Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

problem in her head and I looked at Kate inquisitively. We shrugged at each other. Effie lifted a finger in our direction as if she was about to say something, but she was still chewing. We waited, then waited some more.

“That thing had toffee in it,” Kate laughed, pointing at the candy wrapper. “We’ll be waiting all day!”

Effie finally finished eating and took a deep breath in before speaking. “Something’s off,” she blurted. “There is no way that Ma—” she stopped herself before saying his name. “How could he sound so different after such a short time?”

“A year isn’t that short,” I offered. “Maybe he had some training?”

“Maybe he is dating a voice coach?” Kate said. Effie’s bottom lip started to quiver, and I nudged Kate to prompt her to say something to remedy the upset look on her sister’s face. “Or he had surgery? Surgery on his vocal chords, yeah that’s it. He had some work done then went home to recover alone because he is alone. Single and not dating anyone!”

“Nice save,” I scowled. Kate shrugged, but Effie seemed to be pulling herself back together. I hadn’t seen any signs of weakness from Effie since I moved here, she seemed so strong and powerful. I guess a broken heart can hit anyone. I knew the feeling.

“We need to go and spy on Timmy boy, look at the time!” Effie said. She pointed up to the clock; she was right.

“I don’t know why you are getting so excited; you guys are going to hide behind menus and pretend you aren’t even there. Effie? Are you listening?” Kate warned.

“Yeah, whatever. Look, I don’t have all day to waste because I think there is some business to take care of later and, yeah, come on,” Effie said. She was distracted by something, but she was keeping it to herself. I wondered if this was just about Max, I suppose if you just heard your ex boyfriend’s voice after a year then your head would be all over the place.

“Do you wanna split some tater tots at the restaurant?” I asked Effie. We were on our way out of the studio and I could feel my stomach grumbling.

“Sadie, it’s a fancy place. They call them ‘potato croquettes,’” she laughed.

“Look, how are we doing this?” Kate said, spinning on her heels to face us. The midday sun was high in the sky and our shadows were like dark pools at our feet. “I think you guys should go in first and sit down. Don’t look at him at all.”

“If you insist, sis!” Effie smiled. “Come on, if we stand here for one more second, we will all be walking in there with sunburn.”

Effie and I ran inside and spotted a guy sitting by himself in a window booth. The shades were pulled down on the glass to prevent the customers from being cooked by the sun. I glanced around the room quickly to see if there were any other guys by themselves here. No. We slid into the booth behind Tim and pulled open two large menus to hide our faces.

I heard the sound of Kate’s footsteps approaching the booth, it sounded like he had stood up to greet her with a kiss. Dang, I wish we could just turn around to see what was happening. Effie and I ordered a second helping of ‘potato croquettes’; Kate still hadn’t asked Tim about the clearing.

“This is getting ridiculous!” Effie whispered across the table. “I have stuff to do!”

“Shhh!” I hissed back.

“No, enough’s enough!” Effie said. She stood up triumphantly and stomped her way towards the booth with Tim and Effie. I turned to see what was about to happen but could only see the back of Tim’s head and the horrified look on Kate’s face.

11

“Effie, please!” Kate pleaded. Tim was looking between the two women, likely struck by their visual similarities. They looked like twins. Were it not for the differences in their brightly colored hair then it would be impossible to tell them apart.

“What’s happening?” Tim muttered to Kate. Effie was standing at the side of their table with a wild look in her eye and I wondered what she was about to accuse him of.

“You!” Effie began. “You are up to something and I won’t let you drag my sister into some nonsense, do you hear me?”

“I…” Tim tried to get a word out, but Effie was making it clear that she was performing a monologue rather than engaging in a conversation.

“You are all the same, you people. Men sneaking around doing weird, sneaky business. That’s when the crying starts, let me tell you. And another thing! Fire? Please! You don’t see any normal people with gasoline on a hike, not to mention keeping it a secret from me. Me! Can you even believe? I mean…”

She was speaking to the room now, facing the crowd of fellow diners and leaving Tim and Kate to stare at her back. I slid out of the booth and placed a hand on Effie’s arm.

“Hey, let’s steer this back to the point. Why were you in a clearing with gasoline? Something is going on up there and I need to know about it,” I said. Tim gulped loud enough for me to hear.

“You must be Sadie,” he replied. “It’s an honor.” He extended a hand in my direction. I reached forward and shook his hand. I could almost hear a growl coming out of Effie. It seemed obvious that she was worked up over the whole Max thing and was looking for an outlet. Tim was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Gasoline, Tim!” Effie barked.

“You see, my friends had gone out on their quadbikes and it seemed that one of them had forgot to fuel up before the trip. They gave me a call and I hiked up to find them. I bumped into Kate and, well, I’m an incredibly lucky man,” he answered. He looked over at Kate who was