I like him already. “I do.”
He turns his attention to Maddie. “If your brothers need work, send them my way. I’m a man down at the moment.”
“Oh no, I hope it’s not serious.”
Chelsea’s hands come to her hips. “A bad case of gonorrhea. And guess who?”
Maddie is already shaking her head, and I have an idea who it is. If I’m right, this would be too interesting.
“Tell me it’s not Joe Emmerson.”
“Girl, you know it is.” She lowers her voice. “The question is, how did he get it, and who has he given it to? Did you see the paper this morning? ‘Unexpected health issue’?”
Zane starts to gather up their things. “I think the jam wars are about to heat up. Joe is lying low for a while.”
“I can imagine. I’ll tell my brothers you have some work. Meanwhile, tell Joe to watch his back. The Jam Squad doesn’t mess around when it comes to their image.”
Chelsea huffs. “That boy is going to wake up without a tally-whacker if they get to him. Then again, who knows?One of them may be to blame.”
As they drive off, I turn to Maddie. “I think I just became a jam-opera fan. Let me see if I got this straight. Joe Emmerson works for Zane and Chelsea. He’s also sleeping with all four women in the Jam Squad, and now he has gonorrhea. The Caller said Charlotte sold only 233 jars this week because of a health issue, so there’s a good chance she has gonorrhea too, and the whole town is probably wondering who had it first and where that person got it. Did I miss anything?”
“No, that’s the story so far, but it’ll probably change by tomorrow.”
“Yeah, sounds like it might.”
The coffee is every bit as good as Maddie said it would be, and I keep admiring the impressive cup design. The bagel is amazing too. It’s real New York-style where they boil the dough before it’s baked, and there’s a hint of a flavor I can’t put my finger on. “What’s in the bagel?”
“Ground roasted pumpkin seeds and tiger-nut flour blended with the regular flour. It’s their own recipe. Jamie came up with it in high school. She and her brother, Jimmy, are twins. He’s the guy who lost it when he saw you.”
“That kid at the register?”
She takes a healthy bite of her bagel and washes it down with some coffee. It was a simple act, something that would normally go unnoticed, but I noticed it. I love how she has no problem being herself. Veronica always acted like she was on display, like an influencer with a camera constantly pointed at her. She was also a nibbler. If I bought her the same bagel Maddie just downed like a normal person, Veronica would have nibbled on it making sure she didn’tget a single crumb on her perfect outfit. It’s nice being with a real person for a change.
“Kid?” she says. “I know he looks young, but he’s twenty-three.”
“Really? I think I need to start adding tiger-nut flour to my diet. I would have sworn he was no older than seventeen. And I wouldn’t say he lost it when he saw me.”
She turns to me with a pointed look. “If an eight-year-old accidentally ran into the real Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, and I mean with the whole sleigh and flying reindeer thing, the look on that little boy’s face would have matched the look on Jimmy’s when he recognized you.”
I don’t know what to say. I’d laugh, but she’s kind of right. The guy was a little excited.
“Maybe.”
While she sips her coffee, I study what’s left of my bagel. “Looks like some kind of garden-herb cream cheese, smoked salmon, paper-thin slices of cucumber, a little red onion, capers, and…” I savor the unique flavor with another bite. “Yep, fresh dill. I take it they smoke their own salmon, too.”
“Nope, that comes from the butcher across the street.”
“But they make the bread for The Fool’s Grill?”
“That’s right. You want to hear something else that’s interesting?”
“Sure.”
“Jamie, Jimmy’s twin, pretty much took over the bakery from her dad, so she runs it now, but that’s not the interesting part. I have it on pretty good authority, meaning Rhonda, that she’s dating four firemen. She’s twenty-three, and they’re in their early thirties and I have to admit, all four of themaren’t too shabby.”
“All four? At the same time, as in the guys decided they’d just share her? How does that work?”
“I have no idea, but if you ever meet her, you’ll understand why she’s kind of moody. Balancing relationships like that has to be daunting. Rhonda says it’s because she never gets a full night’s rest. But Rhonda also calls her the luckiest girl ever. I think she’s kind of jealous.”
