Faulkner removed his beak from under his wing. “I’m freezing!” He ducked his beak back down into his wing.
I squinted at him. Not for the first time, I thought that maybe the crow understood what I was saying to him. I had the same suspicions of Emerson. They certainly were peculiar animals, the pair of them.
“I’m impressed that you can get Faulkner to do anything,” Lacey said as she and Adrien came up the walk to the shop. Adrien carried a huge bakery box, big enough for a full sheet cake.
I walked down into the yard. Grass peeked out from under the snow now. “It’s not often you both come for a visit,” I said.
“We decided to take a few hours off to spend together. Danielle can handle the café for a little while,” she said.
“You look happy, Lacey.”
“I am. Adele, Michelle, and I are having dinner together tonight. I feel like we can mend what is broken. Thanks to you.”
I shook my head. “No thanks to me.”
Lacey shook her head as if we were agreeing to disagree on this point. Adrien handed me the box. It was very heavy. “What’s in here?”
“I have all of your and Daisy’s favorites in there,” Adrien said.
“We will love them. We will also have to exercise more if we are going to eat them all. Good thing the best way to get around the village is by foot.”
Lacey grabbed her husband’s large hand in her much smaller one. “Let’s go, honey. Our time away from the café will be brief, and we have to make the most of it.”
I waved to them as they left.
Grandma Daisy came down the sidewalk with a spring in her step. “It’s good to see all of you outside getting some fresh air,” she called to them as she opened the gate.
I stood on the porch and waited for her. I cocked my head. When she climbed up the steps, I asked, “Why are you so chipper?”
“You may know that there is an opening at the mayor’s office.” She grinned from ear to ear.
“I do,” I said slowly.
“Well, with you taking over being Caretaker here and doing so much around the shop, I need something else to do. I can’t float around the shop and idly dust all day.”
“Oh-kay.”
“So, I have thrown my hat in the ring to run for mayor.”
“You what?” I yelped.
“And I’m running uncontested, so you are looking at the next mayor of Cascade Springs!” Her eyes twinkled.
“Her honor,” Faulkner squawked, and Emerson put his paws on my grandmother’s leg.
She scratched the tuxie between the ears. “Won’t David be thrilled to work with me?”
“He will,” I said with a laugh. “And he’s already thrilled about something else.”
“What?” she asked.
I smiled as Chief David Rainwater’s departmental SUV pulled up in front of Charming Books. The police chief climbed out of the car and smiled at me as he walked toward the bookshop.
“You made the right choice, my dear, just like I knew you would.” Grandma Daisy hugged me. “I see new beginnings on the horizon for us both.”
Also available by Amanda Flower
Magic Garden Mysteries
Death and Daisies
Flowers and Foul Play
Magical Bookshop Mysteries
Prose and Cons
Crime and Poetry
Amish Candy Shop Mysteries
Premeditated Peppermint
Lethal Licorice
Assaulted Caramel
Living History Museum Mysteries
The Final Vow
The Final Tap
The Final Reveille
Andi Boggs Mysteries
Andi Unstoppable
Andi Under Pressure
Andi Unexpected
Appleseed Creek Mysteries
A Plain Malice
A Plain Disappearance
A Plain Scandal
A Plain Death
India Hayes Mysteries
Murder in a Basket
Maid of Murder
Author Biography
Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words. She also writes mysteries as USA Today bestselling author Isabella Alan. In addition to being an author, Amanda is a librarian in Northeast Ohio. This is her third Magical Bookshop mystery.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Amanda Flower
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-68331-899-6
ISBN (ePub): 978-1-68331-900-9
ISBN (ePDF): 978-1-68331-901-6
Cover illustration by Stephen Gardner
Book design by Jennifer Canzone
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: February 2019
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