Page 50 of Nick

“Yes, we did. I’ll be home in the morning.”

“I’ll see you when you get home. Bye Nick.”

“Hey, sugar, I love you.”

“I love you too.” I hung up and sighed. We didn’t have a proper wedding night, but tomorrow would be our wedding night. I giggled at my being worried about not having a wedding night. Who would have ever thought I would find someone who loved me as much as I loved him? I wished for a man to love me as much as my sister’s husbands loved them, and my wish came true.

“What are you in here sighing about?” Grandpa asked as he walked to the back where I was mixing the dough.

“Nick is coming home tomorrow. I’ve always been happy. But this happiness feels different. It makes me want to tell everyone I’m happy. My life is just where I want it right now. That’s when they heard the Sirens. “I wonder what it is,” I said as we walked outside.

“Here they come, on the pier,” grandpa said. We turned around and saw the fire at the Shrimp House restaurant.

“Oh no, their restaurant is on fire. Watch out, Grandpa, here they come.” That was so scary. We watched the firefighters fight to keep the fire from burning down the entire building. The owner Dana Wilkes walked over to us.

“This was arson,” she said as she reached us. “I received a letter from someone telling me they were going to burn the restaurant down if I didn’t close it down. That was last month. I showed it to the police, and they thought it was a prank. I guess it wasn’t a prank.”

“That is horrible. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to rebuild what I have to and put cameras up everywhere. I would recommend that you get some cameras as well.”

“Who would do this, or why would they do this? Will your insurance cover it?”

“I hope so. I have a meeting with them later today. They also knew about the letter. They have a copy of it. I wish I knew why they wanted me to shut down. I have been here for twenty years. I have never had anyone threaten me before.”

“This is so scary. This creep can’t get by with this. Do you know if any other businesses on the pier have cameras? I’m going to find out. Do you want to walk with me?”

“Yes, that’s a great idea.”

“Grandpa, do you want to come with us?”

“No, I'll stay here and hold the fort down. You two watch those fire trucks. Don’t let them run over you.”

“We won’t, Grandpa.”

“I envy your family. I never had a family of my own. I wish I had married the man I loved when he asked. But my father said I needed to date other men to discover what love was all about. I listened to my father always. When I told Craig I was going to date other men to make sure what I felt for him was true love, he joined the service. He died in Iran without knowing how much I loved him.”

“I’m so sorry. How old were you?”

“This is the worse part. I was twenty-three. I had already graduated from college.”

“Your father should never have asked that of you.”

“I am to blame. I'm the one that did it. When I heard he joined the service. I went to him and told him I would marry him. He didn't want to talk to me. I hurt him. And he died thinking that I didn't love him. I can’t believe I told you that story. I moved here from Wisconsin when I heard he died. Forget I said anything.”

I felt sad that she had an ass-hole for a father. But I decided to do what she said and forgot about it. We found out two other restaurants have gotten letters handwritten on yellow paper. We needed to figure out who was doing this as soon as possible before another restaurant went up in flames. Who could be doing this? I called my sisters. We will start investigating this right now. I didn't want my bread shop to burn down.

The first thing I did when I got back to the shop was called Ruby and Amber, and both were excited to work on solving this mystery.

They were at the shop within twenty minutes. Each had their baby with them. “You two must be getting bored,” I told them all about what Dana told me her dad told her to do with her boyfriend. “Isn't that the saddest story you have ever heard? She was twenty-three. The boy ended up joining the service, and he died in Iran. Geez, I almost started crying when she told me that story.”

“Let’s go down and look at the cameras at a couple of other places. That way, we’ll check to see if we can see anything on their cameras before the fire marshal takes it away.”

“Can we see the letter Dana got?

“Let’s go ask her. Let me change my shoes. These are so tight. I swear my feet are swelling so much. I have to wear these soft shoes to stretch them to fit my feet. These babies are growing so fast. Did Axel tell you that you can’t call them twin?”

“Yes, he called me yesterday. I agree with him,” Ruby said.

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