Sweets Galore: The Sixth Samantha Sweet Mystery (The Samantha Sweet Mysteries)

by Shelton, Connie

  “Just deciding whether to pick up dinner for one or two,” Kelly said. “It’s feeling strange, making plans for myself only. Well, better go. One more client’s coming by to pick up a dog, then I’m off.”

  Sam put her tools away and washed her hands, leaving Jen in charge of locking up.

  The adobe buildings that ringed the plaza shone rose-gold in the late afternoon light. Sam lucked into a parking spot directly in front of the jewelry shop and the owner turned over the Closed sign after letting her inside.

  Choosing a gift for Zoë hadn’t been easy. Her friend dressed so casually, favoring loose skirts and embroidered tops, but when Sam had spotted the narrow silver bracelet with a flower motif lightly etched into it she knew it was Zoë.

  Adelia Martinez, the jeweler, turned the piece around so Sam could see her words “Our friendship has bloomed, like a flower in a well-tended garden. With love from Sam.”

  “Thank you so much,” Sam said. “It’s just what I wanted for her.”

  For Kelly, as her maid of honor, Sam had chosen a different style bracelet—younger, stylish, with the added sparkle of a few tiny diamonds.

  Adelia gave the bracelets a final polish with her cloth then wrapped them in satin bags within small boxes for each of the ladies.

  Sam tucked the little prizes into her backpack and said goodbye. Out on the sidewalk she paused a minute to think. Wasn’t there some other errand she’d intended to do before heading home? She glanced up and down the narrow street, looking for a memory jog, when she saw him again.

  Walking right toward her came Jake Calendar. His appearance here seemed a little too coincidental until she remembered that he was staying at the La Fonda, just across the square from here. She crossed the sidewalk and stood by her van, half hoping he wouldn’t notice her. No such luck.

  “Sam, hello again,” he said.

  That’s when she noticed the young woman with him. When Jake spoke the girl looped her arm through his. She was tall and slender with a model’s face and posture, chin-length brown hair swept to one side and a pink dress that barely grazed the middle of her thighs.

  “Evie, this is Samantha Sweet, the old friend from Alaska that I told you about. Sam, this is Evie Madsen.”

  An expression, something like relief, crossed Evie’s face before she said hello. She raised her chin and pulled Jake closer, rubbing possessively against his arm. Three seconds passed as Sam tried to reconcile the picture of this man who was her age with this girl that could barely be out of college wrapped around him.

  “Evie’s with my crew. She’s in charge of the audition venue.”

  Whatever that meant. She looked more in charge of keeping Jake’s chest warm. A dozen wry comments came to mind but what Sam said was, “Nice to meet you.”

  Jake and the young appendage stepped aside for an older man to pass on the sidewalk.

  “So you’re already at that stage of things, auditioning people for your show?” Sam asked. “I may have met one of them at the bakery today.”

  Jake seemed distracted by a man who was staring at him from one of the benches in the center of the plaza. He turned away but the heavyset guy got up and walked toward them. He had a jowly, pockmarked face and dark eyes under ferocious eyebrows that went with the coarse blond hair on his head.

  Jake saw him coming, muttered something that sounded like “damn cosart,” and peeled away from Evie, meeting the man near the rear end of Sam’s van. Sam watched as the rough-looking man said something under his breath and Jake responded with a shake of his head. The guy jabbed a finger at Jake’s chest.

  “You wanna watch out in little towns like this,” he said clearly. “A guy can get real sick on a bad taco or somethin’ like that.”

  He gave Jake a final, hard stare then turned and strode away across the plaza. Jake tugged at the hem of his jacket, straightening it. When he turned back toward Sam and Evie he had a rather forced smile on his face.

  “So,” he said. “We were actually just out to find a little cantina someone recommended, someplace around here. Sam, would you like to join us?”

  Evie stepped on Jake’s foot—not quite accidentally—then apologized half-heartedly.

  “No, thanks. I’m getting on home to make dinner for Beau.”

  “Sam’s engaged, Evie. The wedding is pretty soon, right?”

  Sam edged toward the van, tired of being around Jake. She’d nearly reached her door when movement across the street caught her attention.

  “Mom! Hey!” Kelly stood at the edge of the plaza, waving.

  Before Sam could think of a way to stop her she’d skipped across the street, a small shopping bag dangling from her fingers. “Look what I found at Serendipity.”

  She reached into the bag, rummaging for something.

  Sam glanced back at Jake.

  “Oh, sorry,” Kelly said. “I didn’t realize you were talking to someone. I can show you this later.”

  She gave a small wiggle of the fingers in Jake and Evie’s direction and headed back across the plaza where Sam noticed Kelly’s little red car was parked.

  When Sam looked back toward Jake he was standing still as a statue. He knew.

  “That’s your daughter?” he said quietly.

  “Yes. Well, I’ve got to get going.” She opened the van’s door. “Nice to meet you, Evie.”

  She slammed her door, started the engine and backed out of her spot before Jake could make a move. A small pickup truck blared its horn at her and she shoved the gearshift into Drive and got out of its way.

  Jake knew. Well, what did she expect? One look at Kelly’s curly brown hair and those aquamarine eyes that were identical to his—there was no way she could not be his kid. Had Kelly noticed? There’d been no reaction but Sam couldn’t take the chance.

  All Jake had to do was look up her number in the phone book. One call and Kelly would get a ton of questions she did not have answers to. Sam circled the block and headed for the house.

  She caught up with Kelly’s car a block from home and followed her into the driveway.

  “It wasn’t that important,” Kelly said, holding up her little shopping bag as she got out of the car. “Just a new pair of earrings.”

  “There’s something else. Something we should have talked about a long time ago.”

  Kelly’s smile faded a touch and her forehead wrinkled.

  “Let’s go inside, maybe put the tea kettle on,” Sam said.

  “Mom? Is somebody sick or something?”

  Sam draped an arm around Kelly’s shoulders. “Nothing like that. C’mon, let’s go in.”

  Kelly was already making the place her own, Sam noticed. Small touches, like a candle in the middle of the kitchen table, a mug Sam hadn’t seen before. She felt a little pang.

  She danced around the subject for a couple of minutes, filling the kettle with water, setting it on the burner. She’d had more than thirty years to prepare for this conversation but it all boiled down to the past fifteen minutes.

  “Your father is in town,” she began.

  A crease formed between Kelly’s eyebrows.

  “I never thought I would see him again but here he is, shocking the hell out of me,” Sam said.

  “Did he come looking for me?”

  Sam blew out a breath. “He actually contacted me, wanting money.”

  Kelly sank into one of the kitchen chairs. Sam adjusted the heat under the kettle.

  “Kel, he never knew about you. We worked together in a temporary camp in Alaska. We were nineteen. Had a quick fling.” She found it hard to look into Kelly’s blue eyes. “When I discovered I was pregnant I left. Jake was—a free spirit, a guy who loved to move around, take a variety of jobs.” Play around with a variety of women. She didn’t say that.

  “With a baby coming I knew I’d better settle somewhere. I couldn’t go back to my parents in Texas; I never fit in there. I just bought a used Jeep, got in and started driving. Stopped when I came to Taos. This felt like home. It s
till does.”

  “You never told him about me? Ever?”

  “No. I didn’t.”

  The kettle let out a shriek. Sam turned off the burner and picked it up, suddenly not really wanting tea. She set it back down.

  “I guess I got selfish, Kel. I didn’t want to share you. Not with a man I barely knew, not with whatever extended family he might have. It was hard work, trying to support us both, but I loved our life together. Just us girls.” They’d often used that phrase when Kelly was a kid. Just us girls.

  “But what if he’d wanted to do the responsible thing and marry you and be a dad to me?”

  He didn’t. Sam would have bet on it. The picture of Jake with the young woman who was probably younger than Kelly popped into her head. She pressed her lips shut before a snide comment could come out.

  “How could you do that to me, Mom? I never had a father, just because you felt a little selfish that day?”

  “Kel, it wasn’t—” It wasn’t like that.

  But Kelly had left the kitchen, stormed to her bedroom and closed the door a little too firmly.

  Sam started after her but stopped short at the living room doorway. Pointing out that Kelly had never really asked questions about her father, nor had she expressed any particular regret about not having one—all that would be counterproductive at this moment. Give her some time. Sam picked up her pack and locked the back door behind her when she left.

  At the ranch Beau was feeding the horses when she pulled up the long drive to the big log house. She left her pack on one of the porch chairs and walked toward the barn. The pinto nuzzled Beau’s hand as he offered half an apple.

  “Hey, darlin’,” he said, turning toward her for a quick kiss. “Something wrong?”

  She perked her mouth into a smile for him. “Kelly’s upset with me. Long story.”

  Beau was another who deserved to know the whole truth. She’d told him about Jake, back when they began dating, but he didn’t know the recent parts. She felt weary and not at all in the mood to get into it tonight.

  “I put that chicken into the marinade when I got home,” he said. “Anything else I can help you with?”

  “Just keep being this wonderful,” she said, hugging him around the middle. “I’ll go in and finish dinner. Twenty minutes?”

  * * *

  Sam slept fitfully and was already wide awake when her alarm went off at four-thirty. By the time she arrived at the bakery she was feeling put-off because the scale had only showed a loss of two pounds and the way Kelly had slammed the door last night still echoed in her head. This couldn’t go on. She would have to settle things with her daughter, and soon.

  Two days until her mother, the ultimate lie detector, would be here. There was no way Sam and Kelly could be on bad terms during the family visit without everybody knowing what was going on. Sam checked the fridge to be sure Julio had baked the layers for her wedding cake, then set to work finalizing the audition cake for Vic Valentino.

  It seemed clear now that either Jake or one of the others from his show would be the intended recipient. She pictured the way he’d wolfed down that cupcake in her shop. It was tempting to sneak some kind of bitter extract into the icing, but she discarded the thought. She didn’t want him suing her—she preferred that he just get out of town soon.

  The audition cake was ninety-percent done, only needing the fireworks and the figurine of Valentino, which Becky would finish this morning.

  While Julio started baking the breakfast pastries for the display cases, Sam turned to making sugar flowers for her own cake. The color theme was autumn shades of orange, yellow and red so she started with tiger lilies, adding the tiny details that made them look as if they’d come straight from the florist. Realistic chrysanthemums took a lot of time but added great detail, so she made several of them too.

  The intercom buzzed. “Sam? Mr. Calendar is here to see you.”

  God, Jake, could you possibly complicate my life any further?

  She set the flowers to dry and wiped her hands on a towel. He stood at the beverage bar, helping himself to a cup of coffee.

  “Jake, I told you I can’t invest in your project.”

  He turned those blue eyes on her. “We need to talk about something else.”

  Oh boy. She turned to Jen. “I’ll handle the front for a few minutes, if you can maybe check with Julio about getting some more scones out here?”

  Jen raised an eyebrow but exited gracefully.

  “Our last conversation ended a little too fast,” he said. “I believe I’d just learned that you have a daughter. Or should I say, we do?”

  “Lower your voice,” she whispered. “No one knew about this. Including Kelly.”

  The light that sparked in his eyes worried her.

  “You aren’t going to blackmail me, Jake. I’ve told her.”

  “Good. I want to meet her.”

  It was all Sam could do not to glance toward the shop next door where Kelly would be at work right now.

  “I want to clear that with her first. I’m not sure she wants to meet you.”

  His mouth opened. Closed again. “Fine. Today?”

  Sam’s foot tapped. Why not just get it over with now? Rip the bandage off all at once. “Let me give her a call. Wait here.”

  She walked into the kitchen and instructed Jen to watch the front again. Without a word Sam went out the back door and gave a quick tap at the back entrance to Puppy Chic then walked in.

  Kelly was at the deep sink, sprayer in hand, rinsing suds off a small, shivering poodle.

  “I need to talk to you,” Sam said. “It’s about that previous subject, the one that kept me awake half the night.”

  Judging by the circles under her eyes, Kelly must not have rested all that well either.

  “Mom, why is this all coming up now?” Her voice was chilly.

  Deep breath. “Well, like I told you, he’s in town. He—he’s figured it out. About you.”

  “How?”

  “Yesterday, on the plaza, the man who was standing there. That’s Jake. I had hoped . . . well, I’d planned . . .”

  What she’d hoped was that Jake would simply go away so that her life, and Kelly’s, would continue as always before.

  “When he saw you walking toward me, and when you called me mom . . . Well, you look a lot like him.”

  The breath seemed to go out of Kelly. She scrubbed at the poodle, her thoughts obviously churning.

  “I look like him? How could I have not spotted that?”

  “You had no reason to. But now he wants to meet you.”

  Kelly turned off the water and the dog clawed at the sides of the tub.

  “He’s at the bakery now. I can get you his number or set up a meeting for you . . . It’s your call.”

  “I can come now,” Kelly said. “Let me get Babycakes dried off and into a kennel. Riki should be back from the bank any second and I’ll ask for an early lunch.”

  “Okay then. I’ll tell him you’ll come by the bakery in ten minutes. He doesn’t need to know you work right here, at least until you know him better.”

  Kelly sent Sam that don’t be so overprotective look, but at least there was a little smile attached.

  Jake was flirting subtly with Jen when Sam walked back into the sales room. Jen sent a plea toward Sam and she shot him a look.

  “Ten minutes. She’ll meet you here, so go ahead and refill your coffee if you’d like. We’ve got work to do and I would appreciate it if you don’t bother my employees.”

  Dirty old man, she fumed as she went back to the worktable.

  She botched three flowers before convincing herself that she needed to concentrate on work. She could be as angry as she wanted with Jake, but later. When she heard the front door bells she went to the sales room to be sure Kelly and Jake got off on the right foot.

  The two were studying each other but at least Jake’s manner seemed respectful as he suggested they go for a walk. Kelly patted the front pocket
of her jeans, her normal signal to Sam that she had her phone with her and would call if there was trouble. Sam felt herself giving a weak smile to the pair as they walked out.

  Jen fidgeted behind the counter but managed to appear busy rather than pelting Sam with the questions she clearly wanted to ask.

  Sam went back to the kitchen and spent the next ten minutes figuring out that her hands were far too shaky to form decent sugar flowers or pipe anything in icing. She ended up tinting fondant for a birthday cake order, kneading and pounding the paste color into it, imagining how it would feel to wad Jake Calendar into a lump of claylike dough and be done with him.

  Chapter 4

  Sam was draping the rolled pink fondant over a three layer red velvet birthday cake—her arms tired and her frustrations assuaged—when she heard the door bells tinkle. She smoothed the fondant and caught herself listening for Kelly’s voice. How long have they been gone? How long have I been working with one ear tuned to the other room?

  She picked up a knife to trim away the excess fondant and realized that the voice she was hearing out front was Beau’s. A glance at the clock told her it was nearly twelve and she remembered he had mentioned getting together for lunch. She turned the cake project over to Becky and washed her hands.

  “Hey you,” she said when she walked into the sales room.

  “I come bearing gifts,” he said. “Well, actually, it’s just your mail. I had to stop by the post office anyway.” The small stack appeared to be mainly catalogs, with a couple of letter-sized envelopes included. One of them was heavy white paper with a very business-like return address imprinted on it. She squeezed it, testing the thickness of the contents.

  “What’s this?” she muttered, half to herself.

  She set the other mail on a table and ripped open the interesting one. Two sheets of paper came out. The letterhead indicated that it came from a legal firm in New York and she scanned to the bottom to see that it was signed by a Clinton Hardgate, Esq.

  Dear Ms. Sweet,

  I am writing to inform you—

  The door opened and Sam glanced up to see Jake Calendar. Kelly was walking toward Puppy Chic and Sam couldn’t read anything in her daughter’s step to let her know how the visit had gone. Jake didn’t appear to notice Beau standing by the display case; he stood beside Sam and gave a curious stare at the letter in her hand. She folded it, stuffed it back in the envelope and jammed the envelope between two catalogs.