A Sweet Death, page 17
part #3 of Stoneybrook Series
But if Suze wasn’t getting her hair cut, then she was there getting it styled. What could Suze possibly need a fancy hairdo for on a Friday? Hadley wondered.
Gran pulled her away from her thoughts by giving her a goodbye pat on the hand. “I’ll see you in a few hours, dear. Happiest of birthdays.” Gran kissed her fingertips and then gently placed them on Hadley’s cheek, heading out the door without waiting for a response.
If the timer for her scones hadn’t gone off a few minutes later, Hadley wasn’t sure how long she might’ve stood there, question after question spinning through her mind. As it was, the scones were golden and absolutely delicious with butter and jam spread across their warm, flaky insides. A few bites of one of them stole Hadley’s attention away, and she began washing up the supplies she’d used in her bake.
She had her hands fully immersed in a soapy mixing bowl when another knock sounded at her front door.
“Come in,” she called, washing the suds off and wiping her hands on the nearest towel.
Heavy boots sounded against the hardwood of the foyer.
“Hey.” She turned around, hands clean and dry.
Luke’s mouth was pulled into a boyish grin. “A little cold in here?”
Hadley realized she was still wearing Gran’s present. Instead of slipping it off, however, she tugged it tighter. “It’s from Gran, and it’s beautiful and I don’t care if maybe I’m getting a little overheated.”
Luke laughed. “Fair enough.” He held a box forward. “Happy Birthday, Had.”
The silvery paper was exquisite, and the wrapping job was the picture of precision, all sharp folds and tight corners. A purple bow adorned the top and the sound of clinking glass came from the box as he presented it to her.
“From you?” she asked, surprised by the weight as she took it from him.
“Yeah. I was going to bring you a bottle of gin too, but the distillery is closed for an event tonight, so I’ll have to give you a rain check on that. Oh, and Jolee’s present is out in your driveway.” He leaned closer, whispering, “It’s your bike—fixed—but Jo’s not as good at wrapping as I am.”
Smiling, Hadley set the box on the now-cleared countertop and began to unwrap it. Underneath the paper was a plain cardboard box, its blank sides only adding to the ambiguity. Luke nodded in encouragement as she lifted the cardboard lid.
Inside sat a dozen quart-sized glass jars. They all had bright copper lids that shone up at Hadley like brand new pennies. Pulling one out of its cardboard slot, Hadley sucked in a breath as she noticed they had her berry logo and Pretty Jam Good etched into the sides.
A tiny ball of warmth spread out from Hadley’s chest.
“I thought you could use them to sell special reserve blends of your jams, kind of like Christine does with some of her spirits.” Luke ran a hand through his hair.
“I absolutely love them, Luke. Thank you.” She put the jar down, pulling him into a tight squeeze—and definitely not mentioning their etched portions might make them unfit for canning but would make beautiful water glasses.
Luke’s arms wrapped around Hadley and she closed her eyes, sinking into him. He smelled of fresh air, and earth, and … well, Luke. He pulled back, meeting her gaze with his. Those blue eyes, that floppy, unruly hair.
Just as she was moving to study his lips, her phone beeped with a message. Hadley’s jaw clenched tight. If it was Cassie with another picture of Bailey, she was going to—
Grabbing her phone from the counter, Hadley was relieved to see it wasn’t. It was from Suze. But all relief left her as she read the text.
Hey. I’m so sorry and I’m the WORST, but I’m not feeling well. Mind if I take a rain check for your bday dinner?
Hadley’s stomach plummeted.
Of course not. Feel better, she typed, sending the message before any of her whiny thoughts had a chance to seep into her response.
“What’s up?” Luke asked, probably noticing the way her complexion had paled.
“Suze can’t make it for dinner.” Hadley’s shoulders sagged.
She couldn’t fault her friend for getting sick, after all. Germs didn’t know it was Hadley’s birthday. Suddenly hot, Hadley pulled off Gran’s hat and tossed it onto the back of the couch. She could feel the static messing with her hair and she flattened it back down with her hands, smoothing and—
Wait. Hair.
Suze couldn’t be sick. She’d just been at Nell’s salon getting her hair done for some fancy occasion. Hadley’s stomach sank. She knew Suze had been lying to her over the past few months, but this was low, too low.
“What now?” Luke asked, looking as if he was having a hard time keeping up with Hadley’s mood changes.
“She’s lying. She’s not sick.” Hadley shook her head, lining up all of the lies in her mind as if they were kids who’d been caught spray painting the playground.
She went through the evidence with Luke, extending a finger at each new clue.
First, there had been Suze’s hair chopstick in Paul’s truck.
Then, the constant lies—Hadley knew the word constant was a tad hyperbolic, but went with her anger—about where they were, had been, and what they were doing.
There had been that odd meeting between Suze and Christine last week and now the distillery was closed for an event.
Next, the German chocolate cake. Paul’s favorite flavor ordered from Mickie by Suzanne.
The wedding dress from The Tulle box had almost clinched it.
“And now she’s gone and had her hair done.” Hadley spaced out the last two words for effect.
Luke blinked. “Oh no …?” He cringed, obviously unsure why it was bad.
“Luke. Cake, dress, hair? There’s only one—”
She was interrupted again by a beep from her phone. A strangled, wry laugh escaped her lips as she glanced down at the screen.
Hate to do this, but still swamped with paperwork from the case. Rain check for dinner?
Hadley laughed again, but in a manic way that made her feel certifiably crazy. She showed Luke the screen.
“And now Paul’s out too.”
Luke took in the information, and Hadley waited for him to come to the same conclusion.
“Which means?” Luke shook his head slowly.
“Luke! They’re having a secret wedding.” Hadley let her hands rise and fall, unsure how he was missing all of the signs.
“A what?”
Tears pricked at her eyes. “A secret wedding. At Christine’s distillery. My two best friends are getting married, and they somehow feel like they can’t tell me.”
Luke’s mouth opened and closed a few times. He looked utterly lost.
But that was okay. Hadley wasn’t. She was finally seeing things clearly. She paced.
“Had, I don’t—”
She stopped short, snapping her fingers and cutting Luke off. “That’s it. I’m going there. I’m going to show them they should’ve told me, that I’m super supportive, and they were wrong to keep it from me.”
Hadley searched the room for her purse, pausing only to slip on her Birkenstock clogs.
“Uh, Had.” Luke’s voice was quiet, but she could hear the suppressed smirk hiding behind his tone.
“What?” Her eyes snapped up to meet his, expecting him to tell her she was being crazy.
He pressed his lips together for a moment, then ran his hand along his stubbly jawline. “If we’re going to crash a secret wedding, don’t you think you might want to wear something other than stained sweatpants, a flour-covered T-shirt, and your Birks?”
Hadley glanced down. Her favorite gray sweatpants were marred with holes and some inexplicable stains. As was her Stoneybrook Fun Run 2015 T-shirt. She chewed on her lip for a moment.
Shaking her head, she grabbed her keys from the hook near the door. “Nope. This whole thing has me feeling crazy, and if I’m going in crazy, I’m going to commit.” She stomped out the door, Luke following behind.
26
Luke drove, which was definitely a good idea because Hadley couldn’t sit still to save her life. She fussed and fidgeted and huffed the entire ten-minute drive out to the distillery. Now they’d found Miranda, she had spent the time to paint her nails a lovely champagne color yesterday. By the time Luke pulled into the circular gravel driveway of Stoneybrook Spirits, a good half of the champagne polish was history.
Paul’s truck and Suze’s powder-blue Mini sat parked next to the barn that held all of Christine’s stills and boilers.
“Ha!” Hadley pointed, vindication washing over her.
But as her gaze moved down the line of cars, her heart sank. Her parents’ car sat among vehicles representing most of the residents in town.
Eyes flashing with renewed anger, Hadley looked to Luke. “Do you believe me now?" She pointed to the familiar black Subaru. "My parents are even in on it.”
Luke swallowed, looking worried for the first time as he glanced at the line of cars. “Had, are you sure you want to …” He drifted off, unable to finish his sentence.
And Hadley didn’t need him to. She nodded. “I’m very sure.”
She was also sure that there was a lump of sadness and betrayal sitting right in her throat, and if she wasn’t taking action it might envelop her.
So she needed to take action.
Unbuckling, she emerged from the truck like a knight dismounting a steed. She was here to get some answers.
Her sandals crunched in the gravel, sounding loud enough to trigger an avalanche paired with her stomping. Luke’s large boots tread much more softly behind her, but his pace quickened as she reached the big barn doors to the tasting room.
Hadley felt like some sort of boxer, about to go into the ring. She paused, cracking her neck and taking a deep—albeit shaky—breath before grasping the wrought-iron handles, one in each hand. She stopped, eyeing the large doors and quickly calculating how much wider they were than her arm span; there was no way she would be able to hold on to them at the same time.
Luke seemed to read her mind and he stepped up next to her, taking hold of one side so she could focus on the other. He eyed her for a second, as if to ask, You sure about this?
She nodded, and they pulled the doors wide open.
Her heart was in her throat, unready for what she would find. What would she say? What could she do? How would it feel if she was ri—
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”
If Hadley thought her boots could trigger an avalanche, the din that poured out of those barn doors could’ve left Mount Everest snowless. She blinked, staring in stunned silence as the whole of Stoneybrook gathered inside Christine’s beautiful tasting room.
A banner—obviously painted by Suze’s talented hand—hung across the exposed beams. There were two beautiful cakes sitting along a long table to the left. One was obviously German chocolate, Paul’s favorite. But right next to it was a beautiful cake with a shiny, white frosting that looked suspiciously like Swiss meringue buttercream, decorated with fresh strawberries. Without cutting into it, she was quite sure the inside would be a soft, lemon sponge cake with fresh strawberries—her favorite.
There was so much to take in. Hadley didn’t even realize Suze was standing right in front of her. Her curly hair was done up in a beautiful updo, tendrils falling around her face, and she was wearing the most gorgeous purple dress.
Wait. The smile slid from Suze’s face and her narrowed eyes settled on Luke.
“Fenton, what happened to getting her to dress up?” Suze asked through clenched teeth.
Luke shrugged. “Uh … I had bigger problems than that. You might want to go get her ready, in another room.” He widened his eyes for effect and Suze’s followed as she caught on.
“Sure. This way, birthday girl.” She rushed forward, helping Luke lead Hadley off into Christine’s office area to the right. “You all did great!” Suze called back over her shoulder. “Eat and have fun; we’ll be right back!”
And with that, the three of them disappeared into the office where Paul was waiting, holding a beautiful teal dress on a hanger and wearing a big smile just about as well as he wore his gray suit.
“Happy birthday, Had,” Paul said, then looked to Luke. “Was she surprised?”
Luke laughed. “You have no idea.”
At that, Hadley finally found her voice. She whirled back on Luke. “You knew? You were in on this?”
There must’ve been more fire behind her eyes than her words because Luke’s hands shot up and he took a step back. “Not until this morning, I promise.”
“We know Luke can’t keep secrets, especially not from you, so we had to wait until the last second to tell him.” Suze put a hand on her hip and smirked.
Now it was Hadley’s turn to whirl toward Suze. “Which means, you two aren’t together?”
Simultaneously Suze’s face lost all color and Paul’s seemed to gather it all up. They were quite the pair, white-as-a-sheet and red-as-a-tomato.
“What?” Suze spat out the question like a swig of day-old coffee.
Paul cleared his throat, then rubbed his left arm with his right hand.
“Ha! You are!” Hadley pointed at the gesture. Anytime Paul rubbed his arm like that, it was a sure sign he wasn’t ready to tell her something just yet. “You’re just not—ready—to … tell me.” The last bit of the sentence petered out as she began to understand her mistake.
Paul and Suze glanced at one another.
Suze chewed on her top lip. “We—uh—yeah,” she said.
Paul sighed. “How’d you find out? Does everyone know?”
“No.” Hadley shook her head. “Just Luke and me. I found one of Suze’s hair chopsticks in your truck this summer.”
“And I found out because you two were super obvious,” Luke added dryly.
Hadley caught Suze’s gaze with hers. “So it’s true?”
Suze nodded, then wet her lips. “Wait,” she said. “What did you think you were walking in on, if you hadn’t figured out it was your party?”
Now it was Hadley’s turn to go red in the face. “Uh …”
“She thought you two were having a secret wedding, and that there was possibly a secret baby.” Luke blurted. When Hadley shot him a glare, he said, “What? I’m a bad liar.”
Suze laughed for a moment. “Oh, Had. I’m sorry. We just wanted to see where things would go, give whatever it was time to grow. We’re not getting married, or anything.”
“Yet,” Paul added with a wink, to which Suze returned with a smile.
“We felt bad keeping it from you.” Suze swiped at her forehead. “It sounded like such a great plan at first, but now …”
Paul stepped forward. “Really, we were just thinking of you, Had. We didn’t want to get your hopes up if it wasn’t going to work out.” He wrapped an arm around Suze’s shoulders. “But it would be nice not to have to hide anymore.” He smiled down at her.
The office seemed to spin around Hadley as everything clicked into place. “So this really was a surprise party all along?”
Paul and Suze nodded. Voices in the other room grew louder, and it sounded like the party was getting started without them.
“I wanted to throw a party where we dressed up, like we always talked about when we were little.” Suze fingered the fabric of her gown. “So I got us both party dresses from that place on the other side of the mountain. Do you remember it? The Tulle Box?”
Hadley swallowed, feeling rather ill. The receipt she’d found had been the price of two dresses, not one. Two party dresses, not one wedding dress. “I remember.”
“And I know how much you love to follow clues.” Paul cleared his throat. “So I thought we could plant stuff around town to lead you here.”
Closing her eyes, Hadley inhaled as she saw it all through a different lens.
“The meeting with Christine was about the venue. And she was awkward on purpose to make me suspicious,” Hadley said, opening her eyes.
Suze laughed. “Actually, Christine just got nervous and did that on her own. That wasn’t part of my plan.”
“But Mickie was supposed to act weird about me seeing the order, so I would be curious about it?” Hadley guessed.
At that, Paul nodded. “The cakes were my present, but I got busy with the case and Suze ordered them for me. We didn’t realize until the next day that the second card had been stuck behind the first one, so it looked like there was only one cake on order.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Mickie really needs a different system.”
Hadley moved on to the next clue: the dresses and receipt. “Which means you knew I would see you that day on Main Street,” she said, pointing to Suze, who nodded. “And you dropped the receipt on purpose.”
“I purposefully waved to Mr. Hite so he would honk his horn. The man can’t help it.” Suze touched her hair.
Hadley pointed at her head. “And you recruited Gran this morning to drop the hint about your hair, so I would know you were getting ready for something big.”
She smiled. “Yup.”
“We knew you would figure it out when we canceled, since we’ve never celebrated our birthday apart,” Paul added. “Luke telling you the distillery was closed for an event was meant to be the last clue.”
Hadley laughed as the absurdity of the last few days ran through her mind. “I got all of those clues, the fact that I’d found Suze’s hair chopstick in your truck first distorted everything I found after that.” She shook her head.
Suze patted her arm. “I’m so sorry we made you worry. The clues were supposed to be fun. Instead, it sounds as if we practically gave you an anxiety attack.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Paul’s face wrinkled into a grimace.
She waved a hand at them. For all of the time she’d spent worrying and ruminating about them hiding a relationship from her, finding out she was wrong felt like a weight lifted off her shoulders.
Her brother pulled her into a hug. “Happy birthday, Had.”
“Happy birthday, Paul.” She squeezed him tight. When she pulled back, there was a sinking sensation in her gut. “I left your present at my house, though,” she said, cringing.
