Cooking Up Trouble Read Online Free

again.”
    Tessa laughed. “My juices are just fine, thank you. Leave it alone. Give me some town dirt. You usually have something fun to talk about when we get together.”
    â€œLeona Jackson’s back in town. Have you heard?”
    â€œNo.” Tessa turned the mixer off. Leona had kept the town in gossip for years before she ran off with a tourist four months ago. Everyone missed her. She was the best hairdresser in Mill Pond. “Tell me about it.”
    Grams gave a naughty smile. “It’s not like we’re just gossiping, you know. You can consider this research for your books.”
    That was stretching it, but if it made her feel better about spilling all the dirty details, Tessa would go with it. “Did her guy come back with her?”
    â€œWhat do you think? Who’d stay with that girl if he didn’t have to?”
    â€œDid she lose any clients this time?” Silly question. She was probably booked solid for a month so that everyone could hear the scoop. Leona could attract men, but she couldn’t keep them. Tessa winced. Maybe people said the same thing about her.
    As if reading her thoughts, Grams shook her head. “It’s not like that with you, kid. You had one disaster, and you quit. But life isn’t that easy.”
    â€œIt is if you decide to stay single.” Tessa opened the doors on their four-story ovens and slid two, oversized cake pans into each one.
    â€œHave you heard from your mother? She’s thinking about coming for a visit in June.”
    Finally. A serious change of subject. “Is she planning on staying a while?”
    â€œYou know your mom. She and your dad are stopping on their way out east. She thought she could squeeze us into a few days of their schedule, though.”
    Tessa laughed. That was her mom! Always on the go, always busy. No one could keep up with her. Since Grams had moved into a ranch house in town, she volunteered almost every day of the week, but Mom kept busy with one social event after another. As an aerobics and fitness instructor, she was well known at the tennis club, on the golf course, and at the country club. Lunches and committee meetings filled her calendar. Dad, an engineer, joked that he had to make an appointment with her, or he’d never see her.
    Their talk turned to friends and family. By the end of the day, when they loaded all of the glass shelves in the shop’s case, their feet hurt, and they were talked out.
    Grams pecked Tessa’s cheek when she turned to leave. “See you tomorrow. I expect we’ll be busy. The warmer the weather, the more people want to be out and about.”
    Tessa locked the barn up behind them and took her time, crossing to the house. Snowdrops were blooming in the bed under the flowering crabapple tree. Hints of green waited to burst open on the Norwegian maple. A black squirrel chattered at her from one of its branches. It wanted a peanut from the nearby hanger.
    She was just entering the back door when her cell phone buzzed. She glanced at the number and smiled. Ian. He was coming for an easy supper. They’d made it at seven since Tessa would be in the barn’s kitchen all day. He’d offered to take her out to eat for all of the meals she’d fed him, but she knew she’d be tired. All she wanted to do for half an hour was put her feet up and watch mindless TV.
    She answered the call. “Yes?”
    â€œHey, Tessa, could you do me a favor and call a handyman to come to my house immediately?” Ian sounded frazzled, out of sorts. “I can’t get to a phone book, and I’m in a bit of a jam.”
    She waited. “Is everything all right?”
    â€œEverything’s fine.” She doubted that. His voice was strained. Something was wrong. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
    Oh, boy, what had he gotten himself into? She knew he’d had a crew come to work on plumbing today. They were going to put up