Page 9 of All Mine

I stocked the cases with the morning’s offerings, and by the time Jonah finished with the step, I had a plate of egg soufflé and fresh fruit ready for him.

“You spoil me.” He grinned, setting his cup down, which I promptly refilled.

“You give me maintenance services for free.”

“Don’t be naïve. I do it for the food,” Jonah said, taking his plate and coffee to a table at a front window.

“Time to get this party started,” I unlocked the front door and found Sloane waiting on the porch, her choppy blonde bob still wet from the shower.

“I was about to knock,” she said.

“You should have. What are you doing here so early? It’s your release day.”

“That’s why,” she replied in a strained whisper. “I’m so nervous.”

My best friend, Sloane Tompkins, was a romance novelist under the pen name of Joanne Abernathy, a fact that she kept on the down-low because writing was her second career. In consequence, she lived in constant fear that her identity would get out. So ironically, the better her novels sold, the more paranoid she became. Not that she didn’t have her reasons.

“Don’t be. Come on. I have something to make you feel better.”

“Nothing.” But she followed me through the dining room to the front counter.

I grabbed the tongs and an éclair.

“That’s not going to make me feel better.”

I added a second éclair to the plate.

“Well, that might work.”

“I’m here,” Bethany announced, stumbling in from the kitchen, tying her apron. She was my first ever hire.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

Sloane bit into an éclair and moaned.

“Yeah, I had trouble catching my cat so that I could drop her off at the vet. Usually, she wakes me up every morning, but this morning nothing. I swear, it was like the little bitch sensed something.”

“Did you put out the carrier last night?” Sloane asked. “That’s a dead giveaway.”

Bethany sighed, shaking her head. “Stupid, rookie mistake.”

“Oh, Lauren, dear,” Mrs. Pennington boomed, rounding the corner, her words shaking the house studs. She was a tall, large woman with a voice and personality to match. Her family had been in town as long as mine. She was also the president of the town council and knew everything about everyone.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“I heard you were having drinks with a tall, handsome stranger last night,” she sang.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and silence filled the bakery. Sloane and Bethany gaped at me, and Jonah appeared in the doorway.

“You did what?” Sloane exclaimed.

If it were possible to sink into the cracks of the floorboards, I wouldn’t hesitate. But before I could explain, Mrs. Pennington continued.

“Oh yeah, Sally Morgenstern and her husband were in Lou’s last night and said our Lauren here tripped and caught herself an attractive man. They said he must be new in town. But not only that, he saved Adrian and everyone there from a gun-wielding lunatic.”

“What?” I asked. Murmurs of surprise rippled through the small group gathered around my front counter.

“Oh yes,” Mrs. Pennington continued. She was in her element, holding court with an attentive audience. “Sally said that after you left, the boy’s eyes were glued on you, and she thought he’d followed when you left. But, after these two horrible ruffians came in and started yelling and pushing people around, he came back inside, and one of them pulled a gun on him.”

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