I’m so embarrassed and ashamed. She fooled me completely. I saw her loading money and drugs into her car.”
Savannah was snapped back to the present when Zach’s angry voice demanded, “You are telling me the cop set you up?”
Her emotions were raw, and her throat was tight. The memory of that moment of realization, of the despair washing through her, hit her like a fist, and she pulled her hand away from his.
“You don’t believe me,” she muttered, scrambling to her feet. Because of course, except for Grams, no one had ever believed her. Not even her brothers. “I’ve got to go. I shouldn’t have … good night.”
“That’s not what I … Savannah, stop. Wait.”
But she didn’t wait. She ran away from Zach, away from her memories, away from the tragedy at Mirror Lake today and the heartache of her past.
She ran home to her little rented house on Fourth Street, where she held Inny and wept. And wept. And wept. Perhaps all those years of not allowing herself to cry made it almost impossible to stop once she got started now. Finally the storm of emotion subsided. Inny wiggled her desire to be put down, and Savannah went in search of a tissue box that wasn’t empty. Her gaze fell upon the stack of Angel’s Rest brochures Celeste had asked her to display in her shop. “Well, Grams,” Savannah said, attempting to deal with her grief in an old, familiar way, “think there’s a chance she knows what she’s talking about?”
The window curtains fluttered. The scent of ripe peaches drifted on the air. Inny barked, and slowly Savannah smiled.
She awoke the following morning with a tension headache, tear-swollen eyes, and a craving for one of Sarah Murphy’s cinnamon rolls. She popped two aspirin, showered, and dressed, and dealt with her puffy eyes with some eyedrops. Inny barked and leaped excitedly upon seeing the leash, and they started out.
At times of great personal crisis, a girl couldn’t go wrong with a cinnamon bun.
Her sense of self-preservation had her peeking through the big plate-glass window of Sarah’s bakery, Fresh, before she committed to going inside. She spied Cat Davenport seated at a table with Nic Callahan and Celeste. She was happy to speak to them. Maybe a little “girl time” would be just what she needed. Had Zach been inside, she’d have continued on her walk.
She looped Inny’s leash around a tree. “I’ll just be a minute. If you behave, I’ll bring you out a treat, too.”
The dog’s ears perked up at the word treat.
Inside, Savannah ordered her cinnamon roll and coffee, then greeted her friends. “Join us,” Celeste said.
“I can’t. I have Inny with me.”
Nic hooked her thumb toward the window. “She’s fine. She’s curled up snoozing. We’ll keep an eye on her.”
Since she had the town veterinarian’s permission, Savannah took a seat and removed her cinnamon roll from the white paper bag. Cat eyed the sweet roll greedily. “We had fruit plates. The fruit was good, but that roll …”
“It looks heavenly,” Celeste agreed.
Nic inhaled the scent of warm yeast bread, cinnamon, and sugar. “I’m gonna need a drool cup. I limit myself to one of Sarah’s cinnamon rolls a month, and I had mine last weekend.”
Savannah cut the huge roll into four pieces and pushed the plate to the center of the table. “Here. Be bad. Blame me.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Cat picked up her fork and dug in. She moaned with delight. “I love being bad.”
“Well, I need the energy boost from a little sugar,” Celeste said, sampling her piece. “With tourist season right around the corner, I’m busy as a beaver on Angel Creek these days. As are you, I expect, Savannah. When is your grand-opening celebration?”
Savannah smiled, wishing she could look at Celeste without seeing Francine. “I’m opening on Memorial Day, but I didn’t plan on any sort of celebration.”
“No celebration!” Celeste drew back, obviously appalled. She clicked her tongue. “Well now, we can’t have that. A new business is opening in Eternity Springs. That’s a huge cause for celebration. You must have an open house.”
Savannah glanced from Nic to Cat. Both women licked their forks and nodded. “It’s a great idea,” Nic said. “You need to do it.”
Savannah had never even been to an open house. What on earth would she do? “Whom would I invite?”
Cat said, “I’d start with the Chamber of Commerce list. You’ll introduce your products to other business owners, who will recommend them, plus you’ll sell a bundle.”