Peppermint Fudge Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 13 by Kathleen Suzette (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“Ann, I don’t know how you come up with such wonderful ideas for candy,” Linda said. She was packing up an Internet order in the kitchen. “I have an intuition that within five years we’re going to be the biggest candy-making company in the world.”

Mom turned and looked at her and laughed. “Oh, Linda,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s music to my ears or if that’s a bad omen of things to come. We can barely keep up with what we’re doing now.”

“That’s kind of a terrifying thought,” I said as I sealed the box I had just packed. Linda would sometimes say that she had an intuition about things. I can’t say if she genuinely did, but she frequently came up with things that were surprising. Like last year when she said that Ethan and I would be married. We had only been dating a couple of months at the time, and it had embarrassed me, but here we were. Still together. We weren’t married yet, but there were hints that it was on Ethan’s mind, and I wondered if she had been right from the beginning.

“Well I don’t mean to terrify you,” Linda said and chuckled. “But I really do think the Pumpkin Hollow Candy Store is only going to get bigger. One of these days, you’re going to have to move your base of operations to another building. Or at least, the candy making part of it. I suppose you could transport the candy back to the shop if you still wanted to stay here.”

“I don’t ever want to move the candy shop,” Mom said. “The more I think about it, the more it breaks my heart. I remember so many afternoons spent here after school while my parents made candy.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s silly, but there are too many good memories here for me.” She teared up when she said it and that made me tear up.

“Christy and I have just as many good memories spent here after school with you and grandma making and selling candy. I think this is the only place for the candy store,” I said.

Mom nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

“Then I vote we find another location for the kitchen, and we keep selling candy here,” Linda said. “Of course, there’s no rush. We still have plenty of room to grow online.”

“How about I make a coffee run?” I asked them. “I’m buying. What would you like?”

“I would love a peppermint mocha,” Linda said. “Thank you.”

“How about a peppermint hot cocoa for me?” Mom said. “I feel like I’m not getting in my daily allotment of chocolate these days.” She laughed.

“You got it,” I said and got the money from my purse. “I’ll be right back.”

Christy was off today, and Carrie was working the front of the store. I got an order for coffee from her and stepped outside into the cold and blustery day. The sky had clouded over and the wind was blowing, so I pulled my coat tightly against my body. I didn’t want to move the candy store any more than Mom did. And then I saw it. The building next door to ours was empty.

In the past two years, it had been a candle store, an arts and craft store, and finally, a used children’s clothing shop. I stepped up to the window and peered into the darkened building. The used clothing shop had gone out of business three months earlier. I wondered if we could move the kitchen operation to this store and keep selling candy where we were. We could even open up a window along the dividing wall so people in the store portion of the shop could look into the candy-making operations. I’d seen something like that when I visited a candy store on the central coast years earlier. The empty shop wasn’t as big as the candy store, but it would be perfect if we moved the kitchen and shipping department into it. Right now, the shipping department consisted of a small corner of the kitchen and it was cramped. I took a step back, thinking about it. It couldn’t get much more perfect than this.

I hurried on to Amanda’s coffee shop. By the look of the sky, it was going to begin snowing any minute now. I didn’t mind the snow, but I didn’t like to be out in it when it began.

I pushed open the coffee shop door. “Hello, Amanda!” I called. She was waiting on a customer at the front counter and she grinned at me.

“Hello, yourself,” she said and continued waiting on the customer.

When the customer left, I stepped up to the front counter. “How are you doing Amanda? And most importantly, how is baby Amanda doing?”

She chuckled. “How do you know it isn’t a baby Brian?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, either would be fine. But if I was truthful, I’m kind of hoping for a baby Amanda. Think of all the cute little outfits we could buy for her. We could dress her up and do her hair and have a lot of fun with her.”

“Well, If I told the truth, I’m kind of hoping it’s a girl, too. But a little boy would be perfectly fine with me.”

I nodded and gave her my coffee and cocoa orders and then I looked into the display case. “I think I’d like eight candy cane biscotti.”

“You got it,” she said, and she went about making the drinks. “Anything good going on?”

I shrugged. “Not a lot. Ethan and I made a snow woman, but we still have to make a snowman for his yard and then a couple of snow kitties to go with them.”

“That sounds like fun,” she said. “I keep wanting to make a snowman for my yard, but when I get home from work, I’m just