“What happened?” she asked, kneeling beside the cold body of the lifeless raccoon.
“It looks like it ate the last piece of cake and then died.”
“Why would a raccoon die after eating cake?” she asked, standing.
“Sugar overdose?” he suggested.
“Raccoons eat out of trash cans,” she said. “I doubt it was that.”
“Maybe it was just old,” he said.
“Maybe…” she muttered.
She seemed to have become very nervous and hurried through the back door into the kitchen. Her grandmother was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. Donika went straight to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup. She then offered one to Grayson.
“What were you two up to last night?” Pearl asked.
“We were out in the boat and drank all your moonshine,” Donika said. “Blame your moonshine. We fell asleep.”
“I'm not judging,” her granny said, taking another sip of coffee.
“There's a dead raccoon on the porch,” Donika said, sipping from her own cup.
“That's disgusting,” Pearl said. She lifted her cellphone and dialed. “Franklin, I need you to come dispose of another dead coon,” she said into the phone. Then turning to Donika, she asked, “What killed it?”
“I don't know, but it had just eaten the last piece of cake off my plate.”
Donika had gone cold and distant, and her eyes had glazed over in what looked like panic.
“I had a wonderful night talking with you last night Grayson,” she muttered. “But I'm sure you need to get back to the bakery. I have some things I have to take care of here.”
“I’ll be pretty busy after the baking show starts. But I’d like to see you again soon.”
“I’d like that too. Why don't you give me a call later?”
“I'll do that,” he said, patting her shoulder. “Don't worry too much about that raccoon. It was probably already sick.”
“I'm sure you're right,” she said, seeming to shrink away from his touch.
Grayson left the house, not knowing what to think. The raccoon surely wouldn't have died from something in his cake. It was all very strange and confusing. But that kind of thing happened all the time. Maybe it choked on the cake in its excitement to eat the delicious flavor.
He chuckled at the idea as he climbed into his truck and drove away. He hated that their first date had been interrupted by such an atrocious sight, but spending the night with Donika on the boat under the stars had been beautiful. He couldn't wait to get closer to her and spend time with her again.
Chapter 11
Donika watched Franklin carry the plastic bag with the raccoon’s body into the trashcan and throw it inside. She stood on the porch with her arms crossed, holding her cup of coffee and the nook of her elbow, anxiety churning in her stomach.
The raccoon’s death remained a mystery. Nobody understood why a raccoon would suddenly die like that. Had someone poisoned the cake and tried to kill her? It was too preposterous. Was she just being paranoid?
The men in dark suits, who had driven past the day before, still haunted her. She couldn't believe that this was how her life had ended up. What she wouldn't give to know what had caused her to punch Mr. Shyster in the face. She sighed and took another sip of coffee.
As she walked back into the house, she found the guests at the big dining room table, having breakfast as Adele and Pearl kept them entertained. She slid into a chair at the table and dished up a helping of scrambled eggs and bacon, her mind awash with dark thoughts and strange sensations.
“That shifter of yours is awfully handsome,” said Martha, the old woman.
“He is,” Donika said.
“He made a delicious cake,” said Darcy, the middle-aged baking fan. “I wish I'd gotten the last piece.”
“That's what killed the raccoon,” Donika said. Everyone gasped and looked around the table.
“What was in that cake?” asked Emmanuel, the hippy kid.
Everyone looked at each other with suspicion and panic in their eyes. Donika grimaced.
“I thought that shifter owned a bakery. Isn't he in the Great American Bake-off?” said Meg, the yuppie.
“I'm sure it wasn't anything that Grayson did. The raccoon could've died for any reason,” Grandma Pearl said. “I find one of their corpses around here at least once a year. It's nothing I haven't seen before.”
The borders all breathed a sigh of relief and continued eating their breakfast. Donika was beside herself. She’d lost her appetite. She managed to get down a slice of bacon and half an egg's worth of scrambled eggs. She went back to the residents’ quarters, took a shower, and got dressed. Looking at herself in the mirror, she inspected her gaunt face and her pale skin. She hadn't gotten any sun in so long, her milk chocolate skin had turned pale and translucent. She sighed and brushed her hair and put it back in a braid.
Donika dressed in comfortable clothes and warm boots and headed outside for a walk. She needed to clear her head. As she started down the trail around the lake, she noticed a dark SUV again. It was parked in the road across the street. As soon as they saw that she'd spotted them, they drove away. She shook her head. It probably wasn't even the same car.
Her health problems were just making her paranoid. Mr. Shyster was trying to deprive her of everything she owned. But he did that to everyone. It wasn't any different than any other legal case.
She'd instigated the same tactics on cheating spouses and business partners many times in the past. She was just letting her imagination get away from her. She really should go see a doctor about the blackouts, but she’d convinced herself that all she really needed was some wholesome home cooking, fresh air, and enough sleep.
The night she’d spent in the boat with Grayson, sleeping in his arms with the scent of his body wafting into her nose, had been so cozy. They'd slept on the pullout bed in the cabin as they watched the stars out the sunroof. It was probably one of the most romantic dates she'd ever been on. Even though it had been impromptu and ended with a dead raccoon.
She sighed as she continued down the trail, breathing in the cool, fresh lake air as she walked. She wondered to herself why she hadn’t been home in so long. But she knew the answer. She'd been trying to achieve something. To be more and better than where she’d come from. As she continued along the well-worn trail that she knew so well from her childhood, she couldn't really understand why.
Donika had accomplished a lot. Most of the goals she’d had in life so far, she’d achieved. She was proud of herself for that. Why shouldn't she be? She picked up a rock from the shore and threw it out on the lake. It skipped across the surface of the still water. Did any of her achievements even matter?
The stillness of the air and the fresh scent of fallen leaves reminded her of her childhood. Back when her father was still alive, he used to take her fishing with her little sister Kamala on the boat. Adele would make them sandwiches to eat for lunch, and it was just the three of them.
Maybe she’d just been trying to prove something to herself. Maybe she wanted to believe that she could do anything. She could. Couldn’t she? But trying to prove it to herself had led her to running away from everyone and everything she knew.
Maybe being fired was really a blessing in disguise. Now that she'd met Grayson, she was beginning to believe it was. Could she stay in Fate Valley and be with him? Could she live a simple life and start a family with the burly, outdoorsy baker she’d just met?
She continued walking along the trail, telling herself she didn't have to make any decisions yet. They called Fate Valley by its name because strange and wonderful things were known to happen there. Shifters believed that they had fated mates and that was part of why they'd settled in Fate Valley.
They came for the energy of the place, to have their lives, and start their families. Who was she to disagree with what the fates might bring? It was a shifter belief system, but she liked it all the same. Wouldn't it be nice if
fate gave you everything you needed in the end?
She let out a deep sigh as she continued hiking through the forest. The ground was damp with dew and sunlight twinkled in the drops that caught on the new, green grass shoots emerging in the dark rich soil.
All these strange thoughts about fate and falling in love with a man she’d just met. It really wasn't like her at all. But then again, maybe she needed to become someone new. Maybe she just needed to start over.
Donika finally turned around and headed home, feeling as confused as she had before. By the time she made it to the inn, she was convinced that giving Grayson a shot was the best thing for her right now. Even if she didn't really understand it or know if she was going to stay in Fate Valley or not.
As she walked up the porch steps and glanced at where the raccoon had died, she told herself that it was just a coincidence. Like Grandma Pearl had said, one of those varmints ended up dead on the property at least once a year. It wasn’t a big deal—it happened all the time. It could've been anything that killed it. Maybe it had gotten a hold of rat poison. It wasn’t worth getting all worked up about.
She slipped through the front door of the house and found the guests in the living room, drinking tea and watching the fire flicker in the stone fireplace. Pearl waved, and Martha lifted her teacup in greeting. Donika nodded at them, smiled, and ducked back into the residents’ quarters, shutting herself in the craft room.
Her mother's beadwork, sewing, and quilting weren’t any more organized than they had been that morning. Continued exposure made the mess a little less irritating than it had been. Donika was a woman who was used to having everything tidy and in its proper place.
She looked at the swatches of fabric and began to arrange them on the table. Her mother had taught her to sew as a kid and it was the kind of thing you never really forgot. She needed something to take her mind off her problems, so she continued pinning the swatches of fabric together, making patterns out of the colors. By the time she was done, she'd pinned together the top layer of an entire quilt.
“Might as well sew it together now,” she muttered to herself, sitting down at the sewing machine.
She put the pressure foot down on to the fabric and pressed the pedal of the sewing machine, starting the needle over the fabric. Sewing a quilt was the last thing she would've expected to do a week ago. But now that she was home in Fate Valley, it just felt right.
Chapter 12
Grayson returned to the bakery after his date with Donika, knowing that he was already behind on his baking for the day. Luckily, it was Sunday, so the café opened later than it did during the week.
He hurried inside and began his routine. When he was done with the daily recipes, he sat in the corner with a cup of coffee and began poring through his recipe book, trying to make his final decision about what he would bake in the bake-off.
During the competition, contestants would have no idea what they were baking until minutes before they had to start making it. If he at least had an idea of his favorite recipes, it would give him a head start when the judges announced what they were baking for that round.
Grayson had been collecting recipes for as long as he could remember. Even before he had joined the military, he’d had a taste for pastries and baking. Some people may have found it odd, but for him, it was perfectly natural.
He pulled out a dozen notecards and began writing down his recipes. He'd made them all hundreds of times, but he wanted to have them in his back pocket nonetheless. By the time he had written down his recipes, it was time for the café to open. Kitty was already out in the front of the house, bustling around and getting everything ready.
He came out to find customers already pouring into the café. The show was starting tomorrow, and Fate Valley was filling up with spectators, movie production crew, and baking fans.
He knew that once the competition began, he would be busy, and it would be hard for him to spend time with Donika. Most of the customers were strangers, but there were a couple of men in dark suits and dark sunglasses that made him do a double take. They walked into the café and then left a moment later, without ordering anything.
“Who were those guys?” he asked Kitty.
“I don't know. But the place is already super busy today,” she said. “We should call in extra help.”
“I'll stay with you until the rush is over,” Grayson said.
He called his other baristas to ask if they would come in to help. He stayed with Kitty until they arrived, making coffee at the espresso machine while she stood at the till. When the rush was over, Grayson went into the kitchen and picked up his cellphone. He’d hoped that Donika had texted him. But she was probably tired and busy herself. He dialed her number and then waited as the phone rang.
“Grayson?” she answered.
“Hi, Donika,” he said, feeling choked up. “I want to take you out to the resort for dinner and dancing tonight. How does that sound?”
There was silence on the other end of the line. Grayson gulped, feeling on the spot.
“I'd love to go out with you, Grayson. What time will you pick me up?”
“Six. We should have an early evening because the show starts first thing in the morning.”
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
“A bit. I've never been on TV before. But I was hoping we could dance the nerves away.”
She chuckled at that and they said their goodbyes. He slipped his phone into his pocket and told Kitty he would be leaving now since the other baristas had arrived.
As he climbed into his truck and drove home, all he could think about was his date with Donika. He had been consumed by winning the baking competition. But now that Donika was in his life, she was the only thing that mattered.
Chapter 13
After Donika hung up the phone with Grayson, she felt flushed with excited heat. She had sewn the entire front of the patchwork quilt that she’d impulsively started making and laid it across the foldout bed.
“What am I even doing?” she asked herself, shaking her head.
She hadn’t crafted since high school. Donika turned and looked in the mirror on the wall and saw her hair twisted in a messy braid, frizzed out around her face. She pulled out the scrunchy, and let her hair fall around her shoulders.
Her milk chocolate skin was still pale, and she had deep bags under her eyes. She could probably disguise them with makeup. She pulled a lock of hair into her hands and twirled it in her finger. It had been forever since she had done anything more than straighten her hair. Maybe that would brighten her up a little: if she went to the salon and got some highlights.
She walked out of the crafting room and found Adele and Pearl in the kitchen.
“I'm going to the hair salon,” she announced. “I have a date with Grayson later at the resort.”
“That boy is awfully sweet,” Pearl said.
“He's hardly a boy,” Donika said.
“He's a boy to me,” Grandma Pearl retorted.
“All right, all right. And you're right. He is sweet.”
“I like him,” Adele said.
“More importantly, I like his lemon cake,” Pearl said.
“I like him too,” Donika muttered, pouring herself another cup of coffee.
She left Adele and Pearl in the kitchen and went back to her room, searching google on her computer for a salon. There were only a few salons in town, so she called the first one and asked for an appointment.
They said they could fit her in, in an hour, so she grabbed her jacket and left. Driving into town, she felt a flush of excitement for her date with Grayson. It was strange and wonderful to suddenly have met this man who wanted to be with her so much.
Grayson was so different than the men in New York. New York men were usually so self-involved and high maintenance. They tended to want to have fast hookups or marry a trophy wife. But Grayson didn't seem to want either of those things. He seemed to genuinely like her for who she was. And that was the mo
st wonderful feeling she'd ever had.
She hadn't counted on having these feelings for him, but she just couldn't help herself. He was so handsome. There was something so rugged and manly about him, yet at the same time, so sweet and gentle. It made her tingle all over and dream about the future. She passed the hairdresser, thinking about what she wanted done to her hair. She just wanted a trim and some highlights. That should brighten up her complexion.
Her appointment wasn't for an hour, so she drove through the shopping district, deciding to buy herself a new outfit for her date. She wanted something soft and feminine to wear. All her clothes were angular, tailored, and dark. That worked for a New York City attorney, but not for a date with Grayson Baxter in Fate Valley.
She walked into the first boutique and began browsing up and down the aisles of women's clothing. She didn't even know what her style was. Usually, she wore slacks and blazers. On days when she was feeling a little adventurous, she might put on a form-fitting dress under a suit jacket. But that was rare.
She was a one hundred percent power suit and stilettos kind of woman. She wore her pin-straight black hair pulled back in a severe bun. She'd won hundreds of cases wearing that look, but that wasn't the image she wanted to project to Grayson tonight.
What image did she want to project? She picked up a floral print dress with ruffles, held it against herself, and looked in the mirror. Nope, that wasn’t it either. She put it back on the rack with a heavy sigh. Donika continued down the line of outfits, trying to find something that would make her feel pretty and desirable, but not make her look like a completely different person.
Then she picked up a cream-colored dress with a form-fitting lace bodice, a high neck and long sleeves. The skirt flared at the belted waist in multiple layers of tulle. It was really pretty, but at the same time, it had an edge to it. It wouldn't make her look ridiculously girly in a way that wasn’t authentic.