Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“You didn’t poison anyone!” Sarah exclaimed indignantly. “It’s not like you dumped a jar of rat poison in the tarts—you just got people excited to be with the ones they love!”
“Tell that to Goody Albright,” I said glumly and then relayed everything that had happened the night before.
“Oh my—none of them under five hundred?” Sarah’s eyes went wide. “How are they doing this morning?”
“I don’t know but I’m sure Goody Albright has her hands full. I should probably go down and apologize and take responsibility in person as soon as it’s breakfast time,” I said morosely. “The Red Lion serves breakfast from eight to nine-thirty so if I go down there around nine, I should be able to catch most of the members of The Council of Wisdom. I hope anyway.”
“Well, that should help some,” Sarah acknowledged. “But I really think you’re overestimating the number of people who will be upset. I mean, a lot of people will probably be happy with what happened—Rath and I had the best sex we’d had since we bonded as Heartmates last night.”
“But what about all the single people who probably hooked up with strangers—or people they never met before?” I demanded. “What about people who just stopped in for a treat or dessert and didn’t expect—oh my God!” I slapped a hand over my mouth.
“What? What is it?” Sarah asked, looking worried.
“Goldie! I gave her two dozen tarts to serve at the diner yesterday and I forgot to warn her! Oh my God, I should have called her last night!”
Goldie’s diner stays open later than any other business in Hidden Hollow, which meant she had probably been serving the tarts for some time after I had found out what happened the night before.
“I’ll get her on the phone,” Sarah was already dialing. But when she put her phone on speaker and held it out, all we heard was ringing over and over. Then finally we got a message,
“This is Goldie from Goldie’s Diner. If you missed me, you know what to do—leave a message and I’ll get back when I can. And if you can’t wait, come on in to the diner for a slice of pie and I’ll see you then. Toodles!”
There was a click and for a moment Sarah and I just stared at each other. Then I grabbed the phone and started talking.
“Goldie, this is Celia. It may be too late to tell you this, but please don’t serve anyone the Golden Warbler tarts you picked up yesterday! There was a…a problem with them. Anyway, don’t serve them and don’t eat them!”
The phone beeped at me before I could add any more and I handed the phone back to Sarah.
“I’m really worried that she didn’t answer—she should already be opening for breakfast!” I said and started pacing. “Maybe I should go check on her.”
“I’ll go,” Sarah said at once. “You stay here. I’ll be back to help start this morning’s pastries in a few minutes.”
I shook my head glumly.
“Why bother to make anything? Nobody’s going to want to buy it.”
“Yes, they will!” Sarah insisted. “Look, Celia, the people of this town love you. They won’t hold a grudge. Just let them know that you made a mistake and you’re sorry and it won’t happen again. They’ll understand.”
“Well, I can absolutely promise that it won’t happen again,” I said glumly. The only reason it had happened in the first place was that being around Malik made me so unrelentingly hot and bothered. Now that the big Incubus was gone, I was absolutely not feeling even remotely horny—just sad.
Sarah left to go to the diner but she was back shortly with a worried look on her face.
“They’re closed,” she said. “I haven’t been in town as long as you, but I don’t remember Goldie’s ever being closed before.”
I groaned and shook my head.
“She’s probably at home hating me because I poisoned her clients too.”
“Will you stop with that poisoning stuff?” Sarah demanded. “I’m telling you, you didn’t poison anyone. Now come on, let’s make a batch of blueberry muffins and some cinnamon rolls.”
Her brisk words got me moving and we spent the next couple of hours getting several batches of baked goods out. Even though I was sure I was going to have to throw them all away since no one would buy them, the act of baking soothed my soul, as it always had. By the time the doors opened I was braced for the first customer, an apology ready on my lips.
The first ones through the door were Hubert and his wife Zelda. The two of them are red Dwarves that live on the far end of town and both of them have reddish-gold beards. (Yes, Dwarf women almost all have beards—that’s normal for them, although Zelda wore hers considerably shorter than her husband’s, which was down to his belt buckle.) The two of them are regulars who love my cinnamon rolls so that was what I was expecting them to order—if they didn’t curse me out instead.