I climbed off of him and offered him a hand to yank him from his bed of snow.

  He hopped to his feet and his arm went around me. He wiped a piece of snow off my nose.

  "I think I won by default," I said.

  "You cheated," he said.

  "Now you know I'm that kind of girl."

  He held me tighter. "Oh yeah, what kind of girl is that?"

  "One who will stop at nothing to get her cocoa and marshmallows."

  We easily ignored the teasing jeers and whistles from my family as we stood in the snow and kissed.

  More Cozy Mystery

  I hope you loved A Humbug Holiday. If you have a chance to leave a short review, I’d really appreciate it. Be sure to join my Secret Sleuths Facebook group and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming books, new covers and sneak peeks!

  * * *

  While you’re waiting for the next Firefly Junction novel, give my Port Danby series a read!

  * * *

  Keep reading for a look at the first 5 chapters of Marigolds and Murder ➜

  Chapter 1

  I stepped back to admire my handiwork. I wasn't exactly Van Gogh, but I had to admit, the tiny flowers I'd painted on the rustic bench were charming. I'd found the old bench at a yard sale and had decided that it would look great under the bay window, still leaving enough room for me to roll out my flower carts and set up my portable 'specials and deals' chalkboard.

  Aside from falling in love with the eclectic charm of Port Danby, I'd fallen instantly in love with the small building I'd leased for my shop, Pink's Flowers. Like every shop on Harbor Lane, it was entirely unique with its Cape Cod shingles and deep bay window. While not exactly traditional for the Cape Cod style, I'd had the wood siding painted a blush pink because . . . well . . . it was Pink's Flowers. The thick window trim and the French door for the entry were painted bright white for a perfectly pleasing contrast. The unusual pink color had drawn a few judgmental glances from neighboring shop owners, but once everything was finished, people seemed to approve.

  I dipped my paintbrush into the bottle of lavender paint, and as I pulled it out, my phone rang, startling me and triggering a small string of calamities. Pale purple paint dripped down my shin. I stepped sharply to the side to avoid more and kicked the paint bottle. It fell over and splashed across my sandal and foot. I flirted with the idea of not answering my phone, but I knew it was my mom. If I didn't answer, her head would fill with endless terrifying scenarios that might be keeping her daughter from answering the phone.

  Standing with my knee lifted and my purple foot high off the ground, I managed to keep my balance as I picked my phone up off the window ledge. "Hey, Mom, can I call you back? I've got a purple foot."

  "What? Why? Did you bruise it? Are you having circulation problems? Maybe your shoes are too tight." My mom was highly skilled at dashing off numerous opinions and unnecessary advice without needing to stop for a breath.

  "It's purple paint, Mom. My shoes and circulatory system are fine."

  "Well, why didn't you tell me? You gave me a fright." I didn't need to see through the phone to know she was placing her hand against her chest for added drama.

  "I would have told you if you hadn't jumped right into your list of possible sources and solutions for a purple foot." I decided to give delaying the call another shot. "Let me call you back."

  "I'm just calling to see how things are going with the little flower store." She couldn't have said the words with more disappointment if she'd punctuated each one with a sniffle. But I couldn't fault her for that. My poor mom, the eternal optimist and the woman who took huge pleasure in bragging to her book club about her daughter's successes, had suffered the trifecta of motherly letdowns. In the past few years, I'd quit medical school and walked out on a six figure job in the perfume industry. But the last disappointment was the one that really had the poor woman reeling.

  I braced my free hand against the window ledge to keep my balance. "The little flower store is fine. I open in two weeks. My right leg is getting tired. Can I call you back?"

  "You need better shoes." I opened my mouth to remind her of the painted foot but decided it would be a waste of breath. "Lacey, have you heard from Jacob?"

  I made sure to huff in annoyance loud enough that she could hear me. "Why would I hear from him? We aren't together anymore, and mentioning him in every phone call is not going to magically bring him back into my life."

  Jacob was the third horse in the trifecta. He was like the Kentucky Derby of disappointing blows for my mom. He was rich and handsome and from a good family. Unfortunately, that good family forgot to teach him that if you were engaged to one woman, it wasn't good to date another woman. Jacob's family owned Georgio's Perfume, a multimillion dollar fragrance company, and for one year I had been employed as their head perfumer. I had been born with hyperosmia, or in more crude terms, a heightened sense of smell. Sometimes I considered it a gift, and sometimes it was a curse. I
n the matter of my ex-fiancé, it had been both. Jacob had hired me because I could detect the slightest aroma and even separate that microscopic odor into its basic parts, a skill that made me highly sought after in the perfume industry. But the man had somehow forgotten that skill when he started showing up wearing hints of another woman's perfume on his shirts. And whoever she was, she wasn't even wearing Georgio Perfume.

  "I just worry that you were too hasty in your decision to break it off. Jacob was such a nice man."

  "He was seeing other women behind my back. How does that make him nice? If you like him so much, give him a call. I'm sure as long as you make sure Dad has new batteries in the remote, frozen entrees in the freezer and plenty of bait in his tackle box, he won't even notice you missing." I hopped toward the door of the shop to go inside and clean my foot.

  "Lacey Sue Pinkerton," she said in her best angry mom voice.

  "Uh oh, the middle name is coming out. I'm in trouble." I opened the door and hopped clumsily inside. Kingston pulled his sharp black beak out from under his wing. He looked angry about having his nap interrupted.

  "You sound funny. Are you exercising, Lacey?"

  "Yes, Mom, I'm in the middle of an aerobics class."

  "That's enough, miss smarty pants." Apparently we'd moved from middle name use to the good ole smarty pants stand by. I was twenty-eight, but a five minute conversation with my mom and I was back in sixth grade.

  "I'm sorry, Mom. I would love to stay on the phone and rehash all the crummy stuff that has befallen me lately, but I need to get back to work."

  "Lacey, sweetie, I worry you'll get terribly bored in a small town like Port Dancy."

  "Port Danby, and I won't be bored. I'll be running a business."

  "Yes, a flower shop. It's quite a change from your life in the big city working with important people."

  "It's a big change, Mom. And it's the change I wanted. Besides, I'm looking forward to living in a place where the biggest thing to happen is the neighborhood stray cat knocking over a trash can. There's something to be said for peace and tranquility." Her last words had gotten to me a bit. The notion of life moving too slowly in Port Danby had crossed my mind more than once. But I was determined to keep myself and my mind occupied.

  The paint had dried on my foot, caking into a lavender patch on my skin. I lowered the foot to the ground. "I'll call you later, Mom. Kiss Dad for me."

  "All right. Call if you need anything."

  I hung up and glanced around at my shop. I couldn't help but smile. It was the first time in my working life that I'd gotten to make all the decisions, and I was pleased with the outcome. Cape Cod exterior aside, I went totally batty trying to decide whether to go modern industrial or Soho chic inside. As is often the case, I couldn't make up my mind, so I went with both and invented my own Soho Industrial Chic. Practicality played a big part too. I left the exposed brick walls in place for the corner that was home to the steel rolling shelves I'd purchased at a factory sell off. They were the perfect place to store vases, glassware and ceramic pots. A long antique potter's table took up more than half of the back wall. The deep porcelain basin sink left behind by Elsie, the baker, when she moved her kitchen next door was the perfect place for transferring plants and arranging bouquets.

  For a change of pace, I covered the brick wall on the other half of the shop with smooth plaster and bright white paint. An array of wood crates were nailed, bottom side, to the wall to create geometric cubbies for some of the prettier baubles I had for sale. The center of the store held my prize find, a massive island with a black and white checked tile counter and rows of drawers to keep ribbons, tissue and all the small goodies needed in a flower shop. I'd painted the entire island in black chalkboard paint so I could write labels on the drawers.

  Kingston, my pet crow, fluttered his large wings a few times, vibrating the ribbons hanging from spools on the wall. I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds from the top drawer of the island and tossed a few into the dish on his perch. He busied himself with the treat as I stroked the silky black feathers on his head.

  "Well, Kingston, the shop is almost ready. I think we're going to like it here. What do you think?"

  Kingston flicked the empty shells out of the dish.

  "Right, I guess you'll be happy as long as there are plenty of treats."

  Chapter 2

  Putting to good use the free trial month yoga class I'd attended, I somehow managed to get my foot into the sink and free of its purple tattoo. Getting it back out took a little more effort. I wrangled my leg away from the basin and patted it dry with a rag.

  A gasp shot from my mouth as I spun around and found Elsie standing just a few feet away.

  "My gosh, Elsie, you scared me. You move like a cat wearing slippers."

  "I've told you many times, you need a bell on the door." Elsie could rival my mom when it came to giving advice and opinions. She pointed her finger, which meant more advice was on its way. "Lola mentioned that her parents sent her a box of old goat bells for the antique shop. That would be perfect."

  "You're right. I'll go across the street later and buy one."

  Elsie spent her entire day baking and creating the kind of confections that went straight to the thighs, but she was as fit and trim as an Olympian. Even though Elsie was, as she liked to say, 'pushing sixty' (although Lola had told me Elsie'd already pushed sixty several pushes ago) every afternoon, she pulled on her shorts and athletic shoes and ran the five mile loop from Harbor Lane down to Pickford Way along the beach, and up Culpepper Road. Elsie and her husband, Hank, a traveling salesman who I had yet to meet because he was always traveling, had lived in Port Danby for thirty years. Elsie's Sugar and Spice Bakery was a local and tourist favorite. I'd grown so fond of her goodies, I worried that I, too, would have to start running the grueling five mile loop just to stay ahead of my treat consumption.

  Elsie stopped at Kingston's perch to admire him, and my crow liked to be admired. "Hello, handsome."

  Kingston responded by bobbing his head up and down in approval like a parrot. "He's going to have a head the size of a balloon if you keep calling him handsome. When I put him near a mirror, he'll stand there for hours just flirting with himself." I took a deep whiff. "How is the pumpkin bread turning out?"

  Elsie swung around quickly, nearly dislodging the hasty bun of gray peppered hair at the nape of her neck. I hadn't noticed the streak of flour on her cheek until the sun through the window highlighted it. "How did you know I was making pumpkin bread?" She waved away the question and provided her own answer. "That's right. I forgot about you and that incredible sense of smell."

  "I've been smelling a lot of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and yeast so I figured pumpkin bread. And to be perfectly honest, I saw Tom, from the corner market, deliver a crate of canned pumpkin."

  Elsie put her finger against her lips. "Shh. I like to let people think I'm using fresh. I even leave a few pumpkin halves on the work table. I hope that doesn't make me seem terrible."

  "Since your baked goods are like an elixir for happiness, I think we can let this one indiscretion go. Besides, who would fault you for using canned pumpkin? You work so hard."

  "Thank you, Pink. You're a gem." The people who I'd already grown close to, like Elsie and Lola, had taken to calling me by my nickname, Pink.

  "I'll bring you a sample when I have them perfected."

  "Looking forward to it."

  Elsie ran her fingers along the black and white tiles on the island. I'd only known her a few weeks, but it was easy to read that she had something on her mind. But before she could part her lips to speak, the door opened and a salty coastal breeze ushered in behind my neighbor on the other side, Lester. Aside from being Elsie's twin brother, Lester was a retired fireman, who had, after a year of golfing, watching television reruns and as he liked to say watching his hair turn white, decided to open up a coffee shop. He was always a fun sight to see in his snowy white hair, brightly colored Hawaiian shirt and sandals.
As far as neighbors went, Lester was much quieter and less opinionated than Elsie. His wife died of cancer just ten years into their marriage and he, as Lester himself put it, never found true love again. (Yes, those men exist, but they are as rare and hard to find as the perfect fitting bra.)

  Lester popped right up with a question for Elsie. "Well, did you ask her?"

  "I was just about to until you came bursting in as if the devil were chasing you."

  Lester took immediate offense. "I did no such thing. Should I ask her?"

  "No, I'll get to it. Stop being pushy." Elsie shook her head my direction. "He was even pushy in the womb."

  "What I should have done was push you right out of it," Lester quipped.

  I leaned against the center island and crossed my ankles waiting for them to stop arguing about who should do the asking. I had no idea what the burning question was, but I'd found, with Lester and Elsie, it was easier to let them finish their round of sibling rivalry first. Eventually, they'd get to the point. It was usually entertaining to watch, and it made me, all at once, thankful and disappointed that I'd never had a sibling. Of course Elsie always came out the victor because Lester usually just got tired and gave up.

  "We were wondering if we could put my three tables out in front of your shop," Elsie blurted so quickly I hadn't realized her statement was directed at me until I noticed they were both looking expectantly at me.

  I pushed off the counter. "Oh, you're talking to me. But why would you need to put the tables in front of my shop? Lester already has three tables, and you have plenty of room in front of the bakery."

  Lester rolled his eyes at his sister's clumsy approach to the topic. Lester shuffled forward on his sandals. "Here's the thing, Lacey. Since the bakery used to be here in the flower shop—" He cast his blue-gray eyes around. "Nice work in here, by the way."