by Meg Muldoon
He brushed his free hand against my cheek.
I looked up into his eyes. They caught the electric glow of the moon, and they sparkled with warmth and love.
“You’re right,” I said, letting out a breath.
We started walking again, leaving behind Santa’s Nightmare Lane.
“C’mon,” he said. “Enough Halloween for the night. Let’s get you home and into a bubble bath.”
I smiled.
The phrase “bubble bath” had to be one of the sweetest in the English language.
Chapter 7
“So then she puts a hand on my arm and says ‘Oh, Kara, doll, it’s just because you don’t know him well enough. John’s never cared for mustard. That’s the kind of thing that you get to know about your husband after being together a long time.’”
She paced thunderously up and down the pie shop kitchen, her blond hair bouncing hard with each step. The pumpkin caramel latte in her hand was coming dangerously close to slopping over the sides of the paper cup.
“I came so close to blowing my top, Cin. You wouldn’t believe it. Do you know how much mustard that man goes through every month? You’d think ketchup and every other condiment, for that matter, didn’t exist. So you know what I did? I took a picture of the inside of our fridge, of all those half-empty mustard bottles, and I texted it to her saying ‘I guess I just don’t know my husband well enough.’”
I looked up from the bowl of creamy pumpkin pie filling I was whisking.
“Oh, Kara. You didn’t,” I said.
She nodded her head – her face holding absolutely no trace of regret.
After what appeared to be a truce of sorts during the pregnancy and subsequent birth of Laila, the interfamily feuding between Kara and her mother-in-law, Edna Billings, had resumed to full strength. The bickering had started out small: little battles about nursery wall colors and baby books that were seemingly typical of the in-law relationship. But lately, the arguments had expanded to include proper mothering techniques, wife etiquette, and just about everything in between.
And being Kara’s best friend, I had the “luck” of hearing about every tiff down to the tee.
“She can’t go pushing me around,” Kara continued. “And the sooner she knows that, the better it’ll be for all involved.”
Laila, now almost nine months and who was growing by leaps and bounds every day, let out a cry from her high chair at the kitchen island.
I could understand the feeling.
But, I reminded myself, listening to every detail of Kara’s spats with her mother-in-law was just the price I paid for having a best friend – and such a good one at that. Kara had always been there for me, and that seemed more than worth the occasional – or frequent – rehashing of family feuds.
And besides, I wasn’t exactly listening to Kara as closely as a good friend should have been. My mind had been on something else all morning – something I hadn’t quite been able to shake.
“I know you don’t know what I’m talking about, Cin,” Kara said, picking up Laila, who was already giggling after her little fit. “It’s not like you have a mother-in-law to deal with.”
Kara peered at me, as if she had been reading my less-than-enthusiastic thoughts.
But she was only half right about that: because while Daniel’s mother had taken off when he was just a kid, there were ten years of my life before marrying Daniel where I’d had to deal with my first husband’s mother. And while that hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park – she often got after me about wanting to see some grandchildren running around – I fared much better than Kara was faring now.
My best friend stopped pacing, suddenly seeming to remember that little fact about me being married before.
“Oh,” she said. “Sorry. I forgot about Evan.”
“It’s all right,” I said, lining up the gingersnap pie crusts in a row. “Sometimes I forget too.”
I smiled.
Evan, and all of the problems and the pain he’d caused me, felt like another lifetime these days.
And I liked it that way.
“But am I wrong, Cin? Do you think I’m being an unreasonable daughter-in-law to not want to be criticized left and right by that woman?”
“You’re not wrong,” I said quickly. “Mother-in-laws are just…”
“A royal pain in the ass?” she said, covering Laila’s ears at the last part of the sentence. “God’s way of laughing at you?”
“Maybe,” I said, smirking. “But it’s just sometimes… sometimes I think that everything in this world costs something, Kara. Even things that you think shouldn’t cost something. And I think putting up with Edna’s thoughtlessness and underhanded comments might just be the price you have to pay for such a wonderful husband and such a sweet baby girl.”
She stopped pacing for a second. A moment later, she was staring out the window, lost in thought.
I took that as a good sign that what I said had gotten at least partially through. I started filling up the crusts with the creamy filling, which in less than an hour, would be a to-die-for, luscious Pumpkin Gingersnap Pie – by far the biggest seller of the autumn season. This was my second batch of the pie this morning, and I had a feeling I’d be making another one before the day was out.
Kara placed Laila back in her high chair, giving her a small toy to keep her occupied. Then she finally took a seat herself on the barstool at the kitchen island.
“Well, when you put it like that…”
She shook her head and let out a sigh.
“But I don’t see why I couldn’t have ended up like you, Cin. Finding a great guy that I don’t have to pay every day to be with.”
She placed a hand over her mouth and let out a sharp, sudden giggle.
“I mean… that sounded dirty, didn’t it? Like I pay John to be with me or something. Like I’m actually the John and he’s the…”
She trailed off and giggled some more at the silly joke. I shook my head, but couldn’t help smiling some myself.
“What I mean is that it feels like I shouldn’t have to put up with Edna to get my husband, you know?”
I shrugged.
“We all have our expenses, Kara. I might not have to deal with a mother-in-law, but I do have to deal with Daniel having a job that takes up so much of his time. And a job that makes me lie awake at night and worry a heck of a lot.”
Kara was silent, studying me for a long moment.
I cleared my throat and furrowed my brow, pouring the last of the pumpkin batter into the pie crust.
I didn’t know why I had just said that – we’d been talking harmlessly enough about Kara’s mother-in-law, but for some inexplicable reason, I had hijacked the conversation and caused it to take a dark turn.
Maybe it had a little something to do with the way I’d been feeling all morning.
Strange and haunted, somehow.
“Hey,” Kara said, seeming to notice the dark change in my mood. She reached across the counter and placed a hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to get rid of the goosebumps.
“What’s the matter, Cin?” Kara said. “You seem a little off, or something.”
After a moment, I forced a weak smile.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Maybe I’m just coming down with something. I don’t know. There’s a lot of bugs going around this season.”
“Can I get you anything?” Kara asked. “What about some tea or something? You know, they’ve got this new lemon ginger tea down at the coffee shack – it might be just what you need to fight off an autumn cold.”
“Naw,” I said, nodding to the empty pumpkin caramel latte she’d already brought me. “I think I’ll be just fine now that I’ve had that. But thanks.”
Kara kept staring at me, as if trying to draw something out.
But I didn’t much feel like
talking about what was on my mind. And after a few more moments, she finally got the hint.
She drew in a sharp breath.
“So Warren and Aileen are at the coast now on their honeymoon?”
I nodded while pushing a pan full of pies into one of the new ovens.
“Raising hell, no doubt,” I said. “They’ve got plans to head to the casinos in Lincoln City. Aileen’s an avid slot player.”
Kara snorted.
“It’s a match made in heaven, isn’t it?” she said.
I grinned.
“I’d say so.”
After setting the timer, I dusted off my hands and started on my next project of the day: making a batch of Whiskey Apple pies. The rich flavor was another fall classic that customers couldn’t seem to get enough of. I grabbed a bowlful of fresh apples, the peeler and corer, and a sharp knife, placing them all on the counter in front of me. Usually I used an apple slicer to make my job easier, but with the renovations, I had misplaced the baking utensil and was forced to make apple pie the old fashioned way. Luckily, over the years my knife skills had become lightning quick, and I could chop up apples like it was nobody’s business.
“Say, I was thinking about going to the pumpkin patch this week,” Kara said, changing the subject again. “Want to come? I meant to take Laila earlier this month, but time got away from me. It’s been rough starting back up at the shop again.”
“I bet,” I said, quickly peeling the green skin off one of the apples.
After several months of maternity leave, Kara had resumed her duties as owner and operator of Kara’s Ornate Ornaments. Balancing full-time work and full-time motherhood had not been easy, as evidenced by the dark bags of sleeplessness under her eyes.
“And yes, I’d love to go with you guys. When were you thinking?” I said.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been out to the Harrington Pumpkin Patch – Christmas River’s premiere patch. The past few years I’d been so busy with work that the only pumpkin I ever spent any time with was of the canned variety.
“Thursday afternoon, maybe?” she said. “I’ve got an ornament shipment coming in at noon, but then after that I’ve got the whole day to – oh my gosh, Cin – watch out!”
I looked up from the apple I was peeling just in time to see the plastic toy that Laila was playing with shoot across the kitchen island counter top in my direction and collide with the knife. A split second later, the blade tipped over the side of the counter and fell toward the floor, the sharp point facing downward.
Careening right for my foot.
I let out a sharp gasp as the knife lodged into my shoe.
Kara got up and came around the kitchen island like a woman who’d been sitting on a fiery bed of coals.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay Cin!?” she said, peering at me. “Did it get you? Are you…?”
She looked down at my Converse shoes and gasped, seeing the knife sticking out from the top band of rubber on the left one.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she said, dropping to her knees and examining it. “Okay. It’s going to be okay, Cin. We’ll just… if you just give me a second, I’ll pull the car around and we can…”
I stared down at the blade, unable to believe what my eyes were telling me.
“I don’t feel anything, Kara,” I said numbly, dropping to the ground next to her and untying my shoe. “I don’t…”
“Oh, don’t do that, honey,” she said. “You’re supposed to keep the blade in until you get to the doctor. Otherwise you can bleed out. I know because one time I had a boyfriend who ended up stepping on a…”
I didn’t listen to what she was saying. All I knew was that I had to get the knife out – and now. The thought of it being lodged in my foot for a second longer was something I couldn’t quite take.
I took in a deep breath and removed the shoe.
“Oh, don’t do that,” Kara said again, closing her eyes and scrunching her face up in a squeamish expression.
But somehow, as I pulled the sneaker off, I still felt nothing.
A second later, I was peering at my sock: it was white as the driving snow with not a drop of blood on it.
I furrowed my brow, looking up at Kara, who looked equally confused. She grabbed the shoe, and gazed at the protruding knife while I peeled away the sock.
I didn’t have so much as a scratch.
Kara wiggled the blade out of the sneaker’s rubber top and stared at the gash it left behind.
She looked up at me.
“Talk about luck, Cin,” she said. “The rubber stopped it from going through.”
She shook her head.
“Just a centimeter in the wrong direction, and that knife would have gone straight through the canvas and into your foot.”
She let out a sigh of relief, and looked back at Laila, who was gazing at us with big, bright eyes, blissfully oblivious as to what the small action of throwing her toy had almost done.
“I’m so sorry, Cin,” Kara said. “I mean, Laila’s thrown her toys before, but never like that. To think that she could have—”
“It’s okay,” I said, staring at the shoe. “It was just an accident. Laila didn’t mean it. It’s not her fault.”
I felt goosebumps break out across my skin again.
For some reason, I realized, I’d been expecting something like this to happen all morning.
Kara reached a hand out to me and helped me up off the floor. I dusted my hands off and then wiggled my toes, just to make sure everything was in working order.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Cin,” Kara said, shaking her head again in disbelief. “What a strange thing to happen.”
I didn’t say it, but I was thinking it.
It wasn’t strange.
Not strange at all.
I fought off another round of shivers.
For the rest of the morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the old witch’s face.
And about the strange feeling of doom that I couldn’t quite shake.
Chapter 8
“Are you sure there’s nothing else you need me to do, Cin?”
Tiana tugged at her apron strings, struggling to untie the knot from around her waist. When she finally pulled it loose, she hung the well-worn cloth up on the wall tack.
“Nope, I’ve got it under control from here,” I said. “Now get on home already. Everybody knows you’ve got a hot date tonight.”
Tiana blushed something fierce, but a moment later, her face lit up with a grin.
“Well, I guess it’s hard to keep a secret around here.”
She had a point there: my small crew of pie shop workers had become a tight-knit group. And since two of them had started dating, it was nearly impossible to keep things about their budding relationship secret.
“Do you know where he’s taking you tonight?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“It’s a surprise,” she said, grabbing her magenta knit scarf and wool pea coat off the coat rack. “But I haven’t been able to think about anything else all day. On our last date, he took me out for this beautiful autumn picnic. I mean, it was the nicest thing anybody’s done for me since… since I can remember.”
I smiled to myself as I pressed the rolling pin into a round of pie dough, flattening it out.
“Well, I hope you two kids have a great time tonight,” I said. “Go paint the town red.”
Tiana slid on her coat and pulled her hair out from beneath her scarf. I expected her to nod and say goodbye then, but instead, she stepped toward me at the kitchen island, wringing her hands together in a nervous manner.
“Uh, Cin, there’s been something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time now.”
Her tone carried a hint of seriousness that was unusual for her normal jovial demeanor.
I looked up from the pie dough and lifted my eyebrows.
The gravity in her voice was also in her expression, and I didn’t like the looks of it.
Over the years, Tiana had not only proved herself to be an excellent employee – but she’d also been an excellent friend to me. She’d looked after the shop when Daniel had been badly hurt last year, and she’d been as supportive and kind to me as any friend I’d ever had.
Losing her wasn’t something I was prepared to—
“I just wanted to thank you,” she said, immediately putting all my worries to bed. “Uh, you see, Tobias told me about that talk you had with him a few months ago… I mean, he said before that conversation, he was pretty set on remaining a bachelor for the rest of his life. And without you talking to him, I know he would never have had the change of heart that he did.”
I looked down and smiled warmly, feeling my own cheeks turn a bashful shade of red.
“In fact, without your help, Cin, I’m pretty sure that Toby would never have gotten up on his own two feet again in the first place.”
“Aw, you’re putting too much stock in my influence, Tiana,” I said, waving a hand. “Tobias knew the right way. He just needed a little nudging. That’s all.”
“Don’t all men?” she said, placing a hand on her hip in an unexpected sassy gesture.
I laughed.
“You have a point there.”
She wiggled her hands into her knit gloves, which matched her magenta scarf, and she tossed her purse over her shoulder.
“You have a good night, Cin,” she said.
“You too, Tiana. Don’t you two get into any trouble out there, now,” I teased.
“Well, if we do, I’m pretty sure I’ll have the county’s top law man on my side,” she quipped, winking.
I grinned, watching as she walked through the dividing door out into the dining room.
And for the first time that day, I felt a sense of relief.
The fact that I had a hand in bringing Tiana and Tobias together was something that never failed to give me the warm fuzzies. Their relationship was just blossoming, but already, it seemed as though the two of them had always been together: They were a perfect match.
