It was fine. Absolutely fine. She hadn’t been single in years. It was about time she learned to live without a partner. She’d fill her nights with cupcakes and cocktails. Which reminded her, she still hadn’t cracked open that bottle of bourbon. Maybe she’d text Elle and ask if she wanted to come over for a girls’ night. Yeah, that would be good. They could drink and talk and laugh, and the other woman could be a big, fat distraction from Eastern.
As she pulled up out front of Sugar and Spice, she was already making mental notes of what she had to do before opening. All the cookie dough was already prepped, so it just needed to be taken out of the fridge and popped into the oven. She was also going to get started on a few of her favorite cupcake recipes, one of them being red velvet.
She grabbed her bag and climbed out of the car, dreaming about the iced coffee with caramel syrup she planned to make herself.
Her stomach rumbled, a reminder she hadn’t eaten anything this morning and had barely touched her dinner last night.
She unlocked the shop doors and stepped inside, only to abruptly stop.
Not just stop—completely freeze.
The place was trashed.
The glass display case had been smashed, shards everywhere. The register was on the floor, the drawer open and empty. Even the chairs had been thrown, with legs broken and seat material torn.
This wasn’t real, right? Someone hadn’t actually broken into her sweet grandmother’s cupcake shop and broken everything.
She blinked hard.
Still trashed.
The farther she moved into the space, the more nausea cramped her belly.
Who had done this? And why?
She neared the back room, only to stop again…this time because she heard something. A small crunch, almost like someone had stepped on glass.
Her heart hammered loudly in her chest as she forced words out. “Hello? Is someone here?”
Silence. It hummed through the shop, sliding over her skin and icing her insides.
Everything in her demanded she turn around. Get out.
The last time that happened had been the morning of her wedding, and thank God she’d listened.
She spun around—and the second her back was turned, fast footsteps sounded. She didn’t have time to look behind her before pain radiated throughout her skull.
Sadie cried out as she fell forward, hitting the floor hard. Pieces of glass dug into her palms, making her whimper in pain.
The heavy crash of footsteps sounded again, this time moving away from her, toward the back door. By the time she lifted her head and looked that direction, the door was open, the room empty.
For a moment, she just lay there, shock spiraling through her limbs, making movement feel impossible. It took a long time to feel capable of pushing up to a sitting position, then another few seconds to actually rise to her feet. Her head throbbed and her hands were bleeding, bits of glass still digging into her flesh. But she needed to call for help.
When she finally managed to stumble to her fallen bag and tug out her phone, she dialed the sheriff’s office. As the phone rang, she went to the back door. She already knew what she’dfind though…the alley was empty. Whoever had done this was gone.
“Leaves.”
Eastern shook his head. “Nope. I wouldn’t make it that easy.”
Avery’s little brows tugged together as they walked from his parked car to her school. “Grass?”
“If it’s not leaves, it’s definitely not grass, kid.”
They were playing their usual morning game of I Spy. Sometimes they spied on things that started with a letter. Sometimes it was a certain texture or function. This morning, he’d chosen the color green.
Her eyes suddenly lit up as she spotted the kid in front of them. “The star on Noah’s shoe.”
“How’d you get that in three guesses?”
