The Sweet Baked Mystery Series - Books 1-6

by Katherine Hayton

  “Okay, you’re on.” Aidan took the other ball from her hand and flexed his knees a few times before taking a swing. Not as good as Holly, but he still managed to down it in two goes.

  “Are we keeping score?”

  “Apparently,” Holly whispered under her breath. In a louder voice, she called out, “No. It’s just for fun. Besides, we already know I’ll win.”

  The moon provided just enough light to see the course, though occasionally they needed to move up the green, checking carefully to ensure what they were aiming at actually was a hole.

  “Now, talk,” Holly said on the third hole. “I’m not just out here to whip you in a game of golf.”

  “Ah.” Aidan turned away from her, holding the putter between his knees as he blew hot breath onto his hands.

  Stalling. Holly knew the feeling well. The talk in her imagination had now descended into such a horror show, that she was eager for him to speak and get it over with.

  “I think we should break up,” Aidan said. The words were so soft that Holly easily heard the crunch as they broke her heart.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “When I first asked you out, I thought that it wouldn’t be anything serious.” Aidan took his turn at putting. Despite the tears clouding Holly’s vision, she’d still landed her ball right next to the hole. Aidan’s shot went wide.

  “So, I’m fine if it’s just a fling,” Holly said, lining up her shot. “But if you want a relationship, then I’m just not your girl.”

  She tried not to sound bitter, but the acid crept into her voice against her will. The last week had played havoc with her emotions and just when she thought the ride was over, here it all went again.

  “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s not you, it’s me.”

  At that, harsh laughter burst out of Holly’s mouth, and her ball overshot the hole. “You know that’s the line everybody says when they actually mean, it’s definitely YOU.”

  “I’m getting this all wrong,” Aidan muttered, “and, no, I didn’t mean that. Can we just stop and sit down for a moment?”

  He reached out and grabbed Holly’s arm, and for a second, she felt like raising her putter in the air as a weapon. But then her shoulders slumped, and she followed along behind Aidan as he walked to a bench. The fight was leaving her body. She couldn’t argue Aidan into continuing a relationship when his feelings for her were gone.

  “What I meant to say was, I started out this relationship knowing that I had baggage, but not thinking that we’d grow serious enough for it to matter. Now we do matter, you matter, but the baggage is too much to expect you to carry.”

  Holly stared at him with a frown, the words carrying meaning but making no sense. “What baggage? I’m the one with the soon-to-be ex-husband and a whole previous life trailing around behind me.” Holly shook her head, annoyed. “I’m the one with baggage.”

  “You’re separated, and you’ve started a new job in a new town,” Aidan said, his voice sounding perfectly reasonable but with a backing of regret that made Holly feel even sadder. “That’s not baggage, that’s just life.”

  “And what do you have that’s so awful you can’t possibly have a relationship?” Aidan tried to turn his head away, but Holly reached out and cupped his cheek, turning him back to face her. “What is it? What haven’t you told me?”

  Aidan laid his hand on top of Holly’s slowly peeling it away from his face and returning it to her lap. “I have responsibilities toward my family.”

  A chill of horror danced up and down Holly’s backbone, making her shiver more than the bitter cold. “Your family?”

  She stared in front of her, wondering what Aidan would admit to next. A wife? Children? A whole life that she knew nothing about?

  “My cousin Tilly is very ill, and my aunt is becoming too frail to take care of Elvira for much longer. I’m going to have to take some action. First off, moving in with Tilly to help her out with her disability. We’ve all been tip-toeing around on eggshells, trying not to disempower her, but that has to stop. If her hospitalization did nothing more, it brought that fact sharply into focus.”

  Holly shook her head, understanding what Aidan was saying but struggling to follow his logic. “So, you’re breaking up with me because Tilly needs more round-the-clock care?”

  “Not just Tilly, Elvira also needs more attention. We’ve had a few close calls where she nearly slipped into behavior that would be hard to pull her back from. She needs someone around who’s caring for her as a full-time occupation. I can’t live in a separate house and have my full-time job with the registry office, and check-up on Elvira and her mom and make sure they’re getting everything they need.”

  Holly stared at the ground between her feet, a frown still etched deep into her forehead. “I still don’t get it. Why does this mean we have to break up? It seems you’ll need more support, not less.”

  “Exactly.” Aidan stood up, folding his arms across his chest and stomping a few paces away before turning and marching back. “I’ll need support. My family will need support. That’s a whole lot of baggage right there, and it’s never going to go away. I don’t want to be the man who’s always taking from you. Between your sister and the bakery—”

  “What?” Holly demanded. “Between my sister—who is a grown adult—and the bakery—which is my job—what is the problem? Do you think that because I work and have a sibling that I’ve somehow used up all the energy I have? That’s the burden that almost everybody has to carry. It’s nothing. Why are you trying to make this into such a big deal?”

  “I’m not trying to make this into anything that it isn’t,” Aidan shouted back. “I’m just trying to do the right thing by both of us. You don’t need to be saddled with the same responsibilities as me just because you wanted someone to go out with. It’s a lifetime commitment that I’m talking about. It’s not like I’ll wake up tomorrow and they’ll have disappeared.”

  Holly’s confusion disappeared in an explosion of anger. “Are you really dictating to me how I should live my life and make my choices? Are you such a selfish man that you would force me to only live the parts of a life that you deem fitting? I love Elvira. I already look out for her, and I’d love to do that for the rest of my life if need be. How dare you take that away from me, just because you don’t think it’s suitable? Who are you that you think you can plan out my entire life?”

  “I’m not trying to—”

  Holly shook her head and held her hand up, cutting Aidan off. “I don’t really care what you’re trying to do. What I care is that I love you, I love Elvira, and you’re intent on denying me that closeness because you think it might cause a bit of trouble or strain? What sort of man are you?”

  “I’m the sort of man that’s watching out for your welfare.”

  “By giving me nothing?” Holly stood and paced a few steps away before turning back to Aidan, hands on hips. “Is that how you think a partner looks out for someone he cares about? By chopping himself and everyone she’s grown to care about out of her life and leaving her with nothing?”

  Aidan shook his head and turned away. “You’re not listening to me.”

  Holly walked forward to grab his shoulder and forced him to glance her way again. “I am listening to you, but the problem is you’re talking rubbish.” She softened her voice and her posture, relaxing and making an attempt to be gentle. “I understand you’re overwhelmed, but you need more people in your life to deal with that, not less. Why won’t you let me in, Aidan? What is it that you’re terrified of? Because I can tell you right now, your baggage doesn’t scare me.”

  He turned on his heel and started to walk back to the clubhouse. Holly waited for a moment, her head tilted right back as she waited for her tears to retreat. The moon shone down on her, bathing her body in silver.

  It was the sound of soft weeping that got Holly moving. She followed the noise around the corner to find Aidan crouching, sobbing, beside the wooden windmill.

  “Wh
y are you doing this if it will just make both of us unhappy?” Holly sank to her knees beside him, pulling Aidan’s hands away from his face. “What are you hoping to achieve?”

  “You’ll hate me if I make you stay,” he said, viciously swiping a sleeve across his face. “I’ve seen what happens to couples when they have to take on the burden of responsibility for one side of the family. It’ll drive a wedge between us, and you’ll end up hating me.”

  “Of course, I won’t end up hating you.” Holly reached forward and pulled Aidan into an awkward hug, both of them squatting in the shade of the toy town in the mini-golf course. “Why would you think that?”

  “I saw it happen with my own parents. The toll of my grandmother’s illness tore them apart.”

  “And your cure for that is to rip us apart now?” Holly’s voice was incredulous.

  “It’s like a band-aid.” Aidan pulled back, sitting down and stretching his long legs out. “If I tear it off now—before it sticks too fast—it won’t hurt nearly as much as if I leave it.”

  Holly shook her head, then she giggled. The emotion overran her, twisting her mood until everything struck her as utterly ridiculous.

  “What is it?” Aidan demanded. “What’s so funny?”

  Between laughs, Holly managed to stammer out the words, “You compared us to an old band-aid.” She snorted like a hedgehog before clapping a hand across her face to muffle the sound.

  Aidan gave a weak laugh, then another. In a minute, he’d joined her in hysterics, tears of a different emotion now streaming down his face.

  “How about we talk to each other about how we’re feeling instead of deciding what’s best for the other party without their consent?” Holly grabbed hold of Aidan’s shoulder and used him as a prop to help get to her feet. “And if down the road it doesn’t work out, you’ll at least get the pleasure of saying I told you so.”

  “Promise?” Aidan said, struggling to his feet, as well.

  Holly regretted not having met him as a younger man. Her youth had been squandered on the wrong match, and now her partner had to put up with her grunting when she stood up. That, and the pop and crackle of her old knees.

  “I promise.”

  As Holly lay in bed later that night, she stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Her body felt utterly exhausted to the point of collapse, her emotions had wrung every last ounce of energy out of her cells and left them dragging.

  Still, her mind went over everything that had happened for the past week, niggling away at all the different pieces of the puzzle. Long after she should have been asleep and dreaming, Holly pulled apart the picture, rearranged it, tried to force the parts back in another way.

  As she finally started to doze, a thought wormed into her brain. She hadn’t even started to read through Zach’s contract. Since she wasn’t sleeping, undoubtedly that was a better use of her time.

  That last effort finally tipped her over the edge and Holly snuggled deeper under the covers. Lawyering mumbo-jumbo could wait for the gaps in-between her customers in the shop tomorrow.

  At last, her mind loosened up enough to fall sound asleep.

  As a result of her late-night marathon of useless thinking, Holly could barely keep her eyes open the next morning. Even after doubling her caffeine intake, unless there was a customer in the shop, or Elvira was calling out a conversation from the back, Holly’s head drooped, and dreams came calling.

  “What’s that man doing across the road?” Elvira asked. While Holly thought she’d just blinked, the girl had managed to move from one side of the shop to another.

  Moving to join Elvira, Holly stretched her arms above her head. The satisfying crick in her neck revived her for a few minutes as she stared out onto the cold day.

  “Oh, it’s Zach again.” It shouldn’t have taken her so long, but her eyes were bleary from tiredness and didn’t want to focus. “Can you hold the fort here while I go and see him? We shouldn’t be longer than a few minutes.”

  “Take all the time you need,” Elvira said. She was bending over backward to be kind and affable this morning. Holly wondered how much of it was to make up for her previous actions, or how much was intuiting what had gone on between her and Aidan last night.

  Whatever the reason, time to take advantage. “If you do need me, just call out next door to Ben. He can watch the counter while you run across to fetch me. I’ll just be in the restaurant.”

  “Yeah. I’ll call Ben.” Elvira rolled her eyes, making Holly giggle. A sound that she immediately suppressed.

  “He’s very accommodating, and we’re lucky to be able to call on him,” Holly said in a chastising tone—more to herself than to Elvira.

  Zach was curled up inside against the cold but otherwise, didn’t seem to be taking the advice from yesterday to heart.

  “What are you doing in here?” Holly asked in her best school ma’am tone. “I would’ve thought yesterday taught you better.”

  “I didn’t walk here,” Zach said, his tone leaping straight to defensive. “Richard was kind enough to drop me off on his way to work.”

  Holly stared at the man, eyes widening as she took in Zach’s physical state and registered the cold in the room.

  “You’ve been here for hours?” Her voice went up so high that it sounded like a mouse squeaking. “Follow me.”

  “I’m fine right where I am.” Zach looked at her with a mulish expression, then sighed. “I just can’t sit around doing nothing at home. I need to work.”

  “You can’t run a restaurant when you can barely stand on your feet.”

  “I can think. Here, I can sit and dream up new flavor combinations and think about the different presentations. At home, all I do is let my mind wander or stare blankly at the TV.”

  Holly had been guilty of that enough times in her life, that she couldn’t rebut it with any honesty. “How about you come over to the bakery? We’ve been in there for a few hours, so at least the place is warm.”

  To Holly’s relief, Zach agreed to that, and she helped him over the road. Although she’d never say it to his face, he certainly did seem to be a lot stronger than he had the day before. Like Crystal, once she’d turned the road to recovery she went full steam ahead.

  “Sit at the table. What can I get you?”

  “I don’t need anything, thanks.”

  Elvira caught the tag end of that and helpfully jumped in. “Nobody who walks in this shop needs anything. But you must like something more than the others, so pick that.”

  “It’s two against one,” Holly said as Zach still hesitated. “Pick your battles, man. This isn’t one you’re going to win.”

  “Fine.” Zach smiled and shrugged, sitting back further in the chair. “I’ll take a strawberry cupcake. if you’re forcing me.”

  “Strawberry it is. What about a coffee? We don’t advertise, but we’ve got a pretty nifty machine out the back.”

  “I’ll have an espresso.”

  Holly suppressed a smile as she moved past Elvira to enter the kitchen. Dark and intense. That particular pick suited Zach down to the ground.

  “I started to read through your contract this morning,” Holly said. “I think you have grounds to appeal this in court as being contrary to established norms.”

  Zach shook his head. “What does that mean?”

  “Not a lot,” Holly admitted. “The contract itself is worded correctly, but it’s so different from what a similar contract would contain that it might be possible to get out of it all the same.”

  “And the courts would be happy with that?”

  “It probably wouldn’t ever get that far,” Holly said. “But there are a few precedents on the books for where a contract was so obviously one-sided that the courts have ruled to vacate them as contrary to good faith. There’s fine print, and there’s “fine print,” and the courts don’t like it when a whole lot of contrary to interest terms are shoved in there. It’s plausible that they could rule to overturn.”

  �
�You said it probably wouldn’t get that far, why not?”

  “Businesses don’t like to spend time and money fighting litigation. Unless a lawsuit is frivolous, then it’s easier to go to mediation or negotiate, than be taken to court. Nobody wants their names in the papers, even the small article at the bottom of the business section.”

  Zach appeared wary. “So, it’s just a threat?”

  “No.” Holly shook her head and knocked her knuckles on the table. “It’s a good solid case. All I’m saying is that the other side would probably recognize that and try to settle rather than have a negative decision in a public court.” She sat back in her chair. “Although, to be honest, with Susan behind bars at the moment, I’m not sure who would be taking over the business. If it goes to trustees, then we may end up having to pursue the case a long way just because they’re not in a position to mediate.”

  “Wait a moment, if she goes to prison, then wouldn’t that let me out of the contract, anyway?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  The bell tingled as another customer walked in. Zach bristled at the new arrival, though Holly didn’t recognize the man, apart from the small-town-I’ve-seen-everyone-at-one-stage-or-other kind of way.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  The man took off his knitted woolen hat and screwed it up into a ball in front of him. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m Bevan, from the pie-shop. Are you Holly?”

  Ah. The competitor for the shop across the road. Holly nodded. “Yes, that’s me. How can I help?”

  “I just wondered if you were still interested in the space across there.” The man jerked his head nervously across the road, eyes darting back and forth. “Just, I need to give notice at my place if she’s accepting my application.”

  “I haven’t even put in an application at the moment,” Holly said. “So, you won’t face any battle from me.”