Pecan Pies and Homicides by Ellery Adams Page A

hesitation, she added, “Unless it’s going to give me the urge to take my clothes off. It is way too cold to go streaking through the town square.”
    Ella Mae laughed. “Don’t worry; I won’t be injecting any feelings of lust into my pies.” At the mention of lust, her merriment vanished. “My dates with Hugh haven’t exactly been hot and heavy.”
    â€œDo you want them to be?”
    â€œYou have no idea how much,” Ella Mae said, turning on lights in the kitchen and dining room. She paused for a moment to consider how long she’d waited to be with Hugh Dylan. She had fallen in love with him in junior high, but he’d been too captivated by Loralyn to notice her. Following her college graduation, Ella Mae had married Sloane Kitteridge and moved to Manhattan. Seven years later, after leaving her cheating husband and returning to Havenwood, she soon realized that her feelings for Hugh were unchanged. She was just as hopelessly in love him as she’d been as a gawky teenager. And now Hugh was courting her in an old-fashioned and rather chaste manner. Ella Mae would have preferred things to be a little less chaste. “On one hand,” she continued to answer Suzy’s question, “it’s been nice to have gotten to know each other all over again. I didn’t think it was possible to love him more than before, but I do.”
    â€œAnd on the other hand?”
    Ella Mae touched the framed four-leaf clover hanging over the cash register. “Loving him shouldn’t make me miserable, but how do I do this, Suzy? How can I be with Hugh, knowing I’ll always keep secrets from him, knowing I’ll have to lie to him again and again, knowing I can never show him who I really am?”
    â€œYou get used to it,” Suzy said gently. “Secrets are the only way to protect those who aren’t like us. Do you know what happens to people who suddenly start believing in magic? They end up in psych wards.”
    â€œI understand that, and I know keeping these kinds of secrets have worked for other couples, like Aunt Verena and Uncle Buddy, but what if things get really serious with Hugh? What if we get married? He’ll have no idea what he’s gotten himself into and I won’t be able to tell him.”
    Suzy hesitated. “You can solve that riddle after you get your hands on a Flower of Life. You don’t need to stress about that now.”
    Ella Mae smiled. “One miracle at a time, right? I should get started on today’s culinary miracles. See you at noon.”
    By the time Reba arrived, Ella Mae had a dozen breakfast pies in the oven and had begun to mix graham crackers and butter to make crusts for some of the dessert pies.
    â€œNo country music this mornin’?” Reba asked as she slipped her apron over her head. Like Ella Mae’s, it was peach and had been embroidered with a rolling pin and the phrase, “That’s How I Roll.”
    â€œNope, this kind of magic requires Elvis. We’re going to fill every chair today,” Ella Mae said.
    Reba grinned. “I like the sound of that. What are today’s specials?”
    â€œA pork and apple pie with a cheddar cheese crust, a winter vegetable tart, and a hearty beef and ale pie. For dessert, we have warm chocolate tarts, caramelized pear and hazelnut turnovers, apple and pomegranate cobbler, and dulce de leche pie. Everything will make our customers feel cozy and cheerful.”
    â€œTalk of yesterday’s impromptu concert is all over town, so I expect us to be real busy. I hope you’re plannin’ on givin’ a few of these pies that extra sparkle.”
    Ella Mae nodded. “Not just a few, Reba. All of them.”
    Reba’s eyes went wide. “Then I’d better get the coffee brewin’. You and I had better drink a whole pot before I hang the open sign.”
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    Ella Mae hadn’t felt so