Dead Man Cakewalking: A Humorous Cozy Mystery Page-turner (Apple Orchard Cozy Mystery Book 20) by Chelsea Thomas

Author:Chelsea Thomas [Thomas, Chelsea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

25

DINER DISASTER

“According to the almighty Internet, Priscilla is a chef at a place called Elmo’s Diner in Tarrytown, New York.” I set my laptop on the kitchen table and Miss May crowded around it.

“That’s her picture alright.” Miss May put on her glasses and leaned forward. “I just can’t believe that woman is a chef.”

“Why?”

“Because she didn’t seem like a chef,” said Miss May, pulling a tray of Christmas cookies from the oven.

“I knew I smelled cookies,” I said.

“Have one.”

“I’m getting married on Christmas! If you keep feeding me cookies for breakfast like this, I’m going to plump right out of my wedding dress.”

“Never heard the word ‘plump’ used quite that way before,” said Miss May. “And that’s fine. If you don’t want a cookie…”

“You know I want one.”

She smiled and extended the tray toward me. There before me lay six rows of picture-perfect Christmas sugar cookies. Some were shaped like Santa, others like reindeer or candy canes. I leaned down and smelled them. Warm and buttery, just like I remembered from childhood.

“They smell incredible,” I said, selecting a Santa cookie from the tray. “My mouth is literally watering.”

Miss May set the tray down on a trivet and grabbed a candy cane cookie for herself. “Fresh-baked Christmas cookies on a cold winter morning are hard to beat.” She smiled. “Remember how we used to do this when you had sick days from school? It didn’t matter what season it was—”

“I would beg you to make Christmas cookies with me, and you always would.” I smiled fondly at the memory. “I’m lucky you took me in after what happened.”

“I’m lucky, too,” said Miss May. “Now let’s talk plans for today. Seems to me you and Wayne are right. We need to visit Priscilla. Is her restaurant open today?”

I clicked around on the restaurant’s website. “Why do places make their hours so hard to find?”

“Go to Google reviews, they usually have them posted there,” Miss May said.

“I don’t need Internet help from my elderly aunt,” I said, still clicking around blindly. “Fine. Come show me.”

Miss May snickered, nudged me out of the way, and pulled up the hours of Priscilla’s diner in two seconds flat. “I may be elderly, but I’ve got a ton of practice looking up restaurants online. It’s basically my only hobby.”

“You mean other than baking. And taking care of animals. And reading. And cooking. And –”

“Those aren’t hobbies, they’re just things that I do.” Miss May snapped the laptop shut. “How’s the cookie, anyway?”

I took my second bite. It broke off into my mouth without a sound. For a moment, I just let the cookie sit on my tongue. The taste exploded when I began to chew. It was so fluffy, it almost tasted like a slice of pillowy bread. I closed my eyes and savored every morsel.

“Oh good,” said Miss May. “You like it.”

We arrived at Grandma’s a little while later to find Teeny outside waiting for us. She was wearing a puke-green sweater with rusty bells sloppily affixed to the front.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.