A Merry Little Murder by Patti Benning

Author:Patti Benning [Benning, Patti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summer Prescott Books
Published: 2019-04-24T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

One molten chocolate lava cake,” Lacey said, setting the dessert down in front of the last customer of the evening. “Can I get you anything else?”

“I think this will be all, dear,” the woman said. “Thank you.”

Feeling relieved, Lacey walked over to the neon open sign and shut it off. It was time to start cleaning up. As soon as the last customer left, she and her mother would be able to go home.

Even after her mother had kicked out all of the non-paying gossip mongers, the diner had been busy. She had been kept on her toes, which meant that she hadn’t had much time to dwell on what had happened. Chris and her father had both stopped in, and her mother had extracted a promise from them to whip something up for dinner. Lacey was looking forward to going home and eating with her family.

So far, her supposed vacation had been anything but relaxing. She wanted time to talk to her family and try to bring back some of the holiday spirit that was missing. Even though they had all been sleeping in the same house, she felt as though she had barely exchanged two words with either her father or Chris since they had arrived. Not that she was complaining about all of the one-on-one time that she was able to spend with her mother. It was nice to have some girl time once in a while.

“I can finish the dishes, Mom,” she said as she went back into the kitchen. “I don't mind. You've done enough work. I thought this year you were going to take a few days off before Christmas?”

“I was, but you know how I am. I always worry that something will go wrong if I don’t stop in every day, then once I’m here, it’s impossible to force myself not to start helping. One thing leads to another, and before I know it, I’ve spent the entire day here.”

“Let's spend tomorrow together as a family,” Lacey said. “You know I love the diner almost as much as you do, but I want the four of us to do something together.”

“Tomorrow is the Christmas party,” her mother said. “We’ll be going to that together, and we can think of something fun to do earlier in the day. Plus, we’re decorating the tree tonight, remember?”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Lacey said with a smile.

She finished scrubbing the dishes while her mother said goodbye to the last customer and locked the diner’s front doors. The two of them spent the next half hour completing the closing routine together. Tomorrow was the last day that the diner would be open until after Christmas. She knew that her mother would probably end up stopping in for a little bit to make sure that everything was going smoothly. There wouldn’t be one dish out of place by the time the doors were shut and locked tomorrow afternoon.

It was well past dark by the time they left for home.

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