The Missing Dough

The Missing Dough


Chris Cavender



Chapter 1

“Maddy, I’m not leaving here until you promise to give me another chance!”

I heard the man shouting all the way from the kitchen of my pizza parlor, A Slice of Delight. It was just ten minutes since we’d opened our doors for the day. I’d been hoping for a quiet shift, but it was clear that I’d have no such luck today. What was going on with my sister now, and who was yelling at her? Whatever was happening, it sounded as though she could use some help. Maddy usually handled the front dining room with no trouble, along with our two part-timers, Greg and Josh, but she was up there alone at the moment, and I needed to see if I could back her up, no matter what the circumstances.

As I hurried up front, I grabbed our security system on the way, an aluminum baseball bat we’d played with as kids. Thankfully, the dining room was empty except for Maddy and a man I thought I’d seen the last of years before.

“Grant, what are you doing here?” I asked as I pointed the business end of the bat toward him like a spear.

“Hello, Eleanor,” he said with that greasy way he had about him, lowering his voice and doing his best to smile at me. There was no love lost between the two of us, and I didn’t even try to fake a smile in return.

Years ago, Maddy had married Grant Whitmore on the rebound from a bad breakup, though I’d done my best to talk her out of it at the time. The man was almost a cliché: tall, dark, and handsome, a troubled loner that some women found irresistible. I wasn’t talking about me, but clearly, some women reveled in his attention. Maddy had fallen for him, and hard, until fourteen months into their marriage she’d caught him cheating with their next-door neighbor. It wasn’t all that surprising to me that Maddy had missed his mother more than she had her straying husband. She and her mother-in-law had formed a strong bond that had surpassed the marriage, and the two women had kept in touch long after the dissolution of Maddy’s marriage to the woman’s son.

“You didn’t answer my question, Grant,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “Why are you here?”

Maddy looked over at me and frowned. “I can handle this, Sis.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that you can, but why should you have all of the fun? If it were possible, I might even like him less than you do.” I was normally a pretty level-headed woman, but this guy was on my Trouble list, a place that no one in their right mind would ever want to be.

Grant tried to wield his questionable charm on me. “Your sister is right, Eleanor. We don’t need your input. We’re doing just fine without you.”

That was the wrong thing to say to Maddy, and I knew it as I tried to suppress a smile. Grant realized it as well from the instant the statement left his lips, but it was too late for him to take it back.

Maddy answered, “Grant, I don’t need your support, your permission, or your acknowledgment of anything I say, think, or do. I threw you out for a reason, and if you think there’s a whisper of a chance you are getting back into my life, you are sadly mistaken. I’m happy, I’m engaged, and I’m well rid of you.” She looked at me, then glanced at the baseball bat still in my hands. “Could I borrow that?”

“By all means,” I said as I handed the bat to her. “But don’t hog all of the fun for yourself. I want a shot at him after you’re finished.”

“What makes you think that there will be anything left after I take my turn?” she asked with her most wicked of grins.

“Ladies, I can see that I’ve caught you at a bad time,” Grant said as he started backing slowly toward the front door. “There’s no need to resolve this all at once. There will be plenty of time. I’m not going anywhere. We’ll talk again later.”

“Or just maybe we’re finished here, once and for all,” Maddy said. “I meant what I said. There’s nothing left to talk about.”

Grant made his way to the door and then hesitated before leaving. “Madeline, you can protest all you want to, but I know there’s still a spark for me buried somewhere deep in your heart.”

“Grant, it’s amazing the number of things you think you know about me but don’t,” Maddy said. She suddenly lunged with the bat, grinned again, and he left quickly.

“What was that all about?” I asked her after we were sure he wasn’t coming back.

“What can I say? I guess I’m really just that irresistible,” she answered with a grin.

“Really? You don’t think there’s something else going on here?”