Deadly Donuts (2 page)

“Just tell her that I’m begging her for one last chance.
 
She can pick the place, the time, and anything else she wants.
 
It’s all that I’m asking.”

I nodded, and then I looked back into his eyes.
 
“Max, have you
really
changed?
 
It wasn’t all that long ago that you were trying to take advantage of her, and she stopped you dead in your tracks.
 
Are you sure that you’re not doing this just because you want to prove to yourself that you can get her?”

“I considered the possibility,” Max admitted, something that truly startled me.
 
“But in the end, it all boils down to the fact that I love being with her.
 
Her laugh does something to me inside, and I could live off one of her smiles for days.
 
She makes me want to be a better man than I am, and I never want to disappoint her.”

My lands, it appeared that my ex-husband was honestly smitten.

“Okay.
 
I believe you.
 
I’ll talk to her,” I said.
 
Before he got a word in, though, I added, “But this is it.
 
I’m not going to beg, plead, or get down on my knees for you.
 
I’ll ask her, and
whatever
she says, I’m out of it for good.”

“That’s all I can ask,” he said.
 
“Thanks so much, Suzanne.”
 
Max looked at the mostly still-stocked cases behind me, tray upon tray filled with iced and glazed treats.
 
“How much for everything that’s left?”

“What?
 
Are you crazy?
 
You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” he said as he pulled out his wallet.
 
“I’m holding a little workshop at the theatre for the folks who can’t afford to head off somewhere, and those will make a nice treat.
 
What do you say?
 
Don’t give me a discounted price, either.
 
I want to pay full retail.”

“Max, I already said that I’ll talk to Emily for you.
 
This isn’t necessary.”

“That’s what makes it so much fun to do,” he said.

I thought about arguing with him, but my mother had taught me that when someone wants to buy what you’re selling, never try to talk them out of it.
 
Just give them what they want, extend your hand for payment, and then say, “Thank you.”

“Emma, grab some boxes.
 
We’ve officially sold out for the day,” I said as I opened the kitchen door and found my assistant just finishing up another sink full of dishes.
 
Emma had left me, gone to college, and found that it wasn’t for her.
 
She’d been overjoyed to have her place back at Donut Hearts, and I was thrilled to have her.

“Who’s the big spender?” she asked as she rinsed off the last plate and put it into the drying rack.

“Max,” I said as I collected a few boxes so I could get started.

“What does he want?” she asked me with a grin.

“I’m playing Cyrano for him,” I said.

“Suzanne, please tell me that you’re kidding,” Emma said.
 
“Do I even want to know who’s going to be on the other end?”

Since she and Emily were close, I decided to keep that to myself.
 
“Does it matter?
 
We can both leave after we box these up and clean up a little.”

“Then I’m with you.”

“Hello, Max,” Emma said as she walked out into the dining area.
 
“I hear that love is in the air.”

“I hope so,” Max said.
 
“Can I give you a hand?”

“No, Suzanne and I have a system.”

The pair of us boxed the donuts, all eleven dozen of them, and I did a little quick math to come up with a total.
 
I was tempted to knock off a few bucks before I quoted Max a price, but then I remembered Momma’s words again.

Max paid gleefully, and even managed to carry them all in one load, though he couldn’t see where he was walking.

“Give me some of those and I’ll help you,” I said as I held the door for him.

“Don’t worry about me.
 
I can do it,” he said.

“Sure, you can, but there’s no need to.”
 
I grabbed four of the full boxes, loaded with filled donuts from apple spice to zesty lemon, and then I turned back to Emma.
 
“Hang around.
 
I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Take your time,” Emma said.
 
“I’ll start sweeping the front.”

The heat was oppressive, stealing my breath away with its intensity when I walked outside.
 
I feared for my donuts, and I was glad when we finally made it to the parking lot.
 
Once we were at Max’s car and had the donuts safely stashed away with the air conditioner blasting away on high, he turned back to me and asked, “Emma seems happy, doesn’t she?”

“She’s so glad to be back in town working at Donut Hearts, I could probably get her to work for nothing, not that I ever would.”

“College isn’t for everyone, is it?”

“Well, she’s still going to the community college, and I suspect she’ll try going away again in a few years, but for now, I’m thrilled to have her with me.”

It was clear that Max had more on his mind than Emma’s wellbeing.
 
Finally, he asked me, “When are you going to talk to Emily for me, Suzanne?
 
You know how close she and Emma are, so if you let something slip to her too soon, I’ll be doomed from the start.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from being snippy.
 
“As soon as I finish shutting down for the day, I’ll walk over to Two Cows and a Moose,” I said.
 
“Until I speak with Emily, I won’t say a word to Emma about it.”

“That’s perfect.
 
Do me a favor, would you? Call me no matter what she says, okay?”

That sounded fair to me, so I agreed.
 
“Don’t get your hopes up, Max.
 
After all, I can only do so much.”

“It’s too late, they are already sky high,” Max said with his characteristic grin.
 
“Talk to you soon.”

I walked back to Donut Hearts, not sure exactly what I was going to say to Emily.
 
I’d state Max’s case, and then I’d let her decide without trying to exert any undue influence on her.
 
Now that Max was gone, I realized that it had happened again.
 
Somehow, my ex-husband had reached out beyond the grave of our marriage, and he had somehow managed to pull me back in.

At least he’d managed to distract me, if only for a few moments, from the stranger who’d come in threatening my father’s memory, and if nothing else, I owed him something for that.

Chapter 2

“Hi, Emily,” I said as I walked into Two Cows and a Moose a little later that day.
 
Her stuffed animals were on their usual perch sitting together on a shelf above the register, and I was amused to find them all dressed in old-fashioned swimsuits, as though they were ready for a dip in the 1800s.
 
They each wore big, bold sunglasses, and Emily had even added little patches of white that looked as though they all had sunscreen on their snouts.
 
“My, aren’t they dressed nicely today.
 
They’re ready for the beach, aren’t they?”

She laughed.
 
“Cow and Spots were fine with their outfits, but Moose had a fit about wearing the swimsuit I made him.
 
He always
has
had such a quiet dignity about him, and there are times when he resists my best efforts to dress him up like his pals.”

I had to look twice at her to see if she was kidding, and I still couldn’t tell.
 
Emily and her three stuffed-animal friends had shared a bond while she’d been growing up that was unreal at times.
 
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she didn’t believe in her heart that they were real and carried on actual conversations with her, but if it was crazy, it was a kind of insanity that I could get behind.
 
Whenever I was around the four of them, three stuffed and one human, I tended to suspend all disbelief myself, and there were moments when I expected one of them to chime into the conversation at any second.
 
“How’s business?”

“It’s going great,” she said.
 
“This is one of my busiest times of years.
 
Have you seen my new line of paperback novels?”

Leave it to Emily.
 
If she found something her customers wanted, she did her best to make sure that she could satisfy their needs with one-stop shopping.
 
There were three new racks of paperbacks, and not just for bestsellers, either.
 
As I scanned the titles, I found a preponderance of brightly covered mysteries that were all warm and inviting.
 
Some showed images featuring food, while others exhibited cats, crafty items, front porches, and warm surroundings.

“There are a lot of new mysteries, I see,” I said.

“My clientele just lap them up,” she replied.
 
“And why not?
 
There’s something cozy and comforting about these books.
 
Besides the usual readers, I get folks who tell me about going to visit loved ones in the hospital, or worse, trying to get over the loss of folks they loved, and they always seem to turn to this particular kind of book.
 
There’s something so reassuring about the small towns these authors write about, despite the prevalence of murder.”
 
Emily looked around her store, and upon seeing that it was mostly deserted, she added softly, “Don’t tell anybody, but I’m writing one myself in my spare time.”

“I didn’t know that you were a writer,” I said.
 
“That’s awesome.”

“Well, I’m not one yet, at least not published,” she admitted.
 
“But I just had to try my hand at it.”

“How’s it going so far?” I asked her.

Emily frowned a bit.
 
“It’s harder than it looks, I’ll say that.”

“Anything worth doing is worth the struggle, though, wouldn’t you say?”
 
It wasn’t the most subtle segue in the world, but it was all that I could manage.

“Something tells me that we’re not talking about books anymore,” Emily said.

“We aren’t,” I replied.
 
“The real reason that I’m here is because of Max.”

My friend’s smile quickly faded.
 
“Now he’s roped you into this, too, has he?
 
The man has some kind of nerve, Suzanne.
 
I can’t believe you agreed to help him, especially since you were the one who warned me about him in the first place.”

“I know; believe me, it sounds crazy to me even as I’m doing it.
 
He wants another chance with you.”

“So he keeps saying,” she replied.
 
Her expression softened for a moment as she asked, “Do you think he deserves it?”

“That’s not really a fair question to ask me, is it?
 
All I’m saying is what happened between us shouldn’t affect the two of you.”

“Suzanne, he
cheated
on you.”

“You don’t need to remind me.
 
But I do believe people have the capacity to change, don’t you?”

“I’m not sure,” she said after a few moments of silence.
 
“Even if it’s true, I doubt that it happens all that often.”

“You won’t get any argument from me,” I said.
 
“You should do whatever
you
want, but I wanted to just put it out there.”
 
I started to go, and then I decided that full disclosure was the best policy here.
 
After all, I didn’t want to take a chance on ruining our friendship.
 
“Emily, he bought out my donut shop’s inventory today, but only after I agreed to speak with you for him.
 
That wasn’t a requirement, though.
 
I think Max did it out of sheer jubilation, but I didn’t want you to hear about it and think that he bribed me into talking to you.
 
I have too much respect for you
and
our friendship to do that.”

“Suzanne, I would never believe for one second that you could be bought,” Emily said, and then she added a wicked little grin as she said, “Not for donuts, at any rate.”

“Don’t kid yourself, he bought eleven dozen,” I said with a laugh, happy that all was well between us.
 
“So, what do you think you’re going to do?”

“Hang on.
 
Let me consult with my life coach experts.”
 
She walked over to her stuffed animals and asked, “You heard what the lady said.
 
What do you guys think?”

I half-expected one of them to answer.

I didn’t hear a reply, but perhaps Emily had.
 
“That settles it.
 
I’ll do it, but there’s only one condition that I’m going to insist on.”

“I’m sure he’ll do
anything
you ask to get another chance,” I said, hoping that my mission of mercy didn’t end up hurting my friend.

“It’s not something that I need from him,” Emily said.
 
“If you believe that it’s possible that Max has changed,
you
have to have dinner with us, too.”

I would have rather broken my foot than go out with them on their date.
 
“Are you sure I wouldn’t just get in the way?”

“I’m positive.
 
Take it or leave it.
 
It’s the only way it’s going to happen.”

I could tell that she wasn’t about to budge.
 
“When do you want to do this?”

“I’m free tonight if you are,” Emily said with a smile.
 
“Given your schedule, I assume we need to make an early evening of it.
 
What about five?”

“I’ll ask,” I said, knowing that Max would break any engagement he might already have for another chance with Emily.
 
“Do you have any place in particular in mind?”

“I think the Boxcar Grill is perfect, don’t you?”

“Wonderful,” I said, wondering what my friend, Trish—the owner of the grill—would say about me going out on a three-way date with Emily and my ex-husband.
 
“I’ll call Max and see what he thinks.”

As I started to dial his number, Emily put a hand on my shoulder.
 
“You should know that I won’t hold you responsible for anything that happens tonight.”

“That’s comforting to know,” I said, hoping that she meant it.

As I expected, Max didn’t even hesitate accepting Emily’s conditions.

It looked as though I had more plans tonight than just meeting a blackmailer at midnight under the town clock.

It was hard to say at that point
which
event I was looking less forward to doing.

It was time to go home, but I didn’t know how I was going to possibly explain the two situations I’d gotten myself into to my mother.
 
Before I’d moved back in with her after leaving Max, it wouldn’t have been that difficult to duck her until I’d attended Emily and Max’s big date and dealt with the man who’d accused my late father of murder, but since we were both living under the same roof again—a charming little cottage on the edge of the town park—things weren’t quite so easy.
 
She could read me like an open book, so I knew that keeping anything from her would be nearly impossible.

When I saw that her car was missing from our driveway as I parked my Jeep in its usual spot, I nearly whooped out in delight.

Inside, perched on the stairway so I wouldn’t be able to miss it, was a note.

Dear Suzanne,

I’ll be gone most of the afternoon, and into the evening.
 
Phillip and I have plans.

Love,

Momma

P.S. Don’t forget to eat something healthy.

Was there ever a time when our parents stopped trying to parent us?
 
If there was indeed a cut-off age, it was pretty clear that I hadn’t reached it yet.

At least I didn’t have to explain to her what I was going to be doing later.

I glanced at the clock on the mantel over the fireplace and saw that I had plenty of time for a nap.
 
Instead of going upstairs, though, where it was hotter than it had any right to be at this time of day, I turned on the ceiling fan above the couch, added a box fan’s breeze, and settled down on the couch for a quick nap.

I kept dreaming that drums were pounding in the background as I built a snow fort, and it took me a second to realize that reality was encroaching on my sleep.
 
I sat up, glanced at the clock as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and realized that I’d overslept.

Then the knocking started again.

“Hang on.
 
I’m coming,” I called out as I made my way to the door.

It was Grace Gauge, my best friend, and frequent co-conspirator.
 
Grace, slim and blonde, was a perfect contrast to my brunette hair and ample curves, and we fit together as though our destinies had been planned from the very start.

“I knew you must have been asleep,” she said as I let her in.
 
“Let’s go grab a bite, unless you have plans with Jake or your mother tonight.”

“I don’t, but I can’t,” I said as I shut the door behind her.

“Wow, that’s quite a cryptic answer,” she said.
 
“Care to fill me in?”

“Only if you don’t mind listening while I grab a quick shower,” I said as I hurried upstairs to my own little en suite.
 

“Sadly, I’ve got nothing better to do, so lead the way,” she said with a smile.

Grace jumped on my bed while I headed into the bathroom, and I left the door open so we could chat while I got ready.

I started to bring her up to date on my dinner plans with Emily and Max when she walked into the doorway.
 
“Suzanne, have you completely lost your mind?”

“I know how it sounds, Grace, but what could I do?
 
Max really cares about Emily, and if I can lend them a hand, why shouldn’t I?”

“Jake has turned you into a hopeless romantic, hasn’t he?
 
Or are you just hopeless?
 
Do you honestly believe that your ex could
ever
change?”

“It’s really not up to me to say, is it?” I asked.
 
“
Emily’s
opinion is all that matters.
 
Besides, how bad could it be?
 
We’re eating at the Boxcar, and I’m going to be there the entire time.”

“I’ve got to see this for myself.
 
I’m coming, too.”

I was afraid of that.
 
My friend’s sense of curiosity might have been even bigger than mine.
 
As I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, I said, “Grace, it’s sweet of you to offer, but I’ve got this covered.”

“Did you honestly think that I was tagging along to
help
?” she asked with a laugh.
 
“This has “train wreck” written all over it.
 
I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

I shut off the water and grabbed a towel.
 
“I’m not about to try to keep you from going to the Boxcar, but I can’t invite you to our table.
 
You know that, don’t you?”

“You don’t have to worry about me.
 
I’ll be a discreet distance away.
 
Do you think the next table over will be far enough?”

I had to laugh at that myself.
 
“Just try not to be
too
obvious about it, okay?”