Strawberried Alive by Jenn McKinlay

Author:Jenn McKinlay [McKinlay, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Stop swiveling your head around like that, you’re going to strain something,” Angie said.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to be aware of my surroundings.”

“No, you’re being hypervigilant like this is an active shooter game and a bad guy is going to pop up behind the wall and kill us.”

“Don’t even kid,” Mel said.

“I’m not,” Angie said. “You need to relax. Your anxiety is contagious and I’m already as twitchy as a cat in a room full of rockers trying to do this mom thing. Anxiety makes your mama’s milk dry up, and I can’t have that, and more importantly, Emari can’t.”

“Sorry,” Mel said. “Maybe we should go inside.”

“We’re fine out here,” Angie said. “Honestly, Uncle Stan has so many eyes trained on this house, no one is going to be able to get near it unless their DNA is one hundred percent DeLaura. Relax, drink your iced tea, and tell me why you look like you are about to start eating your own hair.”

“I do not look like that,” Mel protested.

“Yeah, you do,” Angie said. “Good thing you wear it short.”

Mel flopped back onto her poolside lounge chair. The April sun was warm on her face and she wished she were a cat like Captain Jack and her biggest concern was where she was going to catch her next four-hour nap.

“All right, there’s been some difficulty at the bakery,” she said.

Angie frowned. She reached for her unsweetened tea and took a sip. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I think we’ve been canceled,” Mel said.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that Nikki Guthrie has decided that we’re a bad influence in Old Town and is trying to destroy our business by spreading the rumor that Naomi was shot because she was mistaken for me and it’s cost us walk-in business and special orders.”

“But we don’t even know if that’s true,” Angie protested. “We don’t know if there’s a connection between the two shootings, do we? Has Uncle Stan found a connection? Why am I so out of the loop?”

“You’re not. There’s no connection that I know of,” Mel said. “We’re just two women who look a little bit alike who happen to have shops next to each other who were both shot at, one fatally.” Mel’s voice dropped an octave on that last bit. She still couldn’t believe Naomi was gone.

Angie nodded. Then she narrowed her eyes and said, “What if everyone has it wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“Because you were shot at first,” Angie said, “we all assumed that the shooter came looking for you, maybe as revenge for some sleuthing you did in the past or perhaps to get even with your prosecutor husband, but what if it’s neither of those things?”

“I’m sort of following you,” Mel said. She sipped her tea before she continued. “If you could give me a little more direction?”

“What if the shooter was gunning for Naomi all along?” Angie asked. “What if Naomi was the target and we just assumed it was you because, well, you have a knack for getting involved in some seriously sketchy circumstances.

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