Tea & Temptation: A 2nd Chance Diner Cozy Mystery

by Beth Byers

  Table of Contents

  Tea & Temptation

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Also By Beth Byers

  Also By Amanda A. Allen

  Copyright

  TEA & TEMPTATION

  BY BETH BYERS

  The 2nd Chance Diner Mysteries

  Book 6

  Rose is overwhelmed with 2nd Chance Diner's busy season and needs a break. So, she and Simon decide to get some time to themselves. They'll visit a little Bed & Breakfast right there in Silver Falls, enjoy some high tea, and romance and still be on time to work.

  What they didn't expect was someone to fall dead in the crumpets. Another murder is

  afoot and yet again they're embroiled in the plot. Will they be able to find the killer before they become the next targets? And just what will all this murder do to their relationship?

  For Emily Baldwin. Why you love us no one knows.

  But we love you back.

  Chapter 1

  “Enough is enough,” I told my boyfriend, Simon, as I poured myself my second cup of coffee.

  He yawned until his jaw cracked and said, “Agreed.”

  “We need a break,” I replied, shoving my hair back into a ponytail. My hair was frizzy on the best of days without massive amounts of hair product and tools. Things I certainly didn’t have time before I went to work. The diner opened at 6:30 am. I was usually there between 5:30am and 6:00am. It was 6:15, and I’d barely thrown on a pair of jeans, a 2nd Chance Diner blouse, and my tennis shoes. The truth was it was getting harder and harder to get up every morning.

  A problem that had only increased since my mother had decided to spend the summer in the south of France. There was room for us in the villa she’d rented and the appeal grew stronger and stronger every morning that my alarm blared and my body wasn’t ready to get up. Simon and I had gone for 5 days when I’d been recovering from being kidnapped and handcuffed inside a burning house. In France, we’d spent a lot of time sitting on the porch. My breathing had been too off to really play, so we’d switched which oceans we watch. Next time, I wanted to swim, wander markets, and buy ridiculous souvenirs. I wouldn’t be satisfied with a trip to France until I could play.

  “What if we took another trip?”

  Before Simon could even answer, I was shaking my head. He’d only gotten the time off to go to France with me because of what had happened. Beyond being kidnapped, vacation was blocked for him until after Labor Day. Simon was the right-hand man of the sheriff of our small police department. It should be a quiet job but Silver Falls, Oregon had experienced quite the streak of bad luck over the last year. There had been a slew of out-and-out murders. Being a cop, he’d been wrapped up in all of them. Being nosy and prodded by my friend, Zee, I’d wrapped myself up in all of them.

  “You know we can’t leave until after the Summer,” he said, pouring his coffee into a travel mug and then doing the same for me. Simon had already taken out our pack of seven dogs and fed them while I’d whined about getting out of bed.

  “I know,” I sniffed and then stole a drink of his coffee while he put the lid on mine. “I know, I know. I couldn’t justify leaving my staff like this as it is. I love the 2nd chance Diner, but I like it better in the off-season,” I admitted.

  He laughed at me and then said, “I like Silver Falls better without all the tourists too. Even if you meet the most interesting people who come through.”

  I grinned at him, I loved Silver Falls and the tourists. I was just tired. I needed to rest not recover. We both did. Simon had a tenseness to him that hadn’t been there when we’d first met. It had come and gone over the months as we’d been hit with crimes and our growing relationship, but he was a man who looked for joy in his life and found the best. It was just…harder…especially since the kidnapping and my near murder.

  “How about the Bahamas?” I asked as Simon led the way to his car. As usual, he would drop me at the diner because I didn’t need a car to make waffles and fill coffee orders. Whereas, he would need his police SUV. “We’ll go in…October? A Halloween cruise? Or…”

  “Fiji,” he said. “One of those little houses on platforms right over the ocean?”

  “Oh yes,” we looked at the rain through the windshield. Supposedly it was summer, but that didn’t mean you wouldn’t find yourself sucked into days of raining in the Pacific Northwest. It just meant more fabulous days with bright blue skies, tall evergreen trees, flowers, and thick carpets of grass. “Somewhere warm.”

  “Hot even,” Simon said. I was wearing a hoodie over my uniform today, and even Simon had tossed a rain jacket onto the back of the driver’s seat.

  “I’ll be having dinner with Maddie, Jane, and Zee tonight. We’re going over to Lincoln City for shopping and Blackfish Café.”

  Our place was outside of Silver Falls and higher up the mountain with a fabulous view of the ocean, surrounded by acres of national forest. Simon slowed as a herd of elk crossed the logging road we were using before we joined Highway 101 and crossed over into the town of Silver Falls. We’d added a dog run, so the dogs could get out, and I’d left my usual companions Daisy and Mama Dog behind with the others. I didn’t like to take them into my office at the diner if I weren’t going straight home.

  Simon dropped me at the diner and I went inside and immediately told Zee, “Enough is enough.”

  She glanced at me, snorted her mean snort, and then said, “You’re late, boss lady.” The sarcasm in her voice told me that she knew who the boss was, and it wasn’t me. I grinned at her and called a hello to our cook, Az.

  Roxy, the youngest of my employees, had already made the coffee and was stocking the glass cabinet in front of our bar seating with pastries. The bar seating would fill with our regulars, many of whom would order the ‘usual.’

  “Everything all right, Rosie luv?” Az asked with his thick Jamaican accent. The tone of his voice is all deep and dark honey mixed with chocolate, and it’s my second favorite thing about him. My first being how kind he is.

  “I’m tired,” I admitted. I took a long breath in and got caught with a coughing fit. They’d mostly passed since the fire and my recovery, but lungs take a long time to heal and mine were still getting better. “I was just telling Simon that we need a break not a recovery.”

  Zee glanced at me as she flipped the sign on the door to open and let Joey Lyder in. He shuffled in with his cane at the ready, his newspaper under his arm, and took the booth at the back of the restaurant like he always did.

  Roxy brought him coffee while Az started the two eggs over easy, a side of bacon, and side of wheat toast for Mr. Lyder. He’d been coming into the 2nd Chance Diner since I’d bought it, and when I’d bought it, he learned my name, my mother’s name, and a snapshot of my life history. Every time he left, he asked about my Mama and the dogs.

  I grinned as Az called order up before Roxy had even finished bringing Mr. Lyder his ice water, glass of cold milk, and black coffee.

  “Maybe you should take some more time off,” Az said as Roxy took the order for Mr. Lyder and Zee seated a family with three small kids.

  “It’s too busy for that, Az,” I said.

  “Your cough sounds bad still,” he countered as he handed me a green smoothie, a bowl of fruit, and some oatmeal. I’d been eating healthier since I’d gotten out of the hospital. Now I only had waffles or
pancakes on the weekend. The ones we made were decadent enough that you couldn’t pretend they were anything other than dessert waffles. Today’s special was cinnamon roll waffles, where we used sliced cinnamon roll dough in the waffle iron, topped them with cream cheese frosting that had been softened enough to pour and then cinnamon chips and sprinkles of cinnamon.

  I sat down on the employee side of the counter and started my breakfast. If I didn’t eat soon, I’d give into the waffles, and I liked how the oatmeal and green smoothie made me feel. Especially since I was starting out every single day dragging.

  “Lungs take a long time to heal,” I told Az. “I won’t sound better for a while.”

  He frowned at me and said, “You could afford to take a day or two off.”

  I shrugged because I didn’t agree. I’d dumped the diner on the others too much lately. This was my dream diner. I loved being here. I stretched out my back and finished my breakfast and asked Az, “We should consider some more flavored waffles for the coming week or two. We always get more locals with those when we put the little sign outside with our specials. Do you have any new ideas?”

  “Red, white, and blue waffles,” he said as I joined him in the kitchen. “With a bunch of berries and flavored whipped cream. Maybe blueberry?”

  “Mmm,” I said. The day’s lunch special was going to be pot roast. We’d cook up the roasts in a pressure cooker, to get them tender and still cooked quickly. I started prepping the meat for the first round even though we didn’t start serving lunch until 10:30. It made me feel better to have the special ready to go in case we got slammed. As soon as the first pot roast was ready to start cooking by 9:30, I started peeling potatoes and carrots.

  “Marion berries are in season,” I told Az. “We could make pie filling and top our waffles with it, whipped cream, and crushed graham crackers.”

  Zee stuck her head through the window and said, “Simon has worked every weekend you work. I pointed it out to Carver and said you’d both be taking Monday and Tuesday off as usual, and he is going to add Wednesday and Thursday. Harriet over at Ives B&B has a room for you. You don’t have to waste your days off traveling, you can do her English Tea on Monday and then get a massage at the Spa. I booked you some stuff.”

  I blinked at Zee and she said, “You might not run things around here, but we need you up and kicking. The cough of yours is gonna knock you back down.”

  I felt like I should argue with her, but I didn’t want to. We were closed every Monday. I’d be taking our least busy days off, and I knew Az would want extra hours. He’d bought a piece of property out by us and was saving up to upgrade his trailer to a real house. I glanced over to see any objections and instead saw that he was all for the idea.

  “Lyle wants extra hours too,” Zee told me. “He was just saying that he and his mom want to try to get their taco truck up and running next Summer. But here in Silver Falls instead of back in Portland.”

  I paused and then admitted, “I feel like I should say no, but I’m not going to.”

  Zee snorted her usual mean snort, but I knew it didn’t mean anything. She was all porcupine quills and a teddy bear heart.

  “I’ll take care of your dogs,” Roxy said. “That way you guys can just sleep and eat and golf or whatever.”

  I wasn’t even sure if Simon enjoyed golfing. That felt like something I should know. I knew his shirt size and that his favorite color was the grey of the Silver Falls sky after a storm. I knew that he liked to grill and loved home cooking without any frills. But I didn’t know if he loved to golf.

  Chapter 2

  As it turned out, Simon wasn’t a man for 18 holes of golf and drinks at the country club afterwards. He was, however, an expert at mini golf. We’d driven an hour to Monmouth to hunt up the closest mini golf. I was sold as soon as I found out there was a restaurant nearby called The Naughty Noodle. I’d laughed at the name and then been sucked in by the promise of baked lasagna rolls. It wasn’t something that Silver Falls offered, and I suddenly couldn’t imagine eating anything else but that. Nothing else would do, I thought.

  Simon was a bit of a showman at mini golf even though he was terrible at it. He cracked his neck from side to side, swung his club dramatically and lined up his shot towards the hole on the other side of two steep inclines. His ball didn’t even make it halfway up the first incline.

  I laughed as he slumped and then he took my chin and pressed a light kiss against my lips. “So what does the winner get?”

  “Choice over which dessert we’ll share?”

  Ooooh, those were fighting words. I wasn’t much of a golfer myself, but I liked to try the unusual specials at restaurants while Simon would want something like a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Our gazes met and then I offered, “We are on vacation. We could…get two?”

  “Where’s the challenge in that?”

  I shrugged and took a deep breath before I sent my ball over both inclines with one straight swing. Simon groaned drastically and said, “What weird thing will you make me eat?”

  My expression must have been evil as I putted my ball into the hole. I wasn’t sure, but he was right that if they offered something interesting that was what I was going to want. The restaurant was ultimately a noodle joint though, I was betting they had mostly normal desserts.

  We made it back to the B&B at Silver Falls pretty late in the evening. The next day was our scheduled grand tea which I was super excited for, but I might have been more excited that we’d promised ourselves to sleep until we woke up, get a coffee, and then save our appetites. I’d heard that the grand tea included tiered plates stuffed with goodies and that you left almost sick with the fun off it.

  Josephine Ives only served a few people her tea. She reserved spots for her guests at the B&B and everyone else had to have a reservation. When I’d called to make some for Maddie, Jane, and I a few weeks ago, Josephine had been booked through mid-September. I’d taken what I could get, but I was super excited to try it today.

  Simon, though—not so much. He’d plastered a smile on his face when we came down for the tea, but I’d seen him eat the last of our cake for breakfast. I think he was imagining there would be nothing but cucumber sandwiches and dry English biscuit-style cookies. Firstly, Josephine was an amazing cook. And secondly, just because they used the word biscuit didn’t mean that their cookies were gross. I grinned at him, and he tried to smile back. His stomach, however, growled, and I couldn’t wait for him to see the small sandwiches. Some of them would be cucumber, but I’d heard they had a horseradish and roast beef one. I wasn’t sure how true that was to a grand English tea, but I knew for sure she’d be serving cakes, muffins, and jams. As picky as poor Simon was, he loved those things.

  Josephine grinned at me and said, “I’m so glad you guys took the last-minute opening. Come sit. The only spot left is for a table of four. I hope you don’t mind sharing. These things book up so fast, it’s in the disclaimers that you might have to share a table.”

  I shook my head even though I kind of did. Even still, we had to take what we could get. I knew Josephine was working us in as a favor to Zee and Simon probably didn’t care. If anything, he’d use it as an excuse to get me to go to another restaurant with him later.

  It didn’t take long to be seated across from another couple. They were older than Simon and I by a decade maybe two if they’d aged well.

  “Hi,” I said brightly, “Where are y’all from.”

  The gentleman half of the couple was just beginning to bald with deep wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. He didn’t look like he smiled much, but his wife pasted a smear of a smile on her face and said, “Gresham. Over near Portland.”

  “Oh,” I tried for even more chipper hoping that it would somehow kick these two into at least mildly pleasant. “I used to live there before I moved here. My mom just retired from working at Mount Hood Community College.”

  “Crappy little school,” the man said, scowling down at the fine china teacup that had be
en placed in front of him. It was thin and looked hand painted with yellow daffodils. Perfect for the Pacific Northwest with the flower the herald of spring every year, but the man seemed irritated by it. He wore a thick gold band on his slightly gnarled finer, and she wore two rings stacked on her ring finger. I glanced at that for a moment and wondered what it meant.

  His wife cleared her throat and then said, “Hello dear, I’m Margaret and this is Keith.” With a frustrated glance at her husband, she added, “I’m sure your mother was an excellent professor.”

  Mom was a lot of things, and an excellent professor was one of them, but I knew it wasn’t her defining characteristic and I just shrugged. My mom was a devoted single mother who made sure I had everything I needed and set an example of reaching for your dreams without being held back. It was probably why when I was handed a chance to make my own way, I’d taken it. I already had a lot of my recipes perfected and the design for my dream diner ready to go when fate came knocking. I knew my mom wouldn’t care what this Keith said about M.H.C.C. so I wasn’t going to let him bother me either.

  “How are you liking Silver Falls?”

  “Rains a lot,” Keith said.

  Simon grinned at him lazily and said, “Well you are from Gresham. You know how it is. It rains, it pours, it doesn’t rain, you never can tell. Friend of mine goes camping every July to avoid the rain, and it dumps on him nearly every time he goes.”

  “Wanted to go to Bend for fishing,” Keith said grouchily.

  I glanced at Simon who was losing his easy grin. I tried to keep my face smooth for Margaret, but I wasn’t sure that it worked when I saw that she looked down at her plate, blinking rapidly.

  “You know it’s my family reunion, honey,” Margaret said. “Everyone is coming here. It’ll be great.” Her eyes glowed with a sheen of tears, and I wanted to punch Keith a little bit. “Not as much fun as fishing, but…great still.”