A Fatal Slip

by Melissa Glazer

  “I was just curious,” he said softly, “since you came out of the grocery store without any bags. Did you change your mind about dinner?”

  “Of course I didn’t. I just wanted to see if you’d rather have lamb chops.” I was well aware that I shouldn’t lie to my husband, but Kendra had flummoxed me so much that I’d completely forgotten why I’d been in the market in the first place.

  “I hate lamb chops, and you know it,” Bill growled.

  “People change their minds all the time,” I said.

  “Look at me, Carolyn. Have I ever been one of those people?”

  I didn’t even glance over at him. “Well, if you’re going to be difficult, I’ll go back and get the pork chops.”

  He put a hand lightly on my arm. “Tell me what happened in there. You’re in some kind of mood.”

  “We can talk about it later,” I said, pulling gently away from him. “Right now I have to get us dinner. You know how grumpy you get when you don’t eat on time.”

  “You make me sound like some kind of animal,” he said.

  “I don’t call you an old bear for nothing,” I said as I got out of the truck. As I picked up the groceries I’d need for dinner, I put a cheesecake from the bakery in my basket as well. I shouldn’t have taken my aggravation with Kendra out on my husband; I knew it wasn’t fair. But blast that woman, I’d just settled into the idea of owning Fire at Will, and now I was beginning to worry that the deal might not go through after all.

  When I got back to the truck, this time with two brimming grocery bags, Bill barely glanced in my direction.

  “Buckle up,” he snapped.

  I’d hurt his feelings, that much was clear. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said before.”

  “You call me an old bear, and you expect me to smile about it?” he asked.

  “Would you rather I’d called you an old bull? How about an old goat?”

  “How about not referring to me as old at all?” he suggested as he drove us home.

  “Well, you’re no spring chick,” I said.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, neither are you.”

  “As ungracious as it is of you to remind me of that, I never claimed otherwise.” I grinned over at him. “I’m still younger than you are, though.”

  “By seventeen months. That’s not exactly a decade or two, you know.”

  “Believe me, I know. But it’s still seventeen months.”

  He glanced over at me, and he must have seen my grin. “Okay, trophy wife, let’s go home and eat.”

  After we’d had dinner, and dessert as well, Bill asked, “Are you going to tell me what upset you in the grocery store? You asked me to wait until after dinner, and I’ve held my tongue, but now we’re finished.”

  “Barely,” I said. “Honestly, it’s not that big a deal.”

  “I know better than that,” he said. “Tell me about it, Carolyn.”

  “If you must know, I ran into Kendra Williams in the meat department.”

  Bill nodded. “That’s all you need to say. That woman could scare the paint off a barn and put a pig off its dinner.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic. It wasn’t the sight of her that upset me, it was what she said. It turns out that if we all don’t buy our businesses, none of us gets the chance to own our shops.”

  “I thought everyone was on board with the idea,” Bill said.

  “From what Kendra said, it appears that Nate’s still on the fence, and without In the Grounds, we all might be homeless, or at least our businesses could be.”

  Bill grabbed the phone, and I asked, “Who are you calling?”

  “I’m going to talk some sense into Nate,” he said.

  I shook my head. “Bill, don’t. You’ll just make things worse. We’re all going to talk to him tomorrow.”

  “Who’s we?” he asked as he reluctantly hung up the telephone.

  “Kendra, Rose, and I are going by his shop together in the morning to have a word with him.”

  “Aren’t you having coffee with Hannah?”

  Hannah Atkins was my best friend as well as the mother of my assistant, David. We met every chance we got at In the Grounds for a chat and a cup of coffee before we started our days, and I missed it sorely when we went too long between get-togethers. “As a matter of fact, we’re meeting with Nate an hour before Hannah and I are getting together, so I should have plenty of time.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to talk to him first? I might have a little more luck than the three of you.”

  “What are you going to do, bully him into buying the place?”

  “I resent that,” my husband said darkly. “I plan to use reason with the man.”

  “If I need someone to reason with him that way, I’ll call Butch Hardcastle.” Butch was a member of the Firing Squad, a group of potters and ceramists who met once a week at Fire at Will to share new techniques for working with clay. They were also my “go-to” group whenever I got in a jam or needed help extricating myself from something unpleasant. The group included Butch, a reformed crook; Jenna Blake, a retired judge who knew the local law enforcement community; Sandy Crenshaw, a reference librarian who could find out just about anything you’d ever need to know; and Martha Knotts, a mother of five who had more connections in Maple Ridge than the head selectman. It was an eclectic group, and I was honored to call them my friends.

  “Don’t call Butch. I can handle this,” Bill said.

  “I’m telling you, I don’t need either one of you. I can take care of this myself.”

  “So let me get this straight. You’ll take help from Kendra and Rose, but not from me or the rest of your gang? You know that doesn’t make any sense, don’t you?”

  “I don’t have to make sense, I’m your wife,” I said.

  He shook his head in mock disgust—at least I hoped he was faking it—and went into the living room to watch MythBusters, his favorite television show. Usually I watched with him, but I figured I’d had enough stimulation for one day and decided to skip tonight’s episode. I sat out on the back porch and stared at the woods behind our house, though their beauty was lost on me at the moment. There had to be some way to convince Nate that the town of Maple Ridge needed him and his coffee shop, and I wondered if I could prove my earnestness to him without sounding like I had too much of a vested interest in the outcome of his decision.

  “Where’s Rose? Did you remember to tell her to meet us here?” Kendra and I were standing outside In the Grounds the next morning much too early, at least in my opinion.

  “She’ll be here,” Kendra said. “Why are you suddenly in such a hurry to speak with Nate?”

  I wrapped my coat around me as I said, “I don’t care if it is nearly June; it’s freezing this morning.” While our late spring days were rarely what anyone would call tropical, we were generally a few shades warmer than this. I’d somehow missed glancing at the thermometer before I’d left the house, but one step outside and I knew I had to have a jacket. I was beginning to wish that I’d dug a little deeper in my closet for something warmer than the windbreaker I was wearing. “Let’s go inside and get some coffee, then we can come back out here and wait for Rose.”

  “We’ll do no such thing,” Kendra commanded. “We will go in strong and all together. It’s the only way to appear with a show of force.”

  I tried to keep my teeth from chattering as I asked, “What force are we trying to show? We don’t have the least bit of power or influence here. If Nate doesn’t want to buy the shop, there’s nothing we can do to convince him otherwise.”

  “Don’t sell the power of three independent women acting together short, Carolyn. You’ve been married too long if you’ve forgotten what a formidable foe a woman can be.”

  “I tend to think of my marriage as more of a partnership than a war zone, Kendra.” The woman had some kind of nerve.

  “Then perhaps that’s where you’ve erred in your life.”

  Okay, that was just about
all the snootiness I was going to take from her. “And exactly how long have you ever been married at one time to the same man? You don’t have to give me the longest one, just try to come up with a cumulative total for your last three husbands,” I said, my biggest fake smile plastered on my face. It was a mean thing to say, but she’d asked for it. Well, she had. Okay, maybe the chilly temperature and my need for a caffeine fix had driven me beyond the boundaries of propriety, but that was just too bad.

  “I’ve been married only twice, and you know it. I don’t care to tabulate the years in my life I have wasted on men,” Kendra said. “Nor should you.”

  “Hey, I never said I wasted a minute of my life being married to Bill.” This conversation had the potential to get really ugly really fast.

  Fortunately, Rose showed up before Kendra and I could square off in the street for some hand-to-hand combat.

  Kendra saved me from snapping at Rose for being late by beating me to the punch. “Did your clocks all fail on you this morning?”

  Rose blushed, turning her normally pale complexion the same shade of red as her hair. “I’m sorry. I had company last night.”

  “Was it IBM or Xerox?” I asked, smiling.

  “What? No, not that kind of company. I meant I had a visitor. A man,” she added lamely.

  “And when did he leave?” Kendra asked as she studied Rose with those hawklike eyes. “Or is he still at your house waiting impatiently for your return?”

  “He’s not there now,” Rose said, and if anything, her blush deepened. The poor girl needed rescuing, but I wasn’t in the mood to do the honors. Maybe that would teach her not to keep her friends waiting for her while she was off dallying with a new man. Did I actually just think that? Where had my spirit gone? Could Kendra be right? Maybe I was just an old married woman after all. But was there anything wrong with that? It surely beat Kendra’s lifestyle, and Rose’s, too, for that matter. No, with all his faults, and trust me, Bill had more than his share, I was certainly happier with him than I would have been without him, and in the end, that was the only thing that mattered.

  I’d had just about enough of Kendra’s browbeating. “Leave her alone, Kendra.”

  Rose glanced at me with her obvious thanks, but I wasn’t about to let her off the hook that easily. “She’s right, though. You did keep us waiting.”

  “I said I was sorry.”

  “Don’t keep apologizing, just get some coffee in me. We can surely take enough time for a cup before we brace Nate.”

  Kendra scowled. “I agree with Shakespeare’s sentiment that if there’s something unpleasant to be done, it is best done quickly.”

  “And I agree with Juan Valdez. There’s always time for a cup of coffee. Besides, it will remind Nate that not only are we his fellow business owners, but we’re his customers, too.”

  “She’s got a point,” Rose said, backing me up.

  Kendra was wavering; I could see it in her eyes. It was time to push her over the edge. “Tell you what. The coffees are on me, and I don’t even mind if you get that expensive blend you love so much. Come on.”

  “Very well, if you two insist,” she finally said.

  It was all the encouragement I needed. I was at the counter in front ordering before Rose and Kendra even made it through the door. After we placed our orders and I was paying, I asked the man behind the counter, “Is Nate around?”

  “He didn’t come in this morning,” the clerk said.

  “Is he sick?” I had never been in the coffee shop when Nate wasn’t somewhere on the premises.

  “Not that I know of,” he said as he gave me my change. “He’s the boss. He doesn’t have to ask me for permission for a day off if he feels like taking one. Next.”

  I stood my ground, ignoring the push from behind from a fresh batch of customers. “This is important.”

  “Then call him at home, if you want to risk getting your head bit off. Nate doesn’t like to talk business when he’s away from the shop. Excuse me, but there’s a line of folks behind you.”

  There was no excuse for him, but I stepped aside anyway. Kendra and Rose were sitting at a table by the window when I carried the tray with our coffees over to them.

  As I passed them out, I said, “He’s not here. The clerk told me Nate’s taking the day off.”

  Kendra stood. “That’s impossible. He never takes a vacation. If these doors are open, he’s here.”

  “That’s what I thought, but the clerk didn’t agree.”

  “We’ll just see about that,” Kendra said as she stormed toward the counter.

  Rose asked, “Should we go with her?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m sure we’ll be able to hear every word she says. Besides, I want to sit here and enjoy my coffee, don’t you?”

  “I could use the jolt,” Rose admitted.

  I took a sip, then asked, “So, who’s your mystery man?” As her cheeks blossomed again, I added, “Rose, you really are going to have to learn to control that.”

  She touched her face with her hands. “It’s just awful, isn’t it? I hate it when I blush. I think of it as the curse of the redhead.”

  “Then try not to think about it. Let’s see, what might take your mind off it? I know. Tell me who was at your place until all hours of the morning.”

  Rose shook her head, though she still couldn’t control the blush of her cheeks. “I’m not saying,” she said. “I don’t want to jinx it.”

  “Then don’t tell Kendra,” I said. “She’ll have it all over town by lunch. Speak of the devil and she appears,” I added as Kendra rejoined us.

  “Ladies, we’re leaving.”

  I still had half a cup left, and she hadn’t touched hers yet. “Can’t we at least finish drinking our coffee first?”

  “There’s no time for that. Bring them.”

  As I grabbed my coat, I asked, “Where exactly are we going in such a hurry?”

  Kendra said, “We’re going to find the errant coffeehouse owner. I have a sneaking suspicion where he’s hiding from us.”

  “Who said he was hiding?” I asked. “He didn’t even know we were coming by.”

  “Believe me, if I know Nate Walker—and I do—there’s no doubt about it, I know exactly where he’ll be.”

  I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know, but there was something in me that made me ask. “Kendra, where exactly are we going?”

  “To the cemetery.”

  Chapter 2

  “He’s not here. Can we go back to the coffee shop and wait for him there?” Rose asked Kendra in a whining voice. The town cemetery, filled with tombstones that ranged from the seventeen hundreds to just a few weeks old, looked brooding and forlorn, even with the weak sunshine trying to break through the clouds.

  “Don’t be such a baby. I know Nate’s around here somewhere. We saw his van in the parking lot, didn’t we?”

  “I hate this place,” Rose said as she kept glancing around. “It always gives me the shivers.”

  “How about you, Carolyn?” Kendra asked me as she arched one eyebrow. “Are you frightened of cemeteries as well?”

  “I’m not in any hurry to take up residence in one, but they don’t bother me otherwise. I have too many old friends and family buried here. What made you think that Nate came here? It’s not where most folks would spend a rare day off, is it?”

  Kendra shrugged. “I was here a few months ago and saw him kneeling beside one of the graves. A caretaker told me he visits the site often, and I made a mental note of it. Look, there he is, over by the maple tree.”

  I looked where she was pointing, and sure enough, Nate Walker was leaning over a grave site, having what appeared to be an earnest conversation with whoever was in residence there.

  “Shouldn’t we give him some privacy?” I asked. “I hate to intrude on him.”

  Kendra snapped, “He’s not hosting a party, Carolyn. We need to talk to him, and we can’t put it off. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”
r />   “They would match the rest of me, since I’m still freezing, but no, I want to own Fire at Will, if there’s any way possible to do it.”

  She nodded in triumph. “Then let’s go see if we can make it happen. Come on.”

  Neither Rose nor I had any real choice in the matter. We followed Kendra as she bore down on Nate with a stoked fire in her steps. I felt sorry for the coffee shop owner, but at least Kendra’s determination wasn’t focused on me, and that was something to be grateful for. I’d been the target of her powerful personality too many times before.

  Nate looked shocked to find us approaching him at the grave site. He mumbled something to the stone, then stood and met us a ways from the interment, as if he were shielding the conversation from the occupant. “What are you three doing here?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  “We need to talk to you,” Kendra said in a reply that disregarded Nate’s tone. “It’s about the coffee shop.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Nate said. There was nothing unsure in his voice.

  I touched Kendra’s arm. “Come on. Let’s do this later.”

  “We’ll do it now,” she said harshly.

  “I said no,” Nate said as he started to walk past us.

  Kendra stepped in front of him to block off his escape. “Have you made up your mind, then?”

  She wasn’t backing down, and we had no choice but to stand together. All three of us looked at him earnestly. He took his time replying, then said, “So that’s what this is about. You’re concerned that I’m going to blow the sale for the three of you.” Nate looked at me with his piercing blue eyes. “Now you’re in on it, too?”

  “It’s true that I want to buy the pottery shop,” I said, trying to at least make my voice match his. “Is that so wrong?”

  His angular face softened. “Of course not. I’m just not sure I can go through with it.”

  Kendra said, “So you’re going to sink us as well. I’ve known you practically all your life, flaws and features through and through, but I never took you as someone so selfish.”

  He looked at her with a fierce expression in his eyes, and I saw his hands ball up into fists. “You know I’m not. I just haven’t made up my mind yet. Don’t push me.”