Adams Grove 03-Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes Read Online Free Page A

room. “Got any more of those fresh bear claws?”
    Mac lifted his head with a smile. “Just finished a batch.” He raised a finger in the air, then hustled through the small space. Pans clanked in the back room. He poked his head back around the corner. “Just one?”
    “Make it two,” Connor said with a thumbs-up. “I need a cup of coffee, too. Large.”
    “Coffee?”
    “Yes, regular.” Connor hesitated. “Don’t most folks drink coffee with their pastries?”
    “You haven’t bought a cup of coffee from me in months. I figured you had something against my coffee.”
    Geez. Is everyone keeping tabs on me now? “No, man. Not that. Ever since Carolanne joined the practice, I’ve been having coffee there. She makes a mean pot of coffee—about the only thing she can cook—but this morning she had plans and I got shorted.”
    Mac walked back out and set the box and cup of coffee on the counter. “Coffee’s on the house, then.”
    “Thanks. Looks like I’ll be having coffee down here more often. She’s getting ready to move into her new place.” Connor tipped his head toward the kid behind the cash register. “How’s that workin’ out for you?”
    “Derek? Great. He’d rather work nights and sleep all morning, but we’re working that out.”
    “I’m sure you were the same way when you were in your early twenties.”
    “Oh yeah, and he’s a much better baker at twenty-three than I was, but he’s into all that fancy new-way stuff. You know me, I’m old school.”
    “Nothing wrong with old school,” Connor said.
    Mac exchanged a glance with the woman nibbling her pastry, then moved in closer to Connor and lowered his voice. “Hey, I need to talk to you about some legal business, too, when you have some time.”
    “Stop by the office. You know I can always make time for you.”
    “Great. I’ll do that.” Mac’s attention shifted to the doorway as the buzzer welcomed another customer.
    Sheriff Scott Calvin walked in, lifting his bright-red on-the-go travel mug in a friendly hello. “Connor. Good morning. Hey, Mac, can I get a quick refill?”
    Mac snagged the mug and spun around to fill the cup. “In a hurry?”
    “Hadn’t planned to be, but I just got a call that those doggone kids have pulled the chain down over at the old Dixon farm again, and I’m short a deputy this morning.”
    Connor snickered. “Our legacy continues. All those wild times we had there—the next generation is just trying to top us. Remember when we got your Jeep stuck up to the axles after Hurricane Floyd? It was fun as heck four-wheelin’ through that mud bog. Well, until we got caught.”
    “You weren’t the sheriff’s son. I caught hell for that from the old man.” Scott whistled. “Now that I’m the one who has to resecure the land every time someone trespasses on it, it’s not nearly as cool. Did I just say that? We’re getting old, Buckham.”
    Connor gloried briefly in the shared memory. “We sure had that down to a science back then. How about I go take a look and put the chain back up? That is, if they didn’t completely cut it like they did that one time. It’s my trustee, anyway. We’ve got the funds set aside. Maybe it’s time we put up a pole gate rather than just a chain and save everyone a bunch of hassle.”
    “Yeah, Connor, that would be great if you could do that. Big help, in fact.”
    “Consider it done,” Connor said.
    Mac handed Scott the coffee cup.
    “Thanks for the coffee, Mac.” Scott tugged on his hat. “I’ll catch y’all later.”
    “Hope you don’t catch me with that radar gun,” Mac teased.
    “Just doing my part to keep this town’s books in the black,” Scott said over his shoulder.
    “Well, I guess I better get my day started, too,” Connor said.
    Mac wiped his hands on his apron. “Me, too. I’ve got to finish up Garrett and Jill’s wedding cake.”
    “I hear Jill put in a tall order.” He regretted the pun as soon as it left his lips, but Mac