Page 6

W hen Mack stopped by at the end of the day, Doreen greeted him at the door with a cookie. He raised one eyebrow and opened his mouth for a bite. She popped in a morsel, and he chewed it with a frown.

“Shortbread?” he asked cautiously.

She frowned back at him. “It doesn’t taste like shortbread?” she asked doubtfully. “I’ve never had any, so I don’t know.”

He just nodded and chewed a little bit more.

“Okay, great ,” she muttered. “Somehow I managed to mess that up too.”

“I don’t know that you messed it up,” he clarified, “but you do realize that shortbread needs a light hand, right? This cookie still tastes good,” he added.

She glared at him. “But not that good, so not a light hand.”

“I’m not sure what you did,” he replied, “but shortbreads should be just a quick mix, a quick roll, and then pop it into the oven.”

“ Hmm .… Good to know. I did buy enough ingredients, so maybe I should try it again.”

He walked into the kitchen behind her, snagged up another shortbread cookie from the counter, and nodded. “I have to have another bite to be sure.”

She glared at him. “If you’re having another bite, it can’t be that bad.”

“Nope, it’s not,” he said, with a snort. “It just needs a little… practice.”

“How come everything I do needs a little practice?” she asked, a forlorn note evident in her tone.

He turned and looked at her. “You’re really having a tough day of it, huh ?”

“I shouldn’t be, though,” she muttered. “I mean, everything should be fine.”

“Should be, but is it?”

“Nan did tell me to go track down some mistletoe,” she shared, “but I don’t know anything about it. She seems to think she is missing some mistletoe.”

His lips twitched. “I think you may find that any missing mistletoe is more missing in Nan’s head than anywhere else,” he muttered.

“She should know that a cutting of fresh mistletoe lasts one month, and so we have to get more each year.” Doreen turned to face Mack. “She also seemed to think that you hadn’t told me about a case.”

He froze in the act of popping a third shortbread into his mouth, his eyes widening. “Oh, did she now?” he muttered.

“Yeah.” She studied him carefully. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“You and I both know how much we enjoy sharing cases,” he replied. “We also know that I can only share so much with you about a pending investigation. So, no, I wouldn’t hold back case info deliberately.”

“But,” she noted, hearing the inflection in his wording, “something appears to be going on that I don’t know about.”

He smiled. “It is Christmas, remember?”

“Which is exactly what Nan told me,” Doreen cried out in frustration. “I don’t know if you guys realize how little I know about celebrating Christmas.” When Mack frowned at her, she shrugged. “Mathew didn’t want anything to do with it, and it’s been a very long time since I had any family nearby. Nan cared about me, and she still does, but she was also living her best life with her carefree lifestyle at that point, rather than focusing her days on her married granddaughter,” she muttered. “So honestly, when it comes to Christmas, I really don’t know what is expected.”

“Nothing’s expected,” he replied. “It should be just a fun time to celebrate. People have various traditions, so it’s a little different for everyone, depending on what they are used to.”

“What about gifts? I don’t have a clue.”

“If you want to give me something,” he suggested, “then feel free. Otherwise I am not bothered.”

“Yeah, but that just means you’ll turn around and get me something, and then I’ll feel bad because I don’t have something to reciprocate.” When he burst out laughing, she nodded. “But I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I don’t know,” he said, with a smile. “I can tell you right now that I don’t have anything specifically Christmas-related for you at this time.”

“But you do have something for me,” she noted, latching onto his wording again.

“I do, yes,” he agreed, “but it’s not meant to stress you out. That’s the opposite of my intent.” When she glared at him, he just smiled. “Honestly.”

“Sure, honestly ,” she muttered. “It seems as if everybody is involved in something that I don’t know anything about.”

He stared at her. “You, my dear, are at the heart of everything, as always,” he shared. “So maybe this time you can just step back a bit.”

“But what’s this about missing mistletoe?”

“We had that vehicle crash, remember?”

“No, I don’t remember. You didn’t tell me about a crash.”

He frowned. “The night that we were sitting at the river.”

“No, you didn’t mention a crash,” she pointed out. “You had to leave, and it had something to do with mistletoe, but you didn’t tell me what it was about, not then and not afterward either.”

“Okay, sorry. We had a semi-truck crash on the highway, bringing in poinsettias and a lot of Christmas-themed plants and flowers. Honestly, it’s a little late for them to be trucked in, but it was the overflow from Vancouver, after our local crop had not survived the freezing temps we had here earlier. Anyway, the driver had a bad accident, and the entire load was either stolen or left behind to be damaged by the elements, during another of the cold snaps we’ve had. So all the live plants were just gone.”

“Oh, I see. So it’s not that the mistletoe is missing. It’s just that the town doesn’t have any.”

“Exactly. So, everything in Kelowna has been pretty well wiped out, and people are scrambling to get any poinsettias and a bunch of other stuff from nearby towns. I can’t say it’s ever been anything I particularly worried about.”

“Okay,” she muttered.

“Feel better?”

“Yes,… it’s always tough when it feels as if I’m being excluded from something.”

“You know that’s just a part of Christmas,” he said, dropping a kiss on her nose. “Christmas is full of secrets.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like secrets and surprises,” she declared.

He burst out laughing. “It doesn’t seem to matter because, when Christmas happens—short of people setting out how they want to handle it ahead of time, like families or people in a relationship—Christmas is full of all kinds of things, and they don’t have to be bad, even if secrets or surprises.” When she looked at him in disbelief, he shook his head. “You know, if that husband of yours wasn’t dead already, I would pound him into the ground right now.”

“Take a number,” she muttered. “I think I could find enough reasons to do that myself. I did talk to your brother again.”

“Good. Is he coming through with the paperwork?”

“Yeah, but he just brought up another big mess of issues though,” she muttered.

“Such as?”

“Mathew’s houses were full, so Nick asked me what I wanted to do with all the furnishings. He did mention that sometimes it’s easier to sell houses if they looked lived in.”

“That’s very true. Isn’t that what staging is all about?” he asked, with a nod. “So just leave the furnishings as is, until the houses sell, right?”

“That’s what I suggested, but then Nick mentioned valuable paintings.”

Mack slowly turned from where he’d been eyeing the cookies, and she had to laugh because he seemed to be very seriously thinking that cookie number four was due.

“You know the cookies can’t be that bad.”

“Nope, they’re not bad at all, just a little bit more of a chew factor than I was expecting, that’s all, but they taste just fine.”

“Chew factor,” she repeated, “Right. So, in other words, they’re tough.”

“I’m really not sure how that works,” he said apologetically. “I’ve never had tough shortbread before.”

“Yeah, well, if there was a way to make it happen, you can count on me for that,” she muttered.

“What do you mean by expensive paintings?” he asked, facing her.

She shrugged. “Mathew collected art.”

“Of course he did.” Mack sighed.

Doreen nodded. “As far as I can tell, he was really proud of it.”

“And do you know what’s in his collection?”

“I don’t. I was never allowed to look at it very much. If I did, I had to say the right thing. Otherwise he would get quite pissed off because I never said the right thing. I learned it was best to just avoid the whole issue.”

His lips twitched. “I can see that.”

“Yeah, well, anyway , I told Nick that we should probably contact the same auction people as before and sell them.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. At least you have a trusted connection there you can work with.”

“That’s what I thought.” She nodded. “Nick seemed to think that was a decent idea too.”

“I’m sure he did.” Mack smiled. “He’s pretty reasonable when it comes to that kind of thing, isn’t he?”

“I think so,” she muttered. “Anyway, he’ll get a realtor to list everything in the houses. In fact, he wants the realtor to film the contents of all the houses. That way we don’t have to fly out there and see each house and everything firsthand, before selling them. Scott would appreciate a visual record too, but I’m sure he’ll want to send somebody out there in person as well. If he wants me there too, I think you should go with me—if you could get one whole day off to do that sort of thing.”

“Interesting.” He absentmindedly shifted his watch.

“Is that watch bothering you?” she asked, noticing his irritated skin.

He shrugged. “The wristband is old. I’ve been meaning to get a new one but just haven’t gotten around to it.”

She tucked away that information, wondering if she should try to find something in her husband’s collection or if that would just piss off Mack. She seemed to walk through a mine field these days. Was it okay to give Mack a watch that came from her late husband’s collection? The very same ex who had tried to kill her? She would talk to Mack’s brother and see if that was okay to regift or would be something so wrong that Mack would be angry.

“Anyway, I can tell you this about my current case,” Mack began, as he walked closer to her. “The mistletoe on that truck died or was taken, so now we have no live mistletoe in town.”

“Which I’m sure is upsetting a lot of people,” Doreen noted. “It’s driving Nan completely batty.”

He laughed. “Anything that doesn’t go the way Nan wants it to go is practically guaranteed to drive her batty.”

Doreen laughed. “I was down there earlier, and so much hush-hush stuff was going on that, when Nan pushed me out the door, I was happy to leave.”

He looked at her askance. “Seriously? What are they up to?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered. “And I think it’s better if I don’t know at this stage.” He looked at her worriedly, and she nodded. “I know. I know. She’s my grandmother, but you also may want to talk to Darren about his grandfather.”

Mack laughed. “Darren is trying very hard to avoid his grandfather right now, as Richie is constantly getting Darren in trouble.”

“I feel the same way about Nan,” Doreen muttered. “Yet, as long as everybody at Rosemoor is doing okay, I guess we can leave them to their own mess. They are adults, after all.”

“If you say so,” Mack conceded.

“Anyway, you’re not getting me something for Christmas, right?”

He frowned and asked cautiously, “Are you saying you don’t want anything for Christmas?”

She frowned right back at him. “I was thinking that maybe we really didn’t need to do gifts, you know?”

“We don’t need to do gifts,” he clarified, “but I did have something in mind I wanted to get you.”

She stared at him. “How come everybody always seems to have something in mind, but I don’t even understand how the system works?”

“That’s because you’re overthinking it,” he said gently. “The only thing that matters is that, if you want to give somebody a gift, you give it to them for the right reason.”

“And that is?”

“Because you want to,” he stated.

She smiled. “Okay, I think I can handle that.”

He twisted his watchband again and frowned. “This is really irritating.”

“Maybe that’s something I could look for,” she suggested.

“A watchband?” Looking down at it, he nodded. “Sure, why don’t you buy me a new watchband for Christmas. That’ll give you something that will make you feel good to give me because it’s something I need, and I know how much you appreciate that.”

“Right.” Still, she frowned. “Yet I don’t know if it’s something I can do though.”

“There is a size involved,” he noted, and he quickly wrote it down on the notepad she kept nearby. “Even if not for Christmas, maybe you could spend a minute researching to find me one that won’t irritate my skin.”

“I think it has to do with the coating on them,” she muttered.

“Yeah, maybe. The coating has probably worn off on this one.”

“You can always get a gold one or something,” she pointed out, frowning at the size of it, how it was loose on his wrist.

“Gold?” he repeated and laughed. “Yeah, that’s not happening. I wouldn’t even know what to do with it.”

“Wear it, of course.”

He smiled, tapped her on the nose, and said, “How about some food, before I finish all the rest of your cookies?”

“They can’t be that bad then.”

“They aren’t bad at all,” he replied. “They’ve got a really good flavor.”

“So just high on the chew factor then?”

His grin flashed. “Exactly, just a high chew factor, and that’s a good thing.”

“How on earth is that a good thing?”

“Because you taught me something new.”

“What’s that?” she asked, glaring at him, knowing it wouldn’t be something she liked.

He laughed. “I didn’t know that shortbread came chewy.”

She sighed. “I’ll try again.”

“You do that,” he said, as he reached for another.

She smacked his hand. “Didn’t you say you wanted dinner first? Did we make dinner plans?” She stared at him in astonishment.

He sighed. “I thought we did. You were supposed to make chicken.”

“Oh. I don’t think I got the memo.”

“Ah.” He shrugged. “Pizza?”

“Pizza would be great,” she replied. “I guess I should have taken the chicken out to thaw, huh ?”

“You didn’t though, so it’s no big deal.”

“I don’t feel like cooking tonight,” she grumbled in frustration. “I think something is wrong with me.” He looked at her, raising one brow. She shrugged. “I never really feel like cooking. It isn’t something that comes naturally in any way. It’s not a skill that I can just turn around and say, Hey, this is something I can do , without feeling like it’s a chore.”

“Because it’s a chore that you want to get out of doing.”

“I hate to put it that way,” she muttered.

He shrugged. “It just is what it is. Nobody said you had to cook all the time. Nobody said I had to cook all the time either. The good news is, we can do whatever we want most of the time.” And, with that, he pulled out his phone and ordered pizza. As he put away his phone, he nodded. “Twenty minutes.”

“Oh, good,” she said, as her stomach rumbled.

He smiled. “Have you tried any of your cookies?”

“No, I was worried.”

“Worried?” he asked.

“Yeah. What if they weren’t edible?”

He nodded. “I can assure you that they’re edible.” He snagged another one. “Quite edible.”

“You need to stop,” she protested, “or you won’t have any room for dinner.”

“Really?” he asked, with an eye roll. “Do you honestly think that argument will work with me?”

“I don’t know. You would think so,” she muttered. “Apparently that’s how people do it with kids.”

“I’m hardly a kid,” he pointed out, with a laugh.

“That’s part of the reason Nan is so worried about me.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed. “Nan mentioned something today that I’m struggling with.”

“ Uh-oh . Nan’s very good at saying all kinds of things.”

“I know, but she seems to think I’m in danger of losing you. If I don’t do certain things, I’ll mess it up somehow, and you’ll walk away from me.”

He stopped midbite, then walked over to her and tugged her close and just held her. “I don’t think Nan has any good advice in that department,” he murmured gently. “Next time she tries to give you any relationship suggestions, just tell her that you’ll figure it out, just as you figure out everything else.”

“Do you think so?” she asked, leaning back to look up at him, hating the insecurity overtaking her. “I never quite know what to say when she gets in that mood.”

“Of course you don’t,” he agreed. “Nan is absolutely lovely, and I know where she’s coming from, and it’s okay.” He leaned down and gave Doreen a kiss. “Now put that thought out of your mind and let’s deal with more important things.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“My stomach.” Then he burst into laughter.