Dead of Winter_Aspen Falls Novel by Melissa Pearl & Anna Cruise

Author:Melissa Pearl & Anna Cruise [Pearl, Melissa & Cruise, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

20

Thursday, February 22nd

9:25pm

Rosie’s tongue poked out the side of her mouth as she held the frosting bag and carefully outlined the cookie. Julio had been kind enough to stay a few extra minutes and give her some tips on how to perfect the art of decorating. After he left, Rosie decided to bake a fresh batch of sugar cookies and try to frost the lot.

She’d called to make sure Louanne wouldn’t mind. Her surrogate grandmother had chuckled and said she could spend the whole night baking if she wanted to. As long as she cleaned up after herself and locked up when she left, the place was hers.

For the first time in what felt like years, Rosie had felt a thrill rush through her.

She snorted with laughter, surprised that something as small as frosting cookies would spark something inside of her, but since starting work at Lulu’s, she’d discovered an unknown passion for the art of baking. Julio had the patience of a saint and was teaching her whenever he had a moment to spare. And Mandy would chip in to reprimand or correct him whenever she was listening in.

Rosie couldn’t believe how much she loved it.

Finishing the outline of the star-shaped cookie she’d made, she stepped back and hummed while she thought about what else to add to the design. She was pretty sure Mandy wouldn’t appreciate her raiding the decorating supplies, so she decided to make it all about the frosting.

Grabbing a clean bowl, she started to prepare a fresh batch. This one would be white, and she’d do her best to attempt a cool snowflake pattern she saw on Pinterest. Mandy had been looking for wintery ideas. Nothing would be sweeter than to have her show up the next morning and see Rosie’s success. She’d be lost for words.

Rosie giggled as she stirred a little corn syrup into her milk and powdered sugar.

A noise from the front of the store made her heart lurch. The jitters that always lay so close to the surface jumped over her. She gently laid the spoon down and wiped her hands on the apron, inching around the kitchen counter and calling out a shaky, “Hello?”

“Hello!” a man replied from the front.

Erratic breaths spurted from Rosie’s nose as she snatched the rolling pin off the counter and crept to the front of the store.

“Rosie?” Blaine’s head popped into view and she quickly laid her weapon down, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

“Oh, hi.” She tittered, sounding ridiculous and inwardly cringing.

Blaine gave her a curious look before breaking into a grin. “I hope you don’t mind me popping in like this. I know Lulu’s is closed, but I buzzed your door and no one answered, and then I saw the light from the kitchen.” He pointed to the back door he must have come through. “You know, you should probably lock up if you’re in here on your own.”

“Oh, yeah, I…I was going to when I left.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, successfully smearing frosting across her cheek.

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.