Mom turned to look at us. “Donuts? I don’t mind if I do.”
I took the box of donuts and set them on the counter and opened the box up. The scent of donuts rose into the air, and for a moment drowned out the scent of fudge. Christy set two cardboard carriers with cups of coffee next to the donuts.
“We stopped by Amanda’s and got some coffee, too,” she said. “Vanilla mummies and pumpkin spice lattes.”
“Oh,” Linda said, turning to look. “Pumpkin spice?”
I nodded. “Brian decided that they had to have pumpkin spice lattes during Pumpkin Hollow Days. I told him that was an excellent idea.”
She nodded and hurried over, looking at the cups of coffee in the carriers. “You can say that again. I love pumpkin spice everything. But then, who doesn’t?”
“Only crazy people don’t like pumpkin spice everything,” Christy said, taking a step back and looking at me. “Maybe we should have gotten all pumpkin spice lattes.”
“I’ll take a vanilla mummy,” Mom said, coming over and picking up a cup of coffee. “With all the pumpkin spice fudge I’ve been eating, the vanilla will cleanse my palate.” She chuckled.
“Good, because I want a pumpkin spice latte,” I said. “We only got two vanilla mummies.” We had bought two extra coffees in case somebody wanted another one later, or for when Sarah and Lisa came into work later.
I glanced around the kitchen. It looked like Mom had been busy since she had gotten in at four o’clock in the morning. I’d offered to come in when she did and help, but she had opted to have me and Christy come in a little later so there would be more coverage for the shop when we opened.
“We got so many orders for fudge over the weekend,” Mom said, taking a sip of her coffee. “We’re going to be busy these next two weeks.”
“We’ll be busy until after Valentine’s Day,” Christy corrected her. “Honestly, we’ve just got a few weeks between Pumpkin Hollow Days and the Halloween season, and I bet things don’t slow down at all.”
Mom nodded and took another sip of her coffee. “Oh, this is good. But you’re right, Christy, there probably won’t be a slowdown in business at all. Except for the fact that we won’t have pumpkin spice fudge for a few weeks in between, I’m sure things will be jumping until after Valentine’s Day.”
“I can hardly wait for the Halloween season,” Linda said and picked out a boo berry donut. “But I’m really looking forward to Christmas. There’s just something about all the snow on the ground and the Christmas decorations that I can’t get enough of. Sometimes I wish Pumpkin Hollow had been Christmas Hollow or something like that.” She chuckled.
“That’s a great idea,” Mom said. “Maybe we could do both a Halloween theme and a Christmas theme at the same time all year long?”
Christy groaned. “No, don’t say that. We’ve got too much work as it is. And now that I think about it, how are things going with finding the temporary employees?”
Mom had decided to hire more temps for the next few months. We had done the same thing last year, and it had worked out well. Mom was hoping to be able to hire the same ladies since they had already been trained.
“I called three of them and they are excited about starting back to work. Barbara said she had been going stir crazy and was just about to give me a call and see if we needed any extra help.”
“Great,” I said, grabbing an old-fashioned witch donut and a napkin. “I’m glad we’ll have people that are already trained. That will make things go smoothly.”
I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was nearly time to open the shop. “I’ll go out front and get things opened up.”
“All right, dear,” Mom said.
I straightened my tutu and went into the candy shop. I was excited about all the improvements we had made to the store when we took over the shop next door, making the kitchen larger and the shipping and receiving as well as the shop itself. It made everything so much easier. I glanced around. We had bought some new decorations over the weekend. There were paper mâché pumpkins scattered among the shelves and a large felt ghost stood grinning in one corner and a light up plastic jack-o-lantern sat next to it.
“Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?” Christy said from behind me as she followed me into the shop.
I nodded, still taking everything in. “It sure does. I just love this candy shop. Especially during the holidays. I think we must have the best job in the world.”
She nodded and went back behind the front counter and set her coffee down. “I’m not going to argue with you there.”
I went over to the front door and unlocked it, then came back and joined Christy behind the counter. I looked up as the bell over the door jingled, and Polly walked through it. She stopped and inhaled. “Oh my gosh, chocolate and vanilla, and everything that’s sweet and yummy.”
“Isn’t it the best smell ever?” I asked.
“I can’t get enough of it myself,” Christy said.
She nodded and came up to the front counter. “I’m not here to put any pressure on your mother to make that pound of pumpkin spice fudge I ordered the other day, but that little piece that I got there at the vendors’ fair just wasn’t enough to hold me.” She looked at the display case. “Can I get another quarter pound?”
“Of course you can,” I said. “How did you do over the weekend? Did you sell a lot?” I opened up the display case and took out the tray of fudge.
“I did excellently over the
