Sucker Punch Read Free Page A

guess who got to wait on him. Lucky me.
    I pasted on a bland smile—the best I could do considering what he’d just done to half my stock of candy sticks—and waited for him to acknowledge me. He plowed across the mess he’d made, crunching candy underfoot. I swear, I could smell money burning.
    “If you can’t do it, say so now,” he snarled into his phone. “I’ll find someone who can.” An ugly smile curved his thin lips as he listened to the response. “That’s what I thought. The Summit Lodge, no later than five. Got that?” He snapped his phone shut and fixed his hard little eyes on me. “How soon can you deliver a two-pound box of candy across town?”
    “I’m sorry,” I said, making my best effort to look sincere, “but delivery isn’t one of our services.” Unless you placed a really big special order or I liked you. Which left this guy out in the cold. “We do offer gift wrapping though, and you can handpick the chocolates you want to include in your selection.”
    He wagged his narrow head from side to side and let out his breath in an irritated huff. “You’ve got to be kidding, right? What kind of Podunk town is this? Do you know who I am?”
    I was pretty sure he wouldn’t like my answer to either question, so I ignored them both and gave up trying to smile. “If you need something delivered, maybe you should—”
    Before I could finish, Karen bolted through the door and nudged me out of the way. “Of course we’ll deliver your order, but depending on where you want it delivered, we may have to charge a small delivery fee.”
    He shot me a haughty look and pulled out his wallet. “Money’s not the issue. Time is. You ought to teach your girl here a thing or two about customer satisfaction.”
    “Her girl ?” Furious, I nudged Karen out of the way. “Now you listen here—”
    Karen locked eyes with me. “Why don’t I help the gentleman so you can get back to the kitchen?”
    An indignant refusal rose to my lips, but I swallowed it and turned away. I’d have loved to order him out of the store and tell him what he could do with his money, but maybe Karen was right. I wasn’t in the best mood. Maybe I should let her handle the situation.
    Leaving Karen with Mr. Personality, I pulled sugar, corn syrup, and flavor oils from the cupboards and dug out my large copper kettle. A few months ago I’d run through Divinity’s sales records for the past five years and I’d created a game plan for what to make when so we could get through the holiday season with relative ease. Today’s schedule called for ten dozen red rose lollipops in assorted flavors and two batches of cherry divinity. If I didn’t get started soon, I’d still be pouring syrup into molds at midnight.
    A few minutes later Liberty blew into the kitchen, oohing and aahing over the decorations as she shed her coat and tucked her purse into a drawer. “This is so exciting!” she said, clapping her hands in delight. “It looks even better in the daylight than it did last night. What do you think, Abby? Isn’t it great?”
    Usually, I’m a stickler for the truth, but I knew what Karen would do if I told Liberty to pull everything down, so I kept my eyes on the pan and said only, “You two certainly were busy.”
    “I know. It took us forever to do it all, but if you’re happy, then it was worth it.”
    What was I supposed to say to that? The argument over the decorations was between Karen and me. It wouldn’t be fair to put Liberty in the middle. Luckily, another customer came into the shop and Liberty hurried away to help her before the silence dragged out too long.
    I spent the next few minutes taking out my frustrations on the thick mixture of sugar and syrup with a wooden spoon. When the bell jangled again, I glanced up just in time to see Mr. Personality leave.
    Don’t let the door hit ya—
    Karen finished up at the cash register and turned to look over the half wall that separated the shop from the