Caught in Christmas River Read online

  Daniel and I hadn’t been invited to their wedding back in November. Namely because there hadn’t been any wedding. The two of them had eloped after four months of dating. Daniel said that she’d been a big reason why Adam had decided to take out his retirement money and leave the force early – Angelica wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Adam being a cop, putting himself in danger every time he went to work. She had wanted a quieter, more peaceful life for them.

  I couldn’t really blame her for that. Having a spouse in law enforcement wasn’t an easy path.

  “How’s the work going in here, babe?” Adam asked, putting an arm around her hip.

  Angelica nodded Bobblehead doll style.

  “Good. Really good. Dinner’s under control. And I’ve made enough pastries to feed an army this weekend.”

  “Or just me,” Adam said, smiling wryly.

  Angelica smiled a stretched, tight smile back.

  “Do you guys like blueberry scones?” she asked, glancing over at us. “I just brought out a fresh batch and I…”

  Just then, I noticed a big puff of gray smoke rise up behind her. It was coming from one of the ovens on the far wall of the kitchen.

  “Oh… I think, uh, I think you might have a problem over there,” I said, nodding.

  Her perfectly-plucked eyebrows drew together in confusion.

  Another billowing halo of smoke rose up.

  That’s when Hucks and Chadwick started barking.

  Instinctively, I grabbed a couple of potholders nearby and made a break for the oven. I opened it to find a small fire smoldering at the bottom.

  “Oh, no!” Angelica shouted, running up behind me. “The gratin!”

  I calmly grabbed the orange box of baking soda sitting on the kitchen island and doused the flames. A few more puffs of smoke arose from the oven. I took out the two dishes of charred gratin with the potholders, placing them on the stove. I sprinkled the bottom of the oven with a little more baking soda to ensure the fire was really out. Then I closed the door and began waving the potholders in the air, trying to make the smoke dissipate.

  Angelica put a hand up to her forehead, as if not knowing what to do.

  “Oh, man. This is so embarrassing… I…”

  She trailed off, her eyes full of panic.

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I must have had this very thing happen at least a hundred times over the years at the pie shop. It’s easy to do.”

  She wiped at a stream of sweat rolling down the side of her face.

  “I guess. I just—”

  A moment later, the piercing sound of the smoke alarm going off filled the inn.

  Chapter 4

  I drew in a deep breath of crisp air and closed my eyes, savoring the next few moments like a fine Willamette Valley pinot noir. The sun warmed my face as a cool salt-tinged breeze ran through my loose hair. My bare feet sank into the warm, powdery sand as we walked. The pleasant rhythm of the pounding surf in the distance filled my ears.

  Normally right about now, I’d be up to my elbows in flour and butter, my face red as I traded pans of unbaked pies for pans of bubbling ones in the oven. That, or filling up customers’ coffee cups, trying not to listen too hard to town gossip. Or on the phone, discussing organization, profits, and strategy with the managers of the pie food truck in Portland.

  “We need more moments like this, Cin.”

  I felt his hand slide into mine. I opened my eyes to see the pooches running down the beach, chasing after a rolling Frisbee dancing in between the sand and the surf.

  “We really do,” I said, looking into Daniel’s calm eyes.

  We stopped walking and turned around. Then we began strolling slowly along the hard sand toward the lighthouse and the inn up on the cliff in the distance. The sun was starting to drop down toward the ocean and if we wanted to get to the inn’s cocktail hour on time, we needed to start heading back.

  Huckleberry and Chadwick arrived at our heels a few moments later, panting hard. With all the speed and energy of his breed, Hucks had come out victorious in the end and now carried the plastic Frisbee triumphantly in his mouth.

  “I really like Adam,” I said as we walked. “He’s just like you always described him. Funny and big-hearted.”

  “Yeah,” Daniel said. “Always the class clown. That’s probably why we got along so well at the academy.”

  “Two jokesters, huh?”

  Daniel shrugged.

  “Not really. I didn’t joke much back then. After what happened to Jared, I joined the academy with all these big ideas of making things right in the world. I thought I could do it all on my own, too. I was a loner in those days. Adam was the only one who could seem to cut through all my B.S. and see me for what I really was.”

  “What was that?”

  “Just a stupid, frightened fool in a lot of pain who really needed a friend.”

  We stopped walking for a moment. I gazed into Daniel’s eyes. Their pale green tint caught the clear sunlight in such a way that I found myself breaking out in goosebumps.

  “Adam helped me learn how to laugh again,” Daniel said. “And he taught me how to laugh at myself. And that I didn’t have to take on all the bad of the world alone.”

  I smiled, thinking of Kara and how important friends were. Especially during the hard moments of life.

  “I’m really glad we’re here,” I said, squeezing his hand.

  “Me, too.”

  We started walking again. Huckleberry bumped the Frisbee into the back of my leg, wanting me to throw it for him. I did, grabbing it and letting loose a wild toss, giving the dogs plenty to run after.

  “You know, if you would have told me back then that all these years later, Adam would be opening up a B & B, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Daniel said. “Not that he won’t be good at it. But I always kind of pictured him sitting on a boat and fishing in retirement. Not quitting the force early to turn down bed sheets and make coffee for tourists.”

  Daniel shrugged.

  “But then maybe this is something he’s always wanted to do and just hasn’t talked about.”

  “The inn seems really great,” I said. “They did a beautiful job renovating it.”

  He nodded in agreement.

  “And I bet coming from Fresno, all these beautiful views must feel like a breath of fresh air to Adam and Angelica,” I added.

  Daniel rubbed his beard for a long hesitant moment.

  “What was your impression of Angelica?” he asked suddenly.

  “She seemed nice. A little frazzled. But that’s probably to be expected. It seems like she’s got a lot on her hands this weekend with the grand opening.”

  Daniel fixed his gaze on the breakers rolling across the sand in the distance.

  I could read his face these days better than anybody – there was a deep ridge between his eyebrows that represented concern.

  “Why do you ask?” I said.

  He paused for a moment, looking up at the lighthouse on the cliff.

  “I just hope Adam hasn’t jumped into all of this too soon,” he said. “They only knew each other a few months before getting married. And Adam’s always…”

  Daniel shook his head.

  “I shouldn’t be talking like this. Angelica seems really nice and—”

  “What were you going to say?”

  He hesitated again.

  “It’s just that Adam’s always been drawn to… I don’t know how you would describe it. Bad apples, I guess you could say. His girlfriends in the past were always kind of manipulative and cruel. I don’t know why he always went for those types, but he did. Maybe it came down to poor judgement or maybe he just thought he’d be able to change them somehow if he loved them enough. Adam’s got a big heart, and he’s gotten burned a lot over the years. And I can’t help but wonder about… well, if Angelica…”

  He trailed off, drawing in a deep breath.

  “A few months after meeting her, Adam decides to quit his job, take out his
retirement early, and buy an inn. I know Adam – and I know this isn’t his dream he’s trying to build here.”

  I bit my lip, following Daniel’s gaze up to the lighthouse and inn.

  “I really should just keep it to myself,” Daniel said, looking back at me. “It’s none of my business.”

  I put a hand on his arm.

  “It is your business,” I said. “He’s your friend and you care about him.”

  Daniel nodded and for a little while, we walked along in silence.

  “Well, for tonight, let’s just enjoy ourselves, Cin,” he said, putting an arm around me. “Tonight, we’re just like all the other couples staying at the inn this weekend. Here on vacation, looking to have a relaxing time.”

  “Sure. But just so you know, I haven’t forgotten about what you did earlier at the vista, and I probably won’t for some time. Probably this whole trip, if you want to know the truth.”

  Daniel smiled a little mischievously.

  “I told you I’d make it up to you, didn’t I?”

  “That’s what you said. But so far, I’ve seen little evidence to support that.”

  Daniel stopped walking suddenly. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me to him abruptly, planting a long, slow burning kiss on my lips that made my knees turn to butter.

  After a moment of bliss, he pulled away, smiling.

  “How was that?”

  I caught my breath – he’d just about taken it all away.

  “I’d say that was a good start.”

  “You’re a tough customer, Cinnamon Anne Peters,” he said.

  I smiled.

  “And I wouldn’t want you any other way,” he whispered.

  Chapter 5

  “Ugh… not even if I was down to my last hundred dollar bill would I ever do that kind of work. Standing in a hot kitchen all day, getting pie dough under your fingernails all the time? Sounds positively dreadful.”

  Patricia Parsons, a woman who I had only met five minutes earlier, gave me a judgement-heavy look that I thought would have been reserved for the likes of thieves, murderers, and other law-breakers – not a small business owner who made pie for a living.

  The middle-aged woman took a long sip of her strawberry champagne cocktail. She played with the airy blue silk scarf around her neck, waiting for some sort of response.

  I couldn’t help but think that if Kara had been here at Agate Inn’s cocktail hour, she’d have given Patricia Parsons a good piece of her mind and then some.

  I wasn’t Kara, however. And when at all possible, I tried to treat everyone like they had good in them.

  Even if I couldn’t see it.

  “I can’t say every day is a picnic.” I said calmly. “There are some frustrations here and there. But overall, running a pie shop is pretty much my idea of heaven.”

  Patricia scrunched her face up and stared at me as if I’d just started speaking in a different language.

  “To each his own,” said Jason Parsons, the bearded man who I had learned a few minutes earlier was her husband. “That’s what I always say. Far be it for anybody to tell you what brings you happiness in this lifetime.”

  Jason’s eyes flickered slightly. Patricia looked at her husband and for a moment, I thought I saw a look of frustration pass over her face.

  I supposed she’d been hoping he’d agree with her that making pie for a living was the absolute worst.

  I took advantage of the pause in the conversation to scan the room of about twenty or so other guests. I craned my neck, hoping Daniel would see me and save me from this couple that I’d somehow gotten cornered into talking with. But he was standing next to Adam, listening intently to a story the big man was telling to a large group of guests. Daniel didn’t seem to have any idea that just across the room, his wife was dying a slow, painful death by bad small talk.

  Thinking of no good excuse in time, I turned my attention back to the Parsons.

  Dressed in a pair of slacks and a herringbone blazer, Jason Parsons struck me as something of a Hemingway-esque wannabe adventurer type who probably had annual magazine subscriptions to The Smithsonian and National Geographic. His wife, on the other hand, reminded me of an uptight realtor of luxury properties. Though within a few moments of meeting her, I’d found out that this wasn’t the case – she’d told me she was on the board of several charity organizations back in Fresno and that was how she spent her time.

  I took it as code for being independently wealthy.

  Both appeared to be in their late forties or early fifties.

  “So, Jason,” I said, clearing my throat. “What do you do?”

  A smug look came across his face even before he answered.

  “I save money for people, and I save people from money,” he said before taking another sip of his drink.

  He looked vaguely put-out by my puzzled expression. Then he elaborated.

  “Stocks and portfolios,” he said. “That’s what I do. I help people get wealthy and stay wealthy.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  I didn’t see, but given his put-out expression, I didn’t think he’d be too keen on explaining anything more about it to me.

  “So, um, are you guys visiting the inn for fun?”

  I knew it sounded stupid as it came out of my mouth. But I was doing the best I could in what was turning out to be an awkward conversation.

  “Not exactly for fun,” Patricia said.

  “I’m a friend of Angelica’s,” Jason interjected.

  He finished off the last of his drink – something that seemed like either Irish whisky or scotch.

  “Angelica’s father was a client of mine years ago in Fresno. I’ve been a friend of the family for a long time. Sort of her guardian, you could say.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  I was beginning to sound like a broken record.

  “She’s quite a dear,” Patricia said. “We’re so very happy to see her finally finding her way. For a while there, we weren’t sure if—”

  Just then, there was a loud crash from somewhere in the kitchen. The dining room fell into a hush.

  I thanked my lucky stars and took it as an opportunity to escape.

  “You know, I’m just going to check on Angelica and make sure she doesn’t need any help. But it was a pleasure meeting you both.”

  “You as well, Sally Ann,” Patricia said.

  I didn’t stick around to correct her.

  Chapter 6

  “Do you need any help back here?” I said, peeking my head through the door and into the kitchen.

  When I had seen Angelica after we’d gotten back from our walk on the beach, she’d been dressed in a pretty cocktail dress with her hair nicely curled. She’d looked the picture of perfection and elegance.

  Now her blond hair fell in strands around her sweaty forehead, her mascara was smeared, and the apron she was wearing was splattered with oily stains. She was mopping the floor furiously, and I imagined that whatever that loud crash had been was related.

  “I’ve got it under control. Thanks.”

  Though she was putting on a brave face, I could recognize a cry for help when I heard one.

  Without another word, I went over to the corner of the kitchen where I saw a checkered apron hanging from a peg. I set down my beer and tied the apron around my waist.

  Angelica looked up from mopping.

  “You’re a guest, Cinnamon. I wouldn’t dream of asking you to—”

  “That’s why you don’t have to ask,” I said, smiling. “Now, what can I help with?”

  For a moment, Angelica looked like she was going to start arguing the point again with me.

  “Seriously,” I said, stepping in. “I don’t mind at all. You’re actually doing me a favor. This way I don’t have to make small talk. I’m really bad at it.”

  That seemed to do the trick. Angelica smiled a little.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Well, I have the appet
izers under control. But I just knocked over the pastry cream for the lemon raspberry trifle and there’s not enough time to make it all over again.”

  She let out a sigh.

  “Do you have the raspberries still?”

  She nodded.

  “What about eggs?”

  She nodded again.

  “I think I can help.”

  I rolled up the sleeves of my dress and got down to work.

  Chapter 7

  “Last year was my second year at culinary school,” Angelica said as she stirred a bubbling pot of salmon chowder. “At the same time, I was working as a waitress at the best restaurant in Fresno. Then one night, this guy comes in with a big group. The second I heard that laugh of his, something in me recognized it. Like I’d heard it before somewhere, even though I hadn’t.”

  I divided the raspberries between several tart pans, spreading them out evenly as I listened.

  “I couldn’t bring myself to talk to him, though,” she said. “I was too shy. And he was with all these tough-looking guys. They were all cops, obviously. I could have spotted them a mile away. Anyway, they leave, and I think that I’ll probably never see him again. But the next night, I’m completely floored. He’s come back to the restaurant, and this time, he’s by himself. He spent all night sitting at a table alone. I thought someone had stood him up. But he seemed perfectly happy just sitting there.”

  She looked over at me, smiling.

  “And then, the next night, he comes in again. And the night after that. He must have spent a whole month’s paycheck at the restaurant before he worked up the courage to ask me out.”

  I grinned.

  “From there, we just hit it off. I know some people thought we went too fast, but I figure why wait any longer when you’ve found your soulmate?”

  I thought for a moment about what Daniel had said – his reservations about Angelica and how all of Adam’s ex-girlfriends had been manipulative.