Page 16 of Flirting With Fire
“Hi, hon, what can I get you?”
She was maybe forty, with bleached blonde curls escaping from a hairnet and wearing an apron with an alien butt dead center. I bet that upset some of the church-going folks. I thought it was great.
I looked along the rows of baked goods and hummed. What would Mom like? It had been years since I’d bought my mom a cake. Then I had an inspiration. I smiled at her. “Can you tell me what Lindy Jones would like?”
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Meyer? Meyer Jones. Is that you?”
“Uh…yes.” I frantically tried to remember her name. I should know it. Deborah? Denise? Destiny, that was it!
“It’s been years since I saw you. Rosie said you were in town. And you’re going to be the new assistant fire chief. Gary’s real happy you’re back.”
Who was Rosie? Mom was going to have to write me a list of residents and their jobs and if I went to school with them.
She must have spotted my blank look because she said, “Rosie is Chief Wally’s assistant.”
At least that hadn’t changed. Wally had been the police chief in Charming Butte forever. He had to be at least ninety.
“I remember him.” I smiled wryly as I recalled my frequent encounters with the police chief. “I swear he was always taking me home.”
Destiny snickered. “He was the same when I was a teenager, and my pops says the same. Anyway, good to see you again, Meyer. But I don’t think you need to worry about a cake for your mom today. Dex just bought her a dozen alien butt cookies. Maybe you could come in tomorrow and buy something for dinner.”
I stared at her. “Dex bought my mom alien butt cookies?”
“He’s such a lovely boy,” she said fondly. “He’s been so good to Lindy while she’s been ill.”
I didn’t need her to fill in the blanks there. I understood the implication.
Where were you, her son?
I was seething inside. He stole my secret, and now he stole my butts? That man was getting right under my skin. I was tempted to storm after Dex and tell him no way was he giving my mom cookies.I, her son, would be the one to give her treats.
I slumped against the counter. Now I sounded like a five-year-old having a tantrum. “I’ll come by tomorrow,” I said.
Destiny eyed me shrewdly. “How about a welcome-back coffee and a butt cookie on the house?”
I really needed a coffee. “That sounds wonderful, Destiny.”
She tilted her head again and regarded me as though she were divining my psyche. “You’re a Caramel Apple Coffee Slush, aren’t you?”
“I…”
Destiny burst out laughing. “Your face. I should have taken a picture.”
“I don’t even know what that is,” I admitted. “It sounds very…sweet.”
“You should remain in ignorance. Just a brew then?”
“Sounds great,” I agreed.
I drank coffee as it came. You had to, working in the firehouse. Coffee could be a loose term. But Caramel Apple Coffee Slush, was that even coffee?
I accepted the drink and the cookie, but only after I stuffed a few notes in the tip jar.
“Thanks, hon.”
I took a sip of the coffee, and my eyes widened.
“This is so good,” I said.
