by Pat Amsden
He laughed, his laugh warm and friendly. "Oh don't worry about me. When I first decided to spend part of the year in the city I took some investing courses. I've invested over the years but only blue chip stocks. I didn't have the time to put in for anything riskier. Now that I do though, I'm having fun. I usually spend a few hours a day on that. I help out with some charities." He grinned. "I actually like to golf. And it gives me lots of time to spend with your daughter."
"And he cooks!" Sheila seemed to find this an amazing feat. Then again Maxine could count on her hand the number of times she'd seen her mother in the kitchen voluntarily.
He grinned. "I've always loved barbecuing. Now that I've got some free time I've taken a few cooking courses as well." He gave a nod in Maxine's direction. "Nothing on the scale of what you're doing of course. If you've got time I'd love to see your operation."
"And you will. After Christmas – if that works for you?"
"We were hoping to spend the whole of Christmas here," her mother said. "Until the New Year." She reached over putting her hand on Maxine's. "Don't worry, we won't get in your way."
Guilt surged through Maxine. Her mother was worried about getting in her way? She gave her a wobbly smile, tears welling up in her eyes. "I have time for you Mom. I can show you both around after Christmas. There won't be a big Boxing Day sale because I've pretty well sold out of everything." She paused, "I do have a few cakes to make over the week and a big catering job for New Year's Eve."
"Maybe we can help with that," Walt said warmly.
"As long as I don't have to do any cooking," her mother said, holding her hands up in horror.
Maxine laughed. "This is a holiday for you. I don't want to put you to work for me in my shop."
"Remember if you need help, we're more than happy too. I know Mom was saying you needed help for New Year's."
"If I get stuck I'll call," she said.
"Your Grandma was telling us about the girl you're doing the party for," Walt said.
"I'm amazed she still wants to have a party," her mother said sharply.
"They're still getting married. They've decided to move it later in the year so there won't be any bad memories attached. The New Year's party is her way of celebrating life."
"After all she nearly lost hers, it's natural she wants to celebrate," Grandma Ellie said.
Maxine laughed. "You're not the only one who feels that way though," she said to her mom. "She's driving the police crazy."
"You'd think she'd show a little more consideration," her mother said sharply.
"Expecting them to cancel Christmas goes a bit far. From what Julianna said to me that's why they wanted the wedding when they did. They were going to get married, go on a ten day honeymoon and be back in time for Christmas."
"With everything that's happened surely her family would understand."
"It's Julianna who wants it to go forward. And she's refusing to have any police at the dinner itself. Patrick feels she's putting herself at risk. She refuses to believe it's anyone in her family."
"And who can blame her," Grandma Ellie said eyes widening at the idea.
"Patrick's right though. It was probably someone from the wedding so it could be a family member."
"Or someone connected with them," her mother said sharply.
"It's hard to believe someone could do something like that and then go on as if nothing happened," Walt said.
"You'd be surprised," Maxine said thinking back to earlier in the year.
Christmas came bright and early and even though there were no children in the house they were all up by eight with Maxine the earliest of all. She'd popped the tray of cinnamon buns she'd made the night before into the oven while starting coffee and hot chocolate.
Now she sliced up oranges and apples, cantaloupe and kiwi making a fresh fruit salad to go with them. Her mother came in yawning running her hand through her hair.
"I really can't believe you're my daughter." She sniffed the air appreciatively, "it smells divine. And fresh coffee, I think I'm in heaven."
"Cooking may have skipped a generation," Maxine laughed as her mother poured herself a cup of coffee, "but I get my business smarts from you."
"Sometimes I think I've spent too much time on business and not enough on family," her mother said uncharacteristically.
Maxine found herself frozen, unable to say anything to dispute it. It was what she'd felt so often growing up. She'd never expected to hear her mother say it, though. She smiled now, the smile feeling slightly plastic. "I could never really see you as a PTA mom anyway."
Her mother gave a short laugh. "Oh I don't know. I could've organized all the other moms and made them the number one fundraisers."
"Our school would've been the best equipped ever," Maxine said laughing at the thought of it.
"We need something with the fruit salad," her mother said. "I like doing a whipped topping, half sour cream, half Cool Whip or some other light whipped cream. It's almost healthy and it tastes good."
"See you can cook."
Grandma Ellie joined them in the kitchen. "It smells wonderful." She smiled at them both. Three generations of Peters women together. "Walt's going to feel out-numbered."
"Merry Christmas Grandma."
"He went for a walk first. I go with him sometimes but this morning I just wanted to spend time with you."
"I like him," Grandma Ellie said.
Maxine's mother smiled. "So do I."
Grandma Ellie smiled. "Maybe there'll be a ring under the tree."
Sheila shook her head in horror. "It's too soon for that."
"Too soon for what?" Walt called coming in from the cold.
"Never mind," Sheila said abruptly. "I'll set the table and we can have breakfast."
"I guess that's when you know you're grown-ups," Walt quipped. "When you'd rather eat breakfast than open presents."
"Ah, but we eat fast," Grandma Ellie said, eyes sparkling.
Maxine's mother seemed a mixture of relief and disappointment when the presents had all been opened and her present was a diamond pendant, not a ring.
"It's beautiful Walt," she'd said opening the box and taking the pendant and gold chain out.
And it was....
For herself there was a beautiful sweater from her Grandma Ellie and a return ticket to Calgary and back, any time she wanted along with a gift certificate for the Bay Center from her mom.
"I thought we could go shopping after Christmas and pick out something together," her Mom said.
"It's perfect," she'd said throwing her arms around her and hugging her tight. In the afternoon they went for a walk along Dallas Road. It seemed half of Victoria had had the same idea with dogs running off leash while all manner of Victorians walked or ran enjoying a beautiful day.
Heath and his mother had joined them for Christmas dinner along with Sam Dixon.
"So have you figured out who done it yet," Sam had said as he bent to kiss her cheek, eyes dancing with laughter.
"You're a trouble maker," she said, her lips twitching.
"I didn't try to kill anyone."
"Not exactly a high bar. This time I promised I'd stay out of it."
"Right."
"Really," she said.
Chapter Six
Chapter Six
With people bloated from an excess of good cheer and Christmas feasts Au Chocolat was slow on Boxing Day with few people stopping in for a treat before hitting the sales.
The few that were tended to stick to straight coffee or some other beverage. At one time that would have upset Maxine. Not today when she, herself, was going light on the chocolate. Plus it gave her time to show her mother and Walt around her 'operation' as Walt was in the habit of calling it.
"So, this is the shop," she said now, gesturing around with her hands. "It's usually busier but..." she shrugged.
"It's a beautiful location," her mother said. "Who wouldn't want to sit here and enjoy a small treat before shopping? An
d the shop itself is gorgeous. It must've cost a fortune to decorate."
Maxine smiled, pleased with her mother's comments. "Most of it was myself and some friends with lots of elbow grease. I wanted a clean, modern look, with a touch of old world charm. And with the harbor right there...."
"It's a beautiful location," Walt said appreciatively.
"And in summer it's in the path of everyone coming over from the Clipper or the Anacortes ferry-to say nothing of cruise ships. But you must be paying a fortune for the lease."
"Not as much as you'd think," Maxine said carefully, "It is high though. We need traffic to keep going. And because the chocolate making part of it is upstairs we save on having to keep staff going for each location. Today for instance everyone will be working but mainly in the kitchen making cakes and other orders we've got for this week as well as more chocolates to re-stock the store."
"If the rest of your chocolate truffles and chocolates are as good as the ones I've had business won't be any trouble," Walt said, rubbing his stomach appreciatively.
"Oh Walt, just be careful you don't overdo it," her mother said, a touch of worry crossing her face. "You know what the doctor said..."
Maxine looked concerned. "Is there anything I should know about?"
"No," Walt said quickly.
"His doctor's just concerned that his blood sugar is on the high side," her mother said.
"You should've said," Maxine said, mortified. "We do have sugar-free chocolate you know. And I have diabetic customers who swear by it."
"I like the real chocolate," Walt growled. "And as long as I'm careful about it the doctor said it wasn't a problem.
Maxine knew when not to push a subject. Clearly this was a sore issue for Walt so she led them upstairs quickly. Heath was busy tempering a large pot of chocolate.
"Hi," he said as he measured the temperature with a thermometer. "It's close."
Walt appeared fascinated so she told them a little about the tempering process.
"Chocolate has to be tempered to produce a professional appearance and 'snap'. To do that it needs to be heated up to approximately 85 degrees. That's what Heath is doing right now. Bigger operations use automatically controlled tempering machines. They're super expensive and you don't have as much control over the finished product."
Ally was busy making batches of truffle filling. Her mother looked at the huge container of cream she had beside the bowl of truffle filling and the flavors.
"I didn't realize there was as much cream in the truffles you make."
"That's what gives them their creamy, velvety feel in your mouth."
Meanwhile Marcus was emptying trays of chocolate molds filled with delicious treats while Sara and Danielle were busily filling boxes of candies. Sara seemed to have settled in Maxine thought with relief.
Walt moved over to talk to Heath in more detail while Maxine's mother asked if she could go shopping. "If you need to stay here I understand," her mother assured her holding up her hands to show she meant it.
"If you can brave the Boxing Day sales so can I," Maxine said, surprising herself. Not that long ago she would've taken any opportunity she could to avoid spending a day shopping with her mother.
Then again, a year ago her mother would've driven her crazy wanting to know everything from her latest boyfriend's career and bank account to letting her know what she could do to improve herself. If this was Walt's doing she approved. Unless he did something to hurt her mother.
"Are you looking for anything in particular," she asked her mother as they headed in the downtown Bay Center. With nearly a hundred shops to browse through there was more than enough to keep them busy.
"I just want to look," her mother said. They stopped in at Anne Louise Jeweler's with her mother insisting on buying her a new Pandora's bead in recognition of her chocolate shop's success.
In the Bay, Maxine found a mother-daughter pendant she liked and bought it for her mother.
"Darling, I want you to spend the money on yourself," her mother complained, although not for too long.
About to go into the Aveda Salon for a quick mani/pedi, they ran into Julianna, her sister and a young shopper in training.
Looking vibrantly happy it was hard to believe her life had ever been in danger. Maxine was more interested in the young girl she had with her.
"Angelina! "she cried, her face lighting up.
Angelina beamed. "I know you. You were at the Christmas party! That was the bestest party EVER!"
Maxine laughed while looking at Juliana.
"My dad invited Angelina and her mother to Christmas dinner. And then since I was going shopping today anyway I thought what could be more fun than to bring Angelina with us!"
Her sister looked less than charmed.
"And Mommy's got a new job. She's going to be working in, in... in an Office," Angelina said, eyes wide.
"I'm so happy for you," she said, as excited as Angelina was herself.
"Dad said he'd pay for her to upgrade her skills and then get a job in AC Games," Julianna said beaming.
"We're going to able to afford a real home," Angelina said. "And Mom said I can help make it all pretty and I'll have a room of my own."
As their feet relaxed in foot baths while there hands dried under hand dryers her mother commented wryly. "Zeke and Julianna may be happy but sister dear looked like she wanted to spit bullets."
"Maybe I'll pick up something at the party. If the police don't figure it out before then." She'd noticed two in the mall, one discreetly behind the girls, another further down the mall.
"It would be so much easier if she could just remember what happened."
"Even if she can't you'd think she'd have said something to someone before dashing off." In fact, if memory served Maxine correctly she had. Kevin had said something about that...She just couldn't remember what.
Even as Sherri filed her nails, offering her a tray of exotic sounding colors such as Tahitian orange and Crimson tide to choose from Maxine had lost interest in the mani/pedi and was thinking of an excuse to talk to Kevin.
Something her mother noticed immediately. "What are you planning to do?"
"Me, nothing."
"You've thought of something. Come on. You might as well tell me."
She gave her mother another look. No matter what she said her mother wasn't going to believe it anyway. "I thought I'd see if Kevin could remember who Julianna talked to last."
"Oh, good," her mother said almost ruining her manicure as she sat up suddenly looking more excited than Maxine had seen in a while. "Have you decided how we can do that?"
"We?"
"It will be a mother-daughter bonding experience!"
Oh God. Now her mother wanted to go with her? Somehow she liked it better when she was just telling her not to do stuff like this and let the police do their job. This new mom was getting just a little too – enthusiastic.
"It might be better if I dropped in on Kevin by myself Mom," Maxine said gently. "If he thinks I'm making casual conversation while I'm getting something for the New Years' party he'll be a lot more relaxed than if he thinks I'm pumping him for information."
"Don't worry. I'll act as if I'm there to help you with your catering." She looked Maxine full on. "I know how to be discreet."
Her manicurist finished repairing the damage done when her mother had sat up bolt upright with no warning.
"Or I could drop you off at the shop," Maxine suggested.
"No way," her mother declared.
Yep, nosiness definitely ran in her family. If it wasn't Grandma Ellie it might as well be her mother.
"What's Grandma Ellie doing today?"
"She said she was going to tidy up a bit and then she was getting together with some friends. Personally I think she's trying to give us time together."
"You're probably right."
She called Kevin. "I'm starting to prepare for the New Year's party and I was hoping I could borrow some supplies from you."<
br />
"I'll be happy to help you in any way I can," he said graciously.
"Only if you're not using them of course but I don't usually cater the whole party, just the dessert." And crowning glory she couldn't help thinking although she knew that wasn't something Kevin wanted to hear. "Are you at the shop today...Oh good. We can drop by within the hour."
"You know, you don't have to do this," she said giving her mother a chance to back out.
"I've enjoyed every minute of shopping with you and mani/pedis –but this is way more exciting. Besides I'll feel better about it if I'm there with you."
Because the family that spied together stayed together. Kevin's shop was in Langford, twenty minutes away. He'd had a shop in downtown Victoria but decided that with all the new building going on and better prices Langford was the place to be.
Her little red smart car fit in a tiny corner of one of the parking spots, hugely different from parking it on Victoria streets and lots. And when she went in she saw a space at least three times as big as his old shop.
Staff busily prepared all manner of tasty foods.
"I thought today would be a slow day for you."
He smiled. "It is slower than usual but we do have a few Boxing Day dinners. Apparently if you spend a busy day fighting Boxing Day crowds for sales, making dinner is just too difficult. Luckily I can help you out with that."
"How thoughtful of you," she said laughing. "This is my mother, Sheila Peters. We were having a mother daughter afternoon. I thought I'd check and see if we could borrow some skewers from you as well as a few warming pans. I don't really want to go out and buy a bunch of new supplies when I usually don't need them for the events I cater."
"Sure, no problem. You haven't heard any more about a new date for a wedding have you?"
"I think she said spring. You can't blame her. I don't even know if she's going to have it at Butcharts again."
"I'd think she would. After all it's nothing to do with them at all and I happen to know they were told Bucharts would do the wedding free there anytime they chose, after what happened."
"Well, for most of us that would be a deciding factor. Not for Julianna though. Money really doesn't seem to be an issue when she decides she wants something."