2 Mayhem in Christmas River

by Meg Muldoon

  I guess that Nick had gotten his wish, in some twisted way.

  But that didn’t make me feel any better.

  It was still a tragedy. And the Reinharts weren’t the only ones suffering.

  It broke my heart to see Chrissy in so much pain. Nick had used her to help make his cover more believable. She later told me that he’d been mooching off of her for months. But that it didn’t matter to her at the time because she loved him.

  I could tell she was shattered by everything that had happened.

  I told her that she could take whatever time she needed off. She thanked me, and I hadn’t seen her in a week. I had a hunch that she might not be back. Too many memories in this shop most likely. She’d probably find another job elsewhere, or maybe she’d even leave town. Maybe going to a big city would help her forget about everything.

  I hoped she would be able to come to terms with all of it one day.

  In the meantime, though, it was back to the way things used to be. Just me running the shop with no one else to help.

  And maybe that would be okay for a little bit. It would be a lot of work, but I didn’t mind.

  I didn’t want to have too much time for thinking anyways.

  Things still weren’t right between Daniel and me. You’d think a big event like almost getting incinerated might have brought us closer together, but things were still strained. We hadn’t talked all that much since the fires. He said he’d been busy with the mounds of paper work that four arsons created, but I wondered if there was more to it.

  I wondered if he was avoiding me.

  And whether or not there was a big talk coming up in our future.

  I rubbed my face as a pit grew in my stomach.

  I would have to be strong, whatever ended up happening. That much I knew.

  There was a rap at the window and I looked up.

  I got up to open the door.

  Chapter 52

  I poured her a mug full of coffee and brought it out to the dining room.

  “I hope I’m not keeping you from your work,” she said.

  “Not at all,” I said, placing it in front of her.

  I dug my hands in my pockets and stood anxiously while Stephanie took a sip of the brew.

  “I just wanted to come in and say goodbye,” she said.

  Her eyes were bloodshot and her skin was looking pallid.

  “You’re leaving?” I said, sitting down across from her in the booth.

  “Nick’s being released from the hospital later today. They’re transferring him to the jail.”

  She looked out the window.

  “I’ve got to go home and get some more time off before I come back for the trial,” she said. “Mom would want to be here, too. I haven’t told her about any of this yet. I’m afraid of how she’ll take it.”

  “Have you been able to talk to him?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Dan took me to see him,” she said.

  I felt my back go rigid.

  “Nick will be okay. Physically. But mentally…” she trailed off. “Mentally he’s not. I keep thinking that I could have done something. If I’d paid more attention to him these past few years, I would’ve seen that he wasn’t well before any of this happened.”

  She played with the handle of her mug nervously.

  “If I’d only seen the signs.”

  There was a long silence.

  “People can hide so easily,” I finally said. “They can hide right in front of you. Carson… I mean, Nick, fooled me too. He seemed like a good guy to me. He could always make me laugh.”

  I saw a faint smile spread across her face.

  “That was always one of my favorite things about him,” she said. “His humor.”

  But then she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and looked down at her coffee mug

  “I still should have known.”

  “How could you have?” I said.

  She didn’t answer for a few moments.

  “Well, it doesn’t really matter now, does it?” she finally said. “What’s done is done, and there’s no undoing it. He’s going to have to face the consequences. All of us will.”

  She had a tired, defeated look in her eyes.

  “Have you talked to Ronald… I mean, your dad?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “That man doesn’t deserve my conversation,” she said. “I’ve always felt that way. But Nick was too young when he left. It hurt him too deep.”

  I didn’t know what more to say. She’d come to the end of her search and had found nothing but heartache and pain.

  “Listen, if you ever need anything, you know, when you come back for the trial? A place to stay… or some pie, just let me know, okay? Don’t hesitate.”

  Part of me was surprised at the words coming out of my mouth.

  This was the woman, after all, who’d gone after Daniel the same night I’d invited her into my home and cooked her dinner.

  There was no excusing that.

  But I knew deep down that she wasn’t a bad person. She couldn’t have been if she was a friend of Daniel’s. And despite her advances toward him, I didn’t think she meant it maliciously.

  I found it easier than I thought it would be to forgive her and let it all go.

  “That’s very sweet of you,” she said. “But you’ve been so kind to me already.”

  “It’s nothing,” I said.

  She finished the last of her coffee and stood up, grabbing her brown leather purse from the booth.

  “Did… did Dan tell you about when he drove me home from your house?” she asked, her eyes downcast.

  “He might have mentioned something.”

  She rubbed her face.

  “God. I’m sorry about that. You must think I’m horrible,” she said. “I had too much to drink that night. I really shouldn’t drink so much. That was really rude of me.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “I just… Dan was always the one who got away, you know?” she said. “Sometimes I still find myself thinking about what could have been between us. I should have…”

  She trailed off.

  “Well, it’s too late now anyway,” she said, forcing a smile. “Things change.”

  She threw the strap of her bag over her shoulder and straightened out her faded jeans.

  “That’s a good man you have, Cinnamon,” she said. “There aren’t too many like him.”

  I smiled sadly.

  “I know,” I said.

  She squeezed my arm.

  “You take care of yourself. Make sure to take care of him, too.”

  She smiled weakly and then left through the front door.

  Chapter 53

  I closed the shop early that day.

  The sun was still high in the sky when I strolled over to the Humane Society. But there was a lovely cool breeze blowing through downtown, rustling through the birch trees lining Main Street.

  Since the heat wave had lifted, it felt like the whole town was breathing a sigh of relief.

  I walked inside the beige and yellow office and said hi to the ladies at the front desk. Then I went in the back where the dogs were kept and led Mr. Crawley out of his cage.

  Unlike the last time I had walked him, the Shih Tzu actually seemed happy to see me. He licked my hand as I attached the leash to his collar. He had a pep in his step as we walked out through the office. When we got outside, he strolled primly and properly and didn’t once pull on the leash.

  Mr. Crawley was becoming my new favorite walking companion.

  We went through the woods to the footbridge that crossed The Christmas River. A couple of young kids on the bridge had fishing poles and were watching their lines bob up and down in the current.

  As I walked past them, they started hooting and yelling as the shorter one reeled in a small trout.

  I smiled quietly to myself.

  We walked a little ways longer before turning around and goi
ng back to the downtown area.

  Before heading back to the Humane Society, I stopped Mr. Crawley in front of a store.

  I could tell he wanted to keep going, but I made him sit and wait while I peered through the dusty window.

  The walls inside were a Miami Vice shade of salmon, and one of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling was flashing on and off in its death throes. There were plenty of tables and chairs, but all of them were empty. Nobody was behind the counter.

  The place was practically a ghost town.

  I looked up at the sign hanging above the storefront that read Wicked Pastry.

  I sighed.

  She’d wronged me. And she didn’t deserve my help.

  But sometimes when you hold onto hatred, it only ends up hurting you. That hate just festers deep down inside, bleeding out and poisoning everything it touches.

  That was what had happened with Nick Calder. He had never let go of the hatred he felt for his father, and it ruined him.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen with me.

  I couldn’t hold onto the hate I had for her any longer. I couldn’t afford to.

  Bailey and I were never going to be friends again. But I couldn’t turn my back on somebody who had asked me for help.

  That just wasn’t who I was.

  I decided to come back here later in the week.

  I pulled on the leash. I walked Mr. Crawley back to the Humane Society, feeling more like myself than I had in a long while.

  Chapter 54

  She pulled her sunglasses up as she slowly paced around the spacious room. Her rhinestone-studded sandals slapped the cherry hardwood floors.

  She had a look of intense concentration while she studied every nook and cranny.

  “I’m telling you, this storefront is a steal,” Barney Drutman, a real estate agent who dressed in shiny shoes and ill-fitting suits, said. “It’s in a prime spot, right on the main way. I wouldn’t be surprised if your business went up three-fold just based on location alone.”

  “Well, given that my current business is at zero, it wouldn’t take much to make me happy at this point,” Kara said.

  I looked out the window. A long line of cars snaked down Main Street. If I craned my neck far enough, I could see Cinnamon’s Pies.

  “Look how close you’d be to me,” I said. “You can bring me coffee every morning and get back before the next customer checks out.”

  “As if,” she said, smiling. “You’re supposed to bring me coffee, being as I’d be the new one on the block.”

  She bit the plastic end of her sunglasses and paced around a little more. Barney pulled at his tie a little bit.

  “The AC’s up and working in this place?” she asked.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  She turned the corners of her mouth down and shrugged like she wasn’t that impressed.

  “Hey, what do you say you give me and my friend here a minute to think it over?” she asked.

  “By all means,” he said, trying to sound suave. “Take all the time you need, ladies.”

  He stepped out the front door and made a phone call out on the sidewalk.

  “So?” I asked.

  She didn’t answer for a moment.

  “I’m not sure about this layout,” she said. “And there needs to be significant changes to the lights. It’s a horror show up there.”

  She paused.

  “But… these hardwood floors do sparkle beautifully. And the backroom has so much more space than the old shop. I could really expand my product line.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  She took one more tour of the room and then looked at me, nodding her head.

  “Yes,” she said. “This is it. Hands down.”

  She broke out into a delirious grin.

  I went over and gave her a big hug.

  “Kara, I’m so happy for you.”

  “Me too,” she said. “I mean, it won’t be the old shop, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I’d been thinking that I needed more room anyway.”

  “It’s going to be great. Even better than the old place,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Even better. I like the sound of that.”

  She let out a short breath.

  “Things are going to be okay, aren’t they, Cin?” she said.

  She said it as a statement, as a tried and true fact. And I could almost believe it when she said it like that.

  I forced a smile.

  “They always are.”

  She patted me on the back.

  “Now let’s see how much that Drutman fool can whittle this price down.”

  Chapter 55

  The next morning, I opened the door to the pie shop and was met by one wild, slobbering dog.

  Huckleberry came running up, his little nub wagging like he hadn’t seen me in weeks. I laughed and then got him some leftover cherry pie and placed it on the ground for him. He inhaled it, erasing any trace that it had ever been there.

  From the kitchen, I could hear the sound of clanging metal. I followed it and found Daniel hunched over the big unit attached to the window.

  He was wearing a white t-shirt, the one he usually wore under his collared deputy shirt, along with a pair of jeans and boots.

  I dug my hands into my pockets and walked over to him.

  I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

  This had been the first time I’d seen him in days.

  “Any luck?” I asked.

  He hit the air conditioner a couple of times and then a low hum started coming from it, followed by a gust of cold air.

  I went over and placed my fingers up to the grate. A current of icy wind blew past them.

  “You fixed it!,” I said. “I can’t believe it. They told me I’d have to get a new one.”

  “This should run for a little while longer,” he said. “It’ll get you through the summer, at least.”

  He straightened up and placed the wrench back in the tool box sitting on the kitchen island.

  “Thanks for doing that.”

  “I’m sorry I was late getting to it,” he said. “You probably don’t need it anymore with this cool weather we’ve been having.”

  “There’s still a lot of summer left,” I said.

  “Yeah. I guess there is.”

  He shuffled his feet nervously, and I felt a lump growing in my throat.

  This is what I’d been waiting for. The big talk.

  I’d known it was coming for a long time.

  All I could do now was put a brave face on and to try and not think too much about the pain that was headed my way.

  I took a deep breath.

  The silence lasted a little while longer. I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Daniel, I—”

  “No, wait a minute,” he said. “There’s something I want to say first.”

  I felt my legs go rubbery. I leaned against the counter for support.

  It was coming. Coming like a train from hell rumbling down a mountain slope. And there was no way to stop it.

  “Okay,” I said, solemnly.

  He took a deep breath.

  “You’re a hell of a hard woman to love, Cinnamon Peters,” he said. “You’re stubborn and you throw yourself in the path of danger without thinking how it’s going to affect the people who love you. You don’t listen to me. You’re paranoid. Really paranoid. And you make it so sometimes I don’t know what you want from me. I don’t know what you want out this relationship, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  My heart pounded hard in my chest.

  The train was about to derail.

  And all I could do was watch it all crash and burn.

  He paused, and I started to say something, but he interrupted me again.

  “But…” he trailed off, an angry expression on his face. “But dammit if I’m not a victim here. Because even after taking all of that into account, I don’t love you any less, Cinnamon. Somehow, and I don’t know why, I l
ove you even more.”

  If my legs were rubbery before, they were pudding now.

  I could hardly stand anymore.

  And then something happened.

  A feeling of utter happiness pinged through my body like a pinball. An outrageous, delirious joy that filled my heart until I thought it might burst.

  This wasn’t a break-up speech.

  He wasn’t going to leave me.

  “And if you don’t want to get married, then fine. I can live with that. But what I can’t live with is not being with you, Cin. And I know what that makes me, but I don’t care anymore. I’m yours. Through all of it and through whatever you want it to be. I’m your man.”

  I thought I heard the sound of firecrackers.

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  I couldn’t believe that I’d been so wrong about him.

  I couldn’t believe that little Cinnamon Peters, a baker in a small town practically in the middle of nowhere, had somehow been so lucky.

  I didn’t say anything for a moment while I tried to gather my thoughts. I could tell he was waiting for me to speak.

  “Well, that’s all I’ve come here to say,” he said, finally. “Take it or leave it. You know where I stand.”

  He grabbed his brown sheriff’s deputy shirt off the barstool and started putting it on.

  “I’m going to work.”

  He started to leave.

  I pulled at his sleeve.

  “Do you have to go in today?” I asked.

  His pale green eyes sent chills through me as they met mine. The way they had that first time he’d come out of the cold and ended up on the back deck of my shop.

  “Why?” he asked.

  I grabbed his cowboy hat from off the counter and handed it to him.

  “I feel like taking a hike today.”

  Chapter 56

  We finished off the rest of the rich and flavorful White Peach Mountain Blueberry Pie and sat lazing around in the tall grasses of the mountain meadow.

  Some new wildflowers had bloomed since the last time we’d been up here, and they filled the air with a sweet fragrance as a soft breeze ran its hands through their stems.

  Huckleberry was lying next to us, asleep. The summer sun gleaned off of his shiny black coat.