Wedding Cake Read online

  © 2014 Josi S. Kilpack.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kilpack, Josi S., author.

  Wedding cake / Josi S. Kilpack.

  pages cm

  Twelfth and final book in the Culinary mystery series. See the Josi S. Kilpack website.

  ISBN 978-1-60907-932-1 (paperbound)

  1. Hoffmiller, Sadie—Fiction. 2. Cooks—Fiction. 3. Weddings—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Kilpack, Josi S. Culinary mystery.

  PS3561.I412W43 2014

  813'.54—dc232014013541

  Printed in the United States of America

  Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc., Melrose Park, IL

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Culinary Mysteries

  Wedding Cake recipes

  Rice Pudding

  Annie’s Savory Cheese Blintzes

  Triple Chocolate Cake

  Sadie’s Yummy Cheesecake

  Danyelle’s Sweet Basil Rub for Chicken

  Lemon-Almond Shortbread

  Lemon Water

  Rice Krispies Treats with Brown Butter

  Sadie’s No-Fuss Sugar Cookies

  Frikadeles with Ruskumsnuz

  Chicken Soup with Homemade Noodles

  Download a free PDF of all the recipes in this book at

  josiskilpack.com or shadowmountain.com

  Lemon Tart

  English Trifle

  Devil’s Food Cake

  Key Lime Pie

  Blackberry Crumble

  Pumpkin Roll

  Banana Split

  Tres Leches Cupcakes

  Baked Alaska

  Rocky Road

  Fortune Cookie

  Daisy

  Her Good Name

  Sheep’s Clothing

  Unsung Lullaby

  To Jana Erickson

  The woman behind the curtain at Deseret Book and

  Shadow Mountain who has watched over this series with a careful eye from start to finish. Much of this series’ success is directly linked

  to her efforts in making it the best it can be. I am blessed

  and grateful—as is Sadie—to have her.

  Table of Contents

  Praise for the Culinary Mystery Series

  Author's Warning

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Author's Warning

  Recipes

  Rice Pudding

  Annie's Savory Cheese Blintzes

  Triple Chocolate Cake

  Sadie's Yummy Cheesecake

  Danyelle's Sweet Basil Rub for Chicken

  Lemon-Almond Shortbread

  Lemon Water

  Rice Krispies Treats with Brown Butter

  Sadie's No-Fuss Sugar Cookies

  Frikadeles with Ruskumsnuz

  Chicken Soup with Homemade Noodles

  Praise for the Culinary Mystery Series

  Fortune Cookie

  “The mystery’s personal this time as Sadie confronts painful memories and makes a surprising discovery in her quest for answers. A story chock-full of humor and tenderness—and of course plenty of yummy food. Sadie Hoffmiller is the real San Francisco treat!”

  —Jennifer Moore, author of Becoming Lady Lockwood

  Rocky Road

  “Another fabulous installment of the Sadie Hoffmiller series. The further I got into the story, the more complex it became . . . definitely a rocky road of a plot!”

  —Heather Moore, author of Heart of the Ocean and

  the Timeless Romance anthologies

  Baked Alaska

  “Sadie is a well-loved character with plenty of genuine issues which add depth to her personality. I love that Josi’s books are clean and well-rounded with a bit of humor, plenty of mystery, and nail-biting suspense.”

  —Rachelle Christensen, author of Diamond Rings Are Deadly Things, Wrong Number, and Caller ID

  Tres Leches Cupcakes

  “Kilpack is a capable writer whose works have grown and taken on a life of their own. Tres Leches Cupcakes is an amusing and captivating addition to her creative compilations.”

  —Mike Whitmer, Deseret News

  Banana Split

  “In Banana Split, Josi Kilpack has turned a character that we’ve come to love as an overzealous snoop and given her the breath of someone real so we can love her even more. This is a story with an ocean’s depth’s worth of awesome!”

  —Julie Wright, author of Spell Check

  Pumpkin Roll

  “Pumpkin Roll is different from the other books in the series, and while the others have their tense moments, this had me downright nervous and spooked. During the climax, I kept shaking my head, saying, ‘No way this is happening.’ Five out of five stars for this one. I could not stop reading.”

  —Rachel Holt, www.ldswomensbookreview.com

  Blackberry Crumble

  “Josi Kilpack is an absolute master at leading you to believe you have everything figured out, only to have the rug pulled out from under you with the turn of a page. Blackberry Crumble is a delightful mystery with wonderful characters and a white-knuckle ending that’ll leave you begging for more.”

  —Gregg Luke, author of Blink of an Eye

  Key Lime Pie

  “I had a great time following the ever-delightful Sadie as she ate and sleuthed her way through nerve-racking twists and turns and nail-biting suspense.”

  —Melanie Jacobsen, author of The List and Not My Type

  Devil’s Food Cake

  “Josi Kilpack whips up another tasty mystery where startling twists and delightful humor mix in a confection as delicious as Sadie Hoffmiller’s devil’s food cake.”

  —Stephanie Black, four-time winner of the Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense

  English Trifle

  “English Trifle is a delightful combo of mystery and gourmet cooking, highly recommended.”

  —Midwest Review Journal

  Lemon Tart

  “The novel has a bit of everything. It’s a mystery, a cookbook, alow-key romance and a dead-on depiction of life. . . . That may sound like a hodgepodge. It’s not. It works. Kilpack blends it all together and cooks it up until it has the taste of, well . . . of a tangy lemon tart.”

  —Jerry Johnston, Deseret News

  “Lemon Tart is an enjoyable mystery with a well-hidden culprit and an unlikely heroine in Sadie Hoffmiller. Kilpack endows Sadie with logical hidden talents that come in handy at just the right moment.”

  —Shelley Glodowski, Midwest Book Review

  Author’s Warning

  Do not read this book until you have read the first eleven books in the series!

  Up to this point, e
ach book in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mysteries has been a stand-alone volume, meaning they could be read in pretty much any order without giving away the mystery of prior books in the series. Granted, this got a bit trickier as the series progressed, and there are several characters who didn’t show up in later books because doing so would give away another story. However, with book twelve, the gloves are off.

  I am excited to bring back some of my favorite characters who have waited so patiently for me to get to this point so that I can catch you up on their stories and lay to rest any lingering questions. Because of that, I really, really, really, really, really mean it when I ask that you not read this book until you have read all the other ones. It’s brimming with spoilers, and I would hate for your experience with those other stories to be ruined. Plus, if you wait to read this one, you’ll better understand the threads that come together to make this story happen.

  If you have not read the prior volumes, please do so before you turn the next page. ☺

  If you have read the prior volumes, then happy reading! I hope you love Sadie’s last ride. It’s a doozy.

  Josi

  Chapter 1

  Dead birds were the antithesis of a wedding day, which should be all about hope and goodness. That’s why Sadie was making tiny tulle bags of birdseed for her wedding guests to throw instead of rice. She’d heard that rice could distend a bird’s stomach, resulting in death if they ate too much, and though she’d never read scientific proof of such a thing, she didn’t want to take the chance.

  Two days, she thought as she finished tying a gossamer bow on one of the favors. Two days and I will be Mrs. Peter Cunningham. Her whole body shivered in excitement and anticipation of what lay ahead for her. For them.

  Sadie’s phone rang, and she pivoted from the kitchen counter to the kitchen table where her phone vibrated against the lacquered top.

  She glanced at the caller ID and smiled before answering. “Hi, sweetie.”

  “Hey, Mom,” her daughter, Breanna, replied. There was a lot of noise in the background, and Sadie imagined her daughter—tall, dark, and beautiful—standing in a corner of the Heathrow airport in London, plugging one ear. “We’re checked in and will start boarding in about twenty minutes.”

  “Wonderful.” Sadie allowed a break from the myriad wedding details and sat in the worn brown recliner in her living room. It was her favorite place in the house, and she settled into the squishy softness of its embrace with a sigh indicative of her long day. Forty-eight hours—well, forty, really—and she would be Pete’s wife. She could hardly believe that after three years of what could only be classified as a tumultuous dating relationship, they were finally getting married. “What time do you land in Minneapolis?”

  “Around four o’clock in the morning your time,” Breanna said. She stifled a yawn, reminding Sadie that it was about 2:00 a.m. in London right now—8:30 p.m. here in Colorado. Since it was July, the sun was just setting, casting orange shadows through the big front window of Sadie’s house. The red-eye flight from London to Denver wasn’t the best itinerary available—in fact, it might have been the very worst—but it had allowed Liam, Breanna’s husband of only six weeks, to attend an important event in London that evening.

  “I hope you’ll be able to sleep on the plane,” Sadie said.

  “I’m not worried about that,” Breanna said. “I’m so tired. The flight is nine hours, which will give me plenty of time to rest before the layover. We should be to Garrison by noon or so.”

  “Wonderful,” Sadie said, hoping the jet lag wouldn’t be too bad and they’d be recovered by the time the ceremony took place. “Pete swapped out the bed in your old room for a queen-sized bed from his house. It’s got new sheets and everything.” Sadie liked Liam quite a lot, but he’d grown up wealthy and privileged, and she worried that her modest home wouldn’t meet his expectations. “I even bought new towels.” They matched the bedspread and the new curtains Sadie had put up; she’d been going for an English countryside look and then worried it would look pretentious.

  “Don’t stress too much,” Breanna said with a smile in her voice. “We’re looking forward to staying at the house and having more time with you. Shawn’s there already?”

  “He flew in this morning,” Sadie said, smiling in anticipation of having both her children—and Liam—under her roof at the same time. It didn’t happen very often, what with Breanna living on another continent and Shawn finishing up his degree at Michigan State. “He’s at Pete’s bachelor party right now.”

  “Oh, a bachelor party. And you’re not spying on them?”

  They joked for a bit about what the men might be doing. Sadie kept to herself that she knew exactly what they were doing: barbequing Omaha steaks, drinking imported beer, and playing poker until midnight at the home of one of Pete’s police department buddies. It had only taken a quick scroll through Pete’s text messages and eavesdropping on a couple of conversations when he thought she was occupied with something else to assure her that she had nothing to worry about on this last night of “debauchery”—not that her investigation meant she didn’t trust him. It was just a habit, good or bad, depending on the circumstances of its employ.

  It had been an intense few weeks. Pete’s house had sold and would close after their honeymoon. He had been spending a lot of time preparing for the move, and Sadie was glad he’d gone ahead with a night of cards and food with his buddies. Sadie’s house still had the realty sign in the front yard, so they would be living here for now. After the honeymoon, they would step up their efforts to find a new place of their own and then, maybe, she would lower the price on her home to encourage it to sell in the unpredictable market.

  “Well, I better go,” Breanna said on the phone. “If I use the restroom now and don’t drink too much water on the flight, I might be able to avoid the horrible bathroom on the plane and sleep straight through.”

  Sadie said good-bye with a smile that stretched all the way to her toes. Sixteen hours from now she would get to hug her daughter and new son-in-law. And twenty-four hours after that, she’d be making vows to the man she had come to love so much. Still grinning, Sadie pushed up from the chair, then flinched slightly at the tugging pain in her right side, just below her ribs.

  Three weeks ago she’d been stitched up following the most harrowing experience of her life, which was saying a lot based on the number of harrowing experiences she’d survived in recent years. She’d healed better than the doctors had expected, but she was still sore and had to be careful about moving too quickly. Sadie credited her quick healing to the level of endorphins running through her bloodstream as the wedding plans had picked up speed.

  Sadie returned to the kitchen and finished tying up the rest of the birdseed packets. When the last bow was tied, she put the tiny bundles in a basket and set it by the front door next to the monogramed napkins so that she’d know right where they were when she was running around crazy in the hours before the ceremony.

  She scratched “birdseed favors” off her to-do list and looked at the next item: “update guest list.” She sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and pulled the guest list in front of her. There was a purple check mark next to the guests who had responded that they would be in attendance and a black X next to those who had RSVP’d that they couldn’t make it. Sadie had expected most of their out-of-state friends and family wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony, but she’d loved all the phone calls of congratulations and catching up that sending the invitations had garnered. Everyone was so happy for her and Pete, and she loved hearing the well wishes over and over again.

  There were a few names unmarked on her list, including Ji, her recently discovered nephew. He wasn’t sure he could get away from his restaurant in San Francisco but hadn’t yet said he wouldn’t be there. She still held hope that he, and perhaps his daughters, would be able to attend.

  There were half a dozen other guests she hadn’t heard from, and she considered whether or not she
should follow up with them. She didn’t want to put anyone on the spot, but what if their invitations had been lost in the mail? She’d feel terrible if they learned about the wedding later and believed she hadn’t included them. Or what if they’d tried to get in touch with her but called an old phone number, not realizing she’d put her new number on the invitation? If they hadn’t received the invitation at all, they might not even have her new number.

  There was still time to make a few calls tonight—at least to those not on the East Coast—but was it worth the possibility of an awkward conversation if they simply hadn’t cared enough to respond? She tapped her pen on the paper—decisions, decisions. She needed to give North Hamptons—the reception hall where the wedding would be held—and the caterers a final guest count by noon tomorrow.

  Her phone’s text message alert chime interrupted her thoughts. She picked up the phone and noted that though the texter came up as unknown, the area code indicated it was someone local.

  Unknown: Hi, Sadie.

  Sadie: Hi, who’s this?

  Unknown: You don’t know? I’m hurt.

  Sadie: Your name didn’t come up on my contact list so you’ll have to tell me. ☺

  Unknown: Think about it for a minute. Do you really not know who this is?

  Sadie furrowed her brow as she remembered some advice Pete had given her almost two years ago when she’d disconnected her landline, forwarded her mail to a PO Box, installed an alarm system for her home, and gotten her first private cell phone number, which she only shared with select people.

  “Don’t answer any calls or texts from unknown numbers,” Pete had said. “I’ll look them up, and when you know who it is you can decide whether you want to call them back. Don’t take any chances.”

  As time had moved forward, Sadie had bit by bit given up the protective measures. She felt a little silly for thinking about Pete’s advice now since she’d sent her new number out with her wedding invitations to dozens of people—this unknown caller was surely one of them. But that didn’t sit quite right. Most of the people in her life knew that she’d had some difficult times; they wouldn’t play with her anxieties, would they?