Punch, Pastries, and Poison by Harper Lin (ebook reader for pc and android .txt) 📕

out like that last night. I was frustrated and just... not at my best. I’m sorry.”

“No hard feelings. And if there were, those chocolate roll things would have made up for it. Sandra and I finished them off last night. One of the best things you’ve ever made.”

I thanked him, and we hung up. My first instinct was to call Matt to tell him the good news. I even got as far as pulling his number up on my phone, but I stopped before I hit the call button. I still had too many feelings about our fight the night before.

I called Sammy instead. Together, we worked out a plan for what we needed to do to get the café ready to reopen. Sammy was responsible for picking up any of the supplies we needed to replace, and I was responsible for... well, not much, since I was still technically not supposed to leave the house. But I could still coordinate coverage and plan the bakes and drink specials for the day. I was tempted to put everything on special to celebrate our reopening but restrained myself to a spring-themed latte and a buy-one-get-one-free donut deal. I still wasn’t comfortable having Becky and Amanda come in, so I arranged for Sammy to open and Rhonda to close. I planned to be there all day.

Most of the day was spent brainstorming and making calls, either to Sammy and Rhonda to coordinate details, or to our suppliers to see if they could rearrange deliveries so we could have as much of our normal stock as possible. I barely had time to think about the fight Matt and I had gotten in. Well, I could barely think about it if you defined “barely” as hardly being able to keep it off my mind and needing to continue finding distracting tasks.

There was one thing I actually didn’t think about, not until long after Mike had explained that I’d still have to have police protection, just inside my house instead of stationed outside it, as well as another officer lurking behind the scenes at the café. That was that someone was trying to kill me.

That thought held off until I was lying in bed, Latte at my side, trying not to think about Matt. Then, suddenly, it was all I could think about. Someone was trying to kill me. Someone wanted me dead.

I realized that I had mentally narrowed the suspects down to Dean and Todd. Dean because he seemed to have such a grudge against me and Todd because, well, I couldn’t think of many reasons why Todd would be out to get me. I’d helped solve the murder outside his gym, which should have been a good thing. I’d figured out that he and Karli were dating, which eventually led to her parents making them break up, but Todd and Karli were back together now, so that shouldn’t matter.

Thinking about Todd and Karli’s relationship got me thinking about Matt again. I hadn’t talked to him all day. It was the longest we’d gone without talking since we’d been together. I wished I was brave enough to call him and apologize. He was probably still furious with me. He’d be even more furious if he knew I was going back to work tomorrow. But I missed him so much.

I was up before the sun the next morning without an alarm, excited and raring to go. I grabbed the cast-iron skillet I’d set aside for Sammy and tucked it into my tote bag. Sammy’s boyfriend, Officer Ryan Leary, was waiting outside my front door for me. He introduced me to the officer who would be guarding my house while I was gone. I gave her a brief explanation of how to use the espresso machine and invited her to make herself at home. Ryan escorted me to the café, where Sammy was already waiting. She gave me a big hug and Ryan a kiss. After I gave her the skillet, Ryan settled into the back room, where he’d be stationed for the day, and Sammy and I got to work.

We made donuts and baked cookies. I mixed up some brownies and popped them in the oven. Sammy threw together a quick soda bread and got it baking. We sliced tomatoes and chopped lettuce and got a decent amount of preparation done before the first early-morning patrons started trickling into the café.

Everyone was ecstatic that we were open again. Customer after customer gave us hugs. They expressed their sympathies at Ephy’s death and their gratitude that we were alive. I tried not to feel too guilty.

Mike came by more often than was strictly necessary. I wasn’t sure that even he could drink as much coffee as he was downing. He’d come in, get a cup, then wander back out to make a loop of Main Street before wandering in again. I almost pointed out that he was being far from sneaky, but I didn’t want to do anything that would endanger my ability to stay open, so I kept my mouth shut and kept filling his cup.

Mid-morning, Dean came in, scowling, and got a donut and a cappuccino to go. I watched from the end of the counter as Sammy told him that the donuts were buy-one-get-one. “One is plenty,” he snapped. He took his bag and glared at me on the way out. I didn’t know why he came in if he was so grumpy about it.

It was shortly after lunchtime when Todd came in. I’d gotten so used to seeing him with Karli glued to his hip that I was surprised to see him by himself. He gave me a big hug when he saw me. “Fran! I’m so glad you’re open again. I’ve been so worried about you.”

“You have?” I asked, genuinely not expecting to hear that. “Why?”

“You know.” He shrugged. “Just everything that’s been going on.”

He looked down at me with his sparkly blue eyes, his hands still resting on