Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 03 - Dead and Berried Read Online Free PDF Page B

panicked.
    “What’s up, Holly? Everything okay?” Kori asked as Holly blindly walked near her tent.
    Holly looked up, a confused look on her face. “I … I’m not sure. I can’t find my shovel and the ponies never stop pooping. I swear I brought three but I can only find two now. I feel like I’m losing my mind. Oh well. They’ll just have to shovel faster.”
    Before Kori or Jay could offer to help in whatever way they felt possible , Holly headed away from Kori’s tent, back toward the pony ride area. Kori knew she couldn’t help anyway, but Jay’s mouth was hanging open like he was going to offer to go to her farm to check.
    Without giving her missing shovel a second though t, Kori asked Jay, “How are you and Lani? Still going strong?”
    Jay wouldn’t look up to meet her gaze but nodded while he continued slicing pies. “Yeah. We’re going to the fireworks together tonight.”
    A fireworks show was always put on after the first night of the festival and it was tradition for Jay and Kori to avoid going with their mom.
    “That’s great. I’m glad you have an excuse this year. Last year didn’t you go with Mom?”
    “Yeah. I couldn’t believe how excited she was over every single firework that went off. It was like she was three and seeing them for the first time.” They both laughed. “What about you? Are you going with her?”
    “I doubt it. I’ll be too tired by the time I close my booth at five. I’m not even going to try to come up with an excuse other than I’m too tired.”
    “You use that every year.”
    “And it’s always true!”
    Finally, customers started arriving and buying pie by the slice. As soon as the first person showed interest, it was a domino effect and Kori was relieved that her lunch break hadn’t turned everyone off of her treats.
    Kori also saw Nora walk in and finally set up her booth. Mayor Devlin stopped by Nora’s tent and exchanged some words with her but Kori couldn’t make them out. He didn’t look happy that she came half a day late. Kori couldn’t really blame him, but given the circumstances …
    As soon as Nora got her display arranged, she was swarmed by festival goers. There were plenty of Hermit Cove residents who’d been waiting all day for Nora to arrive so they could buy her homemade strawberry jam. It was a particular favorite and Kori would be serving it as often as possible at the café.
    For the last two weeks Kori had helped Nora can the strawberry jam late into the evenings. They’d made everything from low sugar to no pectin and it would sell out by the end of the day tomorrow. Some preferred bigger chunks of strawberries still intact—preserves—others were looking for something more resembling paste—jelly—and finally there were those who wanted something in the middle—jam.
    They’d made it all.
    With Jay’s help, the rest of the afternoon went smoothly and Kori wasn’t quite as tired as she’d expected—though she wasn’t going to tell her mother that. Just before five, Gale came walking toward her tent and Jay took off, promising to help tomorrow as well.
    “You’re going to the fireworks tonight?” Gale asked, just as Kori had expected her to.
    “Sorry, Mom. I’m dead tired after serving all day. These days are longer than my normal days at the café so I’m going to have to skip them this year.”
    “No problem.” Gale glanced around her before continuing in a whisper , “I actually have a date.”
    Kori made a point to not let her jaw hang open at this revelation. Maybe that was why her mother had been so calm right after lunch. Gale’s smile was that of a five year old on Christmas morning.
    “Wh—who’s the lucky man?” Kori stammered, not sure she really wanted to know.
    “Norm Devlin.”
    “The mayor? ” Kori asked, this time unable to keep the surprise from leaking through. She had to pause in her packing up to fully focus on this conversation.
    Gale nodded like a giddy school girl. “I’ll see