Read Charleston with a Clever Cougar: A Dance with Danger Mystery #6 for Free Online Page B

piece.
     

Chapter Five --
     
    “Cady, baby!” Darlene threw her arms around
me, gently hugging me. “Oh, kid! You look like crapola!”
    “How sweet,” I replied wryly. “You sure know
how to make a girl feel welcome.”
    “You should have stayed home to rest,” she
chastised me, her tone motherly. “You’ll be back on your feet
sooner if you take care of yourself.”
    “Can’t afford it. We’ve got the Henslacker
wedding on Saturday.”
    “But this is Tuesday. There’s plenty of
time.”
    “Not really,” I told her. “I have to shop for
the ingredients and then we have to make the cake and the
cookies.”
    The lunch bunch was coming through for
coffee, snacks, and our ready-to-go sandwiches. Normally, we did
three daily choices on the bread of the day, threw in a pickle and
a bag of chips into the biodegradable containers made from sugar
pulp fiber. We also did a soup of the day and a soup/sandwich
combo. Our turkey and Havarti was usually a big seller, as was our
curried egg salad. On days when the soup choice was chili con
carne, we were out of it by twelve-thirty, because folks started
coming in for lunch at 11:30. Today’s choices were chicken salad,
fresh mozzarella with basil and sliced tomatoes, and ham with Swiss
for sandwiches, and minestrone for soup. I looked through the glass
door of the refrigerator and saw very few pre-wrapped choices
left.
    “We’re almost out of sandwiches,” I
announced. “It’s not even quarter to one!”
    I shrugged myself out of my coat, prepared to
hit the line to make some more, when Daisy came around the corner
with a tray laden with a fresh supply.
    “Relax, Cady. I’ve got this,” she told me
confidently.
    “Oh.”
    “Doc thought it might be less confusing if I
prepped the sandwiches out back, so Mom and Darlene would have more
room to move.”
    “Yes,” Darlene nodded. “That was a good
idea.”
    “We’ve actually sold more than seventy-five
sandwiches,” Carole announced gleefully. “Isn’t that great?”
    Normally, we were lucky if we sold fifty, but
that’s because the sandwiches were really just a way to promote our
breads.
    “Yeah,” Daisy said, busy putting the
sandwiches into the containers and handing them to Carole to mark.
“We went through the sourdough and had to switch over to the hearty
multigrain.”
    “Looks like you folks did just fine without
me,” I decided. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, especially
considering they changed the usual routine, with great success. “I
guess you’ve got all this covered for now, so I’ll just get started
on the shopping list.”
    I headed into the back, where I had a proper
kitchen with big ovens, a walk-in, and storage shelves, my
pocketbook gripped tightly in my hands, so as to not jar my sore
muscles. I passed the stainless steel prep table where Walter was
punching down down dough in a big bowl and went into my little
cubicle of an office. Sinking into my swivel desk chair, I pulled
out my tablet and turned it on. I thought I could do a “click and
pull” order for BJ’s Wholesale Club in Waterford, if I could get my
list ready before five. I’d just have to find someone to pick it up
tomorrow. I knew I needed flour for the cake and the cookies. Tara
Henslacker and her husband-to-be, Todd Gump, wanted a very
untraditional cake. They settled on the death-by-chocolate version,
which was a rich, moist cake I make with Dutch-processed cocoa and
strong, hot coffee. Each tier would be sliced into four thin
layers, with chocolate mousse between, and once I covered it with
fudge frosting, I would smother it in white chocolate ganache and
then white fondant, before adding details in icing and decorations.
Lucky for me, they had requested the simple stacked round version,
which meant four graduated layers on a cake stand. Nothing fancy or
complicated. I was bent over the tablet, typing notes, when I
sensed a presence. Looking up, a figure stood in the doorway.
    “What do you need