Buttercream Bump Off Read Free Page B

when dealing with one another. Mel could not understand what had possessed them to take her class, but she was too much of a coward to ask.
    “You could have had the spot right in front of the shop, but that would have been too convenient. So now we have to walk a block and a half back to the car, because Mr. Impatient just couldn’t wait for anyone to pull out,” Irene griped as they entered the kitchen.
    Dan looked at his wife, his gaze lingering on her pear shape, and said, “The walk will do you good.”
    Irene let out a huffy breath, plopped onto a stool, and promptly ignored him.
    Three more couples, the Felixes, an elderly pair who lived in town, and the Koslowskis and the Dunns, two senior couples wintering in Scottsdale, arrived, breaking the awkward silence from the Bakersons.
    As they filled in the stools around the table, the kitchen door swung wide and the last couple, Jay and Poppy Gatwick, entered. As always, they looked as if they had just walked off the cover of Vanity Fair .
    Jay had ruddy, masculine good looks and dressed in a Ralph Lauren-at-play style that gave him a grown-up, all-American-boy appeal. Poppy was his perfect complement. She dressed her slender figure in St. John and wore oodles of expensive jewelry, but not the flashy kind. For her it was all black pearls and delicate gold with pavé diamonds, which she slipped off her manicured fingers and tucked into Jay’s pocket at the beginning of every class.
    The five couples pulled on their student aprons. For the women, it was a paler pink version of the one that Mel and Angie wore, and for the men, it was a nice, macho navy blue. That is, if a bib apron without barbeque tongs attached can be considered macho , Mel thought.
    Angie disappeared into the walk-in cooler to bring out the tray of cupcakes they’d made earlier. As she set them down in the center of the steel worktable, Mel’s students leaned in to study them.
    “These are called Kiss Me Cupcakes,” Mel said.
    “They look yummy,” Poppy said. “Don’t you think so, Jay?”
    “They do, but not nearly as yummy as you.” He winked at her. She playfully swatted him, and he grinned.
    “How come you never say nice things like that to me?” Irene glared at Dan.
    “Maybe if you looked like her I would,” he said.
    Irene huffed, and Mel pressed on before it got ugly.
    “These are mint chocolate chip cupcakes with peppermint buttercream and a Hershey’s Kiss on top.”
    “Oh, I love mint chocolate chip,” Candace Dunn said.
    “We both do,” said her husband. “I bet these don’t survive the ride home.”
    They laughed, and the others joined in. Mel was pleased that she’d picked a winner.
    “Let’s begin, shall we?”
    Mel and Angie circled the tables, instructing the couples and jumping in to help when they needed it. First, they used a whisk to cream together the butter and sugar.
    As she watched the couples, Mel saw Mrs. Felix rub the knuckles of her right hand. Mr. Felix patted her shoulder and took over the whisking. Judging by the size of Mrs. Felix’s large knuckles, she was suffering from arthritis. Mel knew the Felixes had been married for almost sixty years, and she marveled at the silent communication between them; they really were two halves who made a whole.
    “Give me that,” Irene snapped at Dan. “You’re doing it all wrong.”
    “I am not!” he protested.
    They each had a hand on the handle of their whisk, which was poised to fling butter and sugar all over the room.
    “Drop it!” Angie ordered. It was her former elementary school teacher voice, which had been known to bring twenty-five wild second graders to a screeching halt. It worked on adults, too, as was evidenced when both Dan and Irene dropped the whisk and backed away.
    Mel retrieved their bowl and tilted it so she could cream together the ingredients and scrape the sides.
    “Dan, why don’t you finish this?” Mel handed him the bowl. “Just like I was doing. And Irene, why don’t