Mint Chip Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 6 by Susan Gillard

Chapter 1
    Heather shut the back door of Donut
Delights behind her and jogged down the steps to her car, which was parked in
its usual spot next to the tiny back porch.  One of the perks of owning your
own business was that sometimes, you could skip out early for lunch with your
best friend. 
     
    She slid into the driver’s seat and
flipped the switches on the ventilation system to “Cool” and “A/C On.” 
Ridiculous! She thought.  Here it is two weeks before Thanksgiving, and the
high temps are still hitting the upper 70’s every day.
     
    Not that she wasn’t used to it.  She’d
grown up here in Hillside, Texas, and lived in the same house until she went
off to college.  College, of course, was where she met Don.  They’d dated
during their junior and senior years, and then gotten married the week after
graduation.  Things had been fine for awhile—well, for a few months,
anyway—until Don accepted a job offer with a firm in New York City.
     
    Moving to New York City, as a newlywed
with Don had brought one shock after another.  First, there was the shock of
trying to get used to living with Don—who, as it turned out, was nothing like
the considerate, understanding boyfriend he’d been while they were dating. 
Instead, New York City seemed to have changed him into a grasping, controlling,
get-ahead-at-all-costs kind of guy.
     
    Or maybe he’d been changing for a long
time, and it was just the hustle and bustle of New York City that seemed to
bring it to the fore.  That, or the extremely cold winters that seemed to bring
out the crankiness in everyone.  Or the way everyone seemed to mind their own
business, and people just didn’t reach out to each other the way she was used
to.
     
    Or, she sighed, lifting her long,
curly red hair off the nape of her neck and then letting it drop, maybe it just
wasn’t meant to be for Don and me.
     
    They’d hung on for a few years.  But
finally, they simply realized they’d each become so different from the person
they thought they’d married that they just couldn’t make it work anymore. 
After the divorce, Heather had taken her part of the settlement and used it to
move back home and start Donut Delights, a shop that sold gourmet donuts,
served with coffee and elegance.
     
    Owning her own business had been
Heather’s dream since college, but her dream had gotten pushed to the side so
that Don could pursue his.  It was when Heather finally faced that fact that
climbing the corporate ladder had replaced her as Don’s dream that she knew the
end of their marriage was only a matter of time.
     
    At the sound of a horn honking
impatiently behind her, she shook her head to clear out the thoughts of the
past and glanced up at the stoplight ahead of her.  It was green, and cars from
the other two lanes had already moved forward into the intersection.
     
    She tossed a wave at the driver behind
her as she pulled forward.  That was enough time spent thinking about the
past.  The present was much more pleasant, anyway.
     
    She felt her lips curve into a grin
that probably looked silly.  But so what?  She was in love with a man who was
very, very different from her ex-husband.  Don had been good-looking in a
flashy, make-you-take-a-second-look kind of way; Ryan Shepherd’s good looks
were much more subtle.  Or maybe it was simply that Ryan didn’t need constant
affirmation, or to always be the center of attention.
     
    As a detective with the Hillside
Police Department, Ryan spent a lot of time working, as Don had, but only
because he wanted to and was good at it.  Not because he had to depend on his
job to give his life meaning.  When his duties interrupted their time together,
he always seemed to regret it—and he always made it a point to call, text, or
drop by as soon as he could to pick up their meal, or conversation, wherever
they had left off.
     
    That’s what she wanted—someone who
loved her more than he loved his social status or