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fridge, don’t we?” she asked Becky as she hustled
through the kitchen. “Cover them both in white fondant, will you? And do we
have any spare sugar flowers made up, something that isn’t committed to another
order?”
    At her assistant’s nod, she
breathed a little easier. “I always make extras of everything, in case of
breakage.”
    “I’ll be back in thirty minutes
from delivering this birthday, and then I better have some kind of brilliant
inspiration. The guy is coming back at four and wants to surprise his wife with
something dazzling.”
    Becky rolled her eyes as Sam
headed out with the chocolate birthday cake in hand. A picture of the surprise
cake was already forming in her head and she started to relax as she turned up
the air in her van and took the back roads to her destination.
    She passed the turn where she’d
gone the previous day to Sadie Gray’s house, reminding her that she’d still
heard nothing from the elusive husband, Marshall, who never answered his phone
and couldn’t even be truthful about where he worked. The agency was setting an
auction date for the house despite her information that there was un-expired
milk in the fridge. Delbert Crow must be feeling some pressure from above
because he normally wasn’t quite so prompt about his duties.
    She dropped off the birthday cake
to a party where kids were roaring around the backyard, already in a frenzy of
red-punch-induced energy. The little birthday boy barely gave his cake a second
glance but his mother gushed over the circus motif that Sam and Becky had
created from peppermint sticks and candy clay animals.
    On her way back to Sweet’s
Sweets, Sam decided to cruise past the Gray house once more, just in case. But
the place seemed the same as before. No fresh tire tracks, no change in the
lights or draperies, no mail or newspapers piled up. What was going on here?
    Back at the pastry shop, Becky
brought out the two white fondant covered square cakes and an assortment of
leftover sugar flowers. It took Sam moments to stack them and start adding
yellow daisies, orange lilies, and purple asters to create a flower garden on
top that trailed down to the base. Touches of tiny pink anemones and a dusting
of clear edible glitter made the piece zing. A stickpin with Happy Birthday on
it, and the birthday surprise was ready for the man who would be there soon to
pick it up.
    “He’ll be very relieved,” Becky
said, admiring the finished cake.
    “Not bad, considering how quickly
it came together.” Sam boxed the cake and carried it to the front so Jen would
have it ready the moment the customer walked in.
    She glanced at her cell phone.
Still no call from Marshall Gray but there was another from Delbert Crow. She
ignored it and pulled the next order form from the top of the big stack on her
desk.

Chapter
5
    Sam’s alarm brought another two
a.m. awakening. Way too soon. She rolled over to ignore it but knew that she
didn’t dare close her eyes. Despite the fact that her back ached and her legs
felt perpetually cramped, there was too much at stake. She’d had dreams all
night about trying to deliver cakes, but all the homes were abandoned and she
couldn’t locate the owners. With a groan she sat on the edge of her bed and
switched on the lamp.
    Beau would be home tonight and she
couldn’t greet him as an aching old bag of bones who was working herself to
death.
    Her gaze traveled to her dresser
where her jewelry box sat, that strange looking carved hunk of wood. Bertha
Martinez, the woman who had given it to her, promised Sam it was a gift meant
for her, something she could use when help was most needed. The woman had
promptly died five minutes after handing the box to Sam. The very first time
she’d opened the box something strange happened—an electric-like jolt, a flash
of insight—and from that time on, Sam’s life changed in ways she’d never
dreamed.
    She stared at its ugly façade—the
unevenly carved quilted pattern, the