Without thinking twice, Della picked up her spoon, loaded it, and shoveled the banana creamy goodness into her mouth. Annie’s pies were cooked on the premises and were the best in the county. The entire state, according to multiple blue ribbons.

Eating one of them was no hardship.

Annie nodded approvingly at the appreciative moan that slid from Della’s lips. “Mmm.” Della savored the mouthful, her taste buds in ecstasy. “This is divine.”

It wasn’t exchanging kisses with Tucker Daniels, but it was probably the next best thing. Or maybe that was eating banana cream pie off Tucker Daniels’s lumberjack abs?

Annie took the compliment as her due. Her pies being divine was not news to anyone, least of all Annie. “More coffee?” A gnarly hand, the knuckles misshapen from arthritis, held up a filter pot about as old as the diner. Annie didn’t wait for a confirmation; she topped up Della’s cup anyway. “You’re looking good, Della,” she said as she withdrew the pot.

The next spoonful of pie paused halfway between the plate and Della’s mouth. She glanced up into Annie’s knowing eyes. “Thank you.”

“You know…you and me…we’ve got a lot in common, sugar. If you ever want to talk, you know where I am.”

Della nodded. Annie had offered the same thing back in the early days when Della had first come to Credence. Plenty of townsfolk had offered an ear, wanting to help ease Della’s transition. But Annie’s offer had been different. The old woman had never elaborated, but Della had sensed that Annie knew what it was like to be a victim.

And how to survive.

Della slid her hand briefly onto Annie’s arm. The skin was remarkably smooth for someone who was supposedly old as dirt. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” Maybe she’d take Credence’s pie queen up on her offer one day.

Annie nodded and straightened, all business again, Della’s hand sliding off her arm. “Finish every last bite,” she said, all briskly crotchety again, before she moved off. “You’re too damn skinny.”

Della smiled at Annie’s back as the older woman departed before attacking the pie with gusto. One mouthful had stirred Della’s appetite, and she wouldn’t dare leave the diner without every morsel devoured. Annie considered even crumbs left on the plate a personal slight.

Hell, she might get some to go for Arlo tonight. Donuts might be traditional cop food, but her police-chief brother couldn’t walk past Annie’s pies.

Winona appeared as Della was scraping her plate clean. “There some kind of famine coming I’m not aware of?”

Della laughed. “I didn’t realize I was so hungry.” She put her spoon down on the plate and dabbed at her mouth with a paper napkin from the dispenser on the table. “I’m contemplating getting a second.”