Pamela DuMond - Annie Graceland 03 - Cupcakes, Pies, and Hot Guys

by Pamela DuMond

  Annie squatted next to Stephanie who sat cuffed on the ground.

  “Don’t do anything rash,” Frank said.

  “I thought you were a pretty girl, Stephanie. I thought you were smart,” Annie said. “But I’ve learned that smart and pretty don’t necessarily equal someone who’s desirable or deserving.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me? This coming from you?” Stephanie asked. “A woman who’s soon to be middle-aged, lost her bakery business and is getting divorced? If we lived in the same town? I wouldn’t socialize with you. The people I hang with wouldn’t even let you on their map. We might have started off in the same town. But trust me. You and I? We have nothing in common.”

  “I know. Thank God!” Annie said. “FYI? I’ll never forgive you for killing Frank Plank. I must admit, I’m comforted knowing that all the makeup in the world can’t hide your cold, bitter, hard heart. Your severe anger issues will help your so-so looks fade quickly. And soon, the only thing people will notice when they see you? Is a pathetic woman—who will forever be, ugly to the bone.” Annie stood back up and walked away from Stephanie Storms.

  Twenty-six

  Promises

  A couple hours later the storm clouds had, for the most part, vanished over the Lake LaBelle. The sun was back out and a healthy cool breeze blew. The temp was in the upper seventies and perfect as Annie sat, legs crossed on the lawn.

  She was one of the few people left. The majority of the crowds had departed with their camera moments, and their memories of possibly the most action-packed beauty pageant, ever.

  Annie had told her sanitized version of how she figured out Frank’s murder to Jamie and other police detectives and officers. She did not mention Frank’s involvement. No one except Lila needed to know she’d conspired with his ghost.

  Lila and Frank sat on the ground in front of her. Frank’s arm was wrapped around her petite shoulders. “So it’s perfect, really,” Frank said. “I’m staying here with Lila until she gets her feet on the ground.”

  “I’m taking over mom’s business. And I think I’m going to pitch Monster Bakers as a TV show. I know Frank’s here with me. I can’t hear him, all that well yet.”

  “I’m working on that,” Frank said.

  “But I can feel him. And even dead, he feels a million times better than any other man I’ve ever dated.”

  “That’s nice, Lila,” Annie said. “But eventually you’re going to want more. Maybe sex, marriage, kids. You might even want him to take you out to a movie.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Lila and Frank said at the same time and stood up.

  “Okay. God bless,” Annie said.

  “We’ll stay in touch,” Lila said as she and Frank walked back toward the lodge.

  Frank stopped and turned and looked at Annie. “You will always be the best babysitter a kid could ever have hoped for. Thank you.” His eyes welled. He turned and jogged back to Lila.

  Jamie Ryan walked toward her. He handed her a bottle of Lac LaBelle mineral water, a cupcake and sat down on the grass facing her.

  “I can’t believe you scored a cupcake,” Annie said and took a big yummy bite.

  “I had to flash my badge and confiscate it by claiming it was evidence. So, partner, I need to run something by you.” Jamie said.

  Annie nodded.

  “I know you’re going back to L.A. You’re going back to that man you’re already involved with.”

  Annie stopped eating and just stared at him.

  “I think one of the reasons you’re doing this is that you don’t make promises lightly, and that relationships mean a lot to you.”

  “They do,” she said. “You mean a lot to me, too.”

  “I can’t think about that right now. Right now all I can think about is that you’re leaving. And I have to take the high road. And I’m going to have to act okay about this, even though I’m not.” Jamie leaned forward and cupped her face with his hands. “But you need to promise me something.”

  His face was inches from hers. His breath warm, his hands strong. This was her Jamie. How in the hell was she going to let him go? “What do you want me to promise you?”

  “That if you ever wake up in L.A. and you feel confused? If things don’t turn out the way you want with this guy? If you change your mind? Listen to your heart. And follow it back to me. Because I know,” Jamie took one of her hands with his and placed it on his chest. “I know in my heart, that what we have is real. And I know that what we have isn’t over.”

  Annie cried as Jamie gently wiped away her tears with his hand. “I promise, Jamie. I promise you that.”

  Annie’s mom navigated the baby blue Caddie—the top down—into the curbside lane in the departures section at Milwaukee’s airport. She turned the key, killed the engine and wiped a tear from her eye. “After the stress from the last four days, I might need another face-lift.”

  Annie grabbed her mom’s hand and squeezed it. “Everything will be okay.” She pulled her tight and hugged her. Out of the corner of her eye, Annie spotted an airport parking policeman striding toward them.

  “This lane is for loading and unloading passengers, only. You can’t park here,” he said.

  Annie pulled away from her mom. “We know that, officer. My mom’s dropping me off. We’re saying goodbye. Could you give us a few seconds, please?”

  “You need to say your goodbyes before you pull into Mitchell Airport,” the officer said.

  Annie sighed. “Got it.”

  Nancy glared at the man. “Sir. Do you have a daughter?”

  “I don’t have to share any of my personal references with you, ma’am. Move it along.” He pulled his ticket pad out of his back pocket.

  Ah crap. Annie kissed her mom on the cheek and extricated her hand. “Mom and I will be departing in seconds.” She hopped out of the Caddie’s passenger door, grabbed her bag from the back seat and hauled it to the curb. It was so light and manageable without any clothes inside. Maybe she could spin her wardrobe theft as a good thing, and she vowed to pack lighter in future travels. Annie looked back and watched her mom tear up again. She winced.

  “While I applaud your efforts for keeping America safe,” Nancy said. “I’m simply a mother who is saying goodbye to her daughter. Can you cut me a small break?”

  “I make an exception for you and I’ll have to make an exception for everyone,” the airport policeman said. “Move it along.”

  Nancy stood straight up in the driver’s seat and clutched her chest with both hands. “Do you not have a freaking heart? Do you not understand how difficult it is to say goodbye to your own flesh and blood?”

  Several drivers behind Nancy blared their horns. “Give the woman thirty seconds,” a man said. “For God’s sakes, she’s saying goodbye to her daughter.”

  A female driver stuck her head out her car’s window and yelled, “She deserves a minute!”

  “Don’t you even think about giving her a ticket,” a pickup truck driver hollered.

  The officer grumbled and pointed his ticket pad at Nancy. “Thirty seconds.” He turned his back on her.

  Annie raced to the driver’s side of her mom’s car. “Sit back down. Now.”

  Nancy did.

  Annie regarded her mom. A medley of love, regret, sweetness, confusion and irritation played on her face. “I love you, Mom. But I’ve got to go back to L.A.”

  Nancy sniffed. “Why? Suzy Mae DeLovely’s a murderer, but her daughter’s moving home. Lila’s back in Wisconsin. How come you can’t be back in Wisconsin? Do I have to murder someone to get you to move back to Wisconsin?”

  “No-no! You can’t murder anyone,” Annie said. “I have to go back to L.A., because I’m a chip off your block. I’m a wild woman, just like you, Mom.”

  Nancy inhaled sharply. “Oh, my God.”

  Annie nodded. “Wild women follow their hearts, chase their dreams and don’t give up when life rains pigeon crap on their parade or breaks their hearts. When everyone tells yo
u no? A wild woman realizes that all those rejections mean she’s that much closer to the one who says Yes.”

  “You got that expression from me, you know,” Nancy said.

  Annie nodded. “If I don’t go back to Los Angeles, I’ll never know. I’ll never know if the situation or the circumstances or all the heartbreak fractured me, forever, for good. And I can’t live with that. I have to know. I have to follow-through. I have to try,” Annie said. “Mom, I have to try.”

  Nancy nodded. “Go. But remember the phone lines run both ways. And I will not wait another year to see you again.”

  “Another year won’t go by.” Annie hugged her mom as tight as she could. “Bye-bye. I love you.” She released her mom, ran toward the curb, grabbed her luggage and wheeled it inside the terminal. She didn’t wipe her own tears away until the automatic doors had closed.

  Annie stood on Venice Beach right where the land met the Pacific Ocean. She burrowed her toes into the chilly wet sand and looked out at the choppy ocean waves. A surfer chick in a black wetsuit sat on her board in the waters and looked over her shoulder while waiting on her wave. It crested, white on top. The surfer paddled, pulled herself to standing and road her board to shore.

  Several bathing suit clad, young, sun-kissed kids squealed with joy as they ran back and forth to the ocean, filling small plastic buckets with water while they constructed sandcastles. Behind them a disheveled homeless man held a battered garbage bag as he walked down the beach and scoured the sand. He plucked discarded plastic bottles and added them to his bounty.

  Blasts of wind tossed Annie’s hair over her shoulders and her ears and cheeks tingled. She spotted a couple of dolphins arcing in and out of the Pacific waters close to the man-made, stone, breakwater at the marina’s juncture. She squinted at the sun that descended through the California summer ocean mist.

  “You could move back to Oconomowoc,” Rafe Campillio said. He stood next to her, his hands balled into fists and shoved into his sweatshirt’s pockets. “I’d help you do the cross-country U-Haul thing.”

  “You seduced me, had your wanton way with me and now you’re done with me, already?” Annie asked.

  “No! I thought it would be gentlemanly to offer. Moving back home would make your mom happy.”

  “I’m already home.” She stood tall, arched her spine and extended her head toward the sky, her hands stretched high over her head. “I’m standing in my front yard.” She pointed to the ocean. “I’m saying ‘Hey’ to my neighbors.” She waved to the sandcastle kids and the scavenger man. They waved back. “These are my people.”

  “You’ve got an eclectic group of people,” Rafe said.

  “Welcome to the party, Raphael Campillio, Hot Guy, ’cause that’s always been my m.o.” She tugged on his arm. “The trip was weird. I knew I’d be dealing with family, but more than a few curveballs were pitched in my direction. I hadn’t anticipated the stress of judging the contest. Never thought a kid I loved would be murdered.” And never intended to tell Rafe that she’d investigated Frank’s murder. “Never imagined I’d let another man kiss me.” Oh, crap she’d been honest. Now would be the logical time for Rafe to dump her. “Do you hate me?” She held her breath.

  “No.” He still wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I knew I had a rival. And I knew it wasn’t your soon-to-be ex-husband. Who is he?” Rafe asked.

  “A guy from my past.”

  “Do you have feelings for him?”

  “Yes. But I never stopped thinking about you. I came back to my life in L.A. I came back to you.” She wrapped both her hands around his elbow and tugged. Repeatedly.

  He relaxed—just a little bit, just for a moment.

  “If I had some WD40, chocolate and super-powers? I bet I could convince your elbow to relax,” Annie said. “Talk your hand into venturing forth from that pocket. If I was really lucky? I’d hypnotize you into placing that arm that I adore around my waist. Then we could chill and watch this gorgeous sunset, together.”

  He stared at his toes, but his lips tugged up, resisting a smile.

  She waved her index finger in front of face in circles. “You’re growing sleepy. Sleepy…”

  Rafe wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her smack dab against him, bent her backward as he kissed her long and hard, full and consuming on her lips.

  “Oh,” she whispered.

  “Oh,” he replied. “I thought you weren’t coming back.” He lifted her upright. “I worried you met someone new, someone more exciting. That you’d returned to a place where I’d never belong, let alone fit in. I thought you were gone for good. I’m crazy about you, Annie.”

  “I’m here. I’m staying.” She snuggled her face into his shoulder. I’m back, she thought. I’m back where I belong. In Venice Beach, California. In this free-for-all, tree-hugging, whacky community. And most definitely with this solid man, Raphael Campillio.

  They walked down the beach as the sun set over the gorgeous Pacific Ocean.

  “It must have been tough dealing with the ordeals of a murder investigation, let alone the rollercoaster of emotions surrounding a boy you used to babysit,” Rafe said. “A boy you took care of. A boy you once loved.”

  Annie nodded.

  “Tell me about him,” Rafe said.

  Annie took a moment. “He was a little wild when he was a kid. But he grew up nice. He loved his hometown and put himself on the line for it. He wanted to make a positive difference in his world. Be one of the good guys.”

  “He sounds like he was a great guy.”

  “Yeah.” Annie nodded. “But he drove me crazy when I babysat him.”

  “What did he do?” Rafe asked.

  “He stuffed tadpoles down my shirt.”

  “If you were my babysitter, I probably would have done the same thing.”

  Annie squeezed Rafe’s hand. Looked toward the ocean. For one small moment the glint of the sun off the waters sparkled crystal blue. And Annie remembered Jamie Ryan’s eyes.

  THE END

  HOT GUYS RECIPES!

  Julia’s Margarita Smooch Cupcakes

  Yield = 12 cupcakes

  Ingredients:

  1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup) softened

  1 cup granulated sugar

  2 eggs - room temperature

  .75 Tsp vanilla extract

  3 Tbsp canola oil

  One large lime, zested

  1.5 cups cake flour

  .75 Tsp baking powder

  .5 Tsp baking soda

  1/4 Tsp salt

  3 Tbsp tequila

  3 Tbsp lime juice

  1/2 cup sour cream

  1/2 cup milk

  Instructions:

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard-size muffin pans with paper liners.

  Cream butter and sugar together 5 minutes or until smooth. Add vanilla then add eggs one at a time. Add tequila and lime juice. Mixture will look curdled. Add oil.

  In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pudding mix. Add zest.

  In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup milk and sour cream thoroughly

  Add dry and milk/sour cream mixtures to the mixing bowl in two additions, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl. Mix until smooth.

  Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners, filling each about two-thirds full.

  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

  Margarita Frosting Ingredients:

  4 oz. butter, room temperature

  4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

  2 cups powdered sugar

  1 tablespoon lime juice

  2 tablespoons tequila

  Frosting Instructions:

  Add butter and 1/2 of the powdered sugar to large mixing bowl. Combine on low speed.

  Add tequila and lime juice and gradually add remaining powd
ered sugar. Once combined, increase mixer speed and whip until light and fluffy. Add additional powdered sugar if stiffer consistency is desired. Garnish with lime wedge and sprinkle of sea salt.

  Recipe courtesy of Cupcakes-A-Go-Go in Madison, Wisconsin. Co-Owner – Laura Devries (Cupcakes-A-Go-Go is a bakery, caterer and café. Located at 6642 Mineral Point Road Madison, Wisconsin Ph: 608/217-9571 www.cupcakes-a-gogo.com)

  Mr. Appleton’s Apple Pie

  Ingredients:

  Two 9” pie crusts

  Eight medium to large Granny Smith apples

  ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

  ¼ cup granulated sugar

  One ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

  Juice of one lemon

  Just under 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (Recommend the real stuff, not artificial.)

  ½ teaspoon salt

  Slightly under 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

  Three tablespoons (almost ½ stick) unsalted butter

  Mr. Appleton’s Secret Concoction:

  Four tablespoons granulated sugar

  Almost ¾ cup all-purpose flour.

  Two tablespoons unsalted butter

  Almost ½ cup butterscotch chips

  Egg Wash:

  One egg

  Almost two tablespoons water

  Instructions:

  Peel and slice apples ¼ inch thick. In a separate large bowl combine and mix the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Place applies slices in this mixture and stir.

  Melt the butter in a large sauté pan. Add apple-flour-sugar and stir until the apples are soft. Avoid burning. Remove from heat and cool.

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pre-bake the bottom piecrust for 10 minutes. (Don’t pre-bake the top crust.)

  Combine ingredients in Mr. Appleton’s Secret Concoction. Mix thoroughly.

  Whisk the egg wash in a small bowl.

  Place cooled apple mixture in prebaked piecrust. Top with Secret Concoction. Place the reserved piecrust on top of pie. Crimp edges to seal the pie. (Don’t have too much top crust hanging down from pie edges as they will fall and burn off during baking.) Smooth egg wash onto top crust. Make four or five slashes in top crust to allow pie to vent.