Naming the flowers, p.1
Jingle Cells, page 1
JINGLE CELLS
A HOME BAKED COZY MYSTERY
PATTI BENNING
SUMMER PRESCOTT BOOKS PUBLISHING
Copyright 2024 Summer Prescott Books
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.
**This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Also by Patti Benning
Author’s Note
Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing
CHAPTER ONE
Nicole Bennett pulled a tray full of picture-perfect Christmas cookies out of the oven. There were Santa Clauses, Christmas trees, ornaments, and reindeer. Her mind danced with images of how each one would look once they were iced.
They had to cool first, so she set the tray on the cooling rack, then turned to the whiteboard where her day’s list of orders was a third of the way completed.
“Nicole? We need more of those mini pies!”
“Which ones?” Nicole shouted back.
Her grandmother, who was currently out front, manning the counter and serving the customers who were visiting their little bakery, replied, “Pecan!”
“How many do we have left?”
The shouted conversation wasn’t unusual for them. Thank goodness her grandmother still had good hearing, because she didn’t know how they would manage otherwise. Her grandmother, Marianne Bennett, co-owned Bennett’s Baked Goods, and many of their recipes were the result of her creative mind. Nicole had loved baking with her grandmother for as long as she could remember, and owning a bakery with the woman felt like a dream come true. And it had been for much of their first year. Everything had run so smoothly she almost couldn’t believe it, but now that the holidays were approaching, she was beginning to realize she might have made some errors.
Namely, taking on way too many custom orders, in addition to promising that she would cater all the desserts for her own family’s holiday gathering. There were five days left until Christmas, and they were starting to feel the crunch.
“None!” her grandmother hollered back. “Someone just bought everything we had in stock!”
Nicole bit back a sigh and picked up a dry erase marker to scribble pecan pies in the margin of her list. After replacing the cap on the marker, she washed her hands and got started on the most urgent order next – a batch of cupcakes for a ten-year-old whose birthday was today.
Baking was hard work, so every couple of hours, she and her grandmother switched places. She made sure she got the mini pecan pies done first, knowing her grandmother hated working with pie crust—she had arthritis in her hands, and rolling out the stiff pastry dough was difficult for her—and she spent the first few minutes out on the bakery’s floor, carefully placing the mini pecan pies on one of their most prominent display racks.
The bakery was her pride and joy. She and her grandmother had spent months crafting the interior until it was exactly what they wanted. Warm creams and unobtrusive, natural greens and browns gave the place a cozy feel, which the high-quality fake plants and gorgeous pastoral paintings only accentuated. They had recently bought a collection of battery-powered candles to make the place feel warmer on long, dark, winter days. In honor of the upcoming holiday, she had replaced the fairy lights that normally lined their windows with red and green Christmas lights, and a little tree had been set up in the corner. Beneath it were wrapped gifts for a local donation drive. She wanted people to feel like they were stepping into a cozy cocoon whenever they came to the bakery, and between the decor and the delicious scents that were constantly emanating from their kitchen, she was certain they had succeeded.
Bennett’s Baked Goods might not have been a part of their small-town community for long, but the Bennetts themselves had. Nicole was part of the third generation of her family who had grown up in town, though she had left for over half a decade to go to college and spend some time finding her own way in the world before she returned. The bakery had gotten a warm community welcome from its very first day, and so far, they hadn’t given the locals any reason to change their opinion about the town’s newest business. She wanted to keep it that way, which meant she had to make sure everything went absolutely perfectly during what was looking to be their busiest time of the year.
Nicole had just finished lining the pies up on the display rack when the antique bell over the bakery’s door rang. She looked over to see Russ Delaney, the family mechanic who kept both Nicole’s car and her parents’ vehicles up and running. He had also done a significant amount of work restoring her grandmother’s cherished antique convertible over the years. He was holding the door for a woman she didn’t recognize. Her heart sank, just a little. At thirty-six to her recent thirty, Russ was a little older than her, but not so much that it would keep her from noticing just how handsome and kind he was. Ever since she and her almost-fiancé broke things off last year, she’d found her eyes drawn to Russ more and more.
He was a widower who had lost his wife years ago, and he hadn’t dated since or at least, so she’d thought, but the drop-dead gorgeous woman he was escorting into the bakery seemed like a pretty big hint that something had changed. Still, when she turned to greet them, her smile wasn’t too forced. She could hardly expect a man to wait around for her when she hadn’t even gotten around to telling him she liked him yet. Plus, she simply didn’t have the mental bandwidth to worry about romance right now. That would have to wait until after the holiday, when she had time to think about something other than cookies and pies.
“Hey, Russ,” she said. “What can I get for you and your friend?”
“Oh, we aren’t together,” the woman said. She gestured at the counter. “You can go first. I don’t know what I want yet.”
“I’m not in a hurry,” Russ said. “I’ll probably stay to chat for a while, so you can go first and take your time looking.” He winked at Nicole. “I think I’ve tried everything they make by this point, and I haven’t been disappointed by any of it.”
Nicole hoped her cheeks weren’t too pink as she smiled at him before she switched her attention back to the woman. “We offer samples of almost everything we have, so if you’d like to try anything, just let me know.”
“There are so many options,” the woman said, looking around the bakery with wide eyes. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for?” Nicole asked. “Is this a late lunch, or a dessert? Are you looking for something to keep for yourself, or do you want to share it?”
“I just want something to take back to the bed and breakfast I’m staying at and shovel into my face while I get drunk and cry myself to sleep,” the woman said with a dry laugh. Immediately, she flushed. “I’m sorry. That was way too much information, wasn’t it?”
“Don’t worry about it. Actually, I think I know just the thing. We offer variety boxes of cookies. Six or a dozen, and you can choose any of our standard cookies.” She paused. “Just this once, I’ll let you choose two premium cookies to go in it. Our cookies are delicious, and they’re all made with love, so if you’re looking for something to put a smile on your face, they’re sure to do it.”
“That sounds perfect,” the woman said. Nicole showed her the cookie selection, which was kept in a glass display that doubled as a counter. The woman bent over to peer inside, then glanced back up and said, “Oh, my name is Hope, by the way.”
“I’m Nicole,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you. Are you new to town or just visiting?”
“Just visiting,” Hope said. “But I used to live here. You must have opened this bakery recently. I would have remembered it if it was here when I lived here.”
“We opened at the tail end of spring earlier this year,” Nicole said proudly. “It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been an amazing journey so far.”
“I bet it has. I haven’t tried any of your baked goods yet, but everything looks and smells amazing. I can’t wait to bite into my first cookie. Ooh, let’s go with that one. I love s’mores.”
Nicole boxed the cookies as Hope chose them. In the end, she got a s’mores cookie, a chocolate chip cookie, a snickerdoodle, a mint brownie cookie, one of the most recent batches of sugar cookies, and a butterscotch toffee cookie.
“This is a great selection,” Nicole said as she rang Hope up. “I like everything we sell, of course, but my grandma is the one who comes up with most of our cookie recipes, and she’s a genius in the kitchen.”
“I’m sure I’ll love them,” Hope said. “I’ll leave you guys a good review once I’ve had a chance to try everything. Thank you, Nicole. I don’t think you k
Her heart filled with warmth. Nicole watched Hope walk outside, wishing the woman’s day only continued to improve. When the door shut behind her, making the bell ring again, she turned to Russ.
“Sorry that took so long. What can I get you?”
“What’s the freshest thing you have right now?” he asked. “Do you have any of those big cinnamon rolls?”
“No. We only make those fresh first thing in the morning. If you’re looking for fresh, you’ll want one of the mini pecan pies. They came out of the oven about thirty minutes ago, so they should still be warm, and I made a fresh batch of whipped cream to go along with them.”
“There’s no way I can turn that down. I’ll take one.”
“Will you be eating here, or do you want me to pack it to go for you?”
“I’m on call until after Christmas, so I don’t have anything pressing to do. I’ll eat here.”
Nicole rang him up, secretly giving him a friends and family discount. While he picked out his mini pie, she prepared his plate and silverware and went into the back to get some freshly made whipped cream from the kitchen.
“Do you want to join me?” he asked as she set everything down on one of their three small, round tables for him. “At least until another customer comes in.”
She bit her lip and looked around guiltily, but it was less than an hour until the bakery closed and there wasn’t much else to do. Soon, her grandmother would begin cleaning the kitchen and Nicole would begin packing away the day-old items that hadn’t sold to take to the local food pantry.
“I guess that’s one of the upsides of being the boss,” she said as she sat down across from him. “There’s no one to tell me I can’t take a break.”
“Here, do you want the first bite?” he asked, pushing the plate with the pie on it and a fork over to her. She accepted, taking just a small bite since even her sweet tooth sometimes got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of baked goods she was surrounded by on a daily basis, before pushing the plate back over to him. She tried to ignore the flutter in her belly at the thought of sharing a fork with him.
“So, you’re off work until Christmas?” she said instead.
“Well, the auto shop is still open for urgent business, but everything slows down around the holidays. A lot of the parts we need are on back order or the shipping is backed up. I actually meant to come in around noon, but I had to put out some fires first.”
“Fires?”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know how I usually organize the Christmas decorations and tree for Fountain Park?”
She nodded. Russ’s dad had done it up until a few years ago when he had a stroke, which was when Russ took over. Nicole had gone to the ceremony every single year of her life. Even when she was away at college, she came back home to visit her family during the holidays..
“Well, this year, Cooper Collins petitioned the town hall to give the job to someone else. By someone else, I mean himself, of course.”
Nicole’s face scrunched up of its own accord. “Oh, no. You can’t be serious. He’s doing it this year?”
“He was doing it this year,” Russ muttered. “But the treasurer found out that almost the entire budget for the tree and decorations vanished into thin air and he doesn’t have anything to show for it. The mayor kicked him off the project and called me in to take over instead. I’m going to have to scramble to find a big enough tree and get all the decorations up as soon as possible. The townsfolk expect something new every year, but we might have to recycle some of the old decorations or ask for donations this year.”
“Do they think he stole the money?”
It wouldn’t surprise her. Cooper Collins owned the only other bakery in town, and Nicole hated him with a passion. She had barely even known of his existence until she and her grandmother began the process of opening their own bakery. He put them through months of harassment and, she suspected, even vandalism, though she could never prove that the broken window and nasty graffiti had been his doing. It took her grandmother threatening to sue him to make him stop. He had made it very clear from day one that he didn’t want any competition in town. His bakery mostly made bread and bagels, and Nicole had been happy to stick mostly to the sweeter side of things before he showed his true colors, but now, she didn’t care about stepping on his toes. She would make loaves of bread all day long if that was what she wanted to do, because Cooper Collins had stressed her grandmother out nearly to the point of illness, and he didn’t deserve anything in the way of compromise.
“They’re ‘looking into it.’” He put his hands down after he did the air quotes and picked up the fork with a sigh. She watched as he took a bite of the pie, and his face lit up. “This is amazing,” he said, raising an embarrassed hand to cover his mouth since he had just taken a bite.
“They’re popular,” she said. “This is the third full batch I’ve made today. Anyway, what are they going to do if they can prove he took it?”
He shrugged. “I’ve got no idea. What I do know is I’m going to be spending my first week off work trying to figure out how to decorate the park with a quarter of the normal budget and half the normal time.”
“Can I help?” Nicole asked, even though she knew she probably wouldn’t have the time with her busy bakery schedule.
“I’m trying to put together a community night tomorrow night to start decorating the park. I’d love for you to come, even if you just want to drink hot chocolate and watch.”
She smiled at him. “I think I could help a little more than that.”
The bell over the bakery’s door rang again. She jumped up, then relaxed when she saw it was only Francine, her grandmother’s best friend. The elderly woman moved everywhere at a hurried bustle, and today was no different. She rushed up to the counter and waited impatiently while Nicole walked around behind it.
“What can I get you, Francine?”
“Well, good afternoon, Nicole. Gorgeous day we’re having, isn’t it? It’s supposed to snow the whole rest of the day, which will cover up that nasty brown slush on the road. How are you doing, dear?”
Francine liked to talk. Nicole liked her as a person; she was a great friend to her grandmother and was something like an honorary aunt to Nicole herself, but she came in almost every day and ensnared either Nicole or, worse, Nicole’s grandmother in a conversation that could last hours. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d come out to see her grandmother embroiled in a discussion with Francine while the line kept growing behind her. It was their biggest point of contention. As much as Nicole loved her grandmother, she didn’t do anything in a hurry, and definitely not when it came to conversations with her friends.
Sitting at the table, Russ gave her a knowing, sympathetic smile, then took another bite of pie. It was clear he wouldn’t be coming to her rescue this time.
“I’m doing well. You know what, I think we’re pretty much done baking for the day, so why don’t I pop back into the kitchen and get my grandmother for you? I can start cleaning while the two of you chat.”
“That would be lovely, dear. You’re such a good girl. Marianne is lucky to have you.”
“I know,” Nicole said, pausing as she turned to go, “but I’m even luckier to have her.”
CHAPTER TWO
Nicole’s home was a cozy little two-bedroom rental a few blocks away from her parents’ house. She used to share it with her ex-fiancé, but oddly, now that she was the only one living there, it felt less empty than it had before.
Well, she wasn’t the only one who lived there. Luna, her fluffy ragdoll cat, was a very demanding roommate who never failed to let Nicole know when she wanted something. Nicole doted on her, as did her best friend, Amy. Luna had been Amy’s cat at first, before Amy discovered that she was allergic to cats. If she spent more than a couple of hours with them, she broke out in hives and her eyes wouldn’t stop running. After trying countless different allergy medications, she had come to the conclusion that she simply couldn’t live with a cat.
