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  Deathly Ever After

  The Asheville Meadows Series, Book 8

  Patti Benning

  Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Copyright 2018 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Also by Patti Benning

  Author’s Note

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Chapter One

  For Autumn Roth, date nights were always exciting. She and Nick had a few favorite restaurants that they frequented, of course, but they were both adventurous when it came to dining out and loved to explore new places to eat together. Tonight, Nick was surprising her, and all day she had been trying to get him to tell her where he was taking her. She knew that the restaurant must be out of town; Asheville was small, and she knew every business inside the town limits. The fact that he wasn't picking her up early meant that it probably wasn't too far away, and as she waited for him to arrive, she wracked her mind, trying to remember if she had heard of any new restaurants opening up in one of the nearby towns.

  When she saw the headlights appear at the end of her driveway, she tossed a cookie on the floor for Frankie, her little Cairn terrier, then grabbed her purse and slipped out the front door before the dog could notice that she had gone. She was already to the driveway by the time Nick had parked, and she waved at him to let him know not to bother getting out of the car. He could be very gentlemanly sometimes, but tonight she wanted the two of them to be on their way as soon as possible. If there was one thing that Autumn got impatient about, it was the promise of visiting a new restaurant.

  As she settled into the passenger seat, she smiled over at her boyfriend, who leaned over to give her a quick kiss in greeting. Nicholas Holt was the director of the local nursing home… and also, her boss. She had started volunteering at Asheville Meadows during Christmas the year before, and had eventually been offered a full-time position there as one of two cooks. She loved her job, and she loved her boyfriend, but she wasn't sure that she loved that they were so closely tied together.

  “I didn't get to see you much today,” he said. “How was your shift?”

  “It went well,” she said. “Today was an easy day; I didn't have to make breakfast, and for lunch we had baked chicken and green salad. Dinner was the leftover chicken shredded for chicken noodle soup, dinner rolls, and cottage cheese. Tomorrow I'm making pot roast, which will take a while, but it's not very labor-intensive. How was your day? Things have been busy lately. You always seem to have people wanting to talk to you.”

  “With the opening of the new wing, I've got a lot of people interested in some of the new space. Not only that, but we have residents who want to move into the new wing from their old rooms, not to mention all of the hiring I've been doing to find new employees, so we can accommodate all of the extra people.”

  “I'm glad that the new wing is a success,” Autumn said. “It's good that we have so many people interested, and I'm sure everyone will be even happier when it calms down a bit.”

  “It's going to be a couple of months until things get back to normal… or, close to normal. We’re almost doubling our capacity. It means more work for everyone.”

  “Have you spoken to Emily about making her transition to kitchen assistant permanent?” Autumn asked. “I know that she was really excited when you first mentioned the idea to her.”

  “I'm planning on telling her at the staff meeting on Saturday. We've already hired a second kitchen assistant as well. That way there will be two people working on every meal instead of just one. That should make things easier for everyone.”

  Autumn smiled, liking the thought of having her own assistant to help her in the kitchen. Of course, Emily already helped her quite a bit, but it would be nice to make it official. She wasn't daunted by the thought of having to cook for even more residents than she did now. She was sure that it would take some getting used to, but she had adjusted easily enough to it when she first got her job. It would just be a matter of remembering to order enough food and measure everything correctly when she was making the meals.

  They continued chatting about work while they drove through town, the Christmas lights casting a cheery glow on the snow. The subject was forbidden on their dates, but it was fair game in the car. They had implemented the rule when they realized that work was pretty much the only thing they talked about whenever they were together. Autumn wanted them both to share interests outside of the nursing home.

  “Hey, look at that,” Nick said. “The old grocery store is still for sale.”

  “I thought Jed had found a buyer for it,” Autumn said, turning to look at the abandoned shell of the Green River Grocery, the store where she had worked for the past few years, before it went out of business the year before.

  “It must've fallen through. That's a new sign it, isn't it?”

  It was. Autumn felt bad for her old boss. Jed had owned the Green River Grocery for decades. She knew that going out of business must have hurt a lot, and now he was having trouble selling the store and was still losing money on it.

  “You know, I bet he would be willing to drop the price pretty low, especially for you. You could buy it and turn it into the restaurant you've always wanted.”

  Surprised, Autumn looked over at her boyfriend. Nick had slowed down as they drove past the grocery store, so they could both look at it, but had sped up again. They were heading out of town to the west, and she still had no idea where they were going.

  “I can't open a restaurant,” she said. “Forgetting for a moment that I have no idea how to actually run a business, I couldn't leave everyone at the nursing home behind. I love it there.”

  “I know you do,” Nick said. “And while I love having you there, I don't really think that you'll be happy working there forever. Every time we go to restaurants advertising an open kitchen position, I see you considering it. You're always going to want a place of your own, or at least a kitchen of your own where you can cook something other than low-sodium, easy to digest food.”

  “I could never run a restaurant of my own,” she said. “Even if I could, I wouldn't want to. Can you imagine how busy I would be? Now, if I had someone like you or Alicia to help me, that might be different.”

  “Why don't you ask Alicia?” Nick said. “She's always looking for a new project, isn't she?”

  “I… I guess I could.”

  She had always dreamed of opening her own restaurant, but she had never really considered it to be much more than just that; a dream. But maybe Nick was right. What was really standing in her way? True, she didn't know much about running a business, but she could learn. Everyone had to start somewhere. She may not want to do it alone, but she knew that Alicia would probably take at least some interest in a restaurant. Her friend loved projects, and had always enjoyed being independent and making her own money, even though her husband
made enough to support them both. With the two of them, as long as it was a small restaurant, they wouldn't even need to worry about hiring employees at first. Autumn could cook – and she was already used to doing it five days a week for a whole nursing home full of people. And she knew that Nick was also probably right about Jed. He wanted to sell the grocery store, and she had worked for him for years. If he was going to go down in price for anyone, it would be her.

  She felt the first glimmer of excitement at the prospect. She knew that it was a long shot, and it would take a lot of luck, effort, and money, but now that the idea had been planted, she didn’t think it was likely to go away anytime soon.

  “We’ll be there in about half an hour,” Nick said from beside her. “I hope this place has good food.”

  Autumn nodded, drawn out of her daydream by Nick’s voice. She pushed thoughts of the restaurant aside for the time being. Before committing to anything, or even telling Nick that she might seriously look into it, she wanted to talk to Alicia. For now, she turned her attention toward him. She was suddenly more excited than ever to figure out where they were going. Someday soon, she might be opening her own restaurant, and she wanted to get ideas from as many other restaurants as possible.

  “What sort of food do they serve?” she asked.

  He grinned. “I guess I might as well tell you where we’re going. We’ll be there soon enough. It's the new Mediterranean place out by Shelby Lake. They’re only open three days a week, but from what I've heard, they've got great food and great service.”

  “I think I heard about them a couple of months ago,” Autumn said. “They must have been advertising locally a while ago. I can't wait to see if what they say is true.”

  She settled back into her seat, excited both for the coming meal, and the idea that Nick had planted in her mind. She had never had a firm vision for her future, but now her daydreams were beginning to solidify into something real, and she felt happier than she ever had before.

  Chapter Two

  Waffles with fresh fruit and strawberry syrup for everyone,” Autumn said, lining the plates up on the counter in the kitchen. “I made fresh whipped cream, too,” she added. “Emily, you can start bringing these out to people. I’ve also got some scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and oatmeal if anyone wants something different.”

  “You're in a good mood today,” the younger woman said as she grabbed two of the plates. “I don't think I’ve ever seen you so excited about waffles before.”

  “I woke up early and decided to see if I could fancy them up a bit,” she said. She had been grinning all morning. Her date with Nick the night before had gone wonderfully, and the food at the new Mediterranean restaurant was just as good as had been promised. Even more importantly, she had been thinking about Nick's idea of buying the grocery store and turning it into a restaurant all night. She was pretty sure that she had even dreamed about it a little bit. She knew that it would be a big adventure, and not something that would happen quickly, but she had to admit that she was at an ideal point in her life to do it. She had no doubts that Nick would let her continue working at the nursing home while she figured things out for the restaurant. Alicia and her husband were still trying to have a baby, but hadn't been successful yet. Autumn figured that she would need help the most when the restaurant was first opening, so if she wanted to enlist her friend, she had better do it before Alicia had a little toddler running around.

  Buying the Green River Grocery would be almost poetic, in a way. She enjoyed working at the little store, and she knew how much it meant to Jed. She definitely wanted to see something nice happen to the building, and what could be nicer than a brand-new restaurant? Maybe she could even name it after the grocery store.

  The Green River Eatery? She would have to come up with something perfect.

  Don't get ahead of yourself, she thought. It was hard not to get too excited. She knew that there was still a lot that she had to look into. She would have to see if Jed would be willing to sell it to her for a price lower than what it was listed at, and then she would have to see if she qualified for a small business loan. While she had some savings, they weren't enough to start a restaurant on her own. The grocery store would need renovations, and it wouldn’t be cheap to buy all the kitchen appliances that she would need. She would also have to figure out how to get all of the licenses and certifications that she needed, and for that she would probably have to see a lawyer who could talk her through the complexities of the laws. Even thinking about all the steps she would have to take, she still felt a thrill of excitement fluttering in her chest. Nick was right; there was no reason why she shouldn't make her dream a reality.

  “I'm out of here before lunch, remember,” Autumn told the younger woman as she came back to grab another set of plates. “I covered for Grace last weekend, so she is taking my evening shift today.”

  “All right,” Emily said. “We have to go over the new menu soon, don't we?”

  “We can do that after the staff meeting on Saturday,” Autumn said. She smiled, thinking of the news that Nick had for her young assistant. She knew that Emily would be thrilled.

  Maybe she could work for me one day, at the restaurant, she thought. She pushed the thought away. She was getting ahead of herself again.

  “I saw your aunt and uncle come in,” the other woman said. “Do you want to bring out the last couple plates to them? I can get started on the dishes if you'd like.”

  “Thanks,” Autumn said. “I’ll go say hi to them, then I’ll come back in here and help you clean up.”

  She took the plates and brought them out to her aunt and uncle’s table. They were sitting with another couple Autumn knew only vaguely — Mr. and Mrs. Leroy. The Leroys had a younger couple visiting them, and they seemed to be embroiled in some sort of argument.

  “I’m going to call tonight, Francine. Quit pestering me!”

  “I just want to know what’s going on, Dennis. This could be our future. Show some ambition for once. Maybe my mother was right, and I should have married David.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Autumn put the plates down in front of Uncle Al and Aunt Lucy. Her uncle seemed amused and waggled his eyebrows. She smiled. She knew he would share the drama with her later.

  “I’ll see you guys later,” she promised. “Have a great breakfast.”

  She didn't usually rush out of the nursing home at the end of her shift – she enjoyed being there, and she had plenty of people to visit with – but today she wanted to see if Alicia could meet her for lunch. She needed to talk to her best friend about buying the grocery store. While Alicia enjoyed working on new projects, she didn't have any particular passion for cooking, not the same way that Autumn did. She needed to gauge her friend’s interest in the restaurant.

  After cleaning up the dishes with Emily, she looked for Nick, but couldn't find him. He was probably on a tour with one of the potential new residents. The interest in the nursing home had spiked after the new wing had opened. She knew that it was one of the best nursing homes around, but it still surprised her just how much interest there was. Nick had really done well with the place.

  Leaving a note on his desk telling him that she had taken off, and that she would call him later that day, she walked out to her car and turned it on, running the heat while she called Alicia.

  Her friend answered, sounding as chipper and happy as ever. “Hey, Autumn. What's going on?”

  “I just got off of work,” Autumn said. “Do you want to meet somewhere for lunch? There's something I want to talk to about.”

  “Oh no, is everything okay?”

  “It's nothing bad,” she assured the other woman.

  “Good. I'm free. Let's meet at that sandwich shop.”

  Autumn knew exactly which one her friend was talking about. It was the local, unique sandwich shop that she, Nick, and Alicia all enjoyed. They brought out the ingredients for everyone to make their own sandwich, and the food was absolutely delicious. It was a fun idea, and
eating there was always enjoyable.

  “Sounds good. I'll see you in a few minutes.”

  As she drove towards the shop, she thought about what she was going to say to her friend. She knew that she might be jumping the gun a little bit. True, she had been thinking about Nick's idea all night, but she knew that something might still come up that would give her pause. There must be something that she wasn't thinking of. She honestly had no idea how much it would cost to get up and running. Necessities like insurance, certification, and inspections must cost quite a bit.

  She figured that she couldn't go wrong by asking Alicia, though. Her friend would help her do all the research, and if in the end they decided not to try to open a restaurant, at least she would know that they had tried.