Tea Cups and Carnage Read Online Free Page B

work well together. I guess she’s in town trying to mend their relationship.”
    “Does Kathi even know she’s here?” I looked at the cabinet where I kept my chips. I had fresh salsa in the fridge. Deciding I was more bored than hungry, I walked the stack of mail into my home office and turned on the shredder.
    “I don’t think so. Hold on a second.” I could hear my aunt ringing up an order, so I shredded some of the credit card offers I’d gotten that week. I could probably open a packing shop with all the shredded paper I created just from junk mail.
    Finally, I heard my aunt back on the line. “Anyway, I called for something else. I wanted to talk to you about the finances for the library event. Can you come down and we’ll go over the plans?”
    “Can’t I look at them tomorrow morning?” I glanced at the wall clock: two o’clock. Greg would be here at six, which left me time to walk back into town, but honestly, I wasn’t feeling it.
    “No, I need to send out deposits today. It won’t take long and you need to be more involved in the planning.” The unspoken rebuke was clear in her tone. She’d seen through my plan to leave this event to her and Sasha, mostly because I didn’t like the whole event-planning part.
    I knew my aunt wasn’t going to give in, so I turned off the shredder. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” I let Emma outside. She loved spending afternoons on the back porch, guarding her domain from the rabbits and any other little creatures that happened to visit. Typically, I’d be curled on the swing, reading and sipping a glass of iced tea. I know, rough life. Emma did three circles, then plopped down hard on her bed when I let her back in, showing her disappointment in our change of plans. Glancing at the shed-turned-Toby’s apartment, I didn’t see his truck and figured he was still at the shop. I didn’t spy or keep track of his comings or goings, but sometimes, I did feel a little safer knowing that the part-time deputy, part-time barista was only a few steps away if he was home.
    I headed into town again. Traffic was busy, but most of the cars had the South Cove resident sticker on the bumper. The mayor, or probably Amy, had come up with the sticker as a way to keep the police from ticketing local cars for parking too long on the street. Of course, when festivals occurred, the sticker could also keep you from parking in visitor spots without getting a ticket. It was a double-edged sword, but I figured the mayor was making money off selling the stickers and ticketing the town folk. Mayor Baylor always had the bottom line in mind with his best ideas.
    The tour bus had already loaded their charges and left town. The city council had bought advertising in the local tourist agency monthly, which got us quite a bit of bus stop visits. I’d seen an uptick in sales on days the tour bus came through. Or I guess I should say Aunt Jackie had noticed and shown me the increase. Starting in the fall, I was taking two classes in a Masters of Business degree. I had finally decided I needed to understand what my aunt was talking about when she went over the state of the business on a monthly basis.
    Toby was at the counter when I entered the shop. He jerked his thumb behind him. “Her majesty is in the office. And boy, she’s in a mood today.”
    “I got that feeling when I got my command performance notice.” I grinned at Toby Killian. He’d been Aunt Jackie’s first hire at a time I didn’t think we needed any employees. The good thing about hiring Toby was he brought in a lot of customers. I was considering doing a photo shoot with him for a Coffee, Books, and More calendar that we’d sell at the shop. I had all the months planned out. Toby fake-skiing for January. Holding a heart-shaped cake for February. It would at least sell to all of Toby’s girls as we called the students from the cosmetology school who drove the ten miles into town for their coffee, lunch, and study