For Batter or Worse (Cupcake Bakery Mystery, Band 13) - Softcover

McKinlay, Jenn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593333373 ISBN 13: 9780593333372

Verlag: Berkley, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

The Fairy Tale Cupcake crew must discover the truth behind a death sprinkled with suspicion before Mel and Joe can say "I do”, in the thirteenth Cupcake Bakery Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay.

Life is sweet and business is booming at the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery--and the fact that Mel and Joe are getting married is the icing on the cake. Their reception will be held at the swanky resort where Oz works as the pastry chef. The wedding planning is all fun-fetti and games until Mel and Joe meet the head chef at the resort who has been making Oz's life miserable. When the eccentric chef insults Mel's bakery, Oz gets into a blowout argument with the culinary prima donna. 

Things turn extra sour when the chef is murdered, and Oz is the police's main suspect. As the countdown to the wedding day begins, Mel, Joe, and the rest of the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew must sift through clues to catch the real killer and clear Oz's name before their wedding plans are totally battered and baked.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Former librarian Jenn McKinlay is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Bluff Point Romances, including Every Dog Has His Day, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and About a Dog, as well as the Library Lover’s Mysteries, the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, and the Hat Shop Mysteries. Jenn lives in sunny Arizona in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband’s guitars.

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One

"Wow, I just realized you're going to be a DeLaura and I'm not," Angie Harper said.

"Maybe." Melanie Cooper opened the door for her friend as they exited their co-owned bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, and walked to Mel's car.

Well, Mel walked, Angie waddled. At thirty-two weeks, pregnant and being slight in stature, Angie carried her baby high and tight, looking like she'd strapped a basketball to her midsection.

"You're not going to take the DeLaura family name?" Angie asked. She sounded shocked. Mel was marrying Angie's older brother Joe DeLaura, who was smack in the middle of her seven older brothers.

"I haven't decided," Mel said. "We're a few weeks out yet, so I have time."

"Not if the brothers find out," Angie said. "You know they'll have something to say about it. What about Joe, what does he think?"

"He said I can do whatever I want," Mel said.

"Good," Angie said.

"What made you decide to take Tate's name?" Mel asked. She was genuinely curious as to why her normally independent-minded friend had gone traditional on the name thing.

Angie hugged her belly. "I surprised myself with that one, too, but I wanted to feel like I was becoming someone new. Also, Tate offered to become a DeLaura, so I felt like if it wasn't a big deal for him, it didn't need to be one for me. Also, there are enough DeLauras already. Besides, we've agreed that all of our kids will have DeLaura as a middle name, so that was enough for me."

"I imagine Joe and I will come up with something similar," Mel said. She opened the passenger-side door so Angie could slide into the front seat. "Maybe we—"

"Haven't you had that baby yet, Harper?"

Uh-oh. Mel glanced up and saw Olivia Puckett bearing down on them with her usual no-nonsense stride. A rival bakery owner, Olivia always wore a blue chef's coat and had her curly gray hair contained in an unruly topknot. She was not known for her tact or her diplomacy, and when she and Angie bumped into each other, it was usually with the force of two similarly charged magnets. They repelled each other.

"Not yet," Angie replied. She smiled at Olivia. "And how are you today?"

Olivia stumbled. She blinked. She frowned. "You look like you're having twins."

Mel hissed a breath. Didn't Olivia know not to comment on a pregnant woman's belly? This was going to get ugly. She glanced around the street, looking for help. There was no one. It was still early in the day for any tourists to be roaming Old Town Scottsdale. She reached for the phone in her purse. Marty Zelaznik, their main employee, was actually dating Olivia, and Mel figured it was his responsibility to rein her in. Not that Mel was afraid of Olivia. She glanced at the other woman's muscled forearms. Okay, she was a little afraid.

"Not twins," Angie said. She continued smiling and shrugged. "Just a big, bouncy, healthy baby."

Mel gave her a side eye. Was Angie okay? Had she spiked a fever? Usually, about now, the insults would be volleying back and forth between these women like a badminton birdie. Mel glanced at her friend's eyes. Were her pupils dilated?

Olivia's mouth twisted up as tight as her topknot. "Well, you should be grateful. Elephants gestate for twenty-three months."

"Twenty-two months, actually," Angie said. Then she leaned in and said in a conspiratorial whisper,
"You wouldn't believe the number of people who have shared that factoid with me."

"Yeah, well . . ." Olivia looked flummoxed. "It's almost two years."

"Crazy, right?" Angie shook her head in wonder.

Olivia turned to Mel. "What's wrong with her?"

Mel shrugged. "Search me."

Angie reached over and patted Olivia's arm. "Have I ever told you how flattering that shade of blue is on you? You're really very pretty, you know."

Olivia started to back away. She glanced at Mel with wide eyes. "You should take her to the emergency room."

Then she hurried down the sidewalk as if she were afraid that Angie's sudden bout of niceness might be contagious. As soon as she was out of earshot, Mel burst out laughing. She turned to Angie and asked, "Is that your new way to drive her bananas?"

Angie looked puzzled. "I have no idea what you mean. I adore Olivia."

With that, she slid into the passenger seat, moving her legs so that Mel could shut the door after her. They were on their way to visit their former employee and friend Oscar Ruiz, known to all as Oz, at the Sun Dial Resort, where he was the master pastry chef. Mel and Joe were having their small wedding reception there, and Oz was baking the cupcakes, naturally, but now she wondered if perhaps Olivia wasn't right. Maybe she should take Angie to see her obstetrician on the way. Of all the symptoms she'd read about pregnancy, a personality transplant wasn't one of them.

Mel circled the car and got into the driver's seat. She glanced at Angie and said, "Feeling dehydrated at all?"

"No, I had a huge glass of water before we left the bakery."

"And you've been taking your vitamins."

"Faithfully."

"Huh."

Angie glanced at her as Mel started the car and left her parking spot to merge onto the street.

"What?" Angie asked.

"Nothing."

"Nope, I know you like I know my own eyebrows," Angie said. "That 'huh' wasn't nothing."

"I'm just surprised, that's all," Mel said.

"Surprised by what?"

"Your reaction to Olivia," Mel said. "You know she was trying to insult you."

Angie shrugged. She hugged her belly and said, "Whatever. I don't have time for that. Besides, I don't want to injure the baby's psyche by thinking bad thoughts."

"Is that possible?" Mel asked. That was a level of motherhood she wasn't sure she could handle.

"I don't want to take any chances," Angie said. "You know, some people say I have a temper."

"Really?" Mel asked. She wondered if she managed to feign surprise successfully. "You don't say."

"I know, shocked me, too," Angie said. "But I've read every pregnancy book out there and I just don't want to goof this up, so I've been doing a lot of meditation over the past few weeks and really trying to find my mama Zen."

Mel paused at a red light and turned to look at her friend. Angie had her long dark curls held in a band at the nape of her neck. Her maternity dress was a loosely fitting swing dress in a pretty shade of pink. She looked about as angelic as Mel had ever seen her. She reached across the
console and squeezed Angie's hand.

"That is one lucky baby to have you for a mom," she said.

In an instant Angie's eyes filled with tears and she gulped. "You think so? I just want to be the best mom ever."

"You've got this," Mel said. "No doubt."

She handed Angie a tissue from the pack in the glove box and Angie blew her nose. It sounded like someone stepped on a goose. Mel turned her head to hide her smile. At least that hadn't changed.

"All right, enough sentiment," Angie said. She waved her tissue at the window. "Aren't there cupcakes waiting for us? Onward!"

Relieved, Mel put the Mini Cooper in gear and headed for the resort.
 
*
 
The Sun Dial Resort was on the north side of Old Town. A classic resort built in the 1950s, the heyday of the tourist district, when cowboys and the Old West were all the rage, the Sun Dial had a very Frank Lloyd Wright mid-century modern vibe going on, which had appealed to Mel and Joe for the wedding reception even before Oz had taken the job as head pastry chef.

Mel parked in the visitors' lot and she and Angie strolled to the main entrance, passing the valet parking attendants and walking up the cobbled pathway under the giant, circular cement structures that provided shade. Succulent gardens lined both sides of the walkway...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593333373
• ISBN 13: 9780593333372
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland