Page 62 of Broken Dreams
Mrs. Symonds looks away. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”
“Where is she?”
“You know, she didn’t mention it.”
I very much doubt that. These three are up to something and I would bet it has to do with today. I wouldn’t put sabotage past any of them.
“Really?” I turn to Mrs. Cooke. “You don’t know either?”
She shakes her head just a little. “Nope.”
“You both aren’t very good liars,” I tell them.
The two of them glance at each other and then back to me. “Us?”
Oh, now I’m sure of it. “Yes, you two. What’s going on? Did you guys swap her spices or something else to make sure she doesn’t win?”
“No, no, it’s not that at all,” Mrs. Cooke says with a smile. “Lynn is just delivering some very important news regarding the competition today.”
“Ha!” I clap my hands. “I knew it. You three did something again, didn’t you?”
Mrs. Symonds’s head pulls back and her mouth opens. “Now, Addison, why would you think that?”
I don’t know, because they’re devious. “What news is Mrs. Parker delivering?”
“We had an emergency meeting last night.”
My eyes widen when Mrs. Cooke at least has the decency to duck her head a little. “An. Emergency. Meeting? About what?”
There was no emergency meeting because Devney would’ve been notified. If Devney was notified, she would’ve called me.
Mrs. Symonds grins, clearly enjoying this. “Well, my dear, we told you to join the board last year, but you weren’t sure you had the time and all. Anyway, we met. We voted. The rules will be announced prior to the start.” She glances at her watch. “Oh, we should lock up so we can get there for the opening ceremonies and make sure the men have the ingredients set up correctly.”
I breathe deeply, telling myself that this is really stupid and not worth being upset about, but also, I’m slightly terrified as to what the hell they could’ve met about. Mrs. Parker won. What could she possibly be upset about? The rules are really fair.
This could be their plan though, to get in my head, like some Jedi mind game for the old and bored crew. We really need to come up with a name for them.
The three gossipitos. Or maybe nosey nursing homebound. I’ll think more on that once I find out what’s going on.
I grab my KitKat and force a sweet smile. “I can’t wait to see you all there and give my love to your husbands.” Lord knows they need it.
“We will and you be sure to tell Grady we said hello. I know he was over late last night...”
I freeze for just a second and then weigh my words carefully. “What did you say?”
Mrs. Cooke speaks over her. “It’s all over town, sweetheart. He came home from whatever he was doing with Connor and rushed to your place. I heard it was around two a.m. A very late visit indeed.”
“It wasn’t two a.m.,” I correct and then realize my mistake because I just admitted that he did come over.
Shit.
“No? Jimmy must’ve misheard Albert. He’s a little hard of hearing,” Mrs. Cooke says conspiratorially.
That’s an understatement. All she does is shout at him.
“It wasn’t like that. He stopped by and then went home.”
Mrs. Symonds leans her elbows on the counter. “I heard he stayed for a good hour. A lot can be done in an hour.”
