I see dead people.

It’s true. I do see dead people on occasion, but it’s mostly long-deceased pets that hop over from the other side to say hello—and, believe me, it’s never a good sign for whoever they’ve come to greet. But, at the moment, I’m not looking at a ghastly phantasm. No, this is no ghost, and as much as I hate to admit it, she very much feels like a harbinger of ominous things to come.

The tiny metal newsstand that sits in front of the Honey Pot Diner has Merilee Simonson’s face staring back at me from behind the glass. It was just last month that Honey Hollow had its very first homicide, and I was unlucky enough to discover the body. Merilee, my old landlord, was even unluckier to be the body.

I shake all thoughts of that hairy scary day out of my mind as I step out into the street to admire the newly minted bakery which Nell, my best friend’s grandmother and my boss by proxy, has put me in charge of.

“The Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery,” I whisper as I take in the beauty of the divine little shop that I’ve gleefully been holing up in the last week solid while baking up a storm for today’s grand opening. It’s the beginning of October, and autumn is showing off all of its glory in our little corner of Vermont. Honey Hollow is famous for its majestic thickets of ruby maples, liquid ambers, and bright yellow birch trees—all of the above with leaves in every color of the citrine rainbow. The sweet scent of cinnamon rolls baking, heady vanilla, and the thick scent of robust coffee permeate all of Main Street, incapacitating residents and tourists alike, forcing them to stagger down toward the bakery in a hypnotic state. I’m pretty sure I won’t need business cards to pull in the masses. I’ll opt for the olfactory takedown every single time. Not even the heavy fog that is rolling down the street this morning has the power to subdue those heavenly scents.

Hunter, my notorious ex-boyfriend’s cousin, stretches to life as he stands from where he was crouching by the entry. Bear and Hunter have been working out in front for the last three days trying to repair cracks in the wall that divides this place from Nell’s original restaurant, the Honey Pot Diner. Inside, a nice opening has been made in the south-facing wall so that patrons of both establishments can meander from place to place. And I’m glad about it, too. I’ve been a baker at the Honey Pot for so long I would have missed seeing the inner workings of it daily even though it is right next door. Not to mention the fact my best friend, Keelie, is the manager at the Honey Pot, so this guarantees I’ll still see her smiling face each and every morning.

Hunter strides over and rests his elbow over my shoulder as we take in the sight together.

“Don’t forget that part,” he says, pointing to the smaller sign below the words I just read. “Fine confections, gourmet coffee, and more!” he reads it just as enthusiastically as the exclamation point suggests.

We share a little laugh, never taking our eyes off the place. Otis Bear Fisher—the aforementioned and somewhat infamous ex—and Hunter spent all last week getting the furniture for the bakery painted in every shade of pastel. Bear bought out all of the chairs and café tables he could find at his friend’s chain of secondhand stores, and the end result is so sweet and cozy it’s hard for me to leave this place at night.

“Thank you for all your hard work,” I say, looking up at Bear’s lookalike cousin. After Bear shattered my heart into shards as if it were a haunted mirror, it was Hunter who offered up his support and suggested I leave town for a bit to clear my head. I took his advice and hightailed it to New York—Columbia University to be exact—and, well, let’s just say my heart was shattered ten times harder in the big city than it ever was in Honey Hollow. “You know, I’ve probably never said this before, but thank you for your friendship, too.” I can’t help but sniff back tears. “You really have been a rock in my life. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to tell you sooner.” I offer a quick embrace to the surly blonde with the body of a brick building. Both Bear and Hunter look as if they’re primed to be lumberjacks with their tree-like muscles, but lucky for me their chosen profession just so happens to be construction.

“Whoa, easy, Lottie. Don’t shed a single tear for me.” He laughs at the thought. “I know this day is an emotional one for you. This bakery has been your destiny for as long as I can remember.” He nods back to the place where his tools are strewn all over the sidewalk just under the scaffolding he’s had set up for days to assist him in the exhausting effort. “Let me clean this mess up so you can get your party started.” He jogs back to the sprawl of tools, and I quickly follow him under the canopy of this skeletal structure.

“It’s not bad luck to stand under a scaffolding, is it?” I tease. I’ll admit, my nerves are slightly jangled just thinking about the festivities about to ensue.

He barks out a short-lived laugh. “Nope, that would be a ladder. But you’re not allowed to have any bad luck, period. This is your big day, Lottie Lemon, and I promise you not one thing will go wrong.” He gives a playful wink, and something about that facial disclaimer sends me in a jittery panic ten times more than before. He winces. “I think I left something out back.”

Hunter takes off, and no sooner does he leave than I press my hand to the window of the bakery, a no-no as far as Keelie is concerned. She’s been helping me scrub and scour every inch of this place to get it ready for its big debut, but I’ll gladly wipe away my own fingerprints in a moment just to garner one more look inside before we open. It’s all there—the café tables and chairs look as sweet as confections themselves, the refrigerated shelves that line the front are fully stocked and loaded with every cookie, brownie, and delicious dessert you can think of, and the walls are painted a decadent shade of butter yellow. My sister, Lainey, came by yesterday to help me decorate the place for Halloween with ghosts, witches, and scarecrows set in every free space. Autumn leaves carefully line the counters, and tiny orange pumpkins dot each table with gold and red maple leaves blooming out from underneath them. To think that in just a few short hours this place will be filled with family and friends—with Everett and Noah. Noah who—

A horrible creaking sound comes from the scaffolding above me, and I look up in time to see the gargantuan structure rocking back and forth. My entire body freezes solid as it careens toward me, and before I know it, I’m hit from behind by a warm body, pushed to safety as the entire scaffolding crashes into a pile of dust. That metal newspaper stand is lying on its side, and Merilee’s grinning face is staring back up at me in replicate.

“Oh my God,” I pant as I struggle to catch my breath.

“Geez, lady.” A man with dark curly hair, a lantern jaw, and eyes the color of espresso pats me down by the shoulders. “You okay? You almost got crushed to death.” His eyes widen a notch at the thought as do mine.

“Yeah”—I glance down at my body, thankfully still intact—“I’m fine. You saved my life!” My hand clutches at the thought of me dying, right here in front of my own bakery on opening day of all occasions. How horrible that would have been for me and perhaps for all of Honey Hollow, considering there is a stockpile of sweet treats in there to feed the entire community for a month if need be. I’d hate to think that anyone would let all of my hard work go to waste just because I met an untimely demise, but I suppose seeing my body splattered like a dead fly might kill an appetite or two. “You have to come inside.” I grip him by the sleeve, and he quickly frees himself with a shake of the head. “Please, let me give you a cake or something. You’re a hero!”

“I’m no hero.” He glances past my shoulder just as Hunter and Bear shout their way over. “I gotta run. I got a kid waiting for me at home.” He jogs across the street and is swallowed up by the fog within two seconds.

“Wait,” I call after him. “Please bring your family by later! We’re having a party!”

“Lottie!” Bear pulls me in tight, and I struggle to breathe for a moment before inching away. “You could have been killed!” He turns his attention back to the carnage. “Hunter”—he barks—“how many times have I told you not to put heavy crap on top of the scaffolding?” he riots over at his cousin, and poor Hunter looks just as shaken as I do.

“I didn’t. I swear.” He kicks one of the hefty looking bags that almost crushed me right along with the planks on that scaffolding. “I’d never put bags of quick-set on there. I’m not that insane,” he riots right back.

Keelie appears from nowhere and pulls me into the safety of the Cutie Pie Bakery.

“Don’t you worry about a thing, girl.” She slings her svelte arm around my shoulder as we take in this magical place, and somehow the trauma of what I’ve just been through begins to subside. “It’s a good thing to get all of the bad luck out of the way up front.” She bites down on a ruby red lip as if it isn’t. Keelie and I bonded at an early age, and she’s felt every bit like one of my sisters. Her blonde curls are pulled back into a ponytail, and her bright blue eyes glow as if someone lit a match behind them. Keelie is as peppy as she is sincere, and I love every attribute about her. “This is one of the best days of your life, and I never want you to forget a single moment of it. It’s nothing but good luck from here on out.”

“Right,” I say, looking past my bubbly bestie, and with everything in me I want to believe her. “Nothing but good luck.”

I glance back outside as Hunter and Bear work to clean up the debris. It’s so windy those newspapers have come apart and are floating through the air like ghosts.

Then with a slap, the front page of one of those papers seals itself against the glass, and there she is, Merilee Simonson and her unnatural grimace looking right at me like a dark omen as if to say there will be nothing good about this day.

There is not one part of me that believes Keelie’s kind words. There will be no good luck today.

Something tells me it will be bad, bad, bad.

Be sure to pick up NOW!