“We’re both idiots.”
Mary-Ann nodded. “I think you’re right about that.” So far it seemed like the filling was going to stay as it was, but it had only been a minute. “If this one doesn’t work I don’t know what to do.”
“Neither do I. Maybe we need to give up on the idea of a chocolate fudge brownie pie and go for something a bit simpler.”
“Let’s see how this one turns out before we make any decisions.” The filling was still where it was meant to be, which was a sign they might have got it right, because they had noticed it start to sink at the beginning. “We might have got it, Sal.”
“Chickens.”
“When it comes to baking I never count my chickens.”
“Good.” Their eyes met over the pie. “I want this one to be the one too, but it might not be. It might just be teasing us.”
At the same time they both looked at the clock. “Time has slowed down.” Mary-Ann turned her attention back to the pie. “I want to try it. It’s no good if we’ve manage to make the filling stay where it’s meant to be and it tastes terrible.”
“Patience, Mare.”
For the next two torturous minutes all Mary-Ann could do was stare at the pie, willing it to be the one, because they’d been working for weeks on making it work the way they wanted it to. Once the five minutes was up the filling was still exactly where it had been when the pie was taken out of the oven. Sally got a knife and cut a slice out. The middle looked perfect, the filling stayed as it was, and Mary-Ann couldn’t stop herself from believing it was the one. She picked up a fork at the same time as Sally. “We taking the corners like before?”
“It’s the best place to test from, at least to start with. Then we need to go for the middle.”
The pastry crumbled in the same way it had done before and the brownie within was just the right amount of gooey to make it all come together. “We’ve done it.” Sally licked her fork. “We’ve made a chocolate fudge brownie pie.”
Chapter 2
Sally and Mary-Ann stood at the counter in Perfect Pies. It seemed like everyone from the town was in the shop, which really wouldn’t have been a surprise, and they were all waiting for the announcement. The chocolate fudge brownie pies were hidden away in the back. Mary-Ann, remembering her opening party, made certain the back door was locked, because she didn’t want anyone to enter her kitchen without permission - and she couldn’t help thinking what might happen if someone died. Breathing deeply she pushed the thought aside. No one was going to die. The pies hadn’t been poisoned. The pies couldn’t have been poisoned. It was just her luck something would happen, but no one was going to die.
When she looked towards the back of the room her eyes met with Alex’s. Mary-Ann could almost see the amusement in his, and she knew he knew what she was thinking. That was the bad part of knowing each other so well. Of course she was going to be worried about another murder. After everything she’d been through it was the logical thing to worry about. She glanced at Sally. “Thank you all for coming. As you all already know we’ve been working on something together and it’s taken far longer than either of us thought it would. Even though we have a lot of experience between us experimenting in the way we’ve done is never an easy thing to do.” Mary-Ann smiled, pushing all her worries aside. “I know none of you will understand why the process took so long, but that’s not something I expect anyone to understand.”
Laughing, Sally nodded. “Basically we’re perfectionists and we weren’t going to start selling you something neither of us thought was quite good enough. We’ll be selling this for a limited time. It’s not something that’s going to be permanently in stock, but we will be bringing it out at least once a year.”
“My esteemed colleague means we’ll be bringing it out once a year if you like the product we’ve created. If you don’t then you won’t have to buy it again. We both like it, however, and that’s usually a good sign.”
“Yes, it is.” Sally took Mary-Ann’s hand. “We won’t keep you waiting any longer. Mary-Ann and I would like to introduce you to our chocolate fudge brownie pie.”
Mary-Ann lifted the cover off the one pie they had in the shop and smiled. “I know it doesn’t look much, but hundreds of hours of work have gone into this, so I hope everyone enjoys it.” As Mary-Ann started cutting the first pie Sally went out to the kitchen to get the rest, because there was no doubt they’d all sell, even if no one returned for more. “First slice, as always, is half price. Second, third, and fourth slices are full price.”
“This isn’t going to be anywhere near as good as your lemon meringue.” Darren’s eyes met with Mary-Ann’s. “Nothing is ever going to be as good as that.”
***
Going around the shop to speak to everyone wasn’t a simple thing for Mary-Ann. She knew everyone and they all wanted to talk with her. They wanted to ask about her time on television, about her pies, about the murders she’d helped to solve, about her relationship, and it was far more tiring than she ever thought it could be. As her eyes met with Alex’s she was certain he could see how tired she was, but there was nothing either of them could do to change it. When an arm wrapped around her waist she turned to look at Hannah. “Hey, Mare, can you come out the back a minute? I need your help with something.”
“Of course.” Mary-Ann smiled at her sister, unable to hide her relief. “Let’s go.”
With that Mary-Ann was free of the throng of people and safe in the kitchen. “I thought you might need a bit of time to yourself.”
“Everyone wants to talk to me about everything.” She shook her head. “I’m not that interesting.”
“Yeah, you are, but I’m biased.” Hannah smiled and then they both looked at the door to the kitchen. Alex stepped into the room. “Hey, Lex.”
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Lex, Hannah?”
“At least one more.”
“Please stop.”
“It makes you seem more human. Everyone around here wonders if you have a heart in there.”
Alex laughed. “I have a heart, but it’s got far more shielding than the average person’s. I’m a homicide detective, so I can’t let things get to me the same way they’d get to everyone else, which is something I’m certain you understand.”
“We do, but the rest of Green Springs… they’ve always found people to gossip about and you’re on their list at the moment.”
“That’s something I’m not going to be able to stop.”
“Coming into the kitchen just after Mare is going to mean there are more rumours about the two of you.”
“I’ll just start telling people I’m dating you. That should get them off my back.”
“Or you could say yes. It would make things a lot simpler.”
Mary-Ann looked between the two of them, not quite able to believe her sister had asked her boyfriend’s brother out on a date. “No, it would make things a lot harder, because you have no idea what it would be like to have a relationship with me.” Alex shook his head. “I’m not going on a date with you, no matter how many times you ask.” He looked at Mary-Ann. “I wanted to see how things were going.”
“Fine, mostly.” She shook her head. “I had no idea this many people would turn up for the launch of our new product, but it is something we prepared for, as best we could.”
“How many pies do you have left?”
“Three, I think. A lot of people have come back for second slices.”
***
Mary-Ann walked back into the shop and was immediately accosted by Theo. “Hey, you.” He gave her a quick hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
She smiled. “I’ve been busy.”
“I had noticed.” Their eyes met. “How have you been?”
“As well as can be expected, considering the circumstances. The last thing I ever wanted was to find myself in the middle of several murder cases, but these things happen, and I dealt with them the best I could.”
�
�You dealt with them better than I would have been able to.” There was a flicker of pain in his eyes, but Mary-Ann wasn’t going to bring anything up if he wasn’t going to. “Harry was talking about what it was like here when Mrs Rosen owned the shop.”
Harry stepped closer to the two of them. “You’ve done a good job of making it your own, Mare.”
“When everyone told me this place was cursed I knew it was something I had to do.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “How are you?”
“Good.” He smiled and their eyes met. “It’s good to have a chance to talk with you. Ever since school we all seem to have gone in different directions and I was thinking it might be nice for us to have a reunion at some point. I know there are going to be some people missing, but…” He trailed off. “What do you think? Obviously I’d want you to do the food.”
For a moment Mary-Ann wanted to say no, because the past was gone and there was no way to bring it back, and then she realised the reunion wouldn’t be about the past. It would be about them all getting to know each other as adults. “It sounds like it could be fun.” She glanced over at Hannah. “We’d need to include a couple of years, I think, because we did all spend a lot of time together.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Harry smiled. “Having you on my side will make it much easier for me to convince other people it’s a good idea. They all want to leave the past where it belongs, but that’s not why I want us to get together. I want to get to know the people they are now.”
“I’ll help as much as I can.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “I think I need to go and help Sally. She seems busy.”
“Are you really surprised?” Theo shook his head as he gave her a look. “Everyone loves you, Mare, and that’s never going to change. You’ve been an integral part of Green Springs for a long time and everyone wants you to do well.”
“I worked that out when I came back from New York. I didn’t realise quite how many people cared about me, and I’m glad I made the decision to call Green Springs home again.”
***
After what felt like years the night drew to a close. Mary-Ann was alone with the people she cared about most: Hannah, Darren, Kelly, Alex, and Sally. They all sat around one of the tables, ignoring the mess that surrounded them. “That went well.” Mary-Ann smiled. “So far we have no deaths, which is a definite step in the right direction.”
“Don’t tempt fate, Mare.” Alex sighed. “I really don’t want another murder case to deal with, and I really don’t want a murder case to deal with that involves almost everyone in Green Springs, because that is going to be a very difficult case.”
“We did write down the names of everyone who was here.” Mary-Ann looked at Darren. “It was a just-in-case thing.” He shrugged. “After everything we’ve been though in the last year it seemed logical to be aware of who was here and who wasn’t. The list includes all of the people who took away a slice of the pie to give to a friend or family member who couldn’t make it.”
For a long time Mary-Ann was silent. “Thank you, I think.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “I do understand why you did it.” Surprisingly it felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “If anything does go wrong at least we know who was here.”
“Yes, we do.” He smiled. “I know it seems like too much, but I can’t help thinking of the last party we had here.”
“I was thinking of exactly the same thing.”
“Our lives were changed for good that night and that’s exactly a bad thing.”
“No, it’s not, but it wasn’t necessarily a good thing either.” Mary-Ann looked at Alex. “That will help if something does happen, won’t it.”
He nodded. “It will help, so thank you, Darren. I was trying to have a night off, which isn’t always possible for someone in my position to do.”
“I can imagine how hard it much be.” Darren pushed a notebook across the table. “This is for you. I hope you won’t need it. I hope this works out the way we all wanted it to, because that’s what Mare deserves after everything she’d been through in recent times.”
Mary-Ann reached out to take Darren’s hand. “Thank you, for everything. I hate to ask for more, but this place isn’t going to clean itself and I really don’t want to have to do it by myself.”
With that everyone stood, apart from Mary-Ann, and started dealing with the mass of paper plates that were everywhere. After watching them for a few seconds she stood herself, before making her way into the kitchen. Dealing with the pie pans was something she needed to do sooner rather than later, otherwise they were going to be a pain to clean and she didn’t want to be at the shop any longer than she had to. All she wanted was to go to bed.
Chapter 3
“I think we’re done.” Mary-Ann looked around the shop. Having the launch on a Saturday did make sense, because it gave her Sunday, the one day she didn’t open, to replace all her stock. It wasn’t a surprise people had bought other things to go with their chocolate fudge brownie pie. “Now I’m going to bed.”
“Good.” Hannah linked arms with Mary-Ann. “I’m shattered and I didn’t do anywhere near as much of the work as you did.”
Darren was the first out the door, holding onto a lemon meringue pie. He was followed by Kelly and Sally, and finally Alex went out the door, glancing back as he went. Hannah and Mary-Ann followed. Mary-Ann had the key in her hand and she turned to lock the door, glad the whole night was over. “When did you ask Alex out?”
“A couple of months ago.” Hannah sighed. “I didn’t want to mention it, because he’d turned me down, but I keep thinking he wants to say yes. He’s just scared of how things are going to turn out. He doesn’t think I can understand who he really is.”
“That explains when he told me he wasn’t willing to go on a blind date.”
“You were going to set him up with someone.”
“I want him to be happy, Han, because he’s been a good friend, and I just don’t know how I’m going to make it happen.”
“Why do you care so much?”
“I’d do the same thing for Darren, or Kelly, and you know that. Don’t start believing the rumours you hear, because they aren’t true. I love Rob. He’s the one I want to be with, not Alex. Alex and I… we’re too alike. If the two of us were in a relationship it would be a mess. He’s stubborn, and a perfectionist, and annoys me more than anyone else in the world. At the same time I know he could be a wonderful boyfriend to someone who could see the good in all of those things.” Mary-Ann shrugged. “He’s a good man, and a good cop.”
“Some people say the two of you are getting too close to just be friends.”
“Some people have no understanding of friendship love, and seem to think I’m willing to put my relationship with Rob in jeopardy in order to be with Alex. I love Alex the same way I love Darren. I wouldn’t date either of them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care deeply about them, which is something I know you understand. You’re just feeling jealous.”
“There’s a part of me, as stupid as this is going to sound, that wants there to be another reason for him turning me down. I don’t want it to be his work.”
“Being a homicide detective will affect every decision he makes, Hannah, and I know you understand that. You’ve dealt with me before and I’m not a homicide detective.”
***
Mary-Ann’s phone rang. She knew it was ringing because it made a different sound to her alarm, and she was certain that hadn’t gone off. Making a face at the phone she picked it up to see who was calling her. Alex’s name led to her making another face. “Please tell me you aren’t ringing for the reason I think you’re ringing.”
“I would be lying if I didn’t.”
“Do you now how much I hate you right now?”
“This isn’t my fault.”
“You didn’t have to call me.”
“Actually…”
“No more words. I get it. The body is in the alley at the back of Perfect Pie
s, right?”
“Right.” Alex sighed. “I’m sorry, but I need you to come and let me check out the inside of the shop, just in case.”
“I’m coming.” Mary-Ann rolled out of her bed. “I still hate you.”
“You can hate me all you like, Mare.”
“Good.” She wasn’t quite certain how she was standing, but she was. “I will be there in ten minutes. I need to have a coffee before I do anything.”
“When I realised where the body was I bought you one.”
“Maybe I don’t hate you. Be there in five.”
As she dressed she slowly woke up, but she was still shattered. All she wanted to do was sleep. When she looked at the clock and saw it was 5am she knew exactly why that was.
***
“Oh.” Mary-Ann felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at the body. “I…” She shook her head. “Give me the coffee, Alex.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. Do you want me to call Hannah?”
“Hannah would kill you if you called her at 5am.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “I can deal with this.”
“You sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I wouldn’t have said I was sure if I wasn’t sure.”
The one disadvantage of living somewhere where everyone knew everyone else was how much it hurt when people there died. Mary-Ann focused on her coffee, doing her best to ignore the body of one of her childhood friends, but it was impossible for her not to look at him. Even though time had put distance between her and Theo they still cared about each other. He’d been there for the announcement, the two of them had spoken for longer than they had done in a long time, and planned on going for coffee at some point in the near future, which wasn’t going to happen. Slowly, letting the tears fall, she knelt down next to him.
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 64
