Red Velvet Revenge (19 page)

Oz hung his head and scuffed the toe of his sneaker in the dirt. Mel felt her heart sink like a stone in a pond.

“Oz,” she said. “Tell me this isn’t true.”

“I was down at the field house,” he said. “But I didn’t do it. I didn’t hurt Stokes. I was just looking for Shelby to tell her about the vegan cupcakes.”

“Did you tell her?” Angie asked. “Did she see you?”

Oz shook his head. “I saw her and Ty together, so I split.”

“Together how?” Sheriff Dolan asked.

Oz blew out a breath, and his shaggy bangs lifted off of his forehead. The look on his face said it all.

“Oh,” Sheriff Dolan said.

“Hey, we’ve got a line of people over there,” Marty said as he came around the side of the cupcake van. He was holding two large frosty lemonades, and he stumbled to a halt as he took in the sight before him.

“So, are we having a meeting?” he asked. He handed one of the lemonades to Oz and glanced around the group.

“Sheriff Dolan seems to think Oz had something to do with Ty Stokes’s murder,” Angie said. Her voice was a low growl.

“Now, we’re just trying to establish his whereabouts, since a witness put him at the bull pens a few minutes before the murder.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Marty said.

Tate, Angie, and Mel all snapped their heads in his direction. Clearly, Marty had taken a sudden spin into senile old man. What the heck was he thinking?

“Oh, really?” Sheriff Dolan asked.

“Yep, and I should know, because he was with me,” Marty said.

Everyone was silent for a beat. Mel glanced at Oz. He didn’t so much as flicker an eyelash, not that she could have seen it if he did.

“Is that so?” Sheriff Dolan asked.

“Yep,” Marty said. “I ran into him after he’d made those vegan cupcakes, and we walked around the rodeo together looking for Miss Hazard so he could tell her about them. When we saw that she was otherwise occupied”—Marty paused to cough—“then we headed up into town. I went to the Last Chance to see Ms. Delia while he went to get his cupcakes from the diner.”

“So you weren’t together the entire time?” the sheriff asked.

Marty narrowed his eyes at the sheriff as if he knew exactly what he was getting at, and he didn’t like it.

“Ten minutes is all it took for him to go get his cupcakes and come back to the saloon, you know, after he stopped to help capture that runaway bull,” Marty said.

Everyone glanced between Marty and the sheriff, and Mel felt as if she were suddenly in a standoff in the Old West.

“Are you willing to swear to it?” the sheriff asked. Marty opened his mouth to speak, but the sheriff stopped him with a hand. “Swear to it, knowing that if I find out you’re lying to protect him, I’ll haul your scrawny butt into jail for obstruction of justice, and there won’t be any visits from Ms. Delia to make your stay more pleasant.”

“I swear.” Marty met his gaze without flinching, and that seemed enough for the sheriff.

“I expect all of you will be staying for the entire rodeo,” he said. “Just in case I have more questions.”

“We will,” Mel answered for the group.

“Hey, are you all closed or can a gal get a cupcake around here?” a woman asked as she came around the side of the van.

“Are you up to working this afternoon, Oz?” Mel asked.

He nodded. “I think it would be for the best.”

“Tate, will you stay and keep an eye on things?” Mel asked.

“Will do,” he said.

“Good. For now, could you help us load up all of the extra defrosted cupcakes?” Mel asked. “We need to get moving if we’re going to be ready by tomorrow.”

They spent the next half hour loading up the defrosted cupcakes into Tupperware tubs. Then Mel and Angie drove over to the Hazards’ house. Mel felt a little awkward arriving at the ranch house and hoping to commandeer their kitchen, but she was out of options.

She climbed out of the truck and crossed the wooden porch. She knocked three times on the thick wooden door and waited.

Tammy Hazard answered after a moment and gave them her former-beauty-queen smile.

“Well, hi, Mel. Jake told me you were coming over to use the kitchen. Let me show you where it is.”

Mel felt all of her tension release. Thank goodness Jake had given Tammy a heads-up. It made it so much easier for Mel to barge into her home.

“I am so sorry about this,” Mel said. “You’re really helping us out. I can’t thank you enough.”

She turned and gestured for Angie to come and join her. Angie was furiously texting on her phone again, and she nodded to let Mel know she’d be right there.

The ranch house was exactly what Mel thought a ranch house should look like. She followed Tammy from the foyer to the main room. It was all lightwood with a beamed ceiling and white stucco walls. A shelf of trophies and blue ribbons and photographs graced one wall beside a huge stone fireplace. Big, squashy-looking leather furniture filled the room, and Mel felt the longing for a nap pull at her from down deep.

She followed Tammy into a brightly lit room beyond. It was a gorgeous kitchen, built for cooking with a professional range, granite countertops, two dishwashers, an enormous refrigerator-freezer combo, and two large windows that overlooked the pasture beyond.

“This will do,” Mel said. She gave a low whistle of appreciation so that Tammy would know she was teasing.

Tammy laughed. It was a musical sound and made Mel feel at ease. She wasn’t surprised Slim had been so taken with the blonde. She seemed genuinely kind and good-natured.

“I’ll just start hauling in my stuff,” Mel said.

“I can help,” Tammy offered.

Mel was about to refuse. It was bad enough she was taking the woman’s kitchen, but Tammy shook her head.

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to help,” she said. “I am so sorry you’ve had troubles at the rodeo. Do you have any idea how your freezers lost power?”

“I have ideas,” Mel said. “But nothing I can prove.”

They met Angie in the door, and in no time the three of them had all of the tubs in the kitchen.

“All right, master chef, now what?” Angie asked.

“Now for the fun part,” Mel said. She handed Angie a pair of plastic gloves. She looked at Tammy and she nodded, so Mel handed her a pair of gloves, too.

Once the three of them were properly gloved, Mel took eighteen cupcakes, peeled off the wrappers, and dumped them in a bowl.

Angie gave her a concerned look, and Mel smiled. Then she put both hands into the cupcakes and started mashing.

“Now we get messy,” Mel declared.

Twenty-one

Tammy and Angie each took eighteen cupcakes, dumped them into their own bowls, and followed Mel’s example. Once all of their cupcakes were sufficiently crumbled, Mel opened up a tub of her buttercream frosting and plopped a healthy amount into each bowl.

“Keep mixing,” Mel said.

Tammy squished the frosting and cake between her gloved fingers and said, “This is therapeutic. Instead of choking someone, I can mash cupcakes and frosting.”

“Is there someone who needs choking?” Angie asked.

“Shelby,” Tammy spat. Then she gasped as if she hadn’t meant to say that.

“It’s all right,” Mel said. “She’s not high on our list right now, either.”

“She’s just the most selfish, irresponsible person I’ve
ever—” Tammy cut herself off. “Still, she’s my stepdaughter, and I should try to be more understanding.”

“You don’t pick your family,” Angie said. Her words were full of sarcasm, and Tammy looked at her. “I’m the youngest of eight with seven older brothers.”

“Oh, my,” Tammy said.

“And the reality is even worse than it sounds,” Mel said. “I should know. I’m dating one of them.”

Tammy glanced between them and continued smashing. “How mushy do I want to make this?”

“It should be the consistency of a truffle,” Mel said. “You are just about there.”

Mel finished mixing hers and then began to roll the cake-frosting mixture into a ball the size of a large walnut. Then she placed it carefully on a cookie sheet, quickly followed by twenty-nine more. When the cookie sheet was full, she put it in the fridge to chill.

While the first batch was chilling, they mixed up more cake and frosting. While Angie and Tammy took over the cake balls, Mel started melting big pots of candy coating.

She figured the red velvet and lemon cake balls would go into the vanilla candy coating. She planned to sprinkle red sugar on the red velvets and yellow sugar on the lemon to differentiate. The vanilla cake and chocolate cake she would put in the chocolate candy coating. The vanilla she would sprinkle with white sprinkles and the chocolate with chocolate sprinkles to help keep them straight.

She set out the foam flower-arranging blocks that she’d picked up, because once the cake balls had been dipped, they’d need a place to dry.

When the candy coating was finally melted, Angie and
Tammy sat down with large glasses of iced tea while they watched Mel work out the logistics of putting the cake balls on the sticks.

She started with the red velvets. She dipped the end of the lollipop stick into the candy coating and then slid the cake ball onto the stick about a half inch down. Then she set it aside to let the candy coating between the stick and the cake ball harden. She did eleven more and then took up the first one and dipped the entire cake ball into the candy coating. She tapped it twice on the side of the melted candy pot. The cake ball held and she let out a huge sigh of relief. She then put the cake pop back into the foam block to let it dry completely.

She glanced up at Tammy and Angie, who were watching with bemused expressions, and grinned. “I think we have cake pops.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent in a blur of candy coating and sprinkles. Once the cake pops were completely dry, Mel and Angie carefully put small cellophane bags over them and tied them with silver twist ties. Very festive.

When Lily and Slim came through the front door, it was to find Tammy, Mel, and Angie all supine on the leather furniture with their feet up and toasting one another with white wine spritzers.

“Happy hour hit early today?” Lily asked.

The wine must have mellowed Angie toward her rival, because she raised her glass and said, “The cake pop factory is proud to announce several hundred cake pops ready to go.”

Tammy hopped out of her seat and grabbed Slim’s hand. “Honey, you have to try these. They are amazing.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Slim said. He looked haggard, and Mel wondered if it was his arm or Ty’s death, or a combination of both, that had him looking as beaten up as a boxer in round twelve.

Tammy patted his hand and said, “Take a load off. This will cheer you up a little bit, I promise.”

She vanished into the kitchen and then returned with a red velvet for Lily, who had taken the seat next to Angie, and a chocolate for Slim.

They each unwrapped the treat and looked at it as if they hadn’t seen anything quite like it before.

“So, you made lollipops?” Lily asked.

“Cake pops,” Tammy said. She waved her hands at them. “Go ahead, try them.”

Slim and Lily took tentative bites. Mel knew the minute their taste buds had signaled to their brains that their mouths were full of yummy goodness as identical smiles of joy spread across their faces.

“These are fantastic,” Lily said.

Angie lifted her glass and said, “Mel’s idea. Genius, as always.”

“Well, I didn’t invent them,” Mel said. “They’re the latest dessert rage right now, and I had thought about making them in the shop but haven’t had time. I may have to rethink that and make the time. For now, these are just a way for us to salvage what was defrosted last night.”

“I heard about that from Tate,” Lily said. “What happened?”

“Somehow, we got unplugged,” Mel said.

“You mean thanks to someone,” Angie corrected with a glower.

“We can’t prove it,” Mel said. “Besides, if these are as popular as I think they’re going to be, then the barbecue brothers are going down.”

“If Billy and Bob are responsible for your cupcakes getting sabotaged, I can have a chat with them,” Slim said.

“You have enough on your plate,” Mel said. “Besides, you gave us your kitchen and an assistant for the day. We can’t ask for more, and truly, we’re going to be just fine.”

Angie held up her fist and she and Mel banged knuckles.

“Come on,” Angie said. “We need to pack up the pickup and get back to the rodeo.”

“Let’s hope the boys haven’t run out of cupcakes,” Mel said.

“I’ll give them a call and get a status report,” Angie offered. She took her phone out of her pocket and headed to the kitchen.

“Well, I’m going to snatch me another of those pops before you pack them all up,” Slim said, and he rolled out of his seat.

“Help yourself,” Mel said.

“Oh, don’t say that,” Tammy said. She gave Mel a comically alarmed look. “He’ll take you at your word and eat them all.”

She hurried after Slim, and Mel smiled at Lily. “They’re cute together.”

“Yeah, I was a little worried that Tammy was going to get Dad to pull up stakes and move to Dallas—she’s a
Texan—but so far, he’s held his ground and she’s stayed with him.”