The Missing Dough(54)

At least they wouldn’t starve, and I saw that I’d be pulling the first pizza out two minutes after they walked in the door.

I went into the dining room and clapped with delight the second I saw what Maddy had done. She’d pulled all of the tables away from the center of the restaurant until she had one place set apart from all of the rest. Instead of our standard tablecloth, she’d found something that looked elegant in its simplicity. Two new place settings were on the table, and a bud vase in the center held a single red rose.

“How did you do all of this in the time I was in back?” I asked in awe.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s amazing,” I said. “You’ve outdone yourself, Sis.”

“Thanks. I was going to return the place settings, so I already had them in my trunk, along with some fabric I was thinking about making a new dress out of. It looks stunning as a tablecloth, don’t you think?”

“And the rose?” I asked with a grin.

“We were in luck there. I found Hiram Blankenship standing on the promenade, giving them away to whoever wanted one.”

“I didn’t realize that it was his anniversary already,” I said.

“Neither did I, but the man’s like clockwork year in and year out.”

Every year on the anniversary of his wedding to his late wife, Melissa, Hiram bought twelve dozen red roses and handed them out to everyone he met that day. It was sweet, sad, romantic, and a bit tragic, all rolled up into one act of remembrance that never failed to make me cry.

“You really did great,” I said and gave my sister a big hug.

“To be honest with you, it was kind of nice to get my mind off of murder, even if it was only for half an hour. How did you do?”

“Not nearly as well as you did,” I admitted.

I was about to tell her what I’d made when there was a tap at the front door. Paul was there with Gina, and he looked so pleased to be with her that I hoped it worked out between them.

“You two shouldn’t have gone to this much trouble,” Gina said after we shared our hellos and they came into the Slice.

“For two of our dearest friends? It was our pleasure. If you’ll be seated, we’ll be serving the first course soon,” I said.

She turned and looked at Paul. “I still can’t believe that you planned all of this just for me.”

He was about to confess his part—I could see it in his eyes—so I broke in. “It didn’t surprise us one bit. Paul always has had a romantic spirit.”

He just laughed, and then he explained, “It’s true that I wanted to do something special, but these two ladies deserve all the credit for today.”

“It’s sweet of all of you, then,” Gina said.

I excused myself, pulled the pizza and the cheese sticks out of the line, and then prepped them to serve. As I walked back out, Maddy was getting them sodas, so I served them myself. “I hope you enjoy our humble offerings. Save some room for dessert. I’ve got cherry and apple dessert pizzas.”

“Thank you,” Paul said. “I mean it.”

“You’re most welcome.”

Maddy followed me back into the kitchen. “I thought I’d give them some privacy,” she said as she opened the door enough to watch them.

I grabbed her apron and pulled her backward away from the door.

“Hey, what if they need something?” she protested.

“I have a hunch that they’ll be fine on their own. This is nice, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “We should do something like this for our men when things settle down around here.”

“Do you ever think that’s even a possibility?” I asked.

“I have my hopes. After all, if we can’t solve Grant’s murder, then surely Chief Hurley can manage to do it without us.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said as I started applying icing to the dessert pizzas. I slid them both back into the fridge, and then I started cleaning up. Maddy lent a hand, and by four till noon, we were ready to face the world.

“Could you go ask them if they’re ready for dessert?” I asked.

I didn’t have to ask Maddy twice.

She came back fifteen seconds later. “They want both of us out front.”

I was curious, so I joined Maddy to find out what was going on.

Paul and Gina were both standing, and I was pleased to see that they were holding hands. “No room for dessert?” I asked.

“We’re stuffed,” Gina said, and then she hugged me. As she did, she whispered in my ear, “Thanks, Eleanor, for everything.”

“It was my pleasure,” I said before she broke free.

Paul thanked us, as well, and after they were gone, Maddy and I tackled cleaning up the table and putting everything back into order for our paying customers. She pointed to the cheesy braid of bread and asked, “Did you pull that out of some fancy cookbook?”