“Time to get started,” she said to herself, her voice sounding loud in the empty building. “I’ve got some cookies to bake.”
By the time her friends and her mother arrived, she had two batches of cookies cooked to perfection and cooling on racks on the counter. She had started off simple with chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies, but the next few types that she planned on making would be a bit more complex. She was going to include cookie cups in her lineup, and those always took a bit longer to make. Plus, they would have to frost the sugar cookies and decorate them for the holiday. She was grateful for all of their help, but especially for Margie’s. Her neighbor was worth ten normal women when it came to baking, and Lilah would need all of the help that she could get today.
The preparations may have gone more smoothly if Lilah had been more comfortable delegating tasks to her family and friends, but she felt the need to check and double check everything on her own. She wanted things to be perfect today of all days, which meant that she was constantly dashing back and forth from the kitchen to the front room, switching gears between baking and setting up the displays. Val had brought a string of Christmas lights to make the shop look more festive, and by late morning, people were beginning to pause as they passed the front window and peer inside hungrily.
“Lilah, Reid just texted me — he didn’t want to interrupt you in case you were busy — and wanted to know if there’s anything you need him to bring,” Val said when Lilah came back into the kitchen to grab another tray of cookies to bring to the front.
“Um, I don’t think so…” she looked around wildly, trying to think of anything they might be lacking. “Water, maybe. Bottled water. I think we’re almost out.”
“I’ll let him know.”
Her friend hurried away. Lilah noticed her mother give her a sharp look. The older woman followed her into the front room.
“Who’s Reid?” she asked.
“He’s a friend,” Lilah said, carefully placing red velvet cookies on the display rack.
“Just a friend?”
“We went on a date,” she told her mother. “But just one.” She looked up to see her mother’s smiling face. “What?”
“Oh, I’m just happy. Your father and I worry about you, you know. All alone in this small town… and you’re getting older, you know. If you want to have kids, it’s going to have to be sooner rather than later.”
“Mom, it was one date,” Lilah said, biting back a sigh. This was why she never told the woman these sorts of things. If her parents had their way, she would have been married off right out of college, and would have two kids by now. She had tried telling her mother that starting a family in her thirties wasn’t exactly unheard of these days, but she never seemed to listen.
“Well, he seems like a nice guy. I hope you have a second date.”
“You don’t even know him!”
“He offered to buy you water,” her mother said over her shoulder as she returned to the kitchen. “That’s something.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
* * *
“It’s almost time,” Lilah said. She felt dizzy. She knew she was on the verge of hyperventilating, but she couldn’t help it. This was it. The clock was minutes away from striking noon. What in the world had she been thinking of when she decided to start her own business? How had she been crazy enough to go through with it?
“We’ll clear out of here,” Val said. “We’ll come in the front in a few minutes to make the store look busier. Maybe I’ll even be your first customer.”
“Don’t be silly, you don’t have to pay,” she told her friend.
“That’s a nice sentiment and all, but I don’t mine handing over a couple of dollars to help my best friend’s store.”
“But —”
Val held up a hand. “Don’t even try to argue. You buy stuff from me at the boutique all the time.”
There wasn’t anything she could come up with to refute her friend’s logic, so she shrugged. “Fine. You win. You might be my only customer, anyway. At least I’ll make one sale today.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” her mother chimed in. “You saw how many people were interested in the store this morning. I’m sure some of them will be back.”
“I put up your flyers at the library and in the recreation center at my church,” Margie said. “I know quite a few ladies from there are planning on coming. You’ll have plenty of customers today.”
“Yeah, all you have to do is convince them to come back,” Val said with a smile. “But that shouldn’t be hard, not after they try the cookies.”
Her friends and mother left, giving her a few minutes of peace and quiet in the kitchen before she went out front to unlock the doors and open the store up for her customers for the very first time. She was so overwhelmed that she didn’t even know what she was feeling. Excitement, terror, doubt, joy… all the emotions joined together in a mix that made her feel shaky and somewhat sick to her stomach.
“The Casual Cookie,” she said to the kitchen. “It’s not a dream anymore. This is real.” A glance at the clock showed her that it was time to go and open the doors.
***
“Thanks for coming to the Casual Cookie,” she said. “Have a nice day.”
Her fifth customer, an elderly woman who had paid in quarters, walked away clutching the paper bag with a double chocolate peppermint cookie inside. Lilah looked over the line of people waiting and grinned. She couldn’t have been happier with the turnout. The store had only been open for a few minutes, and she had already made five sales. She wondered when she would stop counting.
“Hi, can I have one of those Santa sugar cookies, and a snicker-doodle?” her next customer said. “Thanks.”
“Here you go. Thanks for shopping at the Casual Cookie. Have a nice day.”
“You, too. Hey, do you do deliveries? My daughter’s birthday is next month, and she’s never been a fan of cake. I don’t know anywhere else in town that makes homemade cookies. Could you do princess themed ones?”
“I can deliver after or before the store’s normal hours,” Lilah told the woman. “It’s just me working here for now, so I can’t go anywhere while the store is open. And I can make any type of cookies that you want.”
“Perfect.” The woman smiled at her. “I’ll be back later this week with an order. I’ve got to see what my daughter wants first.”
The next few hours passed in a blur. Val, Margie, and Lilah’s mother stopped in twice to see how she was doing and buy another couple of cookies. The Casual Cookie was hardly ever empty; the turnout was so much better than Lilah had expected that she began to wonder if she had made enough cookies for the day. She had made extra dough for the more popular flavors, but finding the time to run back and pop another batch in the oven could be problematic. If things kept going this well, then she would almost need to hire an employee just to keep things running smoothly.
“I’ll take a brownie cup cookie, please,” a man’s voice said. Lilah looked up from the case to see Reid standing there. He had stopped by briefly before the cookie shop had opened to drop off the bottled water, but this was the first time she had seen him since.
“Here you go,” she said. “And no, don’t pay me. I’m serious. I’m only accepting money from Val because she made me.”
“If you insist,” he said. “I’ll just put it towards our second date.” He raised an eyebrow.
Lilah hesitated, then smiled. She liked Reid. It shouldn’t matter that he didn’t match up perfectly to her ideal idea of what she wanted in a boyfriend. He was a good man, he obviously liked her, and, well, he was definitely good looking enough for the both of them. Maybe it was time to just go with it and see how things ended up. “All right, that sounds like a deal,” she said. “I’ll hold you to it.”
“I’ll stop in this evening before close and we can make plans,” he promised. “Thanks for the cookie. You’re doing wonderfully, Lilah. Keep up the good work.”
After Reid left, Lilah barely glanced at the clock again until the sun started to fall in the sky. She had decided to make the weekday hours noon to six, at least until she could quit her diner job and work at the Casual Cookie full time. There was only about an hour left to go this first day. Even though she had enjoyed the numerous sales immensely, she was beginning to get tired. It would feel good to close up and go home. She just hoped that the shop was as successful tomorrow as it had been today.
“Welcome to the Casual Cookie,” she said brightly when the front door swung open again. This time she recognized the woman who walked through the doors. “Oh, hi, Lydia. It’s nice of you to stop by.”
“Thanks.” The woman gave her a wan smile. “I needed a reason to get out of the house.”
The front door opened again. Lydia looked behind her and visibly paled when she saw who was coming in. “Sorry,” she said quickly, turning back to Lilah. “Do you have a bathroom I can use?”
“Right through there.”
“Thanks.”
Lilah turned her gaze to the man who had just come in; she recognized Officer Eldridge, one of only a small number of Vista police officers. He was staring after Lydia, his brow creased in a frown. Lilah was prepared to guess that he was having the exact same thought that she was; why on earth had Lydia Lopez fled at the sight of him?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
* * *
“Do you know her?” he asked in a low voice, leaning towards Lilah from across the counter.
“She’s a friend of a friend,” she said. “Is there something I can help you with?” She wasn’t quite sure whether she was asking about the cookies, or information about Lydia.
“I just came in to try one of your cookies and to introduce myself,” he said. His eyes narrowed slightly. “I get the feeling we’ve already met, though.”
“Yes. I’m Lilah Fallon.”
He seemed to recognize her name. She felt a sinking sensation. Ever since she had tried to help out with a murder case a few months ago, he had disliked her. She hoped that it wouldn’t affect her business at all. Hopefully they could both remain professional.
“Well, if you ever need anything, the police department is only a couple of blocks away,” he said. “We like to let all of the small business owners know that we’ve got their backs.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I hope I never need you, but it’s good to know that you’re there.”
He nodded and turned to leave.
“Wait,” she said. “Didn’t you want a cookie?”
“I think I’ll pass.”
With that, he was gone, leaving Lilah confused and a bit hurt. She had hoped that he might be over his annoyance with her by now, but it seemed that it wasn’t so. She tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter. She had other things to worry about right now, like Lydia. Why had she acted so strangely when Officer Eldridge came in? Was it just coincidence? Lilah knew that grief could make people act strangely, but the thought of the woman’s comment about her husband’s life insurance kept coming back to her mind. Was she a suspect in the murder case? Was that why she hadn’t wanted to be around the policeman? Lilah knew that she wouldn’t get any answers until Lydia came out.
When the widow didn’t make an appearance for nearly twenty more minutes, Lilah began to get worried. It was nearly time to close for the day, and she needed to start cleaning up. She knocked softly on the bathroom door during a lull in business, and could barely make out the other woman’s reply.
“What?”
“Lydia, it’s Lilah,” she said. “Is everything all right in there?”
“Is that man gone?”
“Officer Eldridge? Yes, he left a while ago.”
The bathroom door creaked slowly open. Lydia peered out. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her makeup was running.
“Are you okay?” Lilah asked.
“I’m fine.” The other woman sniffled, then gave a sad laugh. “Well, I’m obviously not fine. I’m sorry. I know I’m a mess. I just wasn’t expecting to see him walk in.”
“Is there some reason that the two of you don’t get along?” She was trying to be tactful; she doubted Lydia would appreciate being asked outright if she was a suspect in her husband’s murder case.
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that he’s the officer who first showed up when — when they found John.” She took a shuddering breath. “He’s the one who told me. Every time I see him, I just flash back to the moment when he told me my husband was dead.”
“Oh.” Lilah didn’t know what to say to that. She felt horrible for the poor woman, but she had no idea how to express it. She was sure Lydia had already heard all of the “I’m sorry’s” that she would ever want to hear. “Do you want to sit down in the kitchen and have a cookie?” she said instead. “I have quite a few leftover from today. They were all made fresh this morning.”
“Th-thank you. That sounds wonderful,” the other woman said.
As Lilah cleaned, she kept an eye on Lydia. She seemed to be doing all right. At least she wasn’t crying anymore. That was always an improvement.
As the clock ticked closer to closing time, fewer and fewer customers came through the door. All in all, she was satisfied with how the day had gone. It had been more successful than she had dared to hope. If things kept going this well, she would be able to quit at the diner in no time.
She felt a small pang at the thought of leaving the place for good. While she didn’t like coming home smelling like burgers and onions every day, the job had a lot of perks. She liked everyone else that worked there, and knew all the regular customers by name. She could list off their menu in her sleep, and thought she could probably find her way around that kitchen even if she was blind. One of the things that she would miss most would be the flexibility of the job. At the diner, if she had to take a sick day or wanted to switch shifts with someone, it usually wasn’t a problem. Here at the Casual Cookie, she would be her own boss, but she also wouldn’t have anyone to cover for her if she got sick.
Deciding to worry about things like hiring an employee later, Lilah pushed her worries to the side and tried to focus instead on the fact that the Casual Cookie looked like it was going to be a success. She felt triumphant, and knew that she would probably feel even better tomorrow after catching up on her sleep.
Just minutes before closing, the front door swung open to admit what she hoped would be her last customer of the day. She smiled tiredly and looked up to see Chris Burk standing in the doorway, wearing a Christmas tree sweater and a grin.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
* * *
“Welcome to the Casual Cookie,” Lilah said. “What can I get you?”
“Oh, let’s see… how about a couple of those sugar cookies, a few gingerbread men, and one of those festive chocolate chip cookies.” He chuckled. “We keep running into each other, don’t we? Funny how that works.”
He looked around the store while she packed up his order. He seemed as cheerful as ever. She realized that the lights on the Christmas tree on his sweater actually lit up. She wondered what in the world he did during the eleven months each year when it wasn’t December. He seemed like a man who existed purely for the holidays.
“Here you go,” she said, handing him the bag. “Will you be paying with cash or card?”
“Cash.”
She opened the register and counter out his change. As she was dropping the coins in his hand, Lydia came out of the kitchen.
“Thanks for letting me take some time to…” She trailed off as her gaze fell on the man on the other side of the counter. “Chris. Hi.”
“Ms. Lopez.”
Lilah was surprised at how cold his voice was. She had already grown used to his perpetually cheery way of speaking.
“That’s it?” Lydia said. She sounded angry; another shock for Lilah. The cookie shop owner turned to look at her, wondering what was going on. “This is the third time I’ve seen you since the accident. You haven’t mention
ed John once. He was your neighbor. Would it be too much to expect some condolences? I know you never liked him, but this is just going too far.”
“I’d say sorry if I meant it,” Chris said. “But I’m not. You’re better off without that guy anyway. We all are.”
Crunchy Christmas Murder: Killer Cookie Cozy Mysteries, Book 4 Page 6
