Lyndsey Cole - Lily Bloom 01 - Begonia Means Beware (11 page)

“Heavens no. I can’t get him to tell me what his weekend plans are, never mind that I might be a grandmother. A
grandmother!
And I didn’t even have a clue.”

Gale rambled on but Kori tuned her out. The few words and phrases that permeated her consciousness didn’t give Kori a good idea if her mother was excited or terrified of being a grandmother.

“So what do you think I should do?” Gale finally asked. This was how Kori knew her mother was finished with her gossip. She always wanted Kori’s help in dealing with whatever catastrophe she had uncovered.

“Well, you could leave it alone and let Jay figure out if he even wants us to know. Or let him figure out if he really is a father before you go asking him about it.”

“Mm hmm.” Gale nodded, seriously considering Kori’s advice. “Or I could plant some clues about it. Jay might not even know. I could discretely lead him to the evidence.”

Kori didn’t know why she even tried. Her mother asked her how she should deal with something big but then she always ignored her advice. Now she had to figure out how to get Gale out of the café so she could get back to work.

Kori was suddenly spared that challenge. “Well, I’m off to spin class. I’ll see you later!”

Kori waved and her mother headed back out front. She hoped this wasn’t going to become a daily routine. She could handle her mother stopping in before spin twice a week but everyday would be a headache.

Kori buckled down and got all of the pancake batters finished and set them next to the griddle, which she turned to low heat to start warming up before her first order. The stuffed French toast went into the oven to bake for a half hour and she set to work cutting out the biscuits from dough she’d made over the weekend and hadn’t used. The gravy was also already made and just had to be gently rewarmed in a pot on the stove.

She was finally ready for business at five twenty-nine and walked to the front door to flip the sign to open. She didn’t bother with locking the door after her early morning visitors left, knowing that no one else in town was crazy enough to be out and about that early.

Usually Kori didn’t get her first customers until close to six, so she was surprised when she heard the door open as she was still walking back to the kitchen where she was going to keep working. She turned around and saw the last person she expected.

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