Trifle and Trouble (No-Bake Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

by Ramona Ransom

  Trifle and Trouble

  No-Bake Cozy Mysteries, Book 2

  Ramona Ransom

  Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Copyright 2021 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Also by Ramona Ransom

  Author’s Note

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Chapter One

  Nessa admired how swiftly her grandfather moved throughout the bakery. He’d owned Crumbs and Confections for longer than she’d been alive, so it was safe to say that his experience far outweighed hers. Every day since she’d arrived back in Lake Wilawalo and decided to officially take over the bakery with his help, she’d carefully watched him to see what she could learn. She knew she was lucky as it wasn’t every day that inheriting a business she knew next to nothing about also meant she had a built-in mentor to help her navigate the future.

  Having spent the morning rushing around like mad and trying to get several to-go orders packaged, Nessa remembered just how new to this lifestyle she was. Back in Granger, Connecticut, her hometown, she’d worked as a Senior Financial Advisor, and the most exciting thing was when someone with a large bank account and little knowledge of how money worked needed her help. Going from that life to an almost constantly busy bakery was already taking a toll on her. Sure, she’d manage the long shifts, but getting up at three o’clock in the morning might just kill her. There was no good reason for someone to wake up before the sun, except, of course, she now owned a bakery and had to make the donuts both literally and figuratively. For her, it wasn’t so much of a complaint as a habit that was going to take some serious getting used to.

  “Grandpa, have you seen the… Oh, wait. Never mind. I found them,” Nessa said, rolling her eyes at herself as she picked up a stack of the pale yellow liners. She pulled each of the trays out from the display case and placed a liner inside each of them, taking extra care that there were no wrinkles in the paper. She didn’t know how many customers would actually pay attention to wrinkly paper, but she was sparing no expense when it came to all of the small details. Everything had to be just right. She lived in too small of a town to take anything less than perfect care in every aspect of the bakery. She may have spent every summer of her childhood in Lake Wilawalo and knew many kind and wonderful people, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t eyes waiting for her to mess something up. People were watching her, seeing how she handled taking over Crumbs and Confections and seeing how well she’d do. Her grandmother, Maude, was well-loved in town by everyone, and Nessa wanted to live up to that.

  “Everything okay?” Lex asked, joining his granddaughter where she stood behind the counter. He tapped away at the register until it opened.

  “I’m good, but I probably need more coffee. And then more coffee after that.”

  “I’ll brew a fresh pot since I think we’ve already gone through the first one. I guess I needed a little boost this morning, myself.” He chuckled and lifted the till, setting it beside the register. “I’ve got an invoice for Judson in here somewhere.” He sifted through the papers and passed her one. “Can you give it to him when you see him, please?”

  “Of course, but I have a few questions.” Nessa grinned as she tucked the invoice into her apron pocket. “Who’s Judson, and what’s the invoice for? I only ask what it’s for in case he wants to talk about it or something. I’d hate to look too clueless.”

  “Judson Snyder. You must remember him. He used to come in here with his parents every Saturday morning,” Lex answered, closing the register and looking over Nessa’s handiwork on the display case.

  “Vaguely.”

  “He’s the mayor of Lake Wilawalo now and has a weekly standing order. It’s never the same, so there won’t be much to discuss. Every week, he comes in and picks up a few variety boxes and brings them back to his office for his staff. He never asks what’s inside the boxes or requests anything specific, so I just pack different things up each week, and that’s that.”

  “Well, alright, then. That seems easy enough to remember,” Nessa said. “Can you think of anything I’m missing?” She looked around the bakery, not seeing anything left to do before opening.

  “Just that cup of coffee,” Lex joked.

  “Yes,” she breathed. “I’m definitely missing that. I have no idea how you get up so early every day without needing a nap halfway through the day.”

  “You’ll get used it to after a while and find that it’s a lot easier once it becomes a habit. Plus, everything here closes early, so there isn’t much to do after dinner time. You won’t be out on the town half the night, struggling to get up the next morning.”

  Nessa hadn’t taken that into consideration. Her grandfather was right. Mostly everything in town closed between five and six every night with the exception of The Shack, a restaurant near the water. It wasn’t as though she was much of a partier or lover of the nightlife back in Granger, but at the same time, having things close so early would take some adjustment on her part. She’d have to learn to get everything she could possibly need before she went home for the day. That meant no more midnight cravings for ice cream. If nothing was open, she was out of luck until the next morning. Not that ice cream for breakfast sounded all that bad.

  “If you say so. I think I’m going to need to invest in an espresso machine so I can have a couple of shots before I leave the house in the morning. That might be the kick in the pants I need.” She yawned and walked over to the door to unlock it. “Officially open for business.”

  “I’ll get that coffee going. I’m sure you aren’t the only one who needs it,” Lex said, taking a few steps over to the coffee machine. He dabbled around a bit, getting it started, and looked up, surprised to see a customer already coming through the door. “Well, hello, Susie. Nice to see your bright and sunshiny face so early in the morning. Do you remember my granddaughter, Nessa?”

  “I do! It’s so great to see you. I heard you were taking over the bakery, but I must admit I’m surprised to see you already at it,” Susie said, taking a seat at a table for two.

  “I’ve still got to get home and pack up my things, but I have enough here with me to get by for a little while longer. It’s nice to see you, Susie. Would you care for some coffee?” Nessa asked.

  “I’d love some. If you have a cheese danish, I’d love one of those, too.” She smiled, but the look didn’t reach her eyes.

  “I was just about to get the case filled. I’ll make sure the danish are the first things I grab.” Lex dashed off toward the back, returning quickly. “Here you go. Fresh out of the oven.”

  Normally, they had the case full before the first customer of the day arrived, but Lex had spent the majority of his morning making sure
Nessa knew all of the smaller details of the opening process. After all, she’d be on her own soon enough.

  “Thanks, Lex,” she said just as Nessa brought her a cup of coffee. “Any cream or sugar?”

  “Just black is fine,” Susie said, taking her first sip and closing her eyes, enjoying the taste.

  Nessa and Lex left Susie to enjoy her breakfast, but Nessa noticed Susie watching them. “Is everything okay?” she asked. She knew that when a customer started watching her, it usually meant they wanted her attention.

  “I was hoping I could ask for a favor,” she said slowly, waiting for both of them to come back to her table.

  “Anything for you,” Lex said, his brows furrowed.

  “As you know, The Lunch Bunch has been meeting at The Shack for several months. I’m afraid there may have been a little hiccup between Ellen and the staff there, so I was wondering, if they don’t allow us back, maybe we could have our meetings here?”

  Nessa didn’t know what a Lunch Bunch was or who Ellen was, so she looked to her grandfather for an answer.

  “You meet weekly, right?” he asked.

  “We do. Every Wednesday. We eat lunch first, and then we play our games.” She looked around the bakery. “I know it’s a big ask since there’s much less room here than at The Shack. We’d likely all but take up the entire place. But like I said, it’s not a sure thing yet. No one has banished us from The Shack, but knowing how Ellen reacts to things, it’s certainly possible. I want to get ahead of any issues that might arise.”

  “I’ll talk with Nessa about it, and once you know what’s going on with things, you can give me a call. How’s that sound?” Lex asked.

  “I’d appreciate that. I think you’ll find that we are great customers, and we tip well.” She winked. “I’d hate to cause too much trouble or uproot anything else you all have going on, but it’d mean a lot if I could go back to the group with good news.”

  Once he got his answer, he was off to the back faster than Nessa had ever seen him move away from a customer. Usually, unless he was extra busy in the kitchen, he loved to sit and chat with everyone. She knew first-hand that everything for the day was baked and ready to go, so he couldn’t have needed to get away quickly for that reason. Susie had always seemed like a nice enough woman, so she couldn’t imagine why he’d acted the way he had.

  Chapter Two

  Hearing her grandfather’s truck pull into the driveway, Nessa stopped scrolling the Internet. After the bakery had closed for the day, she went right home to look for a place to live while he ran some errands. She knew she didn’t have to leave his house, but she wanted a place of her own. If she was going to have a life in Lake Wilawalo, it was important that she started things off right.

  “Hey, kid. What’re you up to?” Lex asked, seeing her sprawled out on the couch with her laptop on her lap and her feet on the ottoman in front of her. She had a bag of chips at her side since snacking always helped make things easier.

  “Looking at the online version of the Wilawalo Weekly. I thought I might find something for sale there that I hadn’t seen elsewhere. How did running errands go? Do you need my help getting anything into the house?”

  “I didn’t buy anything. I stopped off at The Shack to see what Ellen had gotten herself into and why Susie wanted to use the bakery as a backup option for her crew.”

  Nessa closed her laptop, setting it on the coffee table, and scooted over so her grandfather could sit. “Aaaand,” she drawled. “What did you find out?” She’d been waiting for this.

  Lex shook his head, knowing how much Nessa loved to hear the wacky stories of the locals. “Ellen is the leader of The Lunch Bunch, and her leadership skills are more ‘do what I say right now, or get out of the way’, than anything else. The only problem is, she thinks that means she has the right to boss around the staff at The Shack. From what Daniel told me, she comes in there thinking she has weight to throw around. They meet on Wednesdays, and she comes in every Monday and Tuesday to remind the waitresses how to set up the tables, tells the chef how to cook the food, and she even threatened the entire staff yesterday, saying that if they dared to make a mistake, she’d make it her life’s mission to ruin them all.”

  “What a nut. Why would she do that? It’s not like they don’t do their jobs the same way every day. You’d think she’d trust them to do it right or pick another place to meet. What kind of person keeps going back to a place they aren’t happy with. A glutton for punishment, if you ask me,” she said, answering her own question.

  “That’s the thing. No one else wants to deal with her,” Lex explained. “It’s a shame, but it’s the truth.”

  “Then why did you act like you might consider it when Susie came in earlier?” Nessa asked, worried that this Ellen person was going to cause her trouble at the bakery. “We don’t want to have to worry about that sort of thing, do we?” She knew any business was good business, but if there were known issues already, why invite them in?

  “You notice that I didn’t say yes to her. I simply told her to come back when she knew for sure they needed a place. The reason they meet at The Shack is because the owner lost a bet with the owner of Extra Fries, the burger joint down in Southport. Ellen’s group used to meet there, but she was such a hassle that in one of their poker games, the business owners put her up. Jay from Extra Fries won against Carl from The Shack, so now Carl is responsible for Ellen’s nonsense. I’d say I felt bad for her being pawned off like that, but truthfully, I’m just glad it’s not me who has to deal with her.”

  “Wait. You’re saying that everyone dislikes having this woman around so much that they used her as a bet in a poker game? What did Jay tell her was the reason she couldn’t meet there anymore?” Nessa asked, barely able to believe the ridiculousness that came with this woman.

  “It actually couldn’t have worked out better for him. Ellen moved to Lake Wilawalo, and since most of The Lunch Bunch ladies live here already, it was closer for them to meet here. I think Jay made out like a bandit.”

  “Yeah, but poor Carl.”

  “You’d think that, but it’s more like his poor staff. Carl hasn’t worked at The Shack in months. He put Daniel in charge.”

  “Oh, gosh. Poor Daniel, then.” Nessa laughed. It wasn’t funny because Ellen sounded horrid, but she couldn’t get over how everything had played out. She could only hope that no one ever thought of her so poorly that they’d offer her up in a poker game.

  “And poor us if he kicks her out. I’d hate to say no and put a mark on our back. Who knows what Ellen is capable of,” Lex worried, sneaking a chip from the bag between them.

  “What a mess,” Nessa said. “On another, more positive note, I found a few houses I like.”

  “Oh? Let’s see.”

  Nessa opened up her laptop again and found the listings she’d saved. “I like this one because it reminds me of your house. Not too big, not too small, and check out those built-in bookshelves!”

  Lex looked at the pictures as Nessa scrolled through them.

  “What about the one on the lake you used to love so much? I know it’s for sale,” he said.

  “I have a meeting to see it the day after tomorrow. I’m hopeful, but I’m not going to choose the first thing I see. I want to make an informed decision, even if that means I don’t get a place I love.”

  “That’s very smart. Do you have the pictures for that one here, too?” he asked, pressing buttons on the laptop.

  She snatched it away when he somehow managed to open up her word processing software. “No touching,” she joked. “You’ll end up buying a house if you aren’t careful.”

  Nessa looked for the listing he was talking about. The house was stunning in almost every way. It had a large yard with an in-ground swimming pool, an attached two-car garage, a wrap-around porch, and a smaller in-law apartment in the back. The inside of the home needed work, which was one of the few things stopping her from putting an offer in right away. It wasn’t that she
couldn’t afford the house and the repairs at the same time. She could since the price wasn’t all that bad, to begin with, but she didn’t know how much interest she had in dealing with renovations on top of learning how to run a bakery. There was only so much one person could handle before they had to put something on the back burner. If she could prevent that in any way, she would.

  She showed him the pictures of the house on the lake, seeing his eyes light up. “It really is beautiful.”

  “It is. Do you want to come with me to look at it?” she asked.

  “I wish. Faye is working at Shelfies all week, so she won’t be able to help out at the bakery. We’re on our own until we find a helper.”

  “I can always postpone the meeting. I don’t want to leave you alone at work.”

  “Don’t be silly. I’ve done it before, and I’ll probably do it again.”

  Shelfies was the local, Internet famous bookstore that Nessa couldn’t wait to visit. Maybe after she looked at the house, she’d stop over to visit with Faye. Not only did she love the older woman, but being able to take a selfie at Shelfies was on her guilty pleasure bucket list. She didn’t have much of a following on social media, but either way, she wanted to take part in the fun. People loved Shelfies, and maybe she’d get the bakery more business with her photo. Nessa was so glad to have the chance to be so close with Faye as she was her grandmother’s very best friend. They’d done nearly everything together up until Maude passed. Nessa missed her grandmother but was thankful to have the opportunity to be around everything that Maude had held so close to her heart.