Free Loose Lips by Rae Davies

seventeen, made an understandable sound of outrage.
“Seriously? But—”
    The Cutie cut him off. “Seriously. No more.
Just coffee. Do you want some or not?”
    After a few minutes of mumbling and
grumbling among themselves, the kids took their coffees and
left.
    After two more vehicles, there seemed to be
a lull in business. She turned with a smile.
    “So, you knew Missy?”
    “Well...” I stammered. “Not well, but we
met. I’d been talking to her about...” As I’d planned my visit, my
thoughts hadn’t extended to what I would say once I was here.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected to make it past the door. Then the
answer occurred to me. Betty. Or at least Betty’s talents.
    “Posters!”
    “Posters?”
    “My employee, Betty Broward, won the Silver
Trail poster contest this year. She does great work.” I whipped out
my phone and pulled up a picture of Betty standing next to the
easel with her winning work.
    She took my phone and smiled. “I love sled
dogs. My uncle has a team.”
    I instantly warmed to her. I held out my
hand. “I’m sorry. Did I introduce myself? I’m Lucy.”
    She smiled in return. I could feel the
beginning of a beautiful, trusting relationship.
    “Rachel. So, what? You wanted to sell us
some of these? I’m not sure where we would store them.”
    “Actually, Missy was thinking having them
done for the kiosk.” This was, of course, a complete fabrication,
but since Missy wasn’t around to contradict my claim... “You know
featuring the kiosk and the Cuties that you could give out to
customers. I’m not sure what size she was thinking, but really, you
could get them printed any size and I’m sure Betty could do
something great for you.” Right after she got done burying my dead
body in Rhonda’s herb garden for giving her extra work.
    Rachel shook her head. “It’s a fun idea, and
something I can see Missy loving, but we’re trying for more... low
key now.” She smoothed the front of her t–shirt in a manner that
might have come across as prim from someone of less pin–up worthy
features.
    This, plus the fact that she was wearing the
t–shirt and hadn’t flashed anything bead–worthy since I’d been
there, pointed to Kristi being right. This Cutie was turning over a
new leaf.
    Except I just wasn’t that trusting, and I
guessed that some of the other
WIL
ers wouldn’t be
either.
    I took back my phone and looked around,
grasping for some other idea that would buy me another visit or two
to the kiosk.
    Betty had gotten me this far. I dug deep,
thinking of all her other talents. “We also talked about a website.
With pictures of all the Cuties.”
    Her eyes brightened. “With bios? That is a
good idea. You say Missy wanted to do that?”
    I nodded, but she didn’t seem to be paying
attention. Her eyes had taken on a calculating gleam. “That’s low
key, right?”
    When I looked unsure, she added,
“Classy?”
    I nodded. “For sure. Betty is the queen of
classy.”
    Or maybe that was brassy...
    o0o
    I spent another hour at the kiosk, getting
information on what Rachel wanted included on her site. The website
guise gave me an excuse to gather all kinds of information, like
the Caffeine Cartel’s menu, a list of the Cuties – which was
surprisingly long, hours, and specials, many of which made no sense
to me.
    But I hadn’t pushed. It wasn’t my website,
after all, and the more I questioned, the more likely she’d want to
add something extravagant that would equal more work for Betty and
thus cost for me, unless I got my new friend Rachel to actually
fork up the cash for the site herself at a rate Betty would
accept.
    “On cost,” I started.
    Busy dropping a twenty into the cash drawer,
Rachel waved her hand. “As long as it’s good and classy, I’m not
worried about the cost. Your friend’s graphic work is great. How is
she with SEO?”
    Having zero idea what SEO was, I assured her
that Betty was a complete genius at it.
    “Well, then, I’d expect it to