Page 2 of Hot Pursuit
There was no response.
Jo glared at the screen as she took another bite, then perked up when a thought bubble appeared on the group chat.
@TheGourmetGoddess: That’s what you said the last time…
@TheBakingBandit: I know, I know, but I mean it this time!
@TheGourmetGoddess: Sure you do…
@Sprinkle-Ella: I’m here! I’m here! What’s the new idea?
@TheBakingBandit: Wait for it…
@TheBakingBandit: …
@TheBakingBandit: drumroll please…
@TheGourmetGoddess: Spit it out!
@Sprinkle-Ella: *slapping my hands against my cutting board*
@TheBakingBandit: The coopie!
A huge grin spread across Jo’s face as she typed the words, giving her creation a life outside of her own head and this isolated kitchen sitting smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. Well, not nowhere. The kitchen, and by definition the house, sat on a ten-acre private island off the coast of the Bahamas—her father’s personal paradise. They’d lived there for over a decade, ever since her mother passed away the summer just before Jo entered high school. Her childhood hadn’t exactly been normal. But her father was Robert Carter, one of the world’s most renowned art thieves, and Jo, for lack of a better word, was sort of his protégé. So normal had never been in the cards anyway.
She frowned at her computer.
Waiting.
Waiting.
@TheBakingBandit: GUYS!
@Sprinkle-Ella: Um…I love it!
@TheGourmetGoddess: What the hell is a coopie?
@TheBakingBandit: I thought you’d never ask :) The coopie is a miniature pie crust stuffed with a delicious cookie! Currently munching on chocolate chip coopie goodness, but my mind is spinning!
@TheGourmetGoddess: I never thought I’d actually say this, but that is a GREAT idea!
@Sprinkle-Ella: OMG! Love! Send us your recipe so we can test it out!
@TheBakingBandit: Sending now…
Jo reached for the papers scattered across the countertop and gathered them into a pile, scrambling to put the recipe into a more coherent format. A smile widened her lips, tugging at her cheeks and spreading them until it was almost painful. But she loved moments like this—when her creative juices were flowing, yes, but also her time with these girls. Cyber friends, sure, but they were the best girlfriends she’d ever had.
The three of them had met almost two years ago in an online forum for fans ofThe American Baking Championship. They’d bonded over their obsession with the runner-up (Jo still contested he’d been absolutely robbed! The little old lady who’d won had been the fan favorite by a landslide, but Jo knew an act when she saw one. Granny had evil-genius in her eyes, no doubt about it.). And well, the fact that they were the only three women under forty in the forum. After the show ended without being renewed, she’d invited them to their own little group chat, and the three of them had been swapping recipes and gossip ever since. @Sprinkle-Ella’s real name was Addison Abbot, and she worked at a cake shop in South Carolina, specializing in wedding cakes and fairy-tale dreams, obviously. And @TheGourmetGoddess was really McKenzie Harper, a trust-fund baby who’d forsaken the family expectations to become a pastry chef, and a fabulous one at that. She worked as a sous chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City.
And Jo?
Well, they knew her as Jo Carter, Florida resident working in the family business, dreaming of something more. Mostly true, though the best lies always were. Her full name was Jolene Carter. The Bahamas were sort of close to Florida… Close enough, anyway. And they didn’t need to know that the family business was crime, just that one day she hoped to be free of it, doing what she’d always wanted—owning her own bakery instead.
The Coopie Factory.
Eh, needs a better name than that…
What to call it…?
