Chapter 5
That evening, Sam and I pulled up in front of Gladys’s bright yellow bungalow at a few minutes before seven thirty.
“It cracks me up,” I pointed between the bungalow and the car. “Sam, I think you and Gladys shopped together because your car and her house match perfectly.”
“Ha-ha.” Sam grabbed the container of Pecan Pie Cookies from the back seat, and we ambled up the walkway.
Gladys opened the door before we could knock. “Come in, come in.”
“Something smells wonderful,” I breathed in the mingling aromas.
“I hope you’re ready to eat.” Gladys smiled as she led us down the short hallway to the dining nook off the kitchen.
Sam’s stomach growled as if on cue, and we all laughed.
“Have a seat,” Gladys told us. “I’ll just grab the rolls out of the oven.”
“Gladys!” Sam exclaimed as we stared at the heaping platters of food filling the small table.
“You didn’t need to go to so much trouble for us.” I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Nonsense,” she huffed. “It’s been too long since I have had anyone around to cook a nice meal for, and I decided it might as well be a good one. I enjoyed doing it,” she insisted.
Eyeballing all of the food, I tried to determine where I would start.
“Here we go.” Gladys brought a basket of fresh bread rolls and added it to the table. “We have Beef Bourguignon, Ratatouille, French Onion Soup, radishes with butter, and rolls.”
“Gladys, this isn’t a home-cooked meal, it’s a French restaurant on your table,” I shook my head in amazement.
“How in the world did you get all of this done?” Sam asked, spreading her napkin in her lap.
“Just a little cooking, that’s all.” Gladys sat down and shook out her own napkin. “Now let’s say the blessing and eat before everything gets cold.”
~
“These are delicious, Sam,” I moaned as I finished off my second Pecan Pie Cookie. We were sitting on the back porch, enjoying the night’s cool breeze while we ate dessert.
“Piper,” Sam broached, “do you want to tell Gladys your plan that would allow us to cater the corporate wellness retreat for Breaking Chains?”
“So, you’ve decided?” Gladys asked.
“We definitely want to cater the event,” I said, “but it will depend on a trial run of my plan before Sam or I will call Breaking Chains and commit. We may have to ask them for one more day to decide. Two teenage girls came into the bakery today, and both were scouring the newspaper for jobs. I overheard one of them, Victoria, coming up with cookie ideas that sounded tasty. Turns out, she has some kitchen skills, according to her friend Millie.”
“Okay,” Gladys nodded her head. “So, what are you thinking?”
“Well,” I considered my thoughts and spoke slowly, “I think we should do a test run for a day or two this week with you, Millie, and Victoria working in the bakery. If we train the girls and they seem able to do a good job, then the three of you could watch the bakery during our catering job. Gladys, you would be wonderful working the counter given your people skills and friendly personality, we already saw that.”
“How fun!” Gladys clapped.
“We might need you to check in on Victoria or help her from time to time, also.” I continued laying out the plan. “Millie admits she has no cooking skills; however, she is willing to do all of the cleaning tasks and take a spell at the counter anytime you need a break.”
“What do you think?” Sam asked. “Would you like to do a test run tomorrow?”
“I am flattered.” Gladys nodded. “I do have one important question though.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Do I get to be the official taste tester?”
Sam and I laughed.
“Absolutely,” Sam told Gladys. “You should taste everything that is baked while we are gone. Victoria and Millie are welcome to sample everything as well.”
“I’m in!” A smile stretched from ear to ear. Gladys turned. “You hear that, Drew? I’ve got a new job tomorrow.”
I shook my head as Gladys patted the little palm tree. Oh boy. At least there were no trees or plants in the bakery for Gladys to personify.
“So, at least that solves one of your problems, Piper,” Gladys spoke, turning back to me.
“One of them?” I frowned. “What’s the other one?”
“Sorting out things with Griff and Landon, of course!”
Sigh. And I had hoped not to think about them at all.
“There’s nothing to sort out. Sam and I will be busy getting ready for the catering event, training the girls, not to mention Griff and Landon will be gone for several days anyway.”
“I still can’t believe I never guessed that Griff had feelings for you.” Sam smirked. “I thought I had my brother all figured out. I guess I was wrong.”
“And you, Piper? I could see the first day I saw you two together that you would be a cute couple.” Gladys winked. “Now a man other than Griff has come into your life with obvious affection for you. Do you know what you want?”
“Yes,” I declared, startling them both. Sam tilted her head at me while Gladys leaned forward in her chair. “I want…another cookie!”
“Phooey!” Gladys slapped her knee. “You can pretend it isn’t a big deal if you want to, but you can’t fool me.”
Handing me the plate of cookies, Sam shook her head. “Here,” she offered, “and when you are ready to think about this seriously, I hope you know I’ll be happy with whatever you decide.”
I nodded and chewed my cookie thoughtfully. Before long, Sam and I took our leave.
Chapter 6
Flour coated the kitchen. It was literally everywhere. I blinked. Deep breaths, I told myself.
“Piper, I am soooo sorry. I should have watched where I was going,” Victoria apologized as she went through the futile effort of wiping flour-covered hands on her flour-coated apron. Neither looked any cleaner for the experience.
“No, it’s my fault,” Millie insisted, shaking the flour from her body like a dog shaking off bathwater. “I forgot where the dishrags for cleaning the countertops were at, and I bent down to look in the cabinet. I should have told Victoria I was there, then she wouldn’t have tripped over me.”
Behind me, a low chuckle commenced. In seconds, it erupted into full-blown laughter, followed by wheezing. I turned.
“I’m sorry.” Gladys wiped tears from her eyes as she drew a deep breath. She doubled over in laughter again. “Look at this mess.” She waved her hands at the scene and continued to shake with mirth.
I looked back at the girls. Millie was now trying to blink flour from her eyelashes, the rapid movements of her eyelids making her look crazy. Victoria scraped at the cabinet with her arm, raking flour into a trash bag. Silence finally reigned when the large metal bowl that Victoria had been carrying the bag of flour in finally clanked to a stop in the corner, ceasing its spinning at last.
Sam stepped into the kitchen just then—she had stayed behind to ring up a customer when Gladys and I rushed to find out what happened to cause such a commotion. She took one look at the room and escaped back out front.
Before I spoke, I counted to ten. Three times.
“It’s okay. Millie, grab the broom, please. Victoria, just wipe that flour onto the floor. We can sweep it all up, it’s fine.” I plastered on a smile, hoping to assure the girls that I wasn’t angry, at the same time praying that leaving the bakery to cater for the weekend wasn’t an error in judgment. What was I thinking, leaving teenagers in my kitchen?
Millie spun and rushed to the broom closet. Victoria nodded and swept a giant mound of flour off the counter where it caught the circulating air and fanned out to cover us all. Gladys nearly collapsed in a renewed bout of laughing and coughing.
“On second thought,” I told Millie as I dusted flour from my face, “get the vacuum and the hose attachment. Nobody else moves.”
“Victoria is a fast learner,” I told Sam as we shared a plate of cookies in the café that afternoon. “And her ideas for tweaks on cookies are creative. I’m going to let her mix up a batch of whatever she wants this afternoon to put in the walk-in fridge for tomorrow.”
“That’s great. Do you still think we can leave the Ooey-Gooey Bakery for the catering job?” Sam made a face, and I also cringed. There was likely still flour in my hair.
“Yes, in spite of the flour fiasco today, I think things will be fine.” I looked over at the register as I said this, watching as Gladys cooed at a young baby and suggested a Triple Chocolate to a haggard young mom. “Gladys is a natural, Victoria is smart and eager. I wasn’t sure about hiring Millie, but she is happy to do whatever cleaning is needed as long as she’s earning money for her scooter. That will be a huge time-saver for Gladys and Victoria.” I put as much confidence into my voice as I could muster.
In truth, I would be surprised if I didn’t have a panic attack that the bakery was in the hands of someone other than me for two days. Some might call me a control freak; I prefer the term highly responsible.
“Yeah, I feel better that there will be three of them here and not just two. The baking, stocking, cleaning, and counter sales are a lot of jobs to split between two people. Remember how long it took us to get the hang of it?” Sam laughed and shook her head.
“Oh gosh, yes!” I nodded. “It surprised me when we lasted the whole first week.”
“And even though our only customer the first two days was Griff, we still nearly ran out of cookies because we didn’t mix any up the night before our second day. We couldn’t bake them fast enough!”
“We’ve come a long way since then.” I smiled at the memory. Griff’s employees came in and bought everything we had on day one. Later, one of them told Sam that Griff had threatened to fire them if they went anywhere else during their lunch break. We never did figure out if he was joking or not; neither of us had the heart to ask Griff. “I think I came to work wearing the same clothes three days in a row because I stayed up each night working on new recipes.”
“You did,” Sam remembered, “but I didn’t notice because I was having a hair crisis. I fell asleep trying to add blonde streaks and ended up with orange-highlighter colors staining my hair and head.”
“That explains your ballcap days!”
We chuckled, and soon Gladys joined us, having helped the last customer and sent them on their way, a sack of cookies in hand and a smile on their face.
“Girls,” Gladys addressed us, “what do you think? Can you trust us with your baby while you work the weekend away?”
Sam and I looked at each other. Sam nodded.
“Definitely,” I answered.
“I’m going to call Breaking Chains right now and let them know,” Sam pulled her phone from her purse.
“Wonderful! Do you mind if I take off a little early today?” Gladys asked, glancing at her watch. She had been checking it for the last hour.
“Go right ahead,” I told her. “I hope we didn’t keep you from anything?”
“Not at all. I just have a little cooking to do.”
“Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“See you. Bye, Sam,” she mouthed toward Sam who had moved a few feet away to place the phone call. Sam waved goodbye and smiled.
The bell jingled as Gladys went out and then again as the next customer came inside.
“Hi, Flo,” my smile a little too wide. I hoped my surprise at seeing her in the bakery didn’t show on my face. Flo owned Flo’s Flowers, the business next door to Ooey-Gooey Goodness Bakery, and used to be a regular customer. Flo had stopped purchasing from us after we won the fundraiser contest last week.
“Good afternoon, Piper. I’d like half a dozen Blueberry Scones, please.”
“Of course. Let me box those up for you.” I turned, raising my eyebrow at Sam once Flo was behind me, and retrieved a to-go box from beneath the register. There were only seven Blueberry Scones left in the glass display case, so I put all of them in the box for Flo. I wasn’t one to hold a grudge, and it was nice to have her business again. Ringing up the total for six scones, I hoped she would see the extra pastry as my gesture of goodwill. I put Flo’s money in the drawer and handed over the box.
“Enjoy,” I told her sincerely.
Chapter 7
Sam came and found me after she got off the phone. “It’s all set. Breaking Chains will have us stay the whole weekend to cover breakfast and the dessert bar after lunch and dinner.”
“Who is cooking lunch and dinner?”
“Those meals will be catered by a seafood restaurant local to the area. Don’t worry, they cook everything and then bring it in warmers. The kitchen will be restricted just for our use.”
“What makes you think I was worried about that?” I asked with mock offense.
“First, because you always worry, Piper. Need I remind you of the spa outfit dilemma?” Sam joked. I stuck out my tongue, which she took as a sign to continue. “And second, because your forehead was pinched in all those little worry lines.”
“Fine. Thank you for making all of the arrangements and for checking on the setup.” I grabbed a notepad and pen from beside the register. “Now, what do you need me to do?”
Several lists later—yes, I may or may not have a list obsession—we had a plan to tackle the catering weekend. Sam would train Millie, I would train Victoria, and Gladys would be here to supervise and help when we left. Her five-star French meal for supper was proof enough she could handle things in a kitchen if need be.
“Millie,” I called through the swinging door. The girl pushed her blonde hair behind her ears, mopping sweat from her face, but smiled cheerfully at me.
“Yes?”
“Sam’s going to show you how to do a quick check of inventory. We don’t want Victoria to run out of supplies, and you can help keep track of ingredients for her.”
“Sounds good,” she agreed with a quick nod.
“Follow me.” Sam motioned. They ventured into the walk-in pantry, Sam with a clipboard and Millie with a determined look on her face. I opened the café door and looked around. The sidewalks were empty, so we probably had a few minutes between customers. I made my way into the kitchen where Victoria was scribbling ferociously on a tablet with a short red stylus.
“Hi, Victoria, how’s it going?” I asked, sliding onto a tall stool next to her at the work island.
“Piper! I have so many ideas that I don’t even know where to start. How do you know when you have a good recipe?”
“I don’t. No, really!” I insisted as she looked at me with a yeah, right face. “I don’t know whether the cookies will be good or not until I bake them.”
“Everything you make is so delicious though. I’m afraid mine will be horrible.”
“I can’t very well put the recipes that flop on the menu, now can I?” I laughed.
I understood how she felt. I remembered my first awe of cakes that looked like works of art when I was a girl eating in fancy restaurants. It was years before baking became my dream job, but when it did, I suffered from comparison crisis—I couldn’t bake a thing at first for fear it would never live up to the delicious desserts I had tasted by others. I didn’t want Victoria to feel paralyzed from her own anxiety.
“Trust me, Victoria, there have been some batters that went straight into the trash. Take the Spectacular Sprinkle Cookies, for instance. The first time I made those, I used twice as much almond extract as they really needed. I almost gave up on them, but they were so beautiful I decided to give the flavors a second shot. It worked. With just a hint of the almond, the cookies became delectable to not only the eye but the mouth.”
“So, what you’re telling me is that you aren’t going to tell me wh
at to bake. I just have to screw it up myself and go from there?” Victoria gave a little sigh.
“Exactly. Don’t worry though, I know you’ll do great. Trust your instincts. Maybe even start small, look through my recipes, and put your own spin on one like you were talking about in the café yesterday.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” She laid the stylus down and took the recipe binder I handed her.
“Not at all. I would be flattered. Then tomorrow we can work together on some things and you can ask me questions.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll let you know when I finish something new today.”
The bell jingled out front.
“I’ll leave you to it then. And, Victoria?” I waited until I had her full attention. “Relax, have fun.” She gave a small smile and a nod. Leaving her to the creative cyclone that I knew would occur with a new recipe, I returned to the counter to help customers.
“Pastor Dan!” I greeted the man perusing display cases in the café. “How are you?”
“Hello there, Piper. I’m doing wonderful.” The middle-aged man smiled back at me. The pastor at Sandy Shores Evangelical Church, Pastor Dan had been very grateful for the fundraising efforts of all the businesses. As the winners, Sam and I received a week at the O Heavenly Day Spa operated by the church, and there I met Pastor Dan over dinner. Kind, warm, and full of laughter, Pastor Dan quickly became a friend.
“And how is Nora?” I asked, remembering Pastor Dan’s sweet wife.
“She’s fine, thank you. Actually, she’s the reason I came today. She said she wanted a few of your Lemon Basil Cookies.”
“Excellent. Let me get a bag. Three or four?”
“I think four would be plenty. It’s just the two of us, after all.”
I nodded. I wonder what the pastor’s sweet wife would think if she knew I ate four cookies just for brunch. Sam and Millie stepped out of the back at that moment, obviously having finished in the pantry.
“Pastor Dan!” Sam strode over and gave the pastor a hug. “How good to see you again so soon.”
“And you, Samantha.” Pastor Dan smiled. “Now, what’s this? Your hair is still the same color! What would your mother say?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Box Set Page 18
