Sweet Surprises by Shirlee McCoy

Author:Shirlee McCoy [McCoy, Shirlee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Twelve hours into her fifth day on the job and Brenna still hated fudge.

She didn’t just hate it. She hated it to the very depth of her soul.

She stood at the stove anyway, stirring up another batch of what had made Chocolate Haven famous: Lamont family fudge. The stuff had won awards. Its praises had been sung in magazines and on talk shows. There were celebrities who raved about the stuff, brides who ordered pounds of it for their nuptials, and moms-to-be who craved it like other women craved pickles and ice cream.

Yep. Lamont family fudge was the keystone to Chocolate Haven’s success.

Brenna couldn’t make it to save her life.

Which was a problem, considering she needed about fifteen pounds of it. Stat. She had orders for it coming out of her eyeballs: Internet orders, call-in orders, walk-in orders. It seemed every person who’d walked into the shop, called the shop, or gotten on the shop Web site that day desperately wanted Lamont fudge. She’d sold all that was left from the previous day and now she had to find a way to make more.

Brenna eyed the pan of melted chocolate, condensed milk, and a few other ingredients that seemed determined to float at the top of the sludgy mess that was supposed to be fudge. This definitely wasn’t the way.

She’d read the recipe in Byron’s office.

She’d reread it and reread it again.

She’d committed it to memory because Byron had made her swear not to leave it where anyone could see it.

She’d followed the recipe. To a T!

And this was what she had for her efforts: a pot full of crap.

She stirred it frantically, hoping to smooth it out a little more. No such luck. Even with the temperature exactly right, the ingredients precisely measured, the kitchen clean and neat and prepared for greatness, she’d still managed to make a mess of the one thing she absolutely had to get right.

She dipped a spoon into the sludge and tasted it.

It looked disgusting, but it wasn’t horrible. So, maybe she wasn’t making a mess of things. Maybe she was just making a mediocre facsimile of Lamont fudge. Someone would probably eat it and be satisfied, but that someone sure as hell wouldn’t be anyone who’d ever tasted the real deal.

She sighed, pouring the lumpy mixture into a prepared pan and doing everything in her power to make it look glossy and luscious.

It looked like a big pile of shi—

The phone rang and she grabbed it and the yellow pad Byron took orders on. No doubt she’d be asked for another pound of fudge. Milk chocolate. Peanut butter. S’more. Or one of the six other flavors Chocolate Haven offered. She could add another pound of impossible to the list of what she needed, and then she could try the recipe again.

What was this? The sixth time today? The seventh?

“Chocolate Haven. Brenna speaking. How can I help you?”

“It’s your mother,” Janelle said, her voice knife-edged sharp.

“Hey, Mom. What’s up?” She tried to sound pleasant.

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