As the Story Goes, It's Pistachio Rose: The Donut Shop Series

By Natalie-Nicole Bates

Everyone loves Rose.

She is the sweetest, quirkiest, most beautiful woman in town.

Rose owns the Everything is Coming Up Roses donut shop across the street from the police station.

All is well until a mysterious man criticizes Rose's famous Pistachio Rose donut, putting doubt in her mind that she can win a national donut showdown.

If that's not bad enough, an upscale café is opening right next door to the donut shop, threatening to take away Rose's business with their designer ten-dollar donuts.

When the mystery man begins spending more and more time in her donut shop, a friendship is born. But what is his connection to the café next door?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Perfectly Poisoned Press
• Release date: Feb 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393136439

Natalie-Nicole Bates

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author. Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia. She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.    

Book preview

Natalie-Nicole Bates

As the Story Goes, It’s Pistachio Rose

The Donut Shop Series

First published by Perfectly Poisoned Press 2020

Copyright © 2020 by Natalie-Nicole Bates

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Natalie-Nicole Bates asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Natalie-Nicole Bates has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About the Author

Also by Natalie-Nicole Bates

Chapter One

Chapter Separator

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. This donut is terrible.

For a moment, Rose Evans stood speechless. In the two years since she opened her donut shop, Everything is Coming Up Roses, she never had a complaint.

Not a single criticism. It was something to be proud of. Now, that streak of customer satisfaction was over.

The donut, with a single bite taken out of it, was pushed across the counter on a piece of pink tissue paper. She stared at the donut dumbfounded. Finally, she found her voice and looked up at the blond man with the tattoos.

"That is my signature pistachio rose donut. Everyone who’s tried it loves it.

The man shook his head. Those people are not your friends, he said ruefully.

What is wrong with it? It looks beautiful."

What looks beautiful on the surface is often rotten in the middle, he replied.

A prickle of anger shot up her spine and she had to bite her lip to keep from snapping back. It was more the way he said it rather than the criticism. Complaints were a part of business, she knew. Customer satisfaction was number one. With only being open for two years, she was still a relatively new business and the fact was around ninety percent of new businesses failed within the first five years, and she didn’t want to become a statistic.

Truth be told, the donut tastes like the rose perfume sachets my grandmother has hanging in her closets.

Rose took a deep breath to stay calm. The last dig about the donut tasting like an old lady’s perfume was completely unnecessary. So you actually know what your grandmother’s closets smell like? A wild thought of him tiptoeing into a bedroom and sneaking into a closet to sniff the rose sachet made her almost giggle out loud.

Well, it isn’t as sordid as you make it sound. Grandma’s whole house, not just the closets, smell like rose perfume so strong it makes my eyes water. She leaves a scent trail wherever she goes. Grandma would probably love your donut.

He smiled, but Rose wasn’t impressed.

She gathered what was left of the donut in the tissue paper and tossed it into a nearby trashcan.

What a shame to waste food, she mumbled without looking at him.

You’re handling the remnants of that donut like it’s nuclear waste. All you need is the HAZMAT suit.

She started counting in her head to keep from saying something rude. One, two, three…

I didn’t mean to offend you. I would rather be honest than nice.

She forced a sugary smile. I appreciate your opinion. Would you like a refund or another donut?

I’ll have a sprinkle donut if that’s okay.

Sure. She grabbed a tissue and snatched a sprinkle donut from the display case and placed it on the counter. I hope you find this donut more to your liking.

Thank you. He took the donut and went back to the small table near the back wall of the shop, next to the window.

She wiped down the counter and watched him in her peripheral vision as he took a bite of the sprinkle donut, wiped his fingers on a napkin, and opened his laptop computer.

Do you have free wi-fi here? He called to her from his seat.

First he complained about her signature donut, and now he wanted a free internet connection. No free wi-fi, sorry. My shop isn’t big enough to justify free wi-fi.

No problem. He plugged a portable wi-fi stick into his computer. I’ve noticed that the internet signal is patchy at best.

Bright Meadow is a small town. The larger cities get everything before us, including the high-speed internet. Supposedly, within the next two years, Bright Meadow will be upgraded. By then, I’m sure the bigger cities will still have the next generation of the internet.

I suppose that is the trade-off of living in a small town.

"Honestly, I’ll take the safety of living