Free Plain Vanilla Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery - Book 12 (Frosted Love Cozy Mysteries) by Carol Durand, Summer Prescott

played fetch for nearly an hour before
heading home, and when they trotted up the steps to the house, Missy was out of
breath and looking forward to a shower.
    After
showering and getting ready for the day, the cupcake artist had just sat down
to enjoy coffee and a bowl of yogurt mixed with granola when the text tone on
her phone chimed.
    “Hey
girl – you might want to stop by my house this morning,” her
friend Echo had texted, leaving her wondering what was up.
    “Will
do!” she texted back, feeling a bit unsettled. One thing that she loved about Echo
is that she was always very direct - so direct, in fact, that sometimes her
seeming lack of filters rubbed folks the wrong way, but Missy loved bold
honesty, which was probably part of the reason that the two of them got along
so well. For her friend to send an obscure message like this one was an unusual
thing, so she hurried through the rest of her breakfast, made sure the dogs had
plenty of food and water, poured her coffee in a to-go cup and headed for
Echo’s charming bungalow.
    Echo
opened the door after Missy knocked softly, giving her a strange look and
leading her to the kitchen in the back part of the house, where Cheryl sat, her
head in her hands.
    “Cheryl?”
Missy asked, wondering what was going on.
    “Oh,
Ms. G…Ben and I are separated,” she moaned, her eyes puffy from crying.
    Missy
was astounded. “What? Why?” she exclaimed pulling up a chair next to the
miserable girl.
    “We
had another fight, and Ben accused me of caring more about trying to become an
actress than participating in our relationship, and I told him he was being
selfish and we both got very angry, and…” Cheryl suddenly looked panicked,
jumped up from the table and sprinted to Echo’s main floor powder room. The gut-wrenching
sounds of her losing her breakfast reached their ears and Echo turned on the
radio to give the poor girl some privacy.
    “Wow,
she’s really upset,” Missy observed sadly.
    “For
sure,” her friend nodded. “She came to the door late last night, asking if she
could stay. There was no way in the world that I was going to say no, so I set
her up in the guest room, poor creature. She can’t sleep, won’t eat. The most
that I’ve been able to get her to do is to sip tea while we talk. She cries all
the time, but refuses to budge when I suggest that she talk to her husband,”
Echo whispered, bringing Missy up to speed.
    “I
think I’m going to have a talk with Ben,” Missy replied. “Because, honestly, I
don’t like to choose sides, but it certainly seems like he’s being the
level-headed one in this scenario.”
    “I
agree,” her friend nodded, falling silent when Cheryl dragged herself back into
the kitchen looking pale.
    “Honey,
you need to have some tea to settle your stomach and then get a bite to eat,”
Missy counseled the pitiful young woman who slumped in the chair next to her.
    “I
can’t,” she murmured. “Every time I think about this, I just get sick to my
stomach,” she put her hands over her midsection miserably.
    “Well,
try to relax, okay? Get some rest. I’m going to run over to Crème de la
Cupcake and pick up something and we can talk when I get back, alright?”
    “You’re
not going to go talk to Ben are you?” Cheryl asked, her lower lip trembling.
    “Of
course I am. Would you expect anything less?” Missy challenged.
    “My
mind is made up,” she muttered sullenly.
    Missy
let that go, gave her a big hug, and headed for the door. “Watch her,” she
mouthed silently to Echo on the way out. Her friend nodded and gave her a
thumbs up, closing the door behind her.
    **
    “She’s
being entirely unreasonable,” Ben complained when Missy sat down with him at
one of the tables in the eating area. “I’ve never seen her like this. She’s
always so practical and mature, and lately it’s just like she’s gone off the
deep end or something. Her reasoning makes no sense and she refuses to see
things from my