Apple-achian Treasure (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 8) Read online

  “Silly? I suppose so. Here I am, great upbringing, middle class home, no problems with abuse or drugs or parents who didn’t give me enough time. Maybe some of it is nature. I gather that our folks weren’t exactly the salt-of-the-earth types. Maybe the Plaint blood is a little more… adventure-seeking.”

  “I don’t know… the ones that I met turned out to be pretty nasty to each other. There was a lot of dysfunction in that family.”

  “But maybe you can’t just blame it all on how their parents raised them. Maybe some of it is just genetic. I have a genetic predisposition to… be an adventure-seeking free spirit. Not to be tied down by convention. Not everyone does want to settle down and raise a family and be responsible parents.”

  Erin looked away from Charley, readjusting the arrangement of her tray. “And what about you? You don’t ever want to raise a family?”

  “I think that what’s more important to you is ‘do I want to settle down and be a business owner?’” Charley pointed out.

  “Yeah, I guess. I thought you’d already decided that.”

  “I did. But it’s not easy. And I’m really more of a take-the-easy-way-out person.”

  “You’ve hardly even started. You’re not considering giving it up already, are you?”

  “No. I’m going to stick it out. You can’t just give up after a few days. Not when it’s taken months to actually get here.”

  Erin nodded. “Okay. Good. And if you do want out… you’ll give me some warning, right? We’d need to find someone to buy you out, and I can’t do that right now. I don’t know who in Bald Eagle Falls could, but we’d have to try to work something out.”

  Charley made a motion to brush the topic aside. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not taking off any time in the near future.”

  “Okay.” But the talk about the Plaint family made Erin uneasy. Each of the family members that she had dealt with had been unpredictable and left the rest of the family in the lurch. Not of their own free will, but each of their exits had been abrupt and had left some significant ripples.

  “We’d better get these out,” Charley said. She picked up her tray and took it out to the front of the store. Erin silently followed with her tray and returned to the kitchen to grab the urn of tea and to fill a couple of teapots with boiling water as the first of the church ladies entered the front door, their entrance marked by the friendly jingling of bells.

  Chapter Seven

  E

  rin was surprised to have Rohilda Beavan show up at the ladies’ tea. She hadn’t talked to Beaver about it, though she supposed she had probably mentioned it in passing. She hadn’t thought that Beaver was a churchgoer, and generally those who didn’t attend church weekly didn’t go to the ladies’ tea, though of course, there was no rule to stop them from doing so.

  Beaver’s presence was definitely noticed by the regulars, who watched her awkwardly and didn’t quite know how to respond to her wide smile, lazy drawl, and constant gum chewing. Moreover, Beaver was dressed as she usually was, in camouflage cargo pants, a tank top, and a hunting jacket, while the usual attire for the women at the ladies’ tea was a conservative dress, with only the occasional pantsuit. Erin and Charley were wearing slacks, but the church ladies were all in dresses.

  Erin could see that Mary Lou was making an effort to include Beaver and make her feel at home, which Erin appreciated. Mary Lou had found herself on the outside of the group for several months and perhaps that ostracism had made her more sensitive to others around her who didn’t quite fit in or look or act the way that they were expected to.

  “So… Rohilda… have you moved into Bald Eagle Falls?” Mary Lou inquired, taking a sip of her tea. She did not have any of the sweet treats. She never did. Erin admired her willpower in being able to turn them down.

  “No,” Beaver responded, leaning her chair back onto two legs, her own legs spread wide, taking up lots of space. “Not full time, anyway, just visiting with Jeremy.”

  “It’s good that he managed to find a place of his own. He seems like a very nice boy.” Mary Lou glanced at Erin as if weighing her words and left whatever other comment she had about Jeremy unsaid. Maybe a dig about Jeremy being normal, unlike Vic. Mary Lou had never quite been able to accept Vic’s gender identity, though she and Vic had come to an understanding on the matter. Mary Lou would keep her religious opinions about the rightness or wrongness of Vic’s identity to herself so that she and Vic and Erin could at least be polite acquaintances, if not friends. In the months since Mary Lou’s husband had gone away, Mary Lou had discovered that her good friends from church were not nearly as supportive as she would have expected them to be, and her friendship with Erin and Vic had become more important.

  “He’s great,” Beaver gave Mary Lou a wide smile. “A lot of guys feel threatened by me, but he’s very accepting.”

  “You’re quite a bit older than Jeremy, aren’t you?” Clara Jones asked, leaning forward and inserting herself into the conversation.

  “A bit,” Beaver agreed. “Doesn’t seem to bother him any.” She winked at Clara.

  Clara gave a little gasp of shock. Erin tried to suppress a smile, not looking at Charley.

  Beaver chewed her gum and looked back at Mary Lou, her eyes dancing.

  “And how are your boys?”

  Mary Lou gave a restrained smile. “Josh made the basketball team, so he’s quite happy about that.”

  “And how is Cam doing?”

  Conversations around them ceased, the other ladies darting curious looks at Mary Lou and Beaver. Erin realized she’d never heard Mary Lou’s older son ever called anything but Campbell. Not only that, but he had been living out of town since before Beaver had shown up.

  Mary Lou looked at Beaver, her lips pressed together tightly. “Campbell is fine, I suppose. Not that he tells his mother very much.”

  “Boys.” Beaver rolled her eyes in sympathy.

  “Do you… know Campbell?”

  Beaver shrugged. “We’ve met.”

  And Beaver was a federal agent involved in drug enforcement and had done undercover work. Erin could see these facts flash through Mary Lou’s mind as she tried to decide whether that meant her son was in trouble.

  Beaver’s merry eyes went momentarily serious. “He’s okay,” she told Mary Lou.

  Mary Lou touched Beaver’s arm. “You’re sure?”

  Beaver nodded. “Would I lie to a mom?”

  Mary Lou’s gaze was intense. “Yes, I believe you would.”

  “Okay, maybe I would,” Beaver agreed with a laugh. “But I’m not. He was just fine last I saw.”

  Mary Lou sipped her tea. Beaver looked away from her, glancing around at the other ladies who had been listening in on the conversation.

  “I hear there’s some kind of fall fair coming up. What y’all doin’ for that?”

  They were clearly reluctant to change the subject, wanting to eavesdrop more on what was going on with Mary Lou and her family, but they were too polite to be that obvious about it. So, they turned to describe what crafts, baking, or other items they were preparing for the Fall Fair.

  “What about you?” Beaver asked Erin. “You must be planning something special.”

  Erin nodded. “I don’t want to say too much about it yet, I want it to be a surprise. But it is a traditional Tennessean dessert, and Vic is helping me out with all of the details to make sure that all of the usual rules are complied with, even though it will be gluten-free.”

  Beaver raised her eyebrows and took another cookie off of the platter closest to her. “I gotta say, I haven’t ever tasted gluten-free like this before. Are you sure you’re not just trying to pull one over on us all?”

  “They’re gluten-free!” Erin assured her. “Cross my heart!”

  “We’d know if they weren’t,” Clara Jones offered. “Little Peter Foster, for one, wouldn’t be able to eat them. He’d be sicker than a dog if Erin was trying to pull something off as gluten-free when it wasn’t. And there a
re a few other people around town who need to eat gluten-free who could tell you they are.”

  Beaver grinned, nodding. Erin didn’t get the feeling that she doubted at all that the treats were gluten-free. She was just being polite and encouraging conversation.

  “Well then, I’m looking forward to whatever it is you and Vic are going to pull together for the Fall Fair. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

  “You’ll be there, then?” Lottie Sturm asked.

  “I expect to be. Of course, work can always throw a wrench into the works. It isn’t like I haven’t ever had a day off get rescheduled before. But if I can, I’ll be there.”

  “Is Jeremy doing anything for it?”

  “I imagine he’ll participate in some of the animal handling. He hasn’t said yet what he’s going to do.”

  “What about you?” Erin asked. “Are you going to do something?”

  “Well, y’all don’t want to taste my cooking. So, I won’t be submitting any baking or preserves. Maybe I’ll go out for the shooting. I’m not bad with a gun.”

  She patted her waist. Erin swallowed, unnerved by the fact that Beaver carried a gun with her so casually. People didn’t attend the ladies’ tea wearing guns. It just wasn’t done. Something about it being on a Sunday made Erin think that Beaver should have just left her gun at home, even though Erin herself was an atheist. It just didn’t seem like it was right for Beaver to bring a gun to the after-church tea.

  When Terry dropped by toward the end of the tea, Erin knew that he would be wearing his gun, but somehow that was different. Terry was a police officer in uniform. And a man. Erin apparently had some hitherto unrecognized sexist viewpoints when it came to women wearing guns.

  “We’ve had women win the sharpshooter contests before,” Mary Lou commented. “It wouldn’t be unheard of if you beat out all the men.”

  Beaver nodded at this, chewing her gum. “That’d be sweet. I wouldn’t mind that at all.”

  The conversation seemed to have gone back to normal topics. Erin went around with the teapot to refresh anyone’s drinks, listening to the casual gossip about what was going on in town.

  Nothing to do with her this time. No murders or other mysteries to be solved. As far as everyone was concerned, everything was back to normal. It didn’t matter that Auntie Clem’s Bakery had moved across the street or that Charley was there helping out now that she was part owner. Everyone seemed completely comfortable with the way things were.

  Erin didn’t bring up her new mystery. She wasn’t about to have the whole town searching for her treasure. Or even worse, spoiling her hunt by telling her that the treasure had been discovered long ago or that it didn’t really exist.

  She intended to have a good time finding that out for herself.

  Chapter Eight

  A

  t the end of the tea, Terry did show up with K9 at his heel to help tidy up, snitch a couple of leftover cookies, and offer to take Erin out for the afternoon. Erin sighed as she gathered teacups to be washed.

  “I’d love to go somewhere… but I think I’m going to need to go into town to run a few errands. We did run into a few things that we need to buy for the bakery that we hadn’t thought about before. We made do without, but it’s easier when you have everything you need.”

  “How long is that going to take? Maybe we could go into the city together and catch a movie when you’re done?”

  “I just don’t think I’ll have time,” Erin said reluctantly. “Once I get things done… it would be too late for a matinee, and that means it would be in the evening, and I’d be late getting back and wouldn’t be in on time. I just don’t think it’s going to work this week.”

  Terry nodded slowly. He looked down at K9 instead of at Erin. “Seems like you’ve been pretty busy all the time lately. Should I be taking the hint?”

  “No,” Erin insisted. “No, it’s not that at all. I’m not trying to put you off. I have been extra busy, but that’s just because of reopening the bakery. After a couple of weeks, it should settle back down to normal again. Then we’ll be able to do something.”

  “You’re sure? It’s better if you are open about it and just come out and say so if you don’t want to see each other anymore.”

  “I do. I do. I’m not trying to avoid you or push you away. It’s just a lot of work. You don’t want to come into the city and hold my bag while I shop, do you?”

  Terry made a face. “Not my favorite thing to do.”

  “Then don’t worry about it. Things will settle down again and go back to normal.”

  “And then it will be the Fall Fair. And then you’ll be thinking about Halloween and Thanksgiving…”

  “Thinking about Halloween and Thanksgiving didn’t stop me from spending time with you last year. We just have to fit each other in where we can. Sometimes you’re on shift, and sometimes I’m busy with bakery stuff. It will work out if we both want it to.”

  “As long as you do.”

  “I do.”

  “Okay.” Terry picked up another cookie. “But I need sugar to comfort myself.”

  Erin laughed and motioned to the plate. “Take as many as you like. I’m just going to toss them out.”

  “That would be a waste of good cookies,” Terry said through a mouthful, and grabbed two more off of the platter.

  K9 looked up at Terry and whined at him.

  “K9 wants his too. Come here, K9, come and get one.” Erin called K9 over to the cookie jar.

  He looked at Terry, and when Terry signaled to him, he trotted over to Erin eagerly to get his treat too. They both munched on their cookies while Erin and Charley carried dishes back to the kitchen to be washed.

  Eventually, Erin brushed off her hands. “Okay. That’s it for me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Charley looked at her. “I wasn’t planning on coming in tomorrow.”

  “Didn’t you sign up for the early shift?” Erin teased.

  Charley shook her head adamantly. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way for me to make the early shift would be to stay up and do it before going to bed. There’s no way I can get up that early.”

  “People do it all over the world.”

  “They’re not me. You ask my mom; I was always impossible to get out of bed in the morning. My body just isn’t made for mornings.”

  Erin and Vic hadn’t made any plans to see each other in the city, but Erin looked up from her shopping at the kitchen supply store to see a familiar blond head going down the next aisle over. She studied the girl for a moment to make sure she was right, then called out to her.

  “Victoriaaaa…”

  Vic’s head snapped around. She saw Erin and her jaw dropped. She started laughing. “Erin! Aren’t you supposed to be taking it easy this afternoon?”

  “And I thought you were supposed to be out with Willie.”

  “I am. Willie?” Vic looked around. “He’s around here somewhere. I must have lost him back in appliances. He was looking at something he thought he could use…”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We just came out to eat, and I thought that since I was right here, I’d pop in and pick up a few of the things that we needed, and then I’d just text you and let you know that I got them so that we wouldn’t both buy the same things. I thought I could save us some time. But you came anyway. I told you to rest this afternoon.”

  “I couldn’t rest, knowing that I still needed to get things for the bakery. I have all of my lists, and today was the only day I was free to run errands. Otherwise, I’d have to wait until next week…”

  Vic shook her head. “You’re a workaholic. Where’s Charley? I bet she’s not out taking care of business today. She’s out looking after number one, right?”

  “She came to the ladies’ tea today. But, no, I don’t think she’s doing anything else today. I think she was taking the rest of the day off.”

  “And you should have too.”

  “Sai
d the pot to the kettle.”

  Willie came around the end of the aisle looking for Vic and put his hands on his hips. “I wasn’t told this was an official meeting.”

  “It’s not!” Erin insisted. “It was just chance that we both ended up here. We both thought we could save the other some time. And here we are.”

  “Using twice as much manpower instead of half,” Willie observed. “Well, make quick work of it. Get what it is you need, and then I’ll take both of you out to dinner.”

  “You can take Vic. No need to take me. I’m going to run a few other errands and head back to Bald Eagle Falls.”

  “Not without supper, you’re not. You’re here, so you’re having supper with us, young lady.”

  “It’s your date night. I’m not going to interfere.”

  “It’s not interfering if you’re invited. Now get what you need.” He made a hurry-up motion with his hands. “Skedaddle. The faster you get done, the sooner you can have dinner and be on your way. We won’t stop anywhere too formal. It will be quick. But you need to eat, so don’t argue with me.”

  Erin shrugged widely and shook her head. She and Vic quickly divvied up the list of supplies they needed to get and went in opposite directions, gathering them up and meeting up again at the till. Willie was standing at the front of the store waiting for them when he was done, with a shopping bag of his own.

  “Good. Now there’s a pub just down the end there that serves the best wings you ever had. Quick and easy. How about it?”

  “I’m yours,” Erin said, giving in. He wasn’t going to let her back out graciously, so she might as well eat. As he said, she was going to have to anyway.

  Once they were settled, Willie tore into his first wing and narrowed his eyes at Erin.

  “So, when are you going to tell me about this treasure hunt of yours?”

  “Oh…” Erin looked at Vic, surprised. “Well, I didn’t really want to bother you. Vic said you were pretty busy with other stuff, so…”