Pies and Prejudice Read Online Free Page B

the large brick Georgian, but there was no sign of life in the manicured front yard.
    “That’s a relief.” Ella Mae turned away from the house. “Loralyn’s the last person I’d want to run into. She’d do anything in her power to make my life even more of a living hell than it is now.”
    Chewy just looked at her from his perch in the bike basket.
    “Oh, you don’t even want to know how much I hated that girl. She pulled my hair on the bus, crushed my Girl Scout cookies with a brick, told the teachers I’d pinched her or copied off her or said curse words, put worms in my food, and stole the heart of the only boy I’d ever loved. She was evil then and I bet she’s just as wicked now.”
    Distracted, Ella Mae drove over a large stone and nearly crashed into the split-rail fence. Chewy whined and shot her an accusing look.
    “I’m sorry, sweetie. See what happens when I think about that girl? She doesn’t even have to be here to do me harm.”
    Chewy gave a little sniff.
    “You’re right, I’m being silly.” Ella Mae ruffled her dog’s ears. “Loralyn is probably a million miles away from Havenwood and can’t lift a finger against me. It’s nice to think that my childhood bully is busy making someone else’s life miserable.”
    Ella Mae began pedaling again, humming a little as she headed for home.

Chapter 3
    Ella Mae had given Reba the pie she’d made with the wild blackberries. Reba told her the following morning that it was the best thing she’d ever eaten.
    “Any, um, side effects?” Ella Mae had asked, trying to disguise her anxiety by focusing on stripping the sagging petals from an arrangement of her mother’s apricot-hued roses.
    Reba, who had been filling a pitcher with tea bags and water, looked up and chuckled. “Only if you count me watching
Dirty Dancing
followed by
Top Gun
followed by
Legends of the Fall
. I was so hot for a man last night I almost ordered a pizza just so I could jump the delivery boy!” She shook her head in befuddlement. “Don’t know if it was the pie or my hormones, but there was so much steam comin’ off my body last night that it went out through the chimney and made my neighbors think I’d started a fire in June!”
    Reba’s story had made Ella Mae wonder. Had her animalistic attraction to the beautiful stranger from the swimming hole been infused into the pie? Had it burrowed intothe crevices of the blackberries or melted into the sugar crystals of the lemon chiffon?
    “Ridiculous,” she’d muttered and dismissed the idea.
    Now, two days later, she stood in the gleaming kitchen of The Havenwood School of the Arts, preparing to bake eight-dozen individual tarts to serve at the school’s open house for prospective parents and students. She’d decided to make three different tarts. The first would be a fruit tart of fresh peaches resting on a bed of almond filling; the second, chocolate pecan with a chocolate cookie crust; and for the third, she planned to bake a lemon tart with a shortbread crust.
    Early that morning, Sissy had unlocked the school’s kitchen and showed Ella Mae where the cooking utensils were kept. The pair had bought the bulk of the supplies for the open house the day before at the Costco in Kennesaw, but Ella Mae had insisted on acquiring peaches and lemons from the local farm stand.
    She was ready to begin her first professional job as a baker. Having never had the chance to complete an externship during culinary school, Ella Mae hadn’t actually made any products for members of the public. She’d baked for her husband and her friends, but never for strangers.
    Still, she felt she’d been preparing for this day since she was a child. Ella Mae had helped Reba cook ever since she could reach the counter with the help of a step stool. Even in the unfamiliar kitchen of Sissy’s school, Ella Mae was at home. The chilled dough had been transported to the walk-in refrigerator, the peaches and lemons were waiting to be prepped, and