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Authors: Mollie Cox Bryan

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BOOK: Scrappily Ever After
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“And I need my book back,” Cookie said. “My scrapbook of shadows.”
“She's been talking about this book—any idea what that is?”
“Yes,” Annie replied. “I have what's left of it.”
Beatrice had taken it to a cave, which is what Cookie had asked her to do at the time. Detective Bryant had then found pieces of it scattered through the forest over the next few days.
Cookie beamed. “I thought you might have it.”
The doctor sat back in his chair fast, as if he was surprised. “So there really is a scrapbook of shadows?”
Cookie had grinned, as if to say,
I told you so
. Paige hadn't been so sure that Cookie liked that guy either.
“What kind of a doctor is he?” Earl asked, interrupting the story.
“I don't know and there's been no word from her since that night,” Paige said to Earl, as she started to clear away the dishes from the table. “But Annie did get an e-mail address where we can write to her.”
“Have you?”
“No,” Paige said. “I really have nothing to say. I mean I'm glad she's kind of okay. That she's still alive. But we weren't that close. Not like she and Annie. And I'm a little bit pissed about the situation.”
“What? Why?” Earl said handing her the last dish from the table as she stood by the sink and began rinsing the dishes.
Paige thought about it for a few beats. “I really don't know. I'm just angry.”
“Are you mad because she broke the law and escaped from jail?” Earl asked.
“Well. We're not too sure about that. This doctor claimed that someone took her from the cell, helped her to escape, but she was essentially taken against her will,” Paige said. “I'm not sure how much of this I buy.” She opened the dishwasher and began placing dishes on the racks. “I just hope that Annie and the others don't get hurt by her any more than they already have been.”
 
 
The Cumberland Creek scrapbookers didn't get together very often, outside of their Saturday night crops. But it was DeeAnn's birthday and so they decided to take her out to lunch in Charlottesville. They all rode together in Vera's minivan.
They'd planned to go to a Thai restaurant that DeeAnn had selected. She was bound and determined to expand her culinary horizons these days.
“I want to travel,” DeeAnn said as they traveled over the mountain to Charlottesville. “My poor old mother didn't get to eat anything exciting or travel or anything before she became sick and died. What's the point in holding on to all your money just for the hospital to get it?”
“That's the truth,” Vera said. “I want to travel, too.”
“Where do you want to go?” DeeAnn asked.
“Oh, I don't know if I have any particular place in mind, but I'd like to see more of this country.”
“Not France?” Sheila said.
“Sure,” Vera replied. “I told Mom and Jon that the next time they go, I want to join them. I think it would be nice for Lizzie to go in another couple of years.”
“Speaking of your mom, Dusty thought he saw her the other day in town,” Sheila said.
Vera felt a strange pinging moving through her body. Was her mother in Cumberland Creek? Why hadn't she seen her?
She pulled into the parking lot of Thai Garden and parked her van.
“Earl thought he saw her, too,” Paige chimed in.
“You know, the strangest feeling came over me. How can it be that people think they saw my mother?”
“It must be someone new in town that resembles her,” Annie said. “You live with her. You'd know if she were home.”
“That's what you'd think,” Vera said. “But we're talking about my mother here. Half of what she does never did make any sense to me. And she's ornery. Is she playing a joke on me?”
Sheila laughed. “Anything's possible.”
“But that's not much of a joke,” Paige said as they left the van and walked through the parking lot. “If your mother is home and hasn't told you and is staying somewhere else, that's not funny. That's just strange.”
“I can't believe you haven't talked to her,” Annie said.
“She asked me not to call her. She said she'd call me,” Vera said.
“Why?” Annie asked.
“She said she didn't want to be bothered and they were going to be very busy in France,” Vera said and opened the door to the restaurant. A spicy scent greeted them.
Vera and Annie had had Thai food before, but the rest of them hadn't. So Vera looked forward to introducing them to the cuisine.
After they were seated and ordered, Vera remembered that strange phone call she'd received from Jon's sister. Could they have already come back to the States like she had tried to tell Vera? If they had, where were they?
“Forget it,” Vera said out loud after a bit, her friends looking up at her. “I'm calling her. She doesn't get to tell me not to call. She's my mother, for God's sake. She's almost eighty-five years old. Of course I'm going to worry.”
She pulled out her cell and dialed her mom's mobile phone number. Her voice mail was full. Vera threw her phone back into her purse in a huff. The pad Thai that had just been set before her suddenly didn't seem appealing.
“What's wrong?” Sheila asked.
“Her voice mail is full. She's not listening to her messages at all.”
“Well, she said she didn't want to be bothered. She must mean it,” Annie concluded.
“I hope she's okay,” Vera said. “I figured Jon would take care of her, but what if something happened to both of them?”
“Calm down. You're scaring yourself,” Sheila said. “This noodle stuff is good.”
“It's pad Thai,” Annie said. “Good stuff.”
“There's something I haven't told you all,” Vera said, switching back to the topic of Beatrice. “It didn't make sense then, but now I'm beginning to wonder.” She told them about the phone call from Jon's sister.
“Okay, look, if your mom and Jon came back early for some strange reason—
if
—we can find out, right?” Annie said. “You can call the airline. Do you have the return flight information? Call to confirm that they will be on the flight.”
“Is it that simple?” Vera said.
“It should be,” Annie replied.
“Good,” she said, taking a deep breath and noting that her appetite had come back.
She had a plan, now. She'd call and check on her mother. Surely this was all some big misunderstanding. She would ignore the pangs of suspicion and worry.
DeeAnn suddenly gasped, her face turned red, and she reached for her water. “Shit!” she said after she drank it down. “When they say hot and spicy, that's what they mean.” Her eyes teared up.
“You didn't eat one of those little peppers did you?” Annie asked.
DeeAnn nodded, tears steaming down her face.
“Eat rice,” Vera said. “Water is not going to help you.”
A few minutes later, DeeAnn shook from laughter. “I've never eaten anything like that in my life.”
“Well,” Paige said, “you said you wanted to expand your culinary horizons. There ya go.”
“Won't be eating one of those things again,” DeeAnn said, in between coughs and patting her chest.
“Are you ready for some pie, then?” Paige said, grinning,
They paid the bill and filed into Vera's van to head to Pamela's Pie Palace.
 
 
“I always feel funny about coming here,” DeeAnn said to Sheila after they were seated in a large booth with red vinyl seats. DeeAnn and Pamela were friendly competitors, even though they served different types of baked goods.
“Does she ever come into your place?” Sheila asked.
“Yes,” DeeAnn said. “She comes in for scones.”
“Well, see? No worries, then,” Sheila said.
“I'll be right with you ladies,” said Judy, one of their favorite servers, as she walked by with a tray full of pie slices.
They all smiled and nodded in her direction.
“Then we have time for your gift,” Paige said to DeeAnn in an excited, singsong voice.
“Gift? I thought the lunch was my gift,” DeeAnn said. But her blue eyes widened as wrapped gifts were laid on the table. “Oh my! Can I open them?”
“Why not?” Sheila said.
DeeAnn opened the largest box first. It was an electronic cutting system.
“Oh! I've wanted one of these for years!” DeeAnn squealed.
“‘It cuts paper, vinyl, cardstock, fabric, heat transfer material, and so much more,'” Vera read from the box. “And it's always fun to bring one of these along to a crop to share with your friends.”
“Hmm. I don't see that anywhere on here,” DeeAnn said and laughed.
“I think you should open this,” Paige said, sliding one of the smaller boxes across the table.
“How sweet!” DeeAnn said when she opened the gift from Paige. It was template cartridges to go with the new cutting system. This one included strawberries of all shapes and sizes—her friends knew how much she loved strawberries, so much so that she had decorated her kitchen with a strawberry theme.
DeeAnn opened the rest of her gifts—all of them were cartridges to go with her new “toy.” One offered baked goods—pies, cakes, cookies galore! Another one was basic shapes that she could use as frames for photos, for journaling, or for decorating a page. She was beyond thrilled; she was inspired and could not wait to get home and create a new page or two.
Just then, Judy came back to their table and started to hand them menus. “Hello, ladies,” she said.
“I don't need a menu,” Annie said. “I know what I want.”
“How about the rest of you?” Judy asked, taking back Annie's menu.
The group had already decided what pie they wanted. Vera was last to order.
“I'll have a slice of strawberry rhubarb,” she said.
“Isn't that something?” the waitress said. “Your mama ordered that.”
“What? When?” Vera squealed.
“Oh, I guess it was a couple of days ago. Um, maybe last week. I've been working so hard that I—”
“My mother is in France,” Vera said.
Judy looked at her and shrugged. “I could have sworn it was her. Sorry. Your pie will be a few minutes.” She walked away.
The women sat in stunned silence.
“That old bat is back from France,” Sheila finally said.
“I don't understand,” Vera said.
“She's up to something,” Sheila said. “But what?”
“Why wouldn't she be at home?” Annie said. “This doesn't make sense. After a long trip overseas, I'd want to come directly home.”
Vera's face hardened. Her chin jutted out.
Sheila often wondered about Beatrice, but this took the cake—or the pie, as it were. Why would Bea come home and not see her daughter? Poor Vera had been worried and missing her mother the whole time she was in France. This had to hurt.
The server brought their slices of pie to them. Nobody had gotten the same flavor. DeeAnn had selected the coconut cream, Annie the chocolate, Sheila the peanut butter, and Paige had ordered apple with cinnamon ice cream.
Sheila sat back in the booth and enjoyed the spectacle of Pamela's Pie Palace, with its black and white tile floor and red booths, each with a little jukebox on the table. Sheila busied herself with digging some quarters out of her change purse and sorting through the music on the jukebox. She couldn't look at Vera's sullen face anymore.
She slipped a quarter in and selected “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley, hoping to cheer Vera up. She always responded to music.
“Sweet Jesus,” Paige said, rolling her eyes. “This is extraordinary pie.”
“Humph,” DeeAnn said and then took a bite of her coconut cream, shaking her head. “Fabulous.”
Pamela herself came up to their table. “Why hello, ladies,” she said. “I understand it's your birthday. The pie is on me.”
“Why, thanks so much,” DeeAnn said. “Excellent pie, by the way. As usual.”
“Means a lot to me coming from you,” she said. Pamela was a looker, with long blond hair, huge doe-like brown eyes, and a figure straight out of a 1940s pinup calendar. “So Paige, I'm very excited to talk with Randy.”
Paige's face reddened as her friends all looked at her. She brought her napkin to her mouth and placed it back in her lap. “Randy's excited too,” she said. “He said you're expanding. Sounds like quite an opportunity.”
“We've been thinking about it for a long time,” Pamela said. “We'd like to do a line of pastries, but I don't have time. Pie keeps me hopping.”
“I hear ya,” DeeAnn managed to say. She was obviously annoyed. The pitch in her voice and the pursed lips were a dead giveaway.
Oh boy
, Sheila thought.
Paige didn't tell DeeAnn about this
.
After Pamela left the table, DeeAnn glared at Paige.
“Wait minute,” Paige said. “I was going to tell you. I just found out about it myself.”
“Your son is going to work for Pamela when one of your best friends owns a bakery in town?” DeeAnn said.
“I don't see a problem,” Annie said. “C'mon. If you want to hire him, make him an offer. Otherwise, what's the problem?”
Annie didn't know that DeeAnn had offered him work many times through the years. Randy hadn't been interested in living in Cumberland Creek until now.
Paige cleared her throat. “DeeAnn, it's not personal. He was involved with a man then who would not leave the city. He wants to start anew. Pamela called him and so he's going to talk with her.”
BOOK: Scrappily Ever After
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