Read Flipped! (Spinning Hills Romance 1) for Free Online Page A

kitchen door, serving spoon in hand. Her long silver hair was pulled back, and her bright blue eyes were blazing. “Who says that?”
    “We do.” Sherry grinned.
    Her grandmother was among the few people in the entire region who could trace her roots directly to the gypsies, and it had been Rosa’s idea to turn those gypsy ties into a marketing ploy.
    “Here’s your pie.” Grandma Ruby placed the plate in front of Holly and glowered at Sherry before joining them.
    Holly took a bite and sighed. It was exactly what she needed. “So, what’s the purpose of Irish cream pie?” she asked her grandmother.
    “To sweeten the water of life and help it flow once again.”
    Holly started to laugh and snorted her coffee instead. “You just made that up.”
    “I did not. The pie has whiskey, and whiskey means ‘water of life’ in Gaelic. And it’s very rich, so I decided its purpose is to sweeten that water.” Grandma Ruby took a sip of her own coffee. “When water becomes stagnant, it tastes like crap. Your water was stagnant today and so you were craving sugar, cream, and whiskey to make it taste good again.”
    Holly shook her head and smiled.
    “See, your stagnant water is flowing already.” Sherry winked.
    Rosa tapped her long, perfectly manicured orange fingernails on the table and Holly looked over at her. The woman was seventy-something and looked eternally fabulous . Today she had on a form-fitting, cream-colored pantsuit with a leopard print belt, matching heels, and burnt-orange scarf for color and pizzazz. With her long, thick brown hair, golden skin, and big dark eyes, she looked too exotic and cosmopolitan to be part owner of a small-town bakery.
    “You know, this whole ‘pies have meaning’ thing started off as something fun to set us apart, but I think we hit on something. Your body craves what it needs. You just need to figure out what you need and why you need it so you can have a little bit of it and set yourself to rights again. Now, tell me if you’d like me to talk to Dan about selling the house back to you. Latinas can be very persuasive, you know.” Rosa had a melodious accent, talked too fast, and switched gears too quickly. It always took Holly a few beats to catch up to her.
    “I was planning on paying him a little visit myself.” Sherry’s eyes gleamed. “We should go together. He can’t say no to two little old ladies he’s known his whole life.” She turned to Ruby. “Three little old ladies would be even better.”
    “Yes . . . especially if one of them is the victim’s brokenhearted grandmother!” Rosa looked at Ruby, too.
    Holly sat up, alarmed. “Um, please don’t. I’m no victim, and no offense, but you don’t exactly come across as little old ladies . If he’s known you his whole life, he won’t be moved.”
    “Maybe he was only being stubborn with you because of the way everything went down,” Rosa said. “I think he’d listen to us.”
    Holly sighed. Grand-smothering and meddling were among the only things the three women had in common.
    “He never did like theatrics.” Grandma Ruby sent Holly a meaningful look.
    Her grandmother was lecturing her on theatrics? “Would you say you know Dan Amador well, then?” she asked them in her most innocent and interested voice, hoping to veer the topic away from the house.
    “Honey, after forty-one years on the corner of Hillside and Main, we’d say we know more about everyone than we have the right to know,” Sherry answered. “And Ruby’s been here her whole life. If there’s something we don’t know, she fills in the blanks.”
    The older women grew quiet and Holly watched them, wondering what it felt like to be in one place for so long, listening to local news, troubles, and gossip every day.
    The three women had met through Wright-Patterson Air Force Base over forty years before. Sherry’s husband, Holly’s late grandfather, and Rosa had all worked in Area B. There were rumors that they’d actually