Santa Shortbread (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 12) by P.D. Workman

Author:P.D. Workman [Workman, P.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: pd workman
Published: 2020-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

It was almost closing time when Terry came by. That was not unusual; he liked to stop by at the end of the day to see how she was, to help tidy up and consume stray cookies that had not sold during the day. It was a relaxed end-of-day ritual that they all enjoyed, including K9, who would lie down nibbling a gluten-free doggie biscuit.

But that ritual had ceased when Terry had been injured and gone off of active duty. And although he was back to acting as a policeman part-time, he hadn’t started coming by again.

So for an instant, Erin’s heart rose when she saw him coming up to the door. Things were finally getting back to normal. He was going to start coming by at the end of the day again, and she would get to spend some quiet time with him just tidying up and getting ready for the next day.

But when she saw his face, she knew that he wasn’t there to help her to clean up and get ready for the next morning. She had become accustomed to seeing the fatigue and worry on his face more often than the dimple that appeared when he was really smiling about something. But that didn’t compare to the thundercloud that was over him as he stepped into the bakery.

He didn’t slam the door open or send the bells jingling wildly. If anything, he opened it more slowly and quietly than he usually did. But that didn’t stop the cold chill that raced through Erin. She looked quickly over at Vic, who raised a questioning eyebrow, also wondering what was going on.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Terry demanded without preamble.

“Call you?”

“About the brick through your window. Why didn’t you call me and let me know what had happened?”

Erin hesitated, not sure she was willing to answer. Not sure if there was an answer that would soothe him, or if any response would be wrong. “I just called the dispatcher. I didn’t think you would be on duty.”

“I wasn’t. But what does that have to do with it? I would still think that I would be your first phone call when you have something to be concerned about. Especially something like this, where you called the police to make a report.”

Erin was silent. It didn’t feel right to tell him that she normally would have called him first. That had been her first instinct. But that she hadn’t because they had argued and he had left, and she didn’t feel right about being the one to call him. She was still waiting for him to apologize for his anger and for leaving her alone.

She poured a finished muffin batter into a bowl to soak and set it to the side. She rinsed out the mixing bowl and started the next batch. She kept her eyes down, waiting for him to finish talking and either leave or lend a hand and go home with her.

“Erin, you should have called. Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

He waited.

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