“What do you think, boys?”
Noah moans with satisfaction. “You should really consider opening up a bakery. It’s that good.”
Everett grunts out a dull laugh. “I’m starting to think the bakery is just a cover. She’s about to put you out of a job, Noah.”
Now it’s me belting out a laugh. “No thank you. I like it just fine in the kitchen. I’ll take customers over suspects any day of the week. Detective Fox, you are welcome to all the homicide investigations in the world. I want nothing to do with another one of those things.”
Noah’s dimples press in deep. “Now that sounds like a deal.”
Everett sways back on his heels. “I’ve got some news.”
Noah lifts a brow. “Did you pick up a new strain of STD?”
Everett takes a moment to stare him down. “Nope. I spoke with Daphne today.”
“Ah.” Noah wraps an arm around me and pulls me in close. “You set a date for later this evening. Again, be leery of those STDs.”
Everett growls as if he were annoyed with his former stepbrother. “I’m no longer speaking to you.” He turns my way. “Lemon, Daphne let me know they had the reading of the will this afternoon.”
“Oh my goodness! Did Eve leave an even split among her three kids?” I’m assuming that’s what any loving parent would do, but I think it’s been proven Eve was a strong proponent of tough love.
Everett shakes his head. “Not quite. She left the house to the girls and gave Helman a nice sum, that if he spends wisely he can live off of.”
“What did she do with the rest?” I’m almost afraid to ask.
“She donated it all to a worldwide animal welfare and conservation group that specializes in taking care of abused or abandoned circus animals. Apparently, her grandfather owned a circus, and she grew quite fond of a bear cub.”
“I see.” And it confirms what Daphne told Keelie and me that day at the courthouse. “Well, I hope the remaining Hollisters are at least content with what was given.”
Everett shakes his head. “Daphne is repealing the will.”
“Can she do that?” I balk. “Those were Eve’s wishes.”
Everett offers a sorrowful nod. “Just about every will can be contested and dismantled. And Daphne is just that good.”
We call it a night and head back to Country Cottage Road. Noah and I say goodnight to Everett, and I wrap my arms around my gorgeous boyfriend.
“You up for a quick cup of cocoa by the fire?” I bite down playfully on my bottom lip.
“If that’s code for frosting your cookies, I’m in, Cupcake.” He picks me up and races me up the porch, and a laugh bounces from me.
Noah and I don’t bother to light the fire. Instead, I hang onto that hunk of muscle as we heat the sheets and burn down the house ourselves.
Noah and I are definitely on fire.
* * *
On a Thursday, the last one in January, Keelie, Naomi, Becca, William, his three daughters, and I hightail it into Nell’s attorney’s office and prepare for what comes next, the reading of Nell Sawyer’s last will and testament.
When Keelie relayed to me that Nell’s attorney requested I be present for the reading of the will, you could have blown me over with an angel cookie. When Nell mentioned that she had an envelope for me in the event something happened to her, I assumed that it would trickle down to me through the proper chain of command—the lawyer, Becca, Keelie, and finally me. But here we are, awkward city.
The lawyer comes in, Thomas Beauregard, Attorney at Law, looking every bit as intimidating as one might imagine. Tall, large frame, thick head of gray hair, deeply wrinkled skin, and a permanent scowl on his face. Is that some sort of requirement in all legal professions?
After a quick dissertation on things, that I let slip right by me, Mr. Beauregard straightens the paperwork in his hands. “To my dear family whom I love with all of my heart, please know that I have set aside an equal and healthy sum of money for each and every person in this room.”
William shoots a sly eye my way, and I shrink a little in my seat because I’m certain Nell didn’t mean me.
“The Honey Pot Diner, the land under the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery, and all of the remaining real estate holdings, which include my primary residence in Honey Hollow and my summer home in Nantucket, and my beloved cat Waffles, I bequeath to Carlotta Kenzie Lemon—”
If he said anything else, it was drowned out with the sound of gasps and perhaps even a trio of screams from Keelie’s cousins.
William glares my way. “I’ll contest this. Whatever you did to con my mother into gifting you half of Honey Hollow, you won’t get away with it.”
“Uncle Will!” Keelie roars at him like a tiger in my defense.
The door creaks open and in steps that woman in the red coat—yes, it’s red once again, hood drawn halfway down her forehead, scarf to her nose, Jackie O sunglasses despite the fact she’s standing deep inside a high-rise in Ashford.
Everybody in the room freezes, including me.
Nell’s attorney scowls over at her. “Carly?”
The woman nods, and both Becca and Will stand. “Carly?” they cry in unison.
Mr. Beauregard clears his throat. “Your timing is impeccable. The stipulation was—”
“I know,” she says, pulling back her hood and plucking off her sunglasses to reveal caramel-colored hair and a pair of light hazel eyes. “If I’m not present, I don’t get a dime. Well, I’m here.” She does a quick sweeping glance of the peanut gallery before returning her gaze to the man with the plan in his hands.
Mr. Beauregard looks at her from over his glasses. “And do you realize what’s expected of you?”
The woman in red pulls the scarf from her face and takes a deep breath.
“Yes, I sure do.” She staggers deeper into the room and looks right at me. “My name is Carlotta Sawyer. I am Nell’s youngest daughter, and I ran away when I was just sixteen.” Tears glisten in her eyes as she looks to Becca and William. “I ran away right after I had a baby and left her in the Honey Hollow Fire Department.” Her gaze reverts to mine, and I freeze. “It’s true. I’m the one that did that to you all those years ago. Carlotta Kenzie Lemon, I am your mother.”
Acknowledgments
A big SHOUTY thank you for reading this MURDER IN THE MIX Mystery! I hope you had a blast with Lottie and the rest of the Honey Hollow peeps. I hope they make you laugh and keep you on the edge of your seat. Until our next adventure!
To my sweet girl, Shay Rivera! Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to lay your beautiful eyes on this book. I am forever grateful.
A very hearty and huge thank you to Kaila Eileen Turingan-Ramos for being the best person ever. I can’t thank you enough for always making time for me. You know I love you!
Lisa Markson, you are fabulous. Need I say more? Just knowing you has my heart bursting with gladness.
A special thank you to Jodie Tarleton for being so fabulous to me and to the world. You are such a bright light! Thank you for your kindness.
To the woman who wields a mighty and powerful red pen, Paige Maroney Smith. Wow, am I ever grateful to you. Not a single word in any lexicon can ever express how thankful I am for you. I just love you so very much!
And last, but never least, thank you to Him who sits on the throne. Worthy is the Lamb! Glory and honor and power are yours. I owe you everything.
Red Velvet Vengeance
Murder in the Mix Mystery #6
Addison Moore
Copyright © 2018 by Addison Moore
This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to peoples either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, and characters are figments of the author’s imagination. The author holds all rights to this work. It is illegal to reproduce this novel without written expressed consent from the author herself.
All Rights Reserved.
This eBook is for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may n
ot be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase any additional copies for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2018 by Addison Moore
Created with Vellum
Book Description
My name is Lottie Lemon, and I see dead pets. On occasion I see a once upon a human, too, but mostly it’s just cute little furry beasts who have come back from the other side to warn me of their previous owner’s impending doom.
No sooner did my biological mother reveal herself than my entire life flew into chaos. Not only is my favorite specter bringing me a serious string of bad luck, but a coffee shop opened down the street from my bakery and they suspiciously sell all the same baked goods that I do—and they’re using my recipes to do it. So when I stumble upon one of the owners as dead as a doornail, I can see why I might be at the top of the suspect list. But believe me when I say offing one of my competitors is the last thing I want to do any day of the year, and especially not on Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air in Honey Hollow and unfortunately, so is murder.
Lottie Lemon has a brand new bakery to tend to, a budding romance with perhaps one too many suitors, and she has the supernatural ability to see dead pets—which are always harbingers for ominous things to come. Throw in the occasional ghost of the human variety, a string of murders, and her insatiable thirst for justice, and you’ll have more chaos than you know what to do with.
Living in the small town of Honey Hollow can be murder.
Chapter 40
I see dead people.
Mostly I see those of the furry dearly departed variety, but on occasion I see a bona fide once upon a human. But unfortunately for me, I’m not looking into the eyes of some adorable little long-dead creature. I’m looking into the eyes of a very much alive human—Carlotta Sawyer, my biological mother.
“My mother?” My feet propel me forward, but only a few steps in this mystery woman’s direction. The closer I get, the more my adrenaline seems to spike to unsafe levels.
The attorney just finished reading Nell’s last will and testament where, apparently, she’s left almost half of Honey Hollow to little ol’ me, including Nell’s primary residence, her summer home in Nantucket, and her beloved Himalayan, Waffles, who happens to be the brother to my own Himalayan, Pancake. But it’s this bonus prize, if you can call her that, which has stolen all of my attention and that of everyone in the room.
Just as the reading of Nell’s last wishes concluded, a woman burst through the door and confessed to being Nell’s long-lost daughter and my very own mother.
Standing before me is my exact representation, a woman who bears an eerie resemblance to my every nuance, an aged version, with a slightly bitter disposition.
“Yes”—her lips pull tight as she meets her gaze with mine and holds it—“it’s me. The woman who bore you.”
Becca and William collapse over her with hard embraces, tears streaming down both of their faces. Becca is the mother of my best friend, Keelie, and William is her brother.
Keelie staggers up and wraps an arm around me. “I have an aunt.” She turns my way. “And that makes you my cousin. I always knew we were family.” Tears sparkle in her usually perky blue eyes. Keelie is a blonde bombshell, who is just as peppy as her name suggests, but at this moment, after the passing of the woman we both so dearly loved, we’re all a bit morose.
“We are family, Keelie,” I say, my chest pulsating like mad because I suddenly can’t seem to catch my breath. “But it’s not because of her.” I lift a finger toward the woman who suddenly wants to claim me.
Becca and William take a step back, loosening their hold on their long-lost sister. Becca looks just like Keelie, but she dyes her locks a dark shade of auburn. William looks like a male version of Becca and nothing like his long-lost sister.
My newly pronounced mother glares at me a moment as if she understood we were readying to have a showdown.
“Now, let’s not get testy.” Her bottom lip quivers the way mine has a propensity to do when I’m agitated. “That’s not what Nell would have wanted.”
“I don’t care what Nell would have wanted,” I say. “She’s not here.” Gasps go off behind me, and I can only guess it’s Keelie’s cousin and her twin sister Naomi. “You didn’t come back to Honey Hollow for me. You came for the money you’d get from Nell.”
“I showed up well before she was dead!” this older version of myself riots my way. “I came because it was time to make things right with the both of you.” Her voice softens a notch, but the muscles in her jaw are still quivering with anger. “I want to get to know you, Carlotta. I want you to get to know me—to know the reasons why I did the thing I did.”
“I know why you did it. You just said you were sixteen, a runaway having a baby. I get that. But plenty of time has passed. Keelie didn’t even know you existed. You left for twenty-six years.”
She takes a ragged breath and looks to both Becca and William for a brief second. “Nell adopted me when I was six months old. I was her younger sister’s daughter. My own mother left me for greener pastures. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” She blinks a short-lived smile. “But now that I’m back, I’m ready to do this right. I want to get to know you, Carlotta. I want to get to know all of you.” She looks past my shoulder and manufactures a smile for the attorney.
I shake my head without meaning to. “I don’t think I want to know you.” I burst past the three of them and make a dash for the stairwell.
Keelie chases me down and drives my car back to Honey Hollow for me.
I cry all the way there, wishing Nell Sawyer had never died to begin with.
Two weeks later…
It’s a snowy Saturday in February, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day, and you would think the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery would be bustling just trying to meet an astronomical number of orders as customers clamor inside in hopes to score a box of delectable treats to bring home to their sweethearts, but it’s far from it. We’re an hour from closing and have yet to sell half of what we normally do.
Keelie comes up beside me as we look across the street together.
“Maybe we need a neon sign, too? Especially the part that reads coffee, confections, and more?”
I take in a deep breath of the vanilla rich air. I’ve been baking and icing my red velvet cupcakes nonstop for tonight’s Hearts of Hope Charity Ball that the fire department is putting on down at the community center.
“I don’t see us as a neon sign kind of a place,” I say, ogling the hot pink neon sign across the street that reads The Coffee Cake Break, coffee, confections, and more! “Besides, people might think I actually stole their name.” It just so happens the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery has a small sign beneath it that reads coffee, confections, and more. But the trio of thieves that opened up that knockoff bakery across the street didn’t mind one bit stealing my slogan, along with my regular customers.
“Please, Lottie, you’re one of the richest women in all of Honey Hollow. You’ll never even need to think of stealing.” Keelie bucks with laughter at the thought as the front door opens and my sister Lainey strides in wearing a cherry red wool coat.
“Happy Valentine’s Day!” She pumps her fists as she dances her way over, only to have that smile on her face quickly dissipate. “What’s going on? It’s like a ghost town in here.”
“The copycats have opened up shop across the street,” I grunt. “And word has it, they’re giving everything away for free today.” It’s true. As soon as Lily Swanson, the traitor who works for me, filled me in on this tidbit, I was not only fuming mad at their below-the-belt strategy—okay, maybe not below the belt but decidedly foolish, but I was hurt to see almost all of my customers heading that way in a steady stream. FYI, Lil
y Swanson is the best friend of Naomi Turner, Keelie’s twin. Naomi has held a grudge against me since high school over a silly boy of all things. But when Lily was in desperate need of a job, and I was far more desperate for help at the bakery, I didn’t hesitate to hire her. It was Lily who trained the three girls who opened the bakery across the street, and she trained them using my equipment and recipes. Clearly, I have to rethink all of my life choices.
“A rival bakery across the street? That’s terrible!” Lainey stomps a black patent stiletto over the floor, and the sound reverberates throughout the empty café.
The Honey Pot Diner next door is bustling, seeing that it’s the busiest night of the year, and thanks to the giant hole in the wall connecting the two establishments, I can hear the cheery din of couples engaging in conversation, their laughter making me feel lonelier than ever.
Not that I’m alone as far as having a man in my life goes. No, actually, I’ve got a surplus of men at the moment. Both my boyfriend, Noah—Detective Noah Fox—and Judge Essex Everett Baxter will be at the Hearts of Hope fundraiser tonight, and even though Everett and I are just friends, I’ve promised to save a dance for him.
“It is terrible,” I echo, glancing knowingly to my sister. It seems an entire string of terrible things have occurred over the last month. Just before Nell died, she let me in on the fact that the gift we both share—if you can call it a gift—is something she referred to as transmundane and supersensual. She insisted that I must never claim one of those long-deceased pets as my own, and yet it was too late for that.
I’ve already taken a liking to Tanner Donovan’s Golden Retriever, Dutch, who has remained staunchly by my supernatural side ever since Tanner himself bit the big one back in December. He was dating Lainey and dating twelve other women at the very same time, so I have mixed feelings about his untimely demise.
But so far Dutch is the only spectral creature that hasn’t bothered to evaporate into thin air after the murder of his owner was solved. Usually that’s the last I see of those fantastic phantasms and long-departed people alike, but, for whatever reason, Dutch has taken a liking to me and I to him.
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