A Latte Difficulty

by Angela Ruth Strong

  Bunny clomped into the kitchen. Tandy busied herself with the rest of the cake.

  Marissa stared into Connor’s steely eyes. They’d been here before. On the homestretch to their wedding day only for a roadblock to send her off course. And then the whole fiasco when he’d tried to propose a second time. Were they ever going to get to the altar?

  She held a hand to her heart. “The wedding is what’s keeping me going. It’s what I have to look forward to.”

  He reached for her hands. Rubbed them with his manly callouses for a moment before making eye contact again. “We’re getting married, Marissa. You can look forward to that. As for the wedding, you don’t know that it won’t be done under assumed names once we join WitSec.”

  Bunny glanced at them through the window to the kitchen. Though “Bunny” probably wasn’t her real name.

  Marissa pictured the secret mountain town Griffin had referenced. She mentally scrolled through her favorite movie characters to figure out what she’d want to be called should she have to change her name. Should she go traditional or ridiculous? Scarlet or Rapunzel?

  Then she pictured leaving her life behind, and her stomach dropped. What fun would it be to introduce herself as Rapunzel if Tandy wasn’t there to laugh about it?

  Is that how Connor felt? His family was so much closer than Marissa’s had ever been. Not to mention his dog. She didn’t like the idea of Ranger splattering more blood in her new home, but Connor was the only owner he’d ever known. Would Connor have to give him up for her?

  Maybe the hot dog contest was his way of coping. He was going to cram in as much enjoyment as he could from his last Americana Festival. He was eating his feelings.

  “I’m planning to marry you here.” She bit her lip. “This is our home.”

  He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her back, warm and strong. The way her body relaxed against him made her realize how tense she’d been.

  “Your arms are my home,” he said.

  Her heart melted like ice with sun tea poured over it. No way she could be mad at him after that line. But it was going to make it even harder for her to leave him again.

  They’d only been apart for a couple days, and she was going nuts. How was she going to survive months of this?

  “I changed my mind,” Tandy called, still facing away from them. “This banana cake with caramel sauce is to die for.” She dropped her fork with a clink and twisted to face them, eyes wide. “Not literally.”

  Marissa wrinkled her nose. Of course Tandy had to go there.

  Connor kissed the top of Marissa’s head. “We’re all worried about you, Marissa. Please, please, please go back to your safehouse and stay there until Griffin catches whoever threatened you.”

  Marissa wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into his solid chest. He smelled of pine wood and forever. “I’ll promise to go and stay if you promise to keep planning the wedding with Tandy. As long as I can walk down the aisle to you when this is all over, it will be worth it.”

  Connor leaned back and lifted her chin. “What if Tandy accidentally books a DJ who only plays rap?”

  Marissa cringed. But there were worse things. “Then we’ll get jiggy with it.”

  “What if it rains?”

  Marissa shrugged. “We’ll hold the ceremony in your barn, and I’ll definitely wear these cowboy boots that I found at the safehouse.”

  Connor glanced at her feet in thought. “What if the photographer’s camera breaks?”

  A corner of Marissa’s mouth curved up. If she simply expected everything in her life to go wrong, she’d never be disappointed. Because it usually did. “Then I’ll pull out my camera and take a selfie when you kiss me.”

  Connor grinned and leaned down to brush his lips over hers.

  All too soon, he pulled away. “As much as I want you to stay and practice our first kiss as man and wife, I want you to get back to the safehouse even more.”

  She nodded. He was right. Though she felt safer than ever, having resolved their differences.

  Tandy licked her fork. “We can box up some cake samples for you to take back with you. Then you can make your selection.”

  Marissa tapped the glass of the case next to her. She might as well take advantage of her trip. “I want that three-tiered square cake with the light frosting and the raffia ribbon. We can add sunflowers as decoration.”

  “Good choice, pumpkin.” Bunny grabbed a binder to make a note.

  “You could make each layer a different flavor,” Tandy suggested. “Including my mocha layer and this London Fog cake with the lavender Earl Grey infused buttercream.”

  Marissa’s tongue watered. “That sounds good. As long as the Earl Gray layer is bigger.”

  Tandy picked up another sample. “Are you trying to ruin your own wedding now?” A sly smile escorted the teasing words.

  Marissa narrowed her eyes in a playful warning.

  Connor shook his head. “Now that you’ve got that out of the way, I’m going out first and make sure the coast is clear for you to sneak back to your ATV. Don’t look at or talk to anyone and email me as soon as you arrive safely.”

  Marissa nodded. She’d parked in the woods around the corner of the hospital, and she should be able to find her way back without a compass or GPS. Getting here had been straight forward. She’d only had to follow the river.

  Connor hugged her tightly once more. “You shouldn’t be discovered with everyone down at the park for the festival, but put your sunglasses back on to be sure.”

  Marissa let him go and slid the shades up her nose as directed.

  Connor nodded then strode out the door like a man on a mission.

  Tandy’s Converse tapped across the floor and Marissa found herself in another embrace. “I never thought I’d miss you so much.”

  “From the looks of it, you mostly miss my baking,” Marissa joked around the lump in her throat.

  She hugged her friend closer. It wasn’t long ago that she and Tandy had been rivals, vying for the same storefront and looking for things to hate about each other. Now Marissa could show up, guns blazing, and Tandy would just love her more for it.

  Tandy clicked her tongue. “If you were here to bake, I’d never fit into my black bridesmaid dress by your wedding.”

  Marissa shook her head in mock admonition. “Are you trying to get me to stay?”

  Tandy squeezed her upper arms before striding to the window. “I wish you could, but I’ll be your lookout instead.”

  Bunny waved from the kitchen. “It was nice to meet you, Marissa. I know what you’re going through, and I promise not to say a word.”

  Marissa smiled ruefully at her agreement to trust a grizzled old biker with her wedding cake. Mom would be incensed. But in spite of sincerely doubting she and Bunny’s friend had anything in common when it came to going into hiding, it was obvious the woman was as passionate about baking as Marissa was about tea. “Thank you, Bunny. I’m glad I got to meet you too.”

  “Connor is motioning that it’s all clear,” Tandy called from the front of the store.

  Marissa’s heart rate picked up. As much as she’d needed to connect with Connor and Tandy today, coming into town hadn’t been smart. She bit her lip and looked up and down the road to double check before heading back out into the moist heat that slicked her skin underneath the coat.

  The place was a ghost town, but were someone to see her, they’d do a double take at her excessive layers. Nobody else dressed like this in the heat. What she’d considered to be a disguise might actually make her stand out more. Too late now.

  She click-clacked down the empty street, not even pausing when blowing a kiss to Connor before rounding the corner of the hospital building.

  Something smacked into her body, knocking her hat back and her glasses sideways.

  “Oof.” She reached to readjust before even recognizing Trenton, the private investigator Joseph Cross had hired.

  “Excuse me,” the man sa
id, straightening his bright red bow tie. Of all the people she could run into, he would probably be the least likely to question her ensemble. If one could wear a bow tie in July, why not a fedora?

  He also didn’t seem to have a very good memory with as many times as he liked to repeat his questions. He’d forget bumping into her as soon as she left. As long as she got away before he started quizzing her.

  “No, excuse me.” She circled him and continued click-clacking down the street, only glancing back discreetly when looking both ways before crossing the road.

  Trenton was already gone.

  Tandy waited for Connor to return. “Marissa got away okay?”

  Connor grimaced. “She ran into that detective Joseph Cross hired, but the guy didn’t seem to recognize her. He got in his car and drove off.”

  Tandy’s eyebrows zipped upward. “Trenton? Opal’s grandson?”

  Connor’s gaze zeroed in on her. “Yes. Have you spoken with Griffin yet about what Opal told him? Or…what Zam says Opal told him?”

  Tandy pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to get in the middle of the whole Connor and Zam thing. Connor was obviously stressed because his fiancée’s life was being threatened, and if the culprit didn’t get caught, he might have to go into hiding with her.

  “Not yet,” she admitted. “I’ve been too busy running a business all by myself and planning a wedding that is not my own.”

  “Well, now that you’ve got wedding stuff squared away and your oven needs professional care, you’ve got plenty of time.”

  “Sad but true.” She wanted to punch him in his overstuffed gut for that remark, but she let it go. She’d already caused Marissa enough trouble without sending her future groom to the emergency room.

  She also let him go home to lie down instead of accompanying her to see the sheriff. The only good thing about Connor’s hot dog eating contest was that he knew Griffin was doing security at the mission trip fund-raising BBQ in the park.

  She found the sheriff leaning one hand against a tree, looking as green as the key lime cake. “Don’t tell me you were in the hot dog eating contest too.”

  Griffin took a moment to focus on her. “I wish. Would have been another opportunity to beat Connor at something.”

  Tandy frowned then looked around at the thinning crowd and kids laying on blankets rather than climbing the jungle gym. “Why didn’t you? What’s wrong?”

  He took off his Smokey the Bear hat to wipe his brow. “I don’t know. Ever since lunch, I feel low energy and nauseous.”

  Lunch? As in the BBQ being sponsored by the church’s youth group? “Did everything taste okay?”

  Griffin clutched his belly. “I would have preferred steak, but yeah.”

  Tandy scanned the nearby picnic tables where flies buzzed over leftovers. Charbroiled hotdogs, watermelon, corn on the cob, chips, and potato salad. She narrowed her eyes at the tubs of potato salad. Did it have eggs in it? Or mayo? Those could go bad in the heat. “You ate the potato salad?”

  “Potato salad is my favorite.”

  Oh man. Just when Tandy thought things couldn’t get worse, their sheriff contracted food poisoning. “Well, in case you’re about to get sick, we’d better talk right now.”

  Griffin’s head wobbled a little as he eyed her. “As long as we can sit down.” He pushed off the tree to shuffle toward a bench.

  Tandy shook her head as she watched. If the sheriff went down, they’d have to rely on a deputy who had close ties with a suspect’s girlfriend.

  Griffin sank onto the bench. “I heard you had a fire this morning.”

  She joined him, plopping onto the hard, wooden slats. “Unfortunately. After the smoke airs out, I can open again, but we won’t have any pastries until I can get the oven checked.”

  “Are you here because you suspect foul play?”

  Tandy rolled her eyes. “I wish.”

  Griffin shifted with a grunt. Either he was trying to get comfortable or her response disturbed him.

  “I mean, I wish I hadn’t been the one stupid enough to put sticks in the cake pops before baking them.”

  The sheriff shot her a withering look before closing his eyes. “Even I know that.”

  Tandy bit back a retort. The guy obviously felt lousy. “Anyway… Before I tried to burn the shop down, my new barista saw a conversation between Opal and her grandson.”

  “He saw it?” Griffin opened his eyes long enough for another one of his looks. “How do you see a conversation?”

  Tandy wished she didn’t have to see the way Griffin was looking at her. “He’s deaf. He reads lips.”

  “Ah. Of course.” Griffin closed his eyes again. “Note that I’m already skeptical but do go on.”

  “Noted.” Should she be more skeptical of Zam? The only way to find out was to have Griffin investigate his claims. “You should question Opal again. Apparently, she saw a woman go up to Marissa’s door around the time when the note would have been stuck there. She didn’t tell your deputy because she wanted to save the information for her grandson to use in his investigation for Joseph Cross.”

  Griffin groaned. “Well that complicates things.”

  Tandy nodded though she wasn’t sure which part he considered the most complicated. The part about how Opal lied, the part about how Trenton was her grandson, or the part about the perp who left the note was female? That ruled out both the deputy and Zam. Not that she honestly considered Zam a suspect.

  “I’ll have Romero question Opal again.”

  Tandy pursed her lips. “About that.”

  Griffin opened his eyes though they didn’t hold the same amount of zing this time. They didn’t hold much of anything. “What?” he asked, his voice lacking zing, as well.

  “Did you know your deputy moved here because of Moria Evans?”

  Griffin took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I knew he moved here to support the sister of a buddy who died when they were deployed. I didn’t know it was Moria.”

  “Yeah.” Tandy studied his pale, chubby cheeks which were normally a ruddy hue. Perhaps she should be more concerned about the sheriff than about the deputy.

  “I suppose that since Opal says the note on Marissa’s door was left by a woman…and the deputy might have been biased in his questioning of Moria…you want me to go talk to her myself.” He made the connection, though in a slow and stilted manner that wasn’t his usual M.O.

  “I would, except you don’t appear to be in any condition to question anyone.” She lifted the back of her hand to Griffin’s scalding forehead. Yikes. If he were one of Marissa’s teapots, he’d be whistling. “I’m taking you to the emergency room, Sheriff.”

  Could his illness be from something other than the potato salad? The timing in the case seemed to be more than coincidental. Could what she’d feared to be food poisoning be a different type of poison?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Marissa pulled the helmet off her head and shook out her hair before climbing off the four-wheeler. The ride had been fun at first, but then the bumpiness became jarring. Both her rear and her jaw ached from all the hard landings. Though she never thought she’d feel this way, she was glad to be back at the safehouse.

  She rushed inside to remove the trench coat that made her feel like one of Tandy’s ill-fated cake pop sticks. Yeah, Tandy had destroyed their expensive oven, but life could be worse. Marissa was alive. She had a wedding cake ordered. She had a man who loved her enough that he was willing to give up his identity to start a new one with her if necessary.

  It was nice to have her worries with Connor and Tandy resolved, but now what?

  Marissa hung up the trench coat in the closet then paused to stare at the wedding dress she’d left hanging on the window casing. It was as simple and beautiful as she remembered. So beautiful she hadn’t wanted to destroy the magic of it by trying it on, but if it wasn’t going to fit, she needed to know.

  In that case, she’d pick out a dress online with her exact measure
ments, have it delivered to Tandy, then get Griffin to bring it out the next time he came to check on her. But with the way her wedding plans had gone so far, she couldn’t help thinking that something bad would happen if she was forced to rely on such a process. Finding a dress waiting for her in the closet like this held so much more promise. She wanted to believe it was a gift from God.

  In one movement, she whisked the hanger off the window and whirled to change in the bedroom where there was one of those free-standing full-length mirrors that made everything feel more romantic. Marissa kicked off the cowboy boots, removed her outer clothing, then gingerly coerced the antique zipper down the back of the dress.

  Though the zipper moved stiffly, the lace slid through her fingers like it might melt at her touch. She stepped into the center and slid the under layer of silk up her body. The sheer sleeves fit over her shoulders like custom curtains and the wide V-neck exposed her collarbones in a graceful way. In fact, she’d never felt more graceful.

  The trick was to reach behind her to tug the zipper up and see if the cut still caressed her curves. The low V cut of the back made reaching the top of the zipper even easier than expected.

  She dropped her hands to her sides and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Stared at the gown that seemed to be designed just for her. Who else could have worn this dress? What was their story? Was it a sad one, and that was why it got left behind?

  More curiously, if finding a wedding dress could really be this simple, then why was the rest of her life so hard?

  She swished side to side, watching the lace graze against the lining. She turned to look over her shoulder at her back then fanned the oval train of lace around her for the kind of view wedding guests would get. Three pearl buttons glinted against her waistline. Could that be for cinching up the train during the reception?

  The lace was woven together widely enough that a button could be popped through anywhere she wanted to bustle it up. She hitched the skirt in a way that lace floated in a double layer to her ankles, which would be perfect for dancing.