Клео Коул - Latte Trouble

“Or her.”

“Or her.”

I sipped my espresso in silence. Quinn sipped his latte.

“So what will happen to Moira now?” I asked.

“Best guess—she’ll plead guilty. Her lawyer will claim criminally insane, and she’ll end up in a hospital for twenty-five years of treatment.”

“That poor girl…and the people she poisoned…Rena Garcia and Jeff Lugar and Ricky Flatt…and Tad losing his fiancée, poor Tad…” I shook my head at the tragic waste, the heartache. “How do you do it, Mike? How do you get over all the bad stuff?”

“You don’t.”

“Clare?” Matt was calling me from the back stairs.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Quinn softly, then headed for the Blend’s back door. Matt was descending the steps with his baggage. He’d packed with his usual efficiency: one large black pulley suitcase, a black garment bag, and a black leather carry-on. He’d already shipped some of the Special Reserve Ethiopian beans to Tokyo via DHL.

“My car service is here,” he said.

I nodded. “Have a good trip.”

“Sure I can’t change your mind?”

A question like that at a time like this was usually rhetorical. But my ex-husband’s eyes looked almost hopeful, proud but edged with enough pleading to make me feel guilty—but only slightly.

“You’ll have company,” I told him with a small smile.

He sighed. “Clare—”

Three days before, Breanne had left a lengthy message on our answering machine, telling Matt that she had business in Tokyo, too. (Matt was traveling to Japan for a major presentation on his kiosk plan—one arranged by David Mintzer, who, after his conversation with me at the Trend party, had decided to heavily invest in Matt’s idea.) Ms. Elegant gushed about how she would be happy to join him on the long flight and happier still to take him to some of her favorite sights and restaurants.

Just the day before, Matt had asked me to go with him—and I had been mulling it over when that phone message came. It quickly helped me make up my mind.

“Go,” I told him, opening the Blend’s back door. “It’s what you do.”

He stared.

“Good luck, Matt. I mean it.”

He sighed again and nodded, then moved to kiss me. I stepped back and extended my hand. Hurt appeared in his eyes again, but I insisted we shake, squeezing his fingers in a sincere gesture of friendship. He didn’t respond, his hand limp, and before I knew it he had turned and vanished.

But I wasn’t surprised. Disappearing was what some men did best.

“Clare!”

Now Esther was calling me from the Blend’s front room, and her voice sounded strained—upset. What now?! I ran into the coffee bar, worried at what disaster I was going to find there next. But there was no disaster. Esther had simply been overwhelmed with emotion when she saw who was coming through our front door.

“Hello, Village Blend!” cried Tucker Burton, throwing his hands in the air. “I’m back!”

Mike’s eyes were on me. I think I was crying.

“You see, there, Detective Cosi,” he said softly. “Maybe you don’t get over the bad stuff…but there’s usually something good to focus on instead. Remember that.”

I nodded. Then I quickly moved across the room and hugged my Tucker tight.

Cover bottom of mug with Clare’s homemade caramel-chocolate syrup. Add a shot of espresso. Fill the rest of the mug with steamed milk. Stir the liquid, lifting from the bottom to bring up the syrup. Top with sweetened whipped cream and a chocolate-covered coffee bean.

This syrup is out of this world! Try it warm over ice cream or use it for dipping strawberries or biscotti. Delicious! This recipe will yield about 2 cups of syrup, but it can easily be doubled or tripled for a big batch.

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup light Karo syrup

1/2 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 oz milk chocolate or 1 cup of milk chocolate chips

4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter

Combine cream, Karo syrup, sugars, and salt in a non-stick or Teflon saucepan. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Bring to a rolling boil and maintain for 8-10 minutes. Continue to stir intermittently—do not let burn. In a separate saucepan, melt butter and chocolate together, stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture into the saucepan with the caramel syrup and stir over heat until smooth. If there are still lumps, remove sauce from non-stick pan and whisk in a bowl until completely smooth. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator.

Tip #1: best bet for storing syrup is a sturdy plastic squeeze bottle. Syrup will become thicker as it cools. To reheat syrup, place the squeeze bottle in a warm water bath or reheat in a microwave.

Tip #2: use a good quality milk chocolate, such as Ghirardelli. You can also experiment with your own taste preferences, substituting semi-sweet, Mexican, or dark chocolate for the milk chocolate. Have fun!

Not for the faint of heart. Brew a strong pot of a darkly roasted coffee. Mix seven parts hot coffee with one part cognac in a large, steamed or heated wine glass after its rim has been dipped first into freshly squeezed lemon juice, then rolled in confectioners sugar. Immediately before serving, carefully set the beverage ablaze—and keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case!

Italians use the term biscotti to refer to any type of cookie. In today’s coffeehouse culture, biscotti is used to describe a long, dry, hard twice-baked cookie designed for dunking into wine or coffee. The name biscotti is derived from bis, meaning “en-core” in Italian, and cotto, meaning “baked” or “cooked.”

There are many basic biscotti recipes. Some use oil instead of butter, some use no butter at all. This particular recipe produces a more tender biscotti, which is generally preferred by the American palate. To create a harder biscotti out of this recipe, reduce the butter by ½ cup (or ½ stick) and increase the flour by ½ cup.

Yields: 2 dozen

1-½ c butter (1-½ sticks)

3 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. With an electric mixer, cream butter, add eggs, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until soft dough forms. Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead slightly, then divide dough into two even pieces. Roll each piece into a cylinder about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. Place these 2 logs of dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper—the bottoms of the logs can flatten when you place them on the baking sheet. They don’t need to stay round. Make sure the 2 logs are well separated. Bake in the 350-degree oven for 35 minutes. Let the logs cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully slice them on a diagonal angle. (Because this recipe is for a slightly softer biscotti, the dough may be a bit crumbly. The best way to slice is with a very sharp knife, straight down. No sawing.) Each log should yield about 12 cookies sliced approximately ¾ inches wide. Turn the cookies onto their sides, and place on a baking sheet. Put them back in the 350-degree oven for 8 minutes on one side, then turn over and bake another 8 minutes on the other side. Let cool. Store in an airtight container.