Jorja & Malcolm (Toffee Kisses Book 1)

by Shelley Siddall

  “Your dog is crazy, Aunty Betty.”

  “Napoleon has had a very rough day, haven’t you dear?” Betty Boothe said as Napoleon zipped by her.

  “How is that even possible, Aunty? He spends all day in your purse and all evening getting fed treats. If you want to talk about rough days, I had a rough day! Fourteen deliveries and not a one, not a one gave me a tip!”

  Betty Boothe held out a little biscuit for her little dog. “Jesse, I’ve told you before, you have to work on your customer service skills! Look at me! I’m the most successful realtor there is, for the old town site and why? My ability to schmooze with the client, no matter how demanding they might be!”

  Jesse smirked. “Aunty, you’re the only realtor for the old town site.”

  Napoleon had finally run out of steam and went and sat by his Mother and looked at her with such pleading eyes, that she picked him up and put him on her lap.

  “Oh you little rascal,” she said lovingly, “Did we wear ourselves out with the zippies?”

  The timer on the stove rang.

  “I’ll get it!” Jesse said. He walked to the kitchen and took the pizza out of the oven. “How many slices?” he called.

  “Two for me and one wittle one for Napoleon.”

  “Aunty, I am not serving a dog.”

  Betty put a little steel in her voice. “If you want to continue to stay here rent free, you will bring my dog something to eat!”

  In the kitchen, Jesse pulled a face as he cut a tiny triangle. He then sprinkled a hefty dose of salt and pepper on top.

  In the Clark kitchen, Jenny was adding two more plates and two more bowls to the table. Crawford clomped down the stairs from his studio and lifted the lid to the soup pot.

  “Borscht!” he said happily. He surveyed the rest of the meal. “And bean salad, and buns! Was it a B day, Jenny?” With that Crawford started singing “B, b, b, what begins with B?”

  Jenny laughed. “Well I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to make parker house rolls. I know, it’s silly to bake in this heat, but I had a craving. Then I thought, Crawford likes bean salad, I’ll make that. Then I had a bunch of beets from the garden and you know the rest.”

  “And the extra place settings?”

  “Oh, Jorja and Malcolm are next door looking at Darla’s house. Malcolm might buy it,” Jenny said raising her eyebrows.

  Crawford raised his in return. “Hmmm, I like the direction this is going,” he said. He suddenly grabbed the top of his head. “Oh my gosh, we could have our grandkids living right next door!” he said happily.

  Jenny tapped Crawford on the chest with a cork mat. “Cart,” she said firmly, then added, “And the horse is somewhere way behind you.”

  Just then Jorja and Malcolm walked in. Both were beaming from ear to ear. Jorja stood on her tip toes and Malcolm bent down and gave her a kiss.

  Jenny looked at Crawford. Crawford looked at Jorja. Malcolm looked at Jenny then Crawford.

  Jorja looked at the table.

  “Hello!” she shouted happily, while switching her gaze to her Dad. “My name is Inigo Montoya and you are my Father! I see we are prepared to dine!”

  Jenny said quietly to Crawford, “She’s quoting the Princess Bride, you know what this means?”

  Crawford nodded. “Someone we know and love is supremely happy. Seems that horse is a lot closer to that cart than you thought.”

  Amanda and Dustin sat with shoulders slumped on the couch. The twins were ‘cooking’ a surprise for supper so their parents were banished to the living room.

  “I’m so disappointed, I can’t even worry about whatever the twins are doing in the kitchen,” Amanda said.

  “I know; but I’ll worry for us. After all, it’s my kitchen,” Dustin said with a sad smile.

  “It’s just I thought we’d see the house; love it and move in,” Amanda said sadly, “You know, before supper tonight.”

  “My dear Mandy, we really needed something that was more move in ready. Can you imagine the twins going down those stairs from the top bedrooms to the bathroom? And us with the master in the basement, going up to the main floor to the only bathroom?”

  Amanda nodded. “It really was a small house, wasn’t it? I guess I just fell in love with the idea of being so close to the ocean and living in the charming old town site.”

  She heard a large bang from the kitchen and then a bunch of giggling. She wiped her brow and said with a grin, “Good thing this is your apartment!”

  Dustin sat back and rubbed his chin. “You know, we could keep two apartments,” he said.

  Amanda snorted. “That really doesn’t say reconciliation to me.”

  “I’m thinking the Arbutus apartments by the ocean; we could rent two side by side…”Dustin began.

  Amanda turned and threw her palms in the air. “And you’re thinking what, keep my clothes in one apartment; or were you thinking our eight year old twins?”

  “Yeah, that won’t work.” Dustin conceded. “Well what about in town then, anything on Jasper Street?”

  Amanda thought back over the listings that her mortgage clients had expressed interest in over the past few weeks. “There was a big house for sale, but I think it would almost be too much house for us, it has…”

  Another big bang in the kitchen cut her off.

  “What could they be making in there?” Dustin wondered. “They’re not allowed to use the stove or the microwave.”

  “Right. I didn’t know pouring cereal in a bowl could be so loud. Do you think we should investigate?”

  The intercom buzzed.

  “Are we expecting anybody?” Amanda asked.

  Dustin shook his head as the twins ran into the living room. Maisy held out her hand to her Mom.

  “We just need your credit card for a minute,” she said as Sasha nodded.

  Amanda looked at Dustin. “Boy, I wasn’t expecting that request for another five years anyhow.”

  Dustin laughed, “I was hoping for ten.”

  “We ordered Chinese!” the twins yelled as the intercom buzzed again.

  Later, when the Sinclair family was eating, the twins happily recounted their supper surprise.

  “We pretended we were cooking and I got out a spoon and banged a pot!” Maisy reported.

  “And then, I got a spoon and banged another pot!” Sasha added.

  “You could have just banged my pot.”

  “I wanted my own pot.”

  “You didn’t need one.”

  “Wow!” Dustin interrupted, “Were we ever fooled!”

  “Yes,” said Amanda enthusiastically, “We were wondering and wondering, what could they be making? It sounded like you were making a cake! But then I thought, no, they can’t be making a cake, because they can’t touch the stove!”

  Dustin put his head in his hand. “And then I thought, wow! I hope they’re making Chinese food, but they can’t be making Chinese food, because, they can’t touch the stove! What could they be making? It was very mysterious!”

  The twins laughed uproariously.

  “We ordered out for Chinese food!” they laughed.

  Amanda and Dustin looked at one another and a smile passed between them.

  “You sure fooled us good!” Dustin said.

  “But how did you fool the restaurant?” Amanda asked, “Despite doing a grown up thing and doing it very well, you are still little girls with little girl voices.”

  “Remember Jorja?” Sasha asked. “She used to be a frog when she was a little girl? She taught us how to frog talk when we were painting!”

  “Basically, you burp and talk at the same time. Like this…”Maisy explained.

  “No burping at the table!” Amanda yelled.

  Maisy got up from her chair and sat on the floor. “Dinner for four,” she burped,” Royal Towers apartment 215.”

  Her Sister quickly sat beside her. “And make it snappy”, she burped. She smiled up at her Dad as he was taking a video with his camera.

/>   “Did you get it?” Amanda whispered.

  “Yes indeedy. I’ll just file this in the vault under blackmail material for vetoing future dates.”

  Amanda awkwardly threw her girls a handful of fortune cookies. “I look forward to having our own home soon; so we can have many more cozy family dinners such as this one,” she said as she used her good hand to gesture expansively at her dainty little twins as they sat on the floor, burping loudly.

  “So what’s for supper?” Jorja asked.

  “Beats me,” her Dad answered.

  Jenny groaned dramatically. “Two-thirds of a pun…p…u!”

  Malcolm dished himself a large helping of the salad.

  “Bean salad; excellent choice,” Crawford announced.

  “Oh, I don’t care what it’s been,” Malcolm said, “I want to know what it is right now!” He took a large bite and announced, “It’s excellent!”

  Jorja made her own announcement at this point. “So as you noticed; I now have a boyfriend. And together, we actually have several items we need to discuss with you. Number one, Darla just gave me this flyer.”

  She held up the flyer and read, “Person of interest to theft of valuable etching; presumed to have been stolen Wednesday August 13 blah blah blah; short woman, white spiked hair, pink jacket, orange clogs blah blah blah falsely identified herself as a security guard…blah blah blah; yeah that was me.”

  Jenny snatched the flyer out of her hand and looked at it. “This is the adventure you referenced at our brunch?” she asked while handing the flyer to Crawford.

  “Yes, but really, I’m a bit miffed as I’ve worked hard to get just the right colour of hair. I would never say it was white; it’s platinum for heaven’s sake!”

  Malcolm placed his hand on Jorja’s. “Enough with the joking, Jorgie girl! You are going to give your parents a heart attack at this rate. Jenny, Crawford, we saw a crime being committed; we phoned the police, but complications prevented them from taking us seriously and then Jorja went over and Mr. Bassett, owner of the Escher artwork, mistook Jorja for a security guard of Regency Place, the apartment across from mine.”

  Crawford handed the flyer to Miss Stein who was sitting on the kitchen island. Miss Stein bit it appreciatively, then sat on it and curled her tail around her front paws.

  Malcolm drew a large breath. “Quite frankly, we have delayed coming forward with the information we know about the theft. Going to the police station is on the agenda for tomorrow.”

  “It was my fault really. Initially, I took everything so lightly and, um, I flirted with the thief and later met him at the Art Gallery.” Jorja’s cheeks were quite pink as she continued, “This really is a good salad, Mom.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you have to say? Good salad Mom? Oh no, this is not happening. You two are phoning the police and getting them over here right now,” Jenny insisted.

  Crawford tented his fingers. “Jorja, Malcolm, you realize you could be charged with accessory after the fact? Further, this Jesse that I may or may not have thrown down the stairs knows exactly where we live. And judging by the card he added to the plant, he thinks he has some sort of relationship with Jorja. Now if Malcolm gets charged, this could sink his career as a Nurse; this could permanently damage his livelihood!”

  Jorja started crying. Through her tears she said “To misquote Neil Sedaka; growing up is hard to do.”

  “We’re grown-ups. We’ll handle this together and deal with the aftermath, together.” Malcolm put his arm around Jorja and extended his other hand. “Phone,” he said.

  She wiped her nose, handed Malcolm the phone, then took it back and wiped it with her napkin. Jorja gave the cleaned phone to her new boyfriend and said to her parents, “I’m sorry. I just didn’t think.”

  Jenny said softly, “It’s not us you have to apologize to.”

  Jesse was not sorry at all that he had spiked the dog’s pizza with salt and pepper. Little Napoleon had sneezed about four times in a row, backing up the entire time. Jesse was trying very hard to control his laughter. Jesse’s Aunt was appalled.

  “What did you do?” she growled at her nephew.

  He slammed his plate down on the couch. “Nothing!” he growled back. “Maybe some of the salt and pepper I put on my pizza got on the dog’s? But I didn’t do it on purpose!” he falsely claimed.

  Betty Boothe had already been blindsided by the Sinclair family today. She sat back in her chair, all the while keeping a close eye on her little dog, and carefully considered her next words. “This isn’t working out. I think it would be best if you found your own apartment. This week.”

  Jesse heard the steel in her voice again. “Excuse me,” he said curtly. He went to his bedroom and rolled out the artwork he had taken from the Bassett penthouse. He weighed it down with the jewellery he had taken from the second apartment he had entered last Wednesday.

  “Rich people are idiots,” he thought as he took several pictures with his camera. He suspected the jewellery haul would probably bring more than the art work. He had entered the second apartment through a bedroom balcony and grabbed the handful of jewellery while the Residents slept in bed. He literally had walked, well, limped, through their bedroom and as a lark, thought he would grab whatever was within reach. It wasn’t until he reached the elevator that he looked at the loot.

  In amongst the necklaces were rings. Rings with large diamonds and one with sapphires. As far as value per minute, this was one of his more successful heists. Jesse Spelunker texted his fence, Bernie. “Got some small items to move quickly,” he wrote. Jesse then sent the photographs. “Should pay for the damage deposit and first month’s rent,” he thought. He then snickered. “Probably a couple of years rent, more like it!

  But then again, he had to have that talk with Jorja. Jesse squinted his eyes thoughtfully. “Yeah, her surgeries could set me back a bit,” he said aloud.

  “Did you call me?” His Aunt yelled from the hallway.

  Jesse opened his door, being careful to block her view of the desk. “Just wondering if Napoleon suffered any injury?” he lied.

  “I gave him some of his favorite yogurt. Not too much, but poor thing, he wouldn’t even eat it. He just ran into my bedroom and hid under my bed!”

  Jesse had wanted an excuse to look in his Aunt’s bedroom. He knew she had some nice pieces of jewellery and she had alluded to a stash of cash.

  “Do you want me to try?” Jesse asked soothingly.

  With a spoon and a yogurt container, Jesse crawled under the bed and found the little dog trembling on the far side. Surprisingly the dog came forward and ate. As Jesse lay on his belly he debated the places his Aunt would have hidden her money. “Certainly not under here,” he thought, “She’s far too tubby to crawl under her bed.” To satisfy his mind, he rolled on his back and looked up at the box spring. There was a rip in the fabric! He quickly put his hand through and brought down a zippered case. It was full of hundred dollar bills. “Well, well, well,” he thought, “Aunty will be giving me a going away present after all.”

  Napoleon wagged his tail and licked Jesse’s face. All was forgiven.

  All was not forgiven as Jorja and Malcolm sat listening to the Police lecture them.

  Chapter Nine:

  Or an undercover operation, the Sears Catalogue game and mismatched shoes

  Monday morning Jorja woke up feeling all kinds of wonderful. She looked over to her bedside table to check the time and saw a chunky bracelet.

  “Me and my big mouth!” she groaned.

  On the mainland, Cydney was surveying the spare bedroom in her apartment above her shop. “Me and my big mouth!” she laughed. She reversed the decorative pillows on the twin beds and announced, “There. Ready for another stray!”

  She checked her watch. She still had over two hours before Surinder would arrive on the island ferry. She heard her door chime. “Ah ha” she thought, “must be Parmella!” and hurried down the stairs.

  Parmella lugged two huge
suitcases upstairs.

  “I told you I was making breakfast; you didn’t need to bring it!” Cydney joked. “What have you got in here? Several kitchen sinks?” she asked as she lugged a third suitcase upstairs.

  “Really heavy muffins,” Parmella laughed.

  The two women deposited the suitcases in the bedroom, and then went to the kitchen for coffee.

  “You really are a doll for doing this Cyd,” Parmella began, “I just can’t thank you enough and I know Surinder will be forever in your debt!”

  “I have the room,” Cydney said simply.

  “And we both know that your niece will be staying here when she goes to Nursing School; so as soon as my little Sister has the baby, she can apply for funding for her own place.” Parmella inhaled deeply. “Do I smell apple cinnamon?”

  “With a hint of nutmeg!” Cydney said as she took the muffins out of the oven. She pointed to the dainty ceramic trays on the table. “These are some of my Sister’s creations; little serving dishes. Aren’t they cute? This one has some of my plum preserves and this one has softened cream cheese.”

  Parmella looked at the other two trays on the table. She leaned forward and wiggled her fingers. “And these two?”

  “Crumbled sharp cheddar and some of my apple butter. You know, for the fan of apple and more apple!” Cydney said.

  “That would be me!” Parmella said as she spread the apple butter on half of her muffin.

  Cydney reached over to the counter and grabbed a recipe book.

  “I’ve got a gluten-free cookbook; I thought you could look through it and see what Surinder might like,” she said.

  “Fabulous! I’ve brought some cookbooks too and some bags of flour,” Parmella said as she waved her knife over the plum preserves, then the cream cheese.

  “I have plenty of muffins,” Cydney said. “Take as much as you want. Wait, we were hauling up bags of flour? No wonder. Do I have to store them in the fridge?”

  “No, actually it’s the moisture that the flours have to be protected from. So I have them in zip lock bags; all labelled. They should be good for about six months; but Cyd, you know Surinder will only be here for three months tops!"