Candy Canine Christmas Caper and The Bow Wow Bakery: A Doggy Bakery Cozy Mystery (A Doggy Bakery Cozy Mystery Series) by Belinda Page

Author:Belinda Page [Page, Belinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

When I got back home, the first thing I did was take a long, hot shower. I felt incredibly grungy from sitting in the alley and wanted to wash away all the dirt and grime.

I sat in a fuzzy robe with my hair wrapped up in a towel to dry. The house seemed incredibly empty and lonely without Max. Wanting to talk to someone, I picked up the phone and called my mother.

She and my father, ever the travelers, were off on some long-distance hiking trip with friends in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. I crossed my fingers they would be in a reception zone and called.

"Hi, Sweetpea!" Hearing my mother's voice was soothing. Although she and my father hadn't always been nearby for much of my life, I still wanted some consolation from them now and then. We had formed a bond that was unique to us during my adult years. It wasn't the typical family situation since I only saw them on the major holidays, but I'd learned to make our relationship work.

"Where are you guys?" I asked her, hearing some chattering in the background.

"Oh, you know, somewhere along the North Carolina-Tennessee border," she giggled. "We've been hiking for over two weeks straight. You should see my calf muscles! We're averaging fifteen miles a day, and I gotta tell you, some of these couples out here have us beat by several miles in the evening! Unbelievable."

She updated me on the travels of some of the other couples on the trip. Everyone had a nickname like Sunshine or Atlas. Many times, what I thought were nicknames were actually people's real names, in the instance of Huckleberry Stan.

"We stopped by a trail-side pub this evening and set up camp in their backyard. Can't you just see us? A bunch of sixty-somethings camped out in a pub backyard. Life is so wild!"

My parents were just children when hippie culture went through its heyday, but they'd somehow grasped onto the roots and gone with the flow.

"Yes, Mom, that does sound pretty strange," I admitted. I wasn't quite sure that sleeping in a tent outside a pub sounded like my idea of fun, but I was pleased that my mom seemed happy. "How's Dad doing?"

"Oh, same old," she said. "Right now, he's participating in a contest to see which gang can handle the most Carolina Reaper chili peppers."

"Yikes." I shuddered. I liked hot food, but I'd not willingly enter a spicy pepper contest. "I'm surprised Dad decided to participate. Hasn't his acid reflux been acting up again?" My dad's sensitive digestive tract has been an issue for the past few years.

"You know him. He's feeling a touch old, so he's trying to prove himself among a group of twenty-somethings. He is trying not to show his age. But I've got the antacids ready for him."

I laughed. It did sound just like my father.

"But enough about us," Mom said. "What's that I hear in your voice? Is there something going on?"

"Actually, Mom, Max is lost.

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