LITMIR.BIZ

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by his death. Not sad, but shocked. I followed her into the kitchen and slumped into a chair at the table.

      My aunt continued to unpack the bags like she hadn’t heard me. “Lille says she’s going to be watching our booth at the festival to make sure we don’t overstep our boundaries. No chips, no food—just desserts, coffee drinks, and the normal things we sell out of the store.”

      “What does she think, we’re going to start flipping burgers and selling hotdogs in a booth?” I pulled one of the containers toward me and opened it. A grilled ham and cheese sandwich, heavy on the ham, with melted provolone on the sourdough bread. And I knew there would be Dijon mustard smeared on the bread. I picked up the offering and took a bite. Heavenly. I wiped my mouth. “That woman needs to get a life. She’s so busy making sure no one is getting one over on her she can’t have any time or brainpower to have any fun.”

      My aunt let me rant until the sandwich was finished. Then she smiled and got up to pour herself another cup of coffee. “There, you look better with some color in your cheeks.”

      I glanced at the empty container. I’d even eaten the dill pickle spear. But to be fair, Lille’s did have quality pickles. “You got me off track so I’d eat.”

      “I rarely had to do that when you were a child, but the technique still works.” She pushed around her tuna salad on tomato with a fork. She ate like a bird. I, on the other hand, ate like a grown woman. Or a rhino. It didn’t matter. Tomorrow Emma and I would go for a run on the beach and burn off the calories.

      “Thanks for coming over.” I got up and made myself a cup of herbal tea. I had to be awake at the crack of dawn tomorrow for my shift. No way was I ingesting more caffeine. I’d never sleep. “So how was your day with Mary?”

      My aunt smiled and told me all about their trip to the city. Where they went, what they ate, who they saw. Then she paused, her eyes wide open. “Oh my, I almost forgot.”

      I dunked my tea bag into my cup a few times, stifling a yawn. “Forgot what?”

      “I saw that man at the doctor’s office. Well, not my doctor’s office, but in the lobby. He was coming out of the elevator as Mary and I were getting in. He walked right past us and didn’t say a word. Mary thinks he’s a little deaf. I just blame it on a total lack of manners. Some people were just raised by wolves.”

      I stretched, knowing I was going to crash soon, but it didn’t do any good to try to hurry along my aunt’s stories. They had their own pacing. “So who did you see?”

      “That man, you know, the one who died?” Her eyes narrowed. “I wonder why Barry Gleason was visiting a doctor on the day before he died.”

      We chatted a little longer, mostly about Mary and Bill and how he had no business doing something that strenuous. As I thought about the volunteer team we had, I realized a lot of the members were in their late forties. There weren’t a lot of people who wanted to, or could, give up that much time to train and be on call. Toby and Tim both wanted to serve, but with their duties as police deputies, they didn’t have time. As it was, I was constantly switching up Toby’s schedule to accommodate his other jobs’ hours.

      Finally, my aunt gave in and cleared up the kitchen. She bagged the containers, and grabbing the trash bag, she gave me a quick hug. “Go to bed. You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”

      “Well, between this and worrying about the shop, I’ve been a little upset.” I stood to walk her to the door. “Thanks for bringing dinner.”

      “I wanted to check on you anyway.” My aunt was heading out the door. “Roger left me a list of the things that do need to be corrected. I guess the electrician you used a few years ago had some shoddy work habits.”

      “Wait, what? Barry was right?” I sagged against the doorframe. My aunt had paused in the driveway to drop the trash off into the garbage can. “How much is that going to cost?”

      “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Roger laughed at a few of the items and crossed them off our list. The ones that weren’t code violations, that is.” My aunt climbed into her tiny sedan and pulled out of the driveway.

      “Get some sleep, she says.” I shut the door and aimed my words to Emma. “Then she tells me we need major electrical work done. How am I supposed to sleep after hearing that?”

      Emma woofed, which could have meant Poor Jill. But I’m pretty sure it was actually Can you let me out? I started shutting off lights and headed to the kitchen to wait for my dog so we could go to bed. Barry Gleason wouldn’t be there to close our store down, but I still felt a responsibility to fix the items that Aunt Jackie’s Roger had found in his inspection.

      * * * *

      Greg showed up at the coffee shop as I was getting off for the second day in a row. “Hey, do you want to try for lunch again? I’m waiting for Doc Ames’s report on the autopsy and I’m holding off on a more in-depth interview of the guys from the training crew until I at least get Doc’s take, so I’m at a standstill.” He glanced at the empty coffee bar. “Or are you stuck here?”

      “Nope, Sasha’s in the back opening the book order that came in yesterday. I can go anytime. Just let me tell her she’s on her own.” I went into the back office and grabbed my purse. “Sasha, I’m out of here. You going to be okay?”

      The girl looked like she was lost in thought, staring at a stack of new paperbacks she’d piled on the desk. “What?”

      “I’m going to lunch with Greg. Do you need me to stay for a bit?” I considered her reaction and smiled. Maybe this thing with Kyle was more serious than she’d wanted to admit. It appeared my barista was in love.

      “No, I’ll come out. Let me grab this last pile of books.” Her breath caught as she hurried to get out front. “Have fun at lunch.”

      “If you need help, call Aunt Jackie. She’ll come in early.” I followed her out to the main dining room and headed to Greg who was looking at a sports book. “I can get you a good discount on that if you’re interested.”

      He sat the book down and took my arm. “I should get a great discount since I’m dating the owner of the place.”

      “I hear she’s not so generous with her boy toys.” I turned and waved at Sasha. “See you tomorrow.”

      We were just a few feet down the street when Greg spoke again. “The girl looks distracted. Something going on?”

      He’s got cop’s eyes. The man saw everything. I put my arm in his and leaned close. “I think she’s in love.”

      “Who’s the lucky fellow?” Greg walked me across the street and into Diamond Lille’s.

      The smell of fried food layered with cheesy pasta and sweet desserts all mixed together almost knocked me over. I wouldn’t want Lille to know this, but I loved this place. That’s one of the reasons I stayed on her good side. The dishes that came out of Tiny’s kitchen made me happy. And I liked being happy, especially around food. Suddenly, I remembered that Lille’s cook Tiny was another member of South Cove’s volunteer fire fighting crew. I cast a side-eyed look at Greg as Lille led us to a booth near the back.

      When we were sitting with iced teas in front of us and our orders taken by Carrie, my favorite waitress, I leaned closer. “Did you plan this?”

      “To have lunch with you? Yes, I did plan it. Remember, we were going to yesterday, but the whole date thing got a little messy.” He put his hand on mine. “You never said who Sasha was lusting after.”

      “I never said lusting.” I didn’t move from my perch over the table. I didn’t want anyone hearing my question besides Greg. “No, I meant, did you plan to come here because Tiny was part of the training burn yesterday? Is he a suspect?”

      “No more than Bill or any other of the guys. Look, I just want to have a quiet meal where we don’t talk about murder or suspects or clues.” He squeezed my hand.

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