Sweets Shop Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Maisy Morgan

  “No,” Cindy said.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Mary said.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Cindy said, wringing her wrists slightly. “She’s still in a little bit of pain. But so far, her doctors haven’t found anything. I’m worried that might mean they missed something.”

  “That’s possible,” Mary admitted. “But right now just be glad they haven’t found anything serious.”

  “She is saying she’s been feeling better lately,” Cindy said. “I suppose it could have just been some sort of fluke. I’ve learned to be cautious when it comes to Hannah, though. She is a tough girl, but I still worry. I’ve been on edge ever since the accident.”

  “That was years ago,” Mary said. “I know life has got to be hard with your daughter in a wheelchair, but you don’t have to do it all alone, you know? You’ve got friends who can help you.”

  Cindy nodded. “I know. You and Tripp have been a real blessing to my daughter and me. Draco too. She… lost a lot of friends after the accident. I know I’ve told you that, but it still bothers me. Hannah, I think, is over it. She understands they were just kids who were scared and didn’t know how to handle what happened to her. It’s nice for her to have good friends again. Especially Tripp. He looks out for her, and I appreciate that. Honestly, I haven’t worried about her while she is at school like I used to. I know Tripp and Draco are there, and that makes me feel so much better.”

  “I’m glad,” Mary said as she put a hand on Cindy’s shoulder. “Promise me you’re going to keep me updated?”

  “Of course,” Cindy said. “She’s got another appointment next week. I’ll keep you updated.”

  “Good,” Mary said and gave her younger friend a quick hug before hurrying to Preston’s pick up. She climbed into the passenger seat and smiled at him and Tripp, who had apparently been shooting rubber bands at one another while she had been talking to Cindy. She couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head. She was always happy to see the two of them having fun and getting along so well. It made her feel like things were really working out to make Tripp’s new life in Georgia the very best. “Come on; I’ve got an early morning at the shop tomorrow. Let’s get back home to Brooks.”

  Chapter Two

  Mary sat back in the lounge chair near the Christmas tree, fighting off a too-extreme grin as Preston and Tripp sang along to the Christmas music she had put on the television. It was Christmas Day, and as Preston had spent the entirety of the morning with his relatives, he had elected to spend the evening with them. Mary and Tripp had woken up earlier than usual with all the giddy Christmas excitement and had spent the morning swapping gifts and making new Christmas-themed sweets in the kitchen, namely the peppermint bark they had been selling all month at their sweets shop, Lily Pad Sweets, but had hardly gotten any of themselves. The bark would sell out almost as soon as she put it up in the display, so they had elected to make themselves their own batch that morning. The two of them had been laughing and in a great mood, making Mary’s spirits soar. She felt so incredibly blessed and grateful for the blissful Christmas morning with her grandson.

  “Whoa!” Tripp exclaimed as he opened up the small gift Preston had given him. “Spark plugs! You found the ones we needed!”

  Preston and Tripp had spent the better part of the summer and fall working on a beat-up old Volkswagen they had found in the backyard when she and Tripp had first moved to Brooks. They just about had the thing running when all the spark plugs had blown, and as it was a rather old Volkswagen, finding some spark plugs that would work had been quite a challenge.

  “That’s right,” Preston said somewhat smugly as Sweetfeet crawled up into his lap from where he sat on the floor. He proceeded to pet the cat, who began to purr gently. “Took me a while, I know, but I’m thinking once we get these set up, the car might actually run… and if you look at what I’ve taped to the bottom of the box…”

  Tripp turned the box over to find a gift card to a local body shop. “No way…”

  “Yup, we’re getting that ugly thing painted,” Preston said. “Now, that’s not going to pay for all of it, but it’ll be a chunk of it. Your grandmother tells me you’ve been saving up to get her painted, right?”

  “Yeah, it’s a giant rust bucket at the moment,” Tripp said, grinning. “This is awesome! By spring, it’s going to look like a brand-new car!”

  Mary met Preston’s gaze for a moment, and she smiled, beaming brightly at him behind her cup of hot chocolate. She could not possibly have asked for a better Christmas, and this was just the beginning. In the morning, she and Tripp would be heading out to LA for Tripp to meet his mother and spend a bit of the holiday season with her and her boyfriend. The doorbell rang, and Mary hopped up, telling the guys to stay where they were. They were clearly having a moment, and Mary didn’t want to ruin it.

  “Surprise!” Cindy exclaimed as Mary opened the door.

  Hannah, dressed in red and white and looking very much like a Christmas greeting card, smiled up at Mary—carefully wrapped gifts in her lap. “You made it!” Mary said gladly. Since Mary and Tripp were planning on spending the rest of the holiday in LA, she had told Cindy to stop by when they had some free time so that they could exchange gifts.

  “Of course we did,” Hannah said, already rolling herself over the threshold. Her mom reached around, taking some of the gifts out of her lap so that they wouldn’t fall.

  “Tripp! Guess who’s here!” Mary called, and Tripp came bolting around the corner. He met Hannah and pushed her excitedly the rest of the way into the living room, and Mary could hear Hannah gushing about Mary’s Christmas peppermint bark. They all settled into the living room—Preston still on the floor by the tree, leaned up against the chair Mary had sunk back down in. Cindy occupied the couch.

  “Merry Christmas, Tripp,” Hannah said, passing a gift to him, her eyes positively sparkling. Tripp did the same with a gift under the tree he had gotten her, and Mary watched with a keen eye. He had bought her a very beautiful silver necklace with a cross that included her birthstone, a pretty light blue colored stone, at the center. Hannah’s eyes lit up, and Tripp helped her to put it on. Her cheeks were red, Mary noticed. Mary raised her brow slightly at the engraved hunting knife that Hannah had gotten him; she had to pause to remind herself that they were living in Georgia now and that this was probably a very normal gift to be handing a fifteen-year-old boy, no matter how apprehensive she was.

  “I hope that was okay,” Cindy said to Mary in a slight whisper. “I probably should have asked you if it was. Hannah was very excited about giving it to him, so I didn’t want to tell her not to.”

  Mary smiled at her. “Of course, it’s okay.”

  A small gift was suddenly placed in Mary’s lap by Preston, who was grinning up at her. “For me?” she questioned and unwrapped it to find a beautiful Pandora bracelet. “Oh, it’s gorgeous, Preston…” She smiled to see a lily pad charm with the date of her grand opening etched on the back. She leaned down and kissed him. She had gotten him a pocket watch, which he had been quite enthused about.

  Suddenly, her phone started ringing. She went to silence it, but she recognized it as Matthew’s number—Lilly’s boyfriend. She smiled. “Hold on a second,” Mary said, stepping out of the living room and into the foyer. “Lilly!” she spoke excitedly into the phone. “Merry Christmas!”

  “Um…” a man’s voice said uncomfortably.

  “Oh, Matthew, I should have known it was you,” Mary said cheerfully. “Merry Christmas to you too! I can’t tell you how excited we are to see you two tomorrow.”

  “Mary, I’m sorry…” Matthew’s voice was riddled with nerves. “There was an incident.”

  “Incident?” Mary questioned, starting to grow nervous herself. “What kind of incident? Is Lilly okay?”

  “She’s fine,” Matthew assured her. “Lilly checked herself out of rehab yesterday. Didn’t want to spend Christmas with Tripp in a rehab center. I should have been with her. I’m sorry. She’s ha
d a relapse.”

  Mary nearly bit the tip of her tongue off in surprise. “Are… are you serious? She got ahold of some drugs?” Mary asked.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know if she managed to take any or not,” Matthew said. “But she’s back at the rehab center. She’s really upset… I don’t think… I don’t think now…”

  “It’s not a good time,” Mary said in agreement, and she felt sick to her stomach. “You say you don’t know if she actually took the drugs?”

  “I’m going to see her now,” Matthew said. “I just know you two were planning on booking a last-minute flight, and I didn’t… I’m sorry…”

  “Matthew, this is not your fault,” Mary said. “You’ve done more for my daughter than I ever could. She has to want to get better.”

  “She does,” Matthew said. “I can tell she does. I don’t know what happened exactly. I showed up at my house, and the drugs were all there, and she was there… I had my assistant take her straight to the rehab center.”

  “You didn’t take her?” Mary asked, but she bit her inner cheek, realizing she had taken a tone with him that he certainly did not deserve.

  “I couldn’t… I had to… get rid of the drugs,” Matthew said a bit breathlessly. “I wasn’t going to put that on my assistant.”

  “I understand,” Mary said agreeably. “I’m sorry. Look… tell Lilly… just tell Lilly I’ll call her at the center later. Tripp has a friend over right now. I need to get through this evening before I tell him we’re not going.”

  “Grandma?” Tripp’s voice beckoned, and she spun around to see him standing in the archway.

  “Honestly…” Mary grumbled. “Matthew, I’ve got to go.”

  “Of course… tell Tripp I’m so sorry,” Matthew said, and Mary hung up the phone.

  Tripp spun around before Mary could say anything and headed back into the living room. “Tripp, wait…” Mary said, hurrying after him.

  She realized he must have heard the whole thing and hurried to catch up and maybe speak a word to him in private. She had at least wanted him to enjoy this time now with Hannah and Cindy. She glanced over at him apologetically, but he looked frighteningly unmoved by it. “It’s fine, Grandma,” he said and sat himself back down on the floor near where Hannah was seated in her chair.

  “What’s fine?” Hannah asked.

  “We’re not going to LA,” Tripp said, and Mary hadn’t expected him to tell everyone this upfront. Mary’s cheeks grew warm. Tripp shrugged. “Grandma, I’m fine. Really. It is what it is, right? Mom relapsed?”

  “She might have,” Mary said. “I’m not sure.”

  Tripp shrugged again, and he smirked slightly. “Come on, Grandma, I knew something like this was probably going to happen. I don’t want Mom to ruin our Christmas. Maybe Preston and I can work on the car over break now anyway.”

  Mary felt sick as she slowly sunk back down in her chair. Preston and Cindy both looked at her sympathetically. It hit Mary that Tripp must have been waiting for something like this to happen. He was so unsurprised—so unmoved. He had been assuming they were never going to make it to LA, and that made Mary very sad. He had no faith in his mother whatsoever. She felt the same reoccurring sadness when she thought about the situation all over again. It seemed that Lilly had been making an effort towards getting clean and getting better, but now this. She had never been the mother that Tripp needed and didn’t seem to be ready to be that now, either. Tripp had grown so used to it, the constant disappointment of his mom, and Mary couldn’t help but feel sorry for it.

  “Guess that’s the life of a kid of a druggie, huh?” Tripp said to Hannah. “Well, now I can go with you to Draco’s tomorrow. He’s doing a Christmas Story showing in his family’s basement theater, right?”

  “Yeah…” Hannah said a bit uncomfortably, but she smiled. “That’ll be fun! I think Bradley and Stacey are coming. And your ex.”

  “Whatever,” Tripp said with a laugh. “Me and Kara are cool.”

  “Becky’s coming,” Hannah said. “I think she’s in denial, but she totally has a thing for Draco still.”

  Tripp and Hannah laughed, and the phone call from Matthew was brushed under the rug for the time being. They didn’t mention it again for the rest of the evening. Eventually, Preston, Cindy, and Hannah all made their way home, and Mary tried to bring it up to make sure he was okay. He just shrugged as he had done earlier. “I’m fine, really,” he said. “I mean, I’m disappointed, sure, but… I guess she’s just not ready, Grandma. And, I’m okay with that. I’m ready. I’ve just got to wait on her, I guess.”

  Mary smiled at him through teary eyes. “You are… unbelievable, you know that? You’re amazing, Tripp. I don’t know how you keep such a good outlook.”

  “I mean, I am upset,” Tripp admitted. “But… I know I can’t expect too much from her. It wouldn’t be fair to expect her to just… start being a mom, would it? She’s not a mom to me. I hope she might be one day, but… I guess… I guess I’m okay with just being her friend, and a good friend is going to be supportive of her. Not get mad because she has a slip. She’s trying. That’s all I can ask of her.” Mary wrapped her arms around Tripp’s neck in a tight, uncomfortable hug. He eventually laughed, a bit sadly, before pulling away and telling her he was going up to bed.

  They exchanged a final Merry Christmas wish to each other before he disappeared up the stairs. Mary headed into her home office and called the rehab center. She asked to speak to Lilly, and after about a twenty-minute wait, her daughter’s voice came on the other line. “Mom, I’m so sorry,” Lilly said immediately. “And I’m so glad you called. Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas, Lilly,” Mary said, her voice shaking in both anger and hurt.

  “Tripp, is he okay?” Lilly asked.

  “He’s a good kid,” Mary said. “He’ll be fine. He took it well. Lilly, what happened?”

  “I didn’t take the drugs,” Lilly told her. “I’m still clean, Mom. I was going to, but Matthew came home before I had a chance to. He was so mad. I’m so glad he was… he took the drugs and threw them away, and had his assistant drive me back to the center. He’s been here all day with me.”

  “You ruined his Christmas,” Mary snapped, a bit surprised at herself. “Matthew probably had plans for you two today, and you ruined it. And, you ruined Tripp’s too. You were out for, what, six hours before you went and found yourself some drugs?”

  “I know, Mom,” Lilly said pitifully. “I’m trying. I’m really trying, you know?”

  “I know you are, Lilly. I really do,” Mary said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I know you’re trying, but I can’t keep putting this off on Tripp. I’ve got to look after him.”

  “I know you do!” Lilly said. “And I love you so much for taking care of him. I am so glad he has you; you have no idea. I’m just sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “Just get better,” Mary said. “Because I am not going to put Tripp through this again.” Mary hung up the phone without so much as a goodbye and sat back in her chair, wiping her eyes. She felt guilty for being so short with her, but what choice did she have? She couldn’t keep getting Tripp’s hopes up only to tear them back down again.

  Chapter Three

  Winter break was over and done in a flash, and Tripp sighed as his grandmother pulled up in front of his school. Tripp liked school and all, but it had been nice hanging out at his grandmother’s sweets shop, working on the Volkswagen, and enjoying his new video games over the break. He had never wanted that to end, but here he was back at school and hitting the books all too soon. His friends Buck and Charlie were out front talking, both wearing their football jerseys. “Have a good day at school,” his grandmother said, and Tripp offered her a half-smile before stepping out of the car.

  Buck and Charlie nodded approvingly in his direction; they were more acquaintances than friends, but the three of them walked into school together nevertheless. They were really Brad
ley’s friends, but after Tripp and Draco had managed to hold their own in a fight a few months back, they had all somehow become friends. “Catch you around, Tripp,” Buck said, offering Tripp a quick fist bump before they hurried off after their girlfriends, who were waiting for them on the opposite side of the cafeteria.

  Tripp spotted Draco and Hannah, so he joined them at their respective corner. “Morning, guys,” Tripp said.

  Draco yawned. “First day back after winter break… I’m exhausted. I should have gone to bed sooner last night. I’m not used to the early mornings anymore.”

  “Same,” Hannah said with a yawn.

  Just then, Kara came hurrying up. Kara was Tripp’s ex-girlfriend, but they too had managed to make amends. She was a bit older than him anyway, and they were rather different people. She was a bit too much of a troublemaker for him. “Hey! You guys are in the beginner’s drama class, right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Tripp questioned.

  “I heard the director is handing out scenes today,” she said.

  “Oh,” Draco said, uninterested. “Yeah, we do a lot of skits and stuff in class.”

  Kara laughed. “No, not for class, guys. For the showcase at the end of the year.”

  Tripp stared blankly at her for a moment. “Showcase?” he asked.

  “No way,” Draco said. “Do we do that if we’re in the beginners class?”

  “What’s the showcase?” Tripp asked, feeling as though he was being ignored.

  “Whoa, no way! That’s awesome—I didn’t know the beginner class gets to be a part of that,” Hannah said.