Been There, Donut That by Shylyn Ray

Author:Shylyn Ray [Shylyn Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

James

“Well, what in the world happened in here?” a middle-aged woman with wavy, burnished copper hair and half an inch of gray roots said as she stepped inside the bakery and looked over at the man busy replacing the glass pane that had broken that morning when a brick with a note attached to it had sailed through it shortly before the start of business.

“We had a bit of a mishap,” I said, trying to push the image of that note and the words scrawled across it out of my mind. Sheriff Hays had kept the note as evidence, but the words remained etched into my brain: NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE. LEAVE BEFORE IT GETS WORSE FOR YOU.

If not for the segment aired on the news last night or the story I’d just heard before the brick shattered the window, I might have thought the message was for me. Heaven knew there were people who couldn’t look past my crime to see the reason for it, but to my knowledge, no one in Cupid’s Bottom knew the skeletons in my closet except for the sheriff and two of the people who benefited from the bakery so I knew that message was for Maddie. I think it made me angrier that it was for her. I believed her story, and she’d done nothing to deserve the hate being thrown her way.

“My word,” the woman mumbled as she approached the counter and shifted her purse higher onto her shoulder. “I suppose I’ll hear about it later. That’s the benefit of small towns. I’m surprised it’s not busy right now. It usually is this time of day, but hopefully that’s due to the community coming together to help poor Belinda and not a bunch of ninnies screwing up their knickers over that terrible thing they aired on the news last night.”

“I’m James,” I introduced myself. “I think I like you.”

“I’m Patty Paulson.” The woman smiled and patted my hand. “Now, handsome fella, tell me about those donuts. I’ve never seen them before.”

I looked at the comfort donuts she’d just pointed at in the display case. “Those are our new mocha latte donuts. They just debuted today. They’re moist coffee flavored cake donuts with a rich chocolate fudge mousse filling and a decadent chocolate frosting on top covered in white chocolate shavings.” I realized I was being a little flowery with my description, but Maddie needed a win so if it helped sell her donuts and show her how much people loved her creations, I’d wax poetic about the things. And honestly, they were worth every flowery word. I’d had one, and it took a lot of self-discipline for me to sell the rest when what I really wanted to do was scarf them down.

“Well, handsome, you’ve got me sold. I’ll take one for sure and if you don’t mind me taking a bite of that one first, I’ll tell you how many I need in all.”

I plucked a square of waxed paper out of the dispenser and used it to grab one of the donuts before handing it over.

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