Wedding Bell Blunders: A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery - Kathleen Suzette (parable of the sower read online TXT) 📗

nodded. “I just knew you two would need some treats for your trip. So, we’ll call them sweetheart treats.” She chuckled.

He smiled and went to the refrigerator and got the cream out, and poured some into his cup. “I’m going to drink this, and then I’m going to head out. I promise not to be too late.”

I nodded. “I know. It will be fine.”

Mama came to the kitchen door, still in her bathrobe. “My goodness, I can’t believe that I slept as late as I did. I should have been up early making breakfast for you two love birds. I think I’ll get to work on that right now if you haven’t already eaten. Morning, Lucy.”

“Morning, Myrna,” Lucy said.

“Oh Mama, we have so much food in the refrigerator from the reception that we can just find something in there to eat. Don’t worry about it.”

“I wouldn’t feel right about that,” she said, opening the refrigerator door. “Oh, my, you weren’t kidding about the leftovers, were you?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not kidding.”

“Myrna, as much as I appreciate your thinking about making breakfast for us,” Alec said and took another sip of his coffee and set the cup down. “I’ve got to run. I’ll be back in a little while.”

“Oh,” Mama said sadly. “I was going to make you a big southern breakfast.”

Alec grinned. “You have no idea how much I would enjoy something like that. But really, I’ve got to run. I promise I’ll be back shortly. See you all later.” He kissed me on the way out the door.

When the door closed behind him, I turned to Mama. “The police think someone tried to murder Richard Thomas.”

She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “That young man that passed out at the reception yesterday?”

I nodded. “The one and the same.”

She shook her head. “That’s a shame. Who did it? We were all here in the ballroom. It had to be one of those other two caterers. Is Alec going to go talk to them?”

I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee, and then got another cup down to pour some for her. “He’s going to go talk to the chief of police today. We’ll have to see how it goes from there. Richard is in a coma. I sure hope he pulls through.”

She made a clucking sound, and I handed her the cup of coffee. “How awful.”

“I guess we get to visit a little bit longer since we’re going to put our honeymoon off for a couple of days,” I said and gave her a one-armed hug. “I wish we had more time.”

She nodded. “Well, it’s not like you can’t come and visit me in Alabama, you know.”

I nodded. “I know, Mama, I know.” Thad and Sarah, and my mother, brother, and sister, would fly out early tomorrow morning. I wished we had more time to visit, but I was happy that they had made it for the wedding. Next time we would plan a vacation far enough in advance that we could visit with one another for a long while.

I didn’t know if someone had attempted to murder Richard, but I had to wonder about it. If he wasn’t diabetic, why would he have that medication in his system? Mama might have been right about the other two caterers. But where would they have gotten the medication, and why would he take it?

Chapter Six

“Allie, this is a beautiful house,” Mama said. “It’s a pure shame that poor girl was murdered here.”

I sighed. “It was a shame that she was murdered anywhere.”

“Sure, sure,” she said as she set a bowl of potato salad on the table. “That’s what I meant. It’s a shame.”

I smiled and brought the bowl of macaroni salad to the table. We had plenty of leftovers from the wedding reception the previous day, but Mama just knew that it wasn’t right not to have both macaroni salad and potato salad with it, and so she had whipped them up after I had run to the store to get her the ingredients. I didn’t mind. She made the best potato and macaroni salad in the world.

I heard the front door open, and I went to see who it was. Alec walked through it, looking grim.

“Hey, how are things going?” I asked, going to him and kissing him.

He kissed me back. “Not so well. At least not so well for Richard Thomas. He died this afternoon.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry to hear that.”

He nodded. “We’re treating this as a murder since there’s no trace of him ever being diabetic or needing that medication.”

“A murder? It figures. Why couldn’t we just have a normal wedding day without a murder occurring?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I wish I had an answer for you on that, but I don’t. I’m starving. I don’t suppose you made something for dinner?”

“Not exactly. We’re going to have leftovers from yesterday, plus Mama made macaroni salad and potato salad to go with it.”

“I love your mother’s macaroni salad. And her potato salad,” he said. “Let’s eat.”

We headed back to the ballroom where the tables were still set up. Jake, Shelby, Thad and Sarah, and Jennifer and Dylan were all here, and we put some of the tables together to make one long one for all of us to sit at together. Before I could sit down, there was a knock at the door.

“I’ll get that,” I said and headed back to the front door. I opened it, and Lucy and Ed were standing on the doorstep.

“Hey Allie, since you aren’t going on your honeymoon, we thought we’d stop by and say hello. And see if there were any leftovers.” Lucy grinned.

I chuckled. “We were just getting ready to sit down. You came at