The Missing Dough

CHAPTER 1

"Maddy, I'm not leaving here until you promise togive me another chance!"

I heard the man shouting all the way from the kitchen ofmy pizza parlor, A Slice of Delight. It was just ten minutessince we'd opened our doors for the day. I'd been hopingfor a quiet shift, but it was clear that I'd have no such lucktoday. What was going on with my sister now, and who wasyelling at her? Whatever was happening, it sounded asthough she could use some help. Maddy usually handledthe front dining room with no trouble, along with our twopart-timers, Greg and Josh, but she was up there alone atthe moment, and I needed to see if I could back her up, nomatter what the circumstances.

As I hurried up front, I grabbed our security system onthe way, an aluminum baseball bat we'd played with askids. Thankfully, the dining room was empty except forMaddy and a man I thought I'd seen the last of years before.

"Grant, what are you doing here?" I asked as I pointedthe business end of the bat toward him like a spear.

"Hello, Eleanor," he said with that greasy way he hadabout him, lowering his voice and doing his best to smile atme. There was no love lost between the two of us, and Ididn't even try to fake a smile in return.

Years ago, Maddy had married Grant Whitmore on the reboundfrom a bad breakup, though I'd done my best to talkher out of it at the time. The man was almost a cliché: tall,dark, and handsome, a troubled loner that some womenfound irresistible. I wasn't talking about me, but clearly,some women reveled in his attention. Maddy had fallen forhim, and hard, until fourteen months into their marriageshe'd caught him cheating with their next-door neighbor. Itwasn't all that surprising to me that Maddy had missed hismother more than she had her straying husband. She andher mother-in-law had formed a strong bond that had surpassedthe marriage, and the two women had kept in touchlong after the dissolution of Maddy's marriage to thewoman's son.

"You didn't answer my question, Grant," I said as calmlyas I could manage. "Why are you here?"

Maddy looked over at me and frowned. "I can handlethis, Sis."

"There's no doubt in my mind that you can, but whyshould you have all of the fun? If it were possible, I mighteven like him less than you do." I was normally a pretty levelheadedwoman, but this guy was on my Trouble list, a placethat no one in their right mind would ever want to be.

Grant tried to wield his questionable charm on me. "Yoursister is right, Eleanor. We don't need your input. We'redoing just fine without you."

That was the wrong thing to say to Maddy, and I knew itas I tried to suppress a smile. Grant realized it as well fromthe instant the statement left his lips, but it was too late forhim to take it back.

Maddy answered, "Grant, I don't need your support,your permission, or your acknowledgment of anything I say,think, or do. I threw you out for a reason, and if you thinkthere's a whisper of a chance you are getting back into mylife, you are sadly mistaken. I'm happy, I'm engaged, andI'm well rid of you." She looked at me, then glanced at thebaseball bat still in my hands. "Could I borrow that?"

"By all means," I said as I handed the bat to her. "Butdon't hog all of the fun for yourself. I want a shot at himafter you're finished."

"What makes you think that there will be anything leftafter I take my turn?" she asked with her most wicked ofgrins.

"Ladies, I can see that I've caught you at a bad time,"Grant said as he started backing slowly toward the frontdoor. "There's no need to resolve this all at once. Therewill be plenty of time. I'm not going anywhere. We'll talkagain later."

"Or just maybe we're finished here, once and for all,"Maddy said. "I meant what I said. There's nothing left totalk about."

Grant made his way to the door and then hesitated beforeleaving. "Madeline, you can protest all you want to, butI know there's still a spark for me buried somewhere deepin your heart."

"Grant, it's amazing the number of things you think youknow about me but don't," Maddy said. She suddenlylunged with the bat, grinned again, and he left quickly.

"What was that all about?" I asked her after we were surehe wasn't coming back.

"What can I say? I guess I'm really just that irresistible,"she answered with a grin.

"Really? You don't think there's something else going onhere?"

"Of course I do," she replied. "Grant is up to something,and I doubt that it's because he is in Timber Ridge to winback my heart. There's only one way to find out, though.I'm calling Sharon."

"Do you really think your former mother-in-law will tellyou what her son is up to?" I asked as my sister got out hercell phone.

"Are you kidding? Sharon was hoping to lose him in thedivorce instead of me." Maddy listened to her phone for aminute and then hung up. "I got her machine; she's notthere. I'll try again later. In the meantime, what say we putthis behind us and get ready for our first customer?"

"Aren't you going to call Bob and tell him what just happened?"I asked. Bob Lemon was a local attorney and,more importantly, Maddy's fiancé. "I've got a hunch hemight like to know that someone is trying to woo his betrothed."

Maddy glanced at her watch. "Bob knows all aboutGrant, so there's no way he'll be threatened by anything myex has to say to me. Besides, he's in court right now. I'll tellhim this evening at the festival. I'm glad we're closing thepizzeria at six so we can go this year, too."

"Hey, we only have a Founders Day Festival once ayear," I said. "Besides, with all of the street vendors peddlingtheir specialties, it's not like we'd sell much pizzaanyway. It was one of Joe's favorite things about this place,you know."

"Oh, you don't have to remind me. I remember thatcrazy woodsman's costume he wore one year. I thoughtGrizzly Adams had come to town."

"My dear husband had a unique sense of humor, didn'the?" I asked.

Maddy nodded and then stared at me for a few secondsbefore she spoke again. "You know, you aren't nearly as sadas you used to be when you talk about him these days,Eleanor. Is it because David Quinton's in your life?"

I thought about it and then admitted, "You're probablyright. Joe's been gone awhile now, and I'm doing my best tolet go of the pain of losing him and focus more on the wonderfullife we had together. I admit that David has helpedme do it."

"By being in your life?" Maddy asked.

"Sure, that's true in and of itself, but my boyfriend lovesto hear stories about Joe, and some of the stunts he used topull. I swear, I believe that the two of them would havebeen great friends if they'd ever had a chance to meet."

"Well, they do have something in common," Maddy said."They both managed to fall for you."

"And you can't argue with good taste, can you?" I askedher with a smile.

At that moment, four older fellows came into the Slice together.To my knowledge, they'd never been in my pizzeriabefore, and judging by the way they looked around, it was apretty sure bet. They weren't exactly in their element.

As Maddy seated them, I asked, "What brings you gentlemenhere on this fine and beautiful day?"

"They shut down the Liar's Table at Mickey's in Bower,"one of them said, clearly more than a little disgruntled bythe fact. "We're trying new places this week, until they'refinished remodeling."

"Did you just say Liar's Table?" Maddy asked. "Whatexactly does that mean?"

One of the men grinned at her as he ran a hand through hisfull head of silver hair. "It's a time-honored name reservedfor a group of regulars who tend to exaggerate their storiesjust a touch to make them a tad more vivid to the listener."

"Exaggerate?" a shiny-domed companion asked. "That'sjust about the nicest way of being called a liar I've heardyet."

"Give me time, Jed. I'll see what else I can come upwith," his friend replied.

"Don't encourage him," a third man said. As Maddy offeredthem all menus, he held his hand up and said, "Don'tworry about those; we know what we want. If this place isanything like the one I used to go to back when I had a fullhead of hair, give us a large kitchen-sink pizza and foursodas."

"When did you start ordering for us, Henry?" one of theother men asked.

"Forget that," Jed said. "I want to know how you can rememberas far back as when you actually had hair."

"Yeah. I resent the implication that I can't make up myown mind," the heretofore silent one chimed in.

Henry looked at them each in turn and then said, "Excuseme. I didn't mean to be presumptuous. So, what kindof pizza would you three like?"

They mulled it over and finally decided that Henry hadbeen right all along. After they placed their order, I wentback into the kitchen to prepare it. Maddy and I liked fullyloaded pizzas ourselves, using every topping we could getour hands on, so I could make one in my sleep. As it madeits way through the conveyor oven we used, I had to wonderabout Grant's earlier visit to the Slice. Was he reallythere to get back in my sister's life, or was there somethingmore ominous behind his sudden appearance? I had to believethe latter, but only time would tell. I just hoped thathe'd been bluffing when he said that he wasn't going togive up easily.

Our lives were plenty complicated enough without havingone of Maddy's ex-husbands showing up and makingtrouble for all of us.

"It's really beautiful, isn't it?" I asked David Quinton as Iheld his hand later that evening when we first arrived at thefestival.

The promenade where my pizzeria was located hadbeen spruced up for the festival, with tiny white Christmaslights spread around the trees spaced throughout thebroad brick square. Even the World War II cannon hadpretty twinkly little lights on it, but the biggest center ofattraction of all was the obelisk. With a shape that was aduplicate of the Washington Monument, it was a scaled-downversion, an eighteen-foot-high memorial to the menand women who had founded Timber Ridge. Their namesstill dominated our town, with Lincolns, Murphys, Penneys,and even Swifts and Spencers spread throughout theregion, and there were most likely more folks with ties tothe original founders living all around me than otherwise.What I loved most about the focus on the monument toour heritage was that the gray sentinel was bathed in anever-changing floodlight of colors, and I wondered howthey'd managed it.

"Would you like to dance, Eleanor?" David asked me aswe neared one of the two stages set up on opposite ends ofthe square. They were far enough apart to be isolated fromeach other for the most part, but every now and then musicfrom the bluegrass musicians on the other side drifted towardthe stage near us, where a cover band was playingsome of my favorite songs from my youth, a soundtrack ofmy life growing up.

"Why don't we get some barbeque first?" I suggested. Itwasn't that I didn't enjoy dancing with my boyfriend, evenif there was already a crowded floor of dancers, but it hadbeen quite a while since I'd had lunch.

"I completely get the logic of feeding you first, but theoffer's open for the rest of the night," he said with a smile."But the next time, you have to ask me."

"You've got yourself a deal."

We made our way to one of the three barbeque sellers setup on the perimeter of the promenade, and I nodded to afew of my customers who were working behind thecounter.

An older woman with a ready smile laughed the secondshe saw me approach. "Eleanor Swift! Who would havethought that I'd ever have the chance to serve you insteadof the other way around?" Linda Tuesday said from behindthe table.

"From those heavenly aromas coming from behind you, Iwouldn't suggest trying to stop me. Is your husband cookingtonight?" Linda's husband, Manny, worked the pit at abarbeque place in Lincoln as his regular job, and he was alegend around our part for his skills in slow cooking.

"Try to keep him away from it," she said with a wry grin."That man was born with barbeque sauce in his veins, anda fondness for cooking perfect pork barbeque that goes beyondobsession."

"And it's a good thing for the rest of us," I said. I didn'teven have to glance at the menu printed on bright greenposterboard. "Linda, we'll take two pulled specials, and dome a favor and sneak a bite of bark on my plate." Almost asan afterthought, I turned to David and asked, "Oops. Is thatall right with you? I get kind of carried away when I'maround barbeque this good."

"Sure, it's fine with me, but if you're going to order forme, you're going to have to buy, Eleanor," he said with agrin.

"I like this one," Linda said as she looked at David andadded another burst of laughter. "This one might just be akeeper. Or is it too soon to tell yet?"

"He's still on probation, but it's looking good so far," Isaid with a laugh of my own. Linda had that effect on me,and I always loved it when she came into the Slice.

"It's good to know that I haven't flunked out yet," Davidsaid good-naturedly as he started to reach for his wallet.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, mister?" I said."Put that away. This is my treat, remember?"

"Sorry. I forgot myself for just a second," he said.

Linda dished us up two plates brimming with pulledpork barbeque, baked beans, potato salad, slaw, and a goodhandful of french fries. Except for the barbeque itself, theportions weren't overwhelming, just a little more than ataste of each, but it was the only way you could get the fullexperience of the meal. We took our plates, along with thesweet tea that came with them, and found a bench that hadjust freed up under one of the nearby trees. Sitting spotswere at a premium at the moment, even with the extrabenches and chairs brought in just for the event, and wewere lucky to grab one.

As we balanced our plates on our laps and began to eat,David took a bite of the barbeque, savored it for a few seconds,and then asked me, "What makes this so good? Itdoesn't even need any sauce."

"That's the work of a master," I said. "You can taste thesmoke in every bite, can't you?"

David nodded, sampled a small bite of baked beans, andthen asked me, "I heard you ask for bark. Is that the darkpiece right there?"

I picked up the bark-edged piece of pulled pork with myfingers and smiled. "It's from the outside layer, and it'swhere the smoke and flavor are concentrated the most. It'snot for everyone, but there's nothing like it as far as I'mconcerned. Want a taste?"

"Sure. Why not?"

I offered a bit to David, who took it and took the smallestbite possible. "Wow, that's intense."

I had to laugh. "Hey, I told you that it's not for everybody."

"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll stick with this," hesaid.

After we finished eating, we found a trash can and tossedaway our plates and cups. "How about that dance now?"David asked.

"I thought you were going to leave it up to me to ask thenext time."

"I lied," he said with a grin.

"You're not going to stop asking until I agree to a dance,are you?"

"What can I say? I was born to boogie," he said with asmile.

"Then lead on."

We moved toward the crowd of dancers, and I had toadmit, it felt good being in his arms once we carved out aplace for ourselves. I'd missed that close contact with someoneafter Joe died, and it had taken me a long time to allowmyself to enjoy it again.

I was just getting into the rhythm of the music when Iheard a commotion not far away from us. The second Iheard Maddy's voice, I broke free of David's grasp andstarted toward the ruckus.

Clearly, there was trouble, and if my sister was involved,I wasn't going to let myself be very far away.

When we got to Maddy, I saw that the crowd had partedand that Bob and Grant were in some kind of standoff,while Maddy was trying to get in between them.

David stepped forward, and asked Bob intently, "Do youneed any help?" as he stared at Grant. I'd neglected to tellmy boyfriend about my sister's ex, and I was beginning toregret the lapse.

Bob's face was flushed, but he shook his head at the offer."Thanks, but he's not worth the effort from one of us, letalone both."

"What happened?" I asked Maddy, who for once lookedpositively flustered by what was going on.

"Bob and I were dancing when Grant tried to cut in," sheexplained. "At my urging, Bob refused, but Grant wouldn'ttake no for an answer. He pushed Bob in the back, and myfiancé pushed him right back."