by Carol Durand
Cheryl shook her head, not meeting Missy’s eyes. “No, he doesn’t. Well, hey, sorry to bother you with all of this, I need to get up front so that we can open,” she said, fleeing the kitchen to end the conversation.
The young manager avoided her boss for the rest of the day, making sure to take her lunch break when Missy came back from deliveries, leaving Grayson to pull cupcakes out of the ovens and frost while Missy manned the front counter.
The bell above the door jangled as Missy’s favorite group of ladies came in, talking a mile a minute, as usual. The Books and Burgundies book club got together for coffee and cupcakes every Tuesday at the LaChance location, and had invited Missy multiple times to join their little group. She had the book list and read the selections of the week, but couldn’t often take the time to go and socialize at their Thursday night meetings.
She greeted the group’s ringleader, Sally Higgins, set out five coffee cups at their favorite table, and headed to the display case for five Cupcakes of the Day.
“Hey darlin, we’re going to need another place setting today,” Sally leaned over the counter with a smile. “There’s a new gal joining us – Samantha Lemmon, do you know her?”
Missy shook her head, grabbing another cup and cupcake. The Cupcake of the Day was inspired by Simon’s chocolate and ginger creation, and she thought the ladies would really like it.
“She’s a nurse over at the hospital, a real sweet gal that Marsha met when she did the fundraiser for the cancer wing,” Sally continued. “Everyone loves her. I’ll make sure I introduce the two of you when she comes in,” she promised.
“I’ll look forward to meeting her,” Missy smiled, carrying the cupcakes out on a tray. She really admired the way the women in this group cared about each other and were involved in each other’s lives. She met Samantha Lemmon when she breezed in a few minutes later on her break, still wearing scrubs, and found her to be as delightful as Sally had described. With the book club taken care of and cackling merrily, Missy took off her frilled apron, turned over the store to Grayson, who was done frosting the latest batch of cupcakes, and headed for the Dellville store.
Chapter 15
“I’m really beginning to worry about Ben and Cheryl,” Missy confided over Chas’s spectacular Fettuccini Alfredo.
“They’re young, they love each other, they’ll figure it out,” the handsome detective said with a slight shrug as he wound tender pasta around his fork.
“I sure hope so,” Missy frowned, tearing the end off of a buttery breadstick. “I don’t know that I was ever as young an idealistic as Cheryl seems to be right now. That girl has her head in the clouds.”
“Your life had a different focus,” Chas reminded her gently. “First you worked in your family’s business, and then when your parents’ accident turned your life upside down, you had to take it over. There wasn’t really an opportunity to dream about what could be when you were consumed with staying afloat.”
“True. And then there’s the reality that I was already doing what I had dreamed about. I had the joy of baking for a living and being a part of people’s special occasions and celebrations. Still do,” she smiled, thankful.
“Speaking of special occasions, has Mayor Felton tried to bully you into planning anymore weddings?” he teased.
“Thankfully, no,” Missy crossed her fingers and held them up. She had planned Ben and Cheryl’s wedding, which had turned out beautifully, because neither of them had any family to speak of, and ever since, the Mayor had been sending hopeful couples her way, despite her protests that she wasn’t a wedding planner.
“Maybe you should seek out some wedding clients, it’d be good practice,” his blue eyes sparkled wickedly.
“Practice? Practice for what?” Missy asked, savoring a sumptuous bite of fettuccini.
“…For whatever might come up,” the detective replied mysteriously, avoiding her gaze, then changing the subject. “Speaking of practice, the Junior High baseball season starts up soon, so I’ll be coaching at practice three nights a week.” Chas had inherited a massive fortune when his father passed away the previous year, and one of his charitable endeavors had been to sponsor and coach in the baseball program for Junior High aged players.
“Oh, how fun! What nights will you be coaching?” she asked, sipping her wine. The thought of Chas working with kids warmed her heart, and the vision of him in athletic wear made it skip a beat.
“Tuesday through Thursday,” he replied, entirely unaware of his dinner companion’s wayward thoughts. One of the most compelling things about Chas Beckett was his complete cluelessness about just how attractive he actually was. He had it all, looks, intelligence, wit and compassion, and had no idea.
“Oh, that’s perfect. Since I won’t be seeing you on those nights, I can plan on attending book club,” Missy was excited. It wasn’t that being with Chas had kept her from participating in the ladies group, but when she came home at the end of the day and had to choose between getting freshened up and heading out of the house vs. snuggling up with Mr. Tall-dark-and-handsome, she usually chose the latter.
“I heard from Fernandez in LA earlier today. They finally caught up with Penny Mathers, who, as it turns out, was a pretty vicious character. The apprehended her trying to cross the border into Mexico. She has several aliases and a trail of bodies behind her that make most serial killers look tame,” he said grimly.
Missy’s eyes widened and she shuddered, remembering that she had shared living quarters with the woman. “That’s awful,” she shook her head. “What was her motivation?”
“Money. Always money. She did whatever she had to in order to finance a pretty luxurious lifestyle. She had several different innocent-looking disguises to throw people off. When I think of how close you came to…” Chas didn’t finish his sentence, shaking his head. He took Missy’s hand across the table, gazing into her eyes. “Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?” he asked softly, bringing her hand to his lips.
“Yes, but I’d love to hear more about it,” Missy grinned, biting her lower lip shyly.
Chapter 16
Missy was so glad to fall back into her normal routine upon returning home to Louisiana. There was nothing better than starting the day with a brisk romp in the park, accompanied by her favorite furry companions. Toffee and Bitsy had been well taken care of in her absence, Chas was a devoted fan of the girls, but Missy had missed them terribly and had been giving them extra love and attention since her return. The trio played fetch for nearly an hour before heading home, and when they trotted up the steps to the house, Missy was out of breath and looking forward to a shower.
After showering and getting ready for the day, the cupcake artist had just sat down to enjoy coffee and a bowl of yogurt mixed with granola when the text tone on her phone chimed.
“Hey girl – you might want to stop by my house this morning,” her friend Echo had texted, leaving her wondering what was up.
“Will do!” she texted back, feeling a bit unsettled. One thing that she loved about Echo is that she was always very direct - so direct, in fact, that sometimes her seeming lack of filters rubbed folks the wrong way, but Missy loved bold honesty, which was probably part of the reason that the two of them got along so well. For her friend to send an obscure message like this one was an unusual thing, so she hurried through the rest of her breakfast, made sure the dogs had plenty of food and water, poured her coffee in a to-go cup and headed for Echo’s charming bungalow.
Echo opened the door after Missy knocked softly, giving her a strange look and leading her to the kitchen in the back part of the house, where Cheryl sat, her head in her hands.
“Cheryl?” Missy asked, wondering what was going on.
“Oh, Ms. G…Ben and I are separated,” she moaned, her eyes puffy from crying.
Missy was astounded. “What? Why?” she exclaimed pulling up a chair next to the miserable girl.
“We had another fight, and Ben accused me of caring more a
bout trying to become an actress than participating in our relationship, and I told him he was being selfish and we both got very angry, and…” Cheryl suddenly looked panicked, jumped up from the table and sprinted to Echo’s main floor powder room. The gut-wrenching sounds of her losing her breakfast reached their ears and Echo turned on the radio to give the poor girl some privacy.
“Wow, she’s really upset,” Missy observed sadly.
“For sure,” her friend nodded. “She came to the door late last night, asking if she could stay. There was no way in the world that I was going to say no, so I set her up in the guest room, poor creature. She can’t sleep, won’t eat. The most that I’ve been able to get her to do is to sip tea while we talk. She cries all the time, but refuses to budge when I suggest that she talk to her husband,” Echo whispered, bringing Missy up to speed.
“I think I’m going to have a talk with Ben,” Missy replied. “Because, honestly, I don’t like to choose sides, but it certainly seems like he’s being the level-headed one in this scenario.”
“I agree,” her friend nodded, falling silent when Cheryl dragged herself back into the kitchen looking pale.
“Honey, you need to have some tea to settle your stomach and then get a bite to eat,” Missy counseled the pitiful young woman who slumped in the chair next to her.
“I can’t,” she murmured. “Every time I think about this, I just get sick to my stomach,” she put her hands over her midsection miserably.
“Well, try to relax, okay? Get some rest. I’m going to run over to Crème de la Cupcake and pick up something and we can talk when I get back, alright?”
“You’re not going to go talk to Ben are you?” Cheryl asked, her lower lip trembling.
“Of course I am. Would you expect anything less?” Missy challenged.
“My mind is made up,” she muttered sullenly.
Missy let that go, gave her a big hug, and headed for the door. “Watch her,” she mouthed silently to Echo on the way out. Her friend nodded and gave her a thumbs up, closing the door behind her.
**
“She’s being entirely unreasonable,” Ben complained when Missy sat down with him at one of the tables in the eating area. “I’ve never seen her like this. She’s always so practical and mature, and lately it’s just like she’s gone off the deep end or something. Her reasoning makes no sense and she refuses to see things from my perspective. I don’t know what on earth is causing this, but she certainly hasn’t been herself and I don’t know what to do about it,” he shook his head sadly.
Missy’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Ben, honey, how long has this been going on?” she asked.
“It’s been nearly two months. She didn’t say anything immediately after the Hollywood people left town, it was a few weeks after that when she started talking about it,” he explained.
A huge grin spread slowly across Missy’s face.
“What?” Ben asked, eyeing her strange reaction suspiciously.
“I’ll be right back, sugar, you just take care of things here,” she replied, grabbing her bag of cupcakes and dashing to the door, leaving a startled and puzzled Ben staring after her as though she’d lost her mind.
Stopping at the drug store on the way back to Echo’s, Missy thought that she might have an idea that would explain Ben and Cheryl’s entire disagreement.
**
Ben Radigan cleared the coffee cups that he and his boss had used when she stopped by, wondering what on earth had possessed her to dash out of the shop in the way that she had. Shrugging it off and thinking that just about every woman he knew was acting strangely, he tidied up the eating area, took a batch of cupcakes out of the oven to cool, and packaged up an order for a children’s party.
Hearing the front door bell jangle, he came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel, his apron covered in flour, to see his beloved wife standing in the eating area with tears streaming down her lovely face, with Missy and Echo beaming behind her.
“Umm…everything okay?” he asked, confused.
Cheryl ran to him and threw her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest and not caring that she was getting covered in flour. “Oh Ben, I’m so sorry. I’ve just been awful and I had no idea, and I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and there’s no way that I’m going to go to New York or Los Angeles or anywhere else without you,” she babbled, tears flowing freely.
“Hey,” he raised her chin, making her look up with him. “I love you, it’s okay,” he reassured her, enveloping her in a warm hug. “But, what made you change your mind?” he asked, wondering how Missy and Echo had been able to talk some sense into her so quickly.
Reaching into her purse, she extracted a baggie that contained a beige plastic stick of some sort, and handed it to him. “This,” she said, pointing out the pink plus sign on the stick. “You’re going to be a daddy,” her face flooded with joy as Ben’s mouth hung open. Tears welled in his eyes as he crushed his beloved wife protectively to him.
“That explains a lot,” he chuckled through his tears as Missy and Echo moved forward for a group hug.
Missy grinned from ear to ear. She was home, she was safe, and she was about to become a godmother – could life be any better?
A letter from the Author
To each and every one of my Amazing readers: I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think by leaving a review!
I’ll be releasing another installment in two weeks so to stay in the loop (and to get free books and other fancy stuff) Join my Book club.
Stay Curious,
Carol Durand
