Free A Spicy Secret by D. Savannah George Page A

aloud until everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and looked her way. “Oh, sorry. Just thinking out loud!”
    Everyone laughed and said their goodbyes. Soon only Alice, Annie, Kate, and Mary Beth remained. Annie started gathering up her belongings as well as her friend’s. The Tupperware container was completely empty of cookies. Not even a crumb remained.
    “Um, Alice,” Annie said quietly, sitting down in the chair next to Alice. She hoped the other two ladies wouldn’t hear.
    “Um, Annie,” her friend replied in a whisper, “why are you talking so softly?”
    “Well, Ian saw me getting our stuff out of the car and invited me to lunch, but ….”
    “He didn’t mention having me along, did he?” Alice had a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
    “Not exactly ….”
    “But he knew you’d brought me here, right?”
    “Right.”
    Alice grinned, winked and then said loudly, “Annie, didn’t you say you have some errands you need to run?” Alice could never understand Annie’s stubbornness about Ian, and so she always spurred Annie to see him.
    “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” Annie tried to sound normal, but was certain she sounded like a bad actress in an even worse made-for-TV movie.
    The look on Alice’s face was now positively impish. “Well, dearie me, too bad my ankle is throbbing from this cold. And just when I thought it might be getting better.” She twisted her neck around to look at the other two. “Mary Beth, Kate, do you mind if I stay here while Annie runs her errands? I just don’t think I’m up to hobbling after her.”
    “You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like,” Mary Beth replied.
    “Oh, thank you so much. I will sit here quietly and crochet on this blanket. You won’t even notice I’m here,” Alice said. “Annie, do be a dear, and get me a club sandwich and chips from The Cup & Saucer on your way back. There’s absolutely no food in my house.”
    “I’d be happy to,” Annie said. “Are you sure you don’t mind me leaving you?”
    “I’m sure. Be off with you!”
    Annie gave her friend a quick hug; then she put on her winter wear and headed out the door.

6
    Ian sat at a table in the back corner next to the kitchen. Thank heavens , Annie thought. Wouldn’t want anyone to mention to Mary Beth or Kate or the others that they saw me here … at least not right away. Then she mentally chided herself again for being so silly. For some reason, that man sometimes brought out the giggly high schooler in her. Not to mention the embarrassed middle-aged woman who should be slightly more mature. Maybe.
    She wended her way through the packed diner until she got to Ian.
    “Why, if it isn’t the esteemed mayor of Stony Point, Maine,” she gushed, laying on her Texas accent a tad thick. “Are you all alone, honey? Mind if I join you?”
    He responded by standing to pull out her chair.
    “It would be my pleasure,” he said as she got settled. He pulled a mock bow, almost knocking Peggy over as she came out of the kitchen carrying a tray full of food.
    “Mr. Mayor!” she exclaimed rather loudly, cutting through the din of the restaurant and causing all the other patrons to turn their way. “You almost got clam chowder all over your backside.”
    “Clearly your extreme skill in the waitressing arts prevented such a calamity,” Ian said, bowing again, to everyone’s laughter. “However, if it had not been prevented, lunch—as you say—literally would have been on me.”
    “You’d better believe it,” Peggy replied in an aggrieved tone. “Excuse me while I help my other customers.”
    “If you’re not careful, Jeff will kick us out and ban us from ever eating here again,” Annie told him as he sat back down and the other diners went back to their meals. “At the very least, our waitress might spit in our food.”
    “Nah,” he replied. “Peggy is too sweet to do something like that. And anyway, I just did Jeff a good turn. I