Page 12 of Peach Cobbler Confessions
Everett gives a long blink. “It was a woman by the name of Brandy Fielding. I remember her well. Her boyfriend was found guilty of murder.” He frowns. “I had her removed from my courtroom on a few occasions.”
Evie’s mouth falls open. “Someone threw a cup of water in your face and lived to tell about it?” Her voice hitches with anger. “Mom, did you get a picture of this?”
“Nope.”
She blows out an exasperated breath. “Well, then it’s like it never happened.”
“It happened.” Noah sheds a momentary grin. “I saw the whole thing.”
Evie shakes her head at her father. “I don’t get it. It’s not like you’re the one who found her boyfriend guilty. I mean, he obviously went through the whole judicial system. All you did was hand down the sentencing.”
“You’re right.” Everett gives her a pat on the back. “You’re a smart kid, Evie. That’s exactly what happened. But the truth is, at the end of the day, it’s the judge that takes the heat in cases like this.”
“Cool.” Evie’s eyes grow in size. “So do you think she’s going to, like, stalk you now? We should probably get a couple of Doberman pinschers we can unleash in the event she tries to tie us up and kill us.”
Everett shakes his head. “She’s not killing you.”
I give his arm a gentle squeeze. “And she’s not killing you.”
Everett takes a breath. “She’s harmless. We probably won’t hear from her ever again. She’ll go away soon.”
We wrap up the morbid party and Noah heads across the street to let his sweet golden retriever, Toby, out and feed him. But Noah doesn’t get to the porch before he calls us outside.
Everett and I follow Noah down to the bottom of the driveway as he shines a light over the front of Everett’s car.
Scrawled in red lipstick across the entire length of Everett’s windshield are the wordsNOT GUILTY.
I’m getting the feeling Brandy Fielding isn’t so harmless.
And it certainly doesn’t look as if she’s going away any time soon.
Chapter 5
Everett and Evie spent the night with me last night. They happen to live right next door, and I assured them I was feeling better, but Everett wouldn’t hear of it. Evie was too creeped out by her father’s new stalker to sleep in that house all alone—not that we would have let her.
Even though Everett and I are technically married, we don’t live together. In fact, we’re more boyfriend and girlfriend than we are husband and wife, and as much as I’d love to change that, I just don’t want to let go of the rental home I’m in.
Okay, so that sounded decidedly lame.
It’s not just the rental. Everett and I are sort of new again. I’m afraid if we dive into the deep end of the relationship pool we might just sink. We need to restart the engine, take things as they come, and hopefully everything will fall into place just the way it’s meant to. And I’m not worried about whatever it is he’s keeping from me. He’s already assured me he’ll address it, and I trust him to do just that.
The only thing that truly makes my stomach turn is the fact my friend, Bizzy Baker, who came out last month, the one with the supernatural ability to read minds, didn’t look too happy about Everett’s thoughts at the time. She’s the one that let me know he was keeping something from me. And when I asked her if it had the power to destroy us, she assured me it did.
A part of me can’t believe that. Everett and I are unbreakable,unsinkable. We’ve already withstood so much.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and it’s a text from Carlotta, asking me if the baby has eaten my brain for breakfast.
I frown at the phone as if it were Carlotta herself before shooting back a text, letting her know I’m on my way to the bakery.
Carlotta has been living with me ever since we discovered that my late grandma Nell’s home—the home Carlotta was frolicking around in and throwing drunken orgies in—was covered in black mold. Keelie’s husband, Bear, has taken on the project, and last I checked, he took the old house down to the studs. But now with his new baby at the doorstep, I doubt he’ll get around to finishing Nell’s old place any time soon. I’m guessing Carlotta will be living with me far longer than a few more months. She’s sort of my quirky cross to bear.
After Everett left for work this afternoon, I took off to the local clinic and had them give me a thorough checkup, which mostly consisted of me peeing in a cup. It turns out, I amnotexpecting a baby, which is no surprise to me, but the doctor was kind enough to take my blood work and have it sent off to a lab to see if they can pinpoint what was making me so sick.
Of course, I didn’t tell Everett where I was going. He made me a stack of his delicious pancakes and coffee this morning and made sure I ate breakfast in bed. Noah dropped off a few red roses he picked from his garden, told me he loved me, and planted a kiss on my cheek before leaving for the station this morning as well. And they’ve both sent alarmingly sweet text messages to me for the last few hours, declaring how happy they are to be expecting a baby with me. It’s clear I’ll have to talk to them in person this evening and straighten this whole Carlotta-inspired mess out. And strangely, it feels as if I’ll be disappointing the two of them in the process.
The Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery is bustling this afternoon as I step on in and I can’t help but smile as I take it all in. Nell gifted this place to me after the space became available. I worked as the baker for her restaurant, the Honey Pot Diner, the one in which my bakery has shared a wall with for years.
The Honey Pot Diner is magical, with its large resin oak tree planted right in the middle of the restaurant. Its twinkle light strewn branches extend over the ceiling and make their way over the ceiling of my café as well. That, along with the butter yellow walls and mismatched pastel furniture, gives the bakery a homey yet fairy-tale appeal.