Grilled Cheese Murder: Book 4 in The Darling Deli Series Read Free

who was standing at the back.
    “Can I help you?” she asked.
    “I think I’ll just look around,” he replied. As he began slowly perusing the refrigerated cases, Moira sat back in her stool. She kept half an eye on him, but focused the rest of her attention on the order form she was working on. She couldn’t wait until summer, when the local farmers would be practically overflowing with fresh produce. Maybe I’ll let one of them set up a fresh produce stand outside again, she thought. Last summer, she had allowed a young woman to sell fresh black sweet cherries on the sidewalk in front of her store during farmer’s market days. She recalled the sweet, rich flavor of the delicious fruit.
    “I’m done with lunch, Ms. Darling. What can I-” Dante’s voice cut off suddenly. Moira turned to see him poking his head out of the kitchen, his grey eye wide. She followed his gaze to see that he was staring at the tall man who was still examining the wares. Without a word, he slipped back into the kitchen. Worried and confused, she could do nothing but stare after her young employee. What was going on with him today?
    A moment later the tall man left without buying anything and Moira got up to find Dante. He was busily scrubbing dishes at the wide sink in the kitchen. When she approached, he looked up and greeted her casually as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
    “Did you want me to start thawing more zucchini bread, or do you think we have enough?” he asked her. She frowned for a second, not sure whether she should ask him about his odd reaction. With a mental shrug, she decided not to talk about it if he didn’t want to. He had always been the most private of her employees, and it wasn’t her place to push him for an explanation that he didn’t want to give.
    “I think we’ve got enough, but if you’re concerned about it, feel free to take out one more loaf. You can always bring it home for dinner if we don’t end up using it,” she told him. “We have plenty of the stuff; I bought about twenty pounds of zucchini last year, and what I didn’t make into soup, I made into bread and froze.”
    As she walked out of the kitchen, she did her best to push the incident out of her mind. It was a nice day, the sun was shining, and she had a date to look forward to tomorrow night.

CHAPTER FOUR
    “I can’t believe that you didn’t tell me.” Candice bounced on the balls of her feet, her excitement overcoming any annoyance she might have felt for being out of the loop. Moira grinned at her, and then half turned, trying to look at herself in the mirror. She was wearing black slacks that somehow miraculously still fit her, even though they had been sitting in her closet for who knew how long, and a loose red blouse. Her hair was pulled up in a fancy sort of bun that Candice had managed to create in only a few minutes.
    “I did tell you,” she pointed out to her daughter. “I just waited a little bit. It’s not like you tell me every time you go out on a date.”
    “True,” the young woman replied. “But I go out on dates all the time. You go out so rarely that it should be considered a national holiday.”
    “Oh, hush,” she told Candice fondly. “Just tell me if my outfit looks okay.”
    “You look great, Mom.” They embraced, Moira feeling younger than her years and more excited than she had thought she would be. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone out to eat with David before, but that had always been last minute and out of necessity when they were both hungry, or when he had stopped by for lunch at the deli. Going out together for a dinner that they both acknowledged was a date would be different. She only hoped that things weren’t awkward between them. She cherished the easy friendship that they had built over the past few months.
    “I think he’s here,” her daughter said a moment later, peering out the window. “You’ve got to tell me everything when you get back. And don’t do