Chocolate Cream Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #24)(30)

Hannah gave a little shiver. “You’re right,” she agreed as she followed Sally into the warmth of the hallway. “The wind picked up and it has a real bite to it.”

“I reserved a curtained booth for you and Lynne, and I’ll join you two for dessert if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all!” Hannah assured her. “It’s always a pleasure to have dessert and coffee with you. And speaking of dessert . . .” she handed the Pink Grapefruit Cake to Sally. “Lisa sent this for you. It’s a Pink Grapefruit Cake with Pink Grapefruit Glaze and we’re thinking of using it for Valentine catering.”

“Well, it’s certainly pretty enough,” Sally said, opening the box to peek inside. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a grapefruit cake before. I’ve had lemon cake and orange cake, but never grapefruit. It makes me wonder if you could make a pink grapefruit meringue pie.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment before she answered. “Why not?” she decided. “The juice is certainly flavorful enough, and it would be a little like Key Lime Pie or Lemon Meringue Pie. I’ll have to get some pink grapefruit juice from Lisa and try it. Someone sent Lisa and Herb a box of pink grapefruit from Florida for their anniversary and Lisa zested the rind, juiced the pink grapefruit, and froze it.”

Sally smiled. “Lisa’s got a good head on her shoulders. And if this cake tastes as delicious as it smells, she’s also one heck of a good baker!”

Sally led the way to the curtained booth on the end of the raised platform that contained the row of private booths. She opened the curtain and announced, “Here’s Hannah. I’m going to go get her a hot lemonade to warm her up. It’s getting really cold out there. Would you like one, too, Lynne?”

“Yes, please,” Lynne answered quickly. “Dick makes the best hot lemonade in the world!”

“That’s because he puts really good rum in it,” Sally explained. “I’ll be right back, girls, and I’ll send Dot over to get your dinner order.”

“You look good, Hannah,” Lynne told her as soon as Hannah had taken off her parka and slid into the booth. “After what Sally told me about you and Ross, I expected you to be a pale shadow of your former self.”

Hannah laughed. “Not quite. It’s difficult to fade into a shadow when you’re as mad as a wet hen.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t come to the wedding,” Lynne apologized. “We didn’t get your invitation until we got back from Europe and by then it was too late. Did you get my wedding present?”

“Yes, it’s beautiful. Thank you, Lynne. I’ve never had a beautiful teapot and tea cozy like that before. There’s just one thing . . . would you like it back since I wasn’t really married in the first place?”

“No! Of course not!” Lynne looked shocked at the suggestion. “You thought you were getting married and that’s all that counts! I wish we’d had a chance to talk before you got engaged to Ross. I would have told you what a louse he is! That man broke my heart, and it sounds like he broke yours, too.”

Hannah gave a little nod. “It felt that way at first. There were times when I actually had trouble breathing, I was so upset. I just couldn’t believe he’d left me without a word. And when that feeling left, I began to wonder what I’d done wrong to make him want to go away.”

“I heard that,” Sally said, pulling back the curtain and placing mugs of hot lemonade in front of them. “You did absolutely nothing wrong, Hannah. He deserves all the blame. If you’d told me that you felt that way, I would have come into The Cookie Jar to shake some sense into you!”

“I believe it,” Hannah said with a little laugh. “It’s okay, Sally. And I feel much better now that I told Ross to get out of my sight and stay out of my life.”

Sally looked completely shocked. “You saw Ross again?!”

“Yes, this morning. I got in to work early and he knocked on the back door of The Cookie Jar.”

“You let him inside?” Lynne asked her.

Hannah shook her head. “No, I stepped out. He said he needed the money he’d left in the safe deposit box and I told him it wasn’t there anymore, that I’d deposited it in his checking account. I returned all the money he gave me.”

“You’re a good person, Hannah,” Lynne told her. “I don’t think I would have returned his money. I would have kept it to make up for all the pain and grief he caused.”

Sally began to frown. “Why did Ross need the money? Do you know?”

“All I know is what he said. I don’t know if it’s the truth, but he told me he needed to give it to his wife so that she could pay for a divorce.”

“Good heavens!” Sally looked completely shocked. “That man has colossal nerve! He wanted you to pay for his divorce with the money he gave to you?”

“Yes. And then he said that he still loved me and he wanted to marry me again just as soon as he was free.”

Both Lynne and Sally groaned, and Lynne reached out to take Hannah’s arm. “You didn’t fall for that, did you, Hannah?”

“Of course not!”

“Did he go to the bank to get the money?” Lynne asked.

“No. I didn’t know anything about it at the time, but the bank was closed and it won’t reopen until Monday morning. They had a lot of damage from the blizzard and they have cleanup and repair work to do.”