When putting together a seven-layer cake, there is a rhythm, a pattern that must be adhered to. The Bavarian cream must be made with the freshest ingredients. The berries, of course, are optional, and the layers can be any combination of chiffon cake.

For the gathering after the funeral, both Keelie and her mother, Becca, insisted that I bake Nell’s favorite cake. They wanted to remove the tarnish of that terrible day from the prized dessert and thought it would be a nice way to share a piece of Nell’s culinary legacy with the guests.

Honey Hollow Covenant Church is brimming with bodies, standing room only, and out the back door there is a crowd at least fifteen people deep. It is a somber, achingly sad, emotional service filled with sorrow. An oversized framed portrait of Nell as a bride stands larger-than-life at the altar, and she looks stunningly beautiful. Nell could have easily been a model or an actress. After the pastor finishes up, both Becca and William say a few kind words about their mother, and just like that, it’s over far too soon, just like Nell’s life. Some might argue she had a full lifespan, and that may be so, but I’m firmly in the camp that believes she was taken from us far before we were ready to let her go.

The pastor dismisses the service, and the bodies in the pews begin to stir to life and head for the exit.

Everett leans over. “Nell looks as if she could be your sister in that picture.”

Noah grunts as he squints over at it, “You’re seeing things.”

“Keelie and I have always had a similar bone structure. Honestly, she looks a lot like Lainey.” I stand up to see where Lainey and my mother are, craning my neck, standing on my tiptoes. A woman in a dark coat catches my eye as she makes her way down the side of the church as if she were walking toward the casket. She’s much like every other woman in here with a dark coat, but this woman has a baby blue knit scarf wrapped to her nose and a pair of Jackie O sunglasses eating up the rest of her face.

Oh my word! That’s her! That’s my stalker. Only she’s not exactly interested in me at the moment. Instead, she speeds past the crowd paying their last respects to Nell and stands directly in front of the casket, blocking Nell’s body from my view.

Noah and Everett rise by my side, and I don’t say a word as we follow the woman right out of the church. She makes a left for the street instead of heading to the cemetery across the way. Nell will be interned in the marble Sawyer family mausoleum right next to her husband. It’s a touching end to the beautiful story that was her life.

Noah glides an arm around my waist and presses a kiss to my cheek. “How are you holding up?”

“Ready to collapse in a river of tears.” I look to Everett, then Noah. “I couldn’t have done any of this without either of you.”

After the brief ceremony at the mausoleum, we head over to Carlson Hall where I help land dessert platters on each of the tables and offer coffee and refreshments to anyone who will have them. Dutch miraculously shows up for the wake, bouncing around with glee as if it were the best party in the world.

Lainey and Forest come over with Noah right behind them.

My sister pulls me into a warm embrace. “You’re not at work, Lottie. Nell wouldn’t want you running around taking orders. Relax, just this once, would you?” She sweetly brushes the hair from my forehead just as Noah glides an arm around me.

“She’s right.” He lands a tender kiss to my nose. “How about I get something for you?”

“I’m fine.” A pained smile forms on my lips. Fine is a relative word.

Lainey’s eyes brighten, and I can feel one of her big ideas coming on. “The four of us should double date. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.” Lainey does an odd little wiggle of the shoulders, and it’s as if she’s channeling our mother.

“That sounds like a great idea.” I glance back at Noah, and he nods, dimples digging in with approval.

Forest wraps his arm around Lainey, and they look as if they’ve been together for an eternity. “The fire department is having the Hearts of Hope charity event in a couple of weeks. All proceeds go directly to the homeless shelter. You should both come. Tickets are fifty dollars apiece, but it includes dinner and dancing—”

A laugh bubbles in me, first one all day. “And all the dessert you can eat. Scooter, Chief McPhee, asked if I would cater and, of course, I said yes.” I turn to Noah. “I’d love to buy a couple of tickets.”

Noah offers my waist a gentle squeeze. “Then that’s where we’ll be.”

“Judge Baxter is going.” Forest nods Everett’s way. Everett who is currently ensconced in a cloud of estrogen. Lily and her sorority sisters have him caged in. “Lily and her friends bought their tickets, too.”

“Just great.” I don’t mean for it to come out as sarcastic as it does. Oh hell, I did. It’s Nell’s funeral. I can be as ornery as I want.

“And on that note”—Lainey pulls Forest away by the tie as if it were a leash—“I think I see some of your famous Florentine cookies we need to get our hands on.”

Everett comes up just as they take off and fills their void.

“What? No harem?” I glance over his shoulder to find Lily and her friends gawking his way. “Did you get tired of them drooling all over you?”

“Hardly. But I thought I should check in and see how you’re doing?” His dark brows bounce, that frown returning quickly to his face.

Everett’s perpetual scowl is what keeps the girls coming to the yard. I’m convinced of it. I think it gives him that bad boy appeal, and considering Noah wears a matching scowl on the regular, I happen to know this from experience. I give Noah’s facial scruff a quick scratch absentmindedly.

I look to Everett. “Rumor has it, you’ll be at the Hearts of Hope charity event that the fire department is putting on.”

The good judge rocks back on his heels, his lips twitching with the idea of a smile. “I don’t see why not. It’s for a good cause.”

Noah scoffs. “If the cause is in your pants. Speaking of which, you should seriously consider picking a lane. You keep entertaining the masses, and that junk in your trunk is liable to fall off.” He pauses a moment. “Mack is still available.”

Everett glares at Noah so intensely I’m half-afraid we’re going to have an emergency room reprisal.

“Yes”—Everett grunts—“but I am very much engaged.” Everett nods my way. “Speaking of which, Detective Fox”—Everett squints toward the entry—“I think I see your wife heading this way.”

No sooner do Noah and I turn around than we find a giant redheaded stack of poison ivy staring us in the face.

Her crimson lips purse my way. “Carlotta. I’m sorry for your loss.” She offers a curt nod before turning to the real reason she’s here, my man. “Noah, if you don’t mind, I need to have a word with you.” Her eyes flit my way for less than a second because, apparently, my grief is suddenly insignificant.

Noah presses his mouth to my ear. “I’m sorry, Lot. I’ll be right back.”

They take off for the exit, and Everett is quick to step in front of me and block them from my view.

“Lemon”—Everett chases my gaze until it’s locked over his deep blue eyes—“I’m a patient man, but my concern for you is overriding my ability to keep my cool. Did Nell give you any new information regarding your gift before she passed away?”

I do a quick sweep of the vicinity before stepping in closer to him and thus eliciting the evil eye from Lily and her trio of tramps.

“Yes.” I clasp onto his arm as if to steady myself. “You remember that stuff I shared with you about me being transmundane? Something subcategorized as a supersensual? She alluded to the fact there were others. And she said there was one thing I must never do.” I glance over to see my supernatural pooch, Dutch, on his hind legs at the dessert table trying his hardest to feast on mounds of butter and sugar.

“Don’t keep me in suspense.” His breath warms my cheek, and I’m certain Lily’s coven is about to descend on us because clearly the spell they cast has worn off far too quickly for their liking.

I track Dutch, the most jubilant Golden Retriever I’ve ever seen, as he bounds his way through the bodies at the wake and my heart breaks.

“She said I couldn’t claim any of the creatures I see as my own. She said it would be very, very bad luck.” I shudder. “And then I thought about how much I love Dutch, and Nell up and died! She died, Everett! Do you think my bad luck killed her?” My voice hikes up a few notches without my permission, and I garner the looks of at least a dozen people as it grows eerily quiet in a ten-foot circumference around us.

His eyes bug out as he walks us swiftly toward the dessert table where the seven-layer cake sits patiently. “We should probably keep it down. This town is jumpy. The last thing you want to do is cop to a murder you didn’t commit.” His hand clasps over my shoulder as he looks at me with a rare tenderness in his eyes. “Nell died of natural causes. Now, I don’t necessarily believe in bad luck, but if it does exist, you of all people don’t need any of it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you have enough on your plate what with pets and people showing up from the great beyond.”

“You got me there.” I glance to the door as a familiar couple walks on in, Connie and Bill Chutney. She knew Nell. Everyone knew Nell. In fact, they were at her birthday party. Something in the pit of my stomach unsettles. “I think I see someone I need to talk to.”

Everett follows my gaze. “Do you think she did it?”

“I think everyone did it.” I excuse myself and head on over. Bill Chutney makes his way to the refreshment table, and I spot my ex, Bear, over there as well. “Connie,” I say a little too brightly. “How nice of you to come. My mother is so looking forward to volunteering with you down at the hospital.” I tag it with that last tidbit in the event she needed her memory jogged to place me.

“Your mother started last week, and she’s just as competitive as Eve Hollister ever was.” Her eyes roll to the ceiling. “Just when you think you’ve gotten rid of one, another one comes along.” She sweeps me to the side with her hand, craning her neck toward the back. “Pardon me, honey. I see an old friend.”

Just when you think you’ve gotten rid of one? I can’t help but widen my eyes at her.

She takes off, and I catch a glimpse of my mother across the cavernous room with Brad Rutherford and his snakelike hands roaming up and down her back as if they were the only two people in the room. That man is a sexual menace. If I could go back in time, I just might have cheered his ex-wife along as she tried to fill his pie hole with wolf’s bane.

I suck in a quick breath as a thought occurs to me. I bet Mr. Rutherford and his imprisoned wife aren’t even officially divorced yet. My mother may not have high standards when it comes to the men she chooses to spend her time with, but a married man? I believe Miranda Lemon just met her threshold. I can’t wait to tell her the news. The quicker she kicks him to the curb, the quicker Lainey and I can pop the bubbly. But I don’t head over to my mother. I head over to Bear who seems to be all by his lonesome at the moment.

“Hey,” I say, pouring myself a cup of ginger ale. “Did I see you talking to Bill Chutney?”

Bear growls as if he were a genuine member of the species his moniker is derived from—and how I am thankful that there is no literal, or spectral bear on the loose in the room at the moment.

“The dude is trouble. I tried warning Eve Hollister, but she was all about saving a buck. I tried to warn your mom—”

“You mean she still went with him after I forbid her to do it?” It’s nice to know I have zero pull with the woman who raised me. If this is a growing trend, then the very married Brad Rutherford might still have his hat in the ring—and mattress. Gag me.

“She did. But I’ll talk to her. Does she know what happened to Eve?”

“You mean with the remodel?”

“Yup. A guy from the city drove by one day, spotted the shoddy work on her balcony, and ended up doing a full inspection. She just about got red flagged. Not only did she have to pay a steep penalty, but she was going to have to pay me to do the repairs. And those weren’t going to be cheap. I wasn’t trying to gouge the woman. I’d have to rebuild entire sections of crap just to get her up to code.”

“Eve must have been steamed. Not only did his wife constantly screw her over, but her husband did it, too.”

“Believe me, she had more than enough. I came over one day late last month to take a look at what needed to be done, and she let me know she was going to file a complaint with the city and do everything in her power to get his contractor’s license revoked.”

“Could she do that?”

“Eve Hollister had enough money to do just about anything she set her mind to, and judging by the way she took off for the city that day, she did.”

I look to where Bill is chatting with a couple of men before meandering into the crowd on his own. That plaid wool coat of his is making him easy to track.

“Thanks, Bear, you just helped more than you know.”

I make my way over to the wily builder and step boldly in his path.

“Bill Chutney!” I try to sound cheery as if I were happy to see him, but my voice wavers and it sounds accusatory. “Thank you for putting a bid in with my mother—for the conservatory.”

The older gentleman’s gray eyes widen a notch. His hair is shorn close to his head, all salt and pepper, and it matches his five o’clock shadow.

“Glad to do it. She said she wants the addition put in before spring, and I promised her I’d have it standing by the end of next month.”

“Wow,” I muse. “You are certainly fast.” There is no way the permit process would have moved that quickly. My mother’s conservatory would have been a death trap come spring. It’s bad enough people believe the place is haunted, not to mention the fact there was a bona fide murder there. A conservatory massacre would be the proverbial nail in the B&B’s casket. No pun intended.

I step in close to his tall, heavy frame, and it feels intimidating. I can only imagine how Eve felt standing up to him.

“Can I ask you a question? Did it upset your wife when she found out Eve was trying to have your license revoked?”

His eyes grow in size, and he takes a full step back. “My wife doesn’t know anything about it.” He shakes his head. “Where did you hear this? She can’t know. She’ll be humiliated. Eve is gone, and the claim died with her.”

“I didn’t realize—” My fingers fly to my lips as our eyes lock, equally stunned with one another as a revelation hits me.

Bill takes a couple of blind steps back, his gaze still pinned to mine with a threat blooming in each one.

A crowd moves between us, but I keep my eyes on his plaid coat as he heads for the door.

And I bolt right after him.