The Devine Doughnut Shop(43)

“Good Lord, I hope not!” Grace shuddered as she stood up and tossed her empty bottle into the trash and then dragged the can over to the far end, where Sarah was cleaning up a mess. Crumbs were all over the table, the four chairs, and the floor. “How could anything be worse than this month has already been?”

“That other-shoe business could happen,” Sarah reminded her.

Grace shook her finger at her sister. “We’re not going to let any more shoes drop. We’ve had enough.” But down deep inside, she didn’t believe a word of what she said.





Chapter Ten


Never had a project like this, but I’m not complaining,” Lucy said as she and the other ten members of the think tank set about comparing the doughnuts. “I can already tell you after the first bite that the Devine pastries beat these two, but Calvin said the owner isn’t ready to sell.”

Lucy was one of those medium-height, brown-haired, green-eyed women who would blend so well into a crowd, no one would ever notice her. She wore glasses, with lenses almost as thick as Travis’s, and had a gravelly voice like a longtime smoker. She was the first one he had hired when he decided to incorporate a think-tank crew, and she’d told him in her interview that she had never smoked or done drugs. “I love my mama, my boyfriend, and Jesus—but I do drink a little,” she’d said. He had hired her on the spot, and now she was the supervisor on the first floor, answering only to Delores, Calvin, and Travis.

“I’ve never known you to test out a business like this before making an offer on it, but I guess you have your reasons,” Lucy said.

His grandfather was back in his head. And what are those reasons? Be honest with yourself.

Travis thought of the way the vibes danced around him when he was in the doughnut shop and wondered if Grace felt the same. Was this cat and mouse game she played for real, or was she trying to tease him into a higher price for her company? Or was she sincere in her refusal, and there was electricity between them both?

“What is it about the dough that’s so different?” he asked to get his mind off the other questions. “I can’t put my finger on it. I need help figuring out if I’m right or not. I would imagine most places have a standard recipe, but my friends down in that area tell me the Devine Doughnut Shop makes the dough in small batches by an old family recipe.”

Calvin reached into one of the Devine boxes and picked up a whole doughnut with frosting and sprinkles.

Delores slapped his hand. “Not a one of us need to eat whole doughnuts.”

“You’ve been talking to Maggie,” Calvin moaned.

Travis chuckled under his breath and then picked up a fourth of a glazed doughnut from one of the local pastry shops and ate it. He took several sips of hot coffee and then ate a piece of one of the same type from Devine. “There is definitely a difference. The one from Devine is a little lighter, a little sweeter, and the dough itself isn’t quite as stark white.”

Delores ate a piece of one with chocolate icing from a different local shop and then a little bit of one from the yellow box. “You’re right. What makes the difference is the bread recipe. Should we send some of these”—she pointed toward the yellow boxes—“off to be analyzed?”

“No, I’m not ready for that step in this process just yet,” Travis answered. “Grace told me that the shop isn’t for sale, but we all know that everything has a price.”



Audrey seemed to float into the house that Wednesday afternoon. Her face was all aglow with a brilliant smile, and she danced around the living room to music that was only in her own head.

Grace looked up from one of her mother’s old cookbooks. “What’s got you so happy?”

“Did a good-lookin’ boy ask you to the prom?” Sarah asked.

“Not yet, but a couple have been flirting. I can’t wait until next year, when . . .” Audrey stopped midsentence.

“In my day the boys asked the girls,” Grace said, remembering how Justin took her to both her junior and senior proms. She didn’t even have to close her eyes to visualize the dresses that she had worn to each.

“Y’all are all old.” Audrey kept dancing. “I’m happy because I don’t have to sell the shop when I inherit it. Talk at school is that we’ll be moving to Europe in the summer because you are finally letting someone buy the place and are dating a very rich man. Next year, I can either shop in Paris for my junior prom dress or maybe I’ll have a designer make it for me. We won’t have to buy off the rack. Crystal and Kelsey have already been asked by two of the most popular boys in school, and their mamas are taking them to a designer in San Antonio to have their dresses made.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, darlin’,” Grace said. “We are not selling anything, and I’m not dating a rich man. He asked me to dinner, but I said no.”

Audrey stopped in the middle of a spin, threw herself onto the sofa, and laid her hand across her forehead in a dramatic gesture that would have made Scarlett O’Hara proud. Raelene came into the house, saw her lying there, and rushed across the room.

“Are you all right? Do you need a cold cloth?” she asked.

“My world has fallen apart,” Audrey groaned. “Why do things like this happen to me? I’ve had nothing but bad luck for weeks now. Crystal and Kelsey said they can only be my friends at school.”