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Annie tried out a little head toss. “Sassy?”
“Absolutely.”
“And best, it takes about two minutes in the morning.”
“So, how are you otherwise?”
“I’m great. We should have a drink sometime soon, and catch up.”
“I’d like that. I brought something for Del.” She lifted the bakery box she carried.
“If it’s anything like the cake you made for Dara, I just gained five pounds looking at the box. He’s with a client. I can just—”
“Don’t interrupt him,” Laurel said. “I’ll leave it with you.”
“I don’t know if I can be trusted.”
With a laugh, Laurel set the box on the desk. “There’s enough to share. I had to come into town, so I just brought these by before I—”
“Hold that thought,” Annie told her as her phone rang. “Good morning, Brown and Associates.”
Laurel wandered away while Annie handled the call, taking a casual study of the art on the walls. She knew they were originals, and from area artists. The Browns had always been serious patrons of the arts, and involved in local interests.
It occurred to her she’d never given much thought to how Del had set up his practice. After his parents died, she remembered now, and shortly before they’d formed Vows. They’d probably been among his first clients, now that she thought of it.
She’d been working at the Willows, keeping her own finances afloat while Vows took its first events. She’d been too busy, she supposed, and too damn tired to think about how Del must have been juggling his own fledgling practice, the details of his parents’ estates, the legalities of Vows as a business and a partnership.
They’d all been scrambling like mad with plans, obligations, test runs, part-time work to fill the coffers. But Del had never seemed rushed, had he? she asked herself.
The Brown cool, she supposed. As well as that seemingly innate Brown confidence that whatever they outlined they’d make work.
They’d grieved together, she remembered. Hard, hard times. But the grief and the hard had acted as another kind of glue, fusing them together.
She’d moved in with Parker, Laurel thought, and had never really, not seriously, looked back. And Del had always been there, handling details that had whizzed right by her. She’d understood it, she thought now, but had she given him credit for it?
She glanced over as someone came in the door. The young couple held hands, looked happy. Looked familiar, Laurel realized.
“Cassie?” She’d made them her Bridal Lace cake in the spring. “Hi. And ...” Shit, what was the groom’s name?
“Laurel? Hello!” Cassie held out a friendly hand. “It’s wonderful to see you. Zack and I were just showing our wedding pictures to some friends the other night, and talking about how we’re looking forward to Fran and Michael’s wedding in a couple months at your place. I can’t wait to see what you do for them.”
If she’d been Parker, she’d remember precisely who Fran and Michael were, and all the details of the wedding confirmed so far.
Since she wasn’t Parker, Laurel just smiled. “I hope they’re as happy as you two look.”
“I don’t know if they could be, because we’re flying.”
“About to buy our first house,” Zack told her.
“Congratulations.”
“It’s wonderful and scary, and oh, Dara. Everyone’s right on time.”
Laurel supposed Annie had given Dara the signal, and turned to say her hellos.
“Oh, that cake.” With a laugh, Dara gave Laurel a quick hug. “It was so cute—and so delicious.”
“How’s the baby?”
“Wonderful. I’ve got several hundred baby pictures I could show you if you don’t make a quick escape.”
“I’d love to see baby pictures,” Cassie said. “I love babies,” she added with a wistful look at Zack.
“House first, then baby.”
“I can help you with the first part. Come right on back.” Dara gave Laurel a wink, then led the clients off.
Laurel heard Annie’s phone ring again—busy place—and decided she’d just slip out. Even as she had the thought, she heard Del’s voice.
“Try not to worry. You’ve done everything right, and I’m going to do everything I can to get this resolved quickly.”
“I’m so grateful. Mr. Brown, I don’t know what I’d do without your help. It’s all so ...”The woman’s voice broke.
Though Laurel stepped back, she caught a glimpse of Del and his client, and the way Del put an arm around the woman’s shoulders as she struggled with tears.
“I’m sorry. I thought I got all that out in your office.”
“Don’t be sorry. I want you to go home and try to put this out of your mind.”
His hand rubbed up and down the woman’s arm. Laurel had seen him use that gesture of comfort and support—or felt it herself—countless times.
“Focus on your family, Carolyn, and leave all this to me. I’ll be in touch soon. I promise.”
“All right. And thank you, thank you again for everything.”
“Just remember what I told you.” As he walked his client to the door, he spotted Laurel. Surprise crossed his face briefly, before he turned his attention back to the woman he led out. He murmured something that had the client blinking at tears again before she nodded, and left.
“Well, hi,” he said to Laurel.
“I’m so in the way. Sorry. I just dropped off something for you, then a couple people came in for Dara, and I knew them, so ...”
“Zack and Cassie Reinquist.You did their wedding.”
“God, you and Parker have spreadsheets for brains. It’s scary. Anyway, I’ll clear the field so you can—”
“Come on back. I’ve got a few minutes before my next appointment. What did you bring me?”
“I’ll get it.” She walked back to pick up the bakery box.
“Sorry,” Annie murmured, tipping the phone away from her mouth. “Floodgates.”
Laurel made a “don’t worry about it” gesture, and took the box with her.
“You brought me a cake?”
“No.” She walked back to his office with him, where the sunlight streamed through tall windows, where more antiques gleamed—and the desk she knew had been his father’s, and his father’s before—held prominence.
Laurel set the box down, opened the top. “I brought you cupcakes.”
“You brought me cupcakes.” Obviously puzzled, he looked in the box at the dozen cheerfully iced cakes. “They look good.”
“They’re happy food.”
She studied his face. Just as Emma had claimed about hers, Laurel knew that face. “You look like you could use some happy.”
“Do I? Well.” He bent to give her an absent kiss. “That makes me happy. How about some coffee to go with the cupcakes?”
She hadn’t intended to stay—her own schedule was so damn tight as it was. But, oh, he really did look like he needed a little happy. “Sure. Your client looked pretty distressed,” she began as he walked over to the coffee machine on the Hepplewhite buffet. “You probably can’t talk about it.”
“In general terms. Her mother died recently after a long, diffic
ult illness.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She was the primary caregiver, and as her mother’s condition required more—and it was important to them both that her mother die at home—she took an extended leave of absence from her job so she could care for her mother full-time.”
“It takes a lot of love and dedication to do that.”
“Yes, it does. She has a brother in California. He came in a few times, helped out some. She has a sister in Oyster Bay—who was apparently too busy to visit or help more than a couple times a month, if that.”
He handed Laurel her coffee, leaned back against his desk. He took out one of the cupcakes, studied it.
“Not everyone has a lot of love and dedication.”
“No, not everyone,” he murmured. “There was insurance, of course, but it doesn’t cover everything. What it didn’t my client paid for out of pocket until her mother found out, and insisted on putting her daughter’s name on her personal checking account.”
“Which takes love, and trust.”
“Yes.” He smiled a little. “It does.”
“It sounds like, even though it had to be a terrible thing to go through, they had something special.Your client and her mother.”
“Yes, you’re right. The leave of absence was a financial burden, but my client and her family dealt with it. Her husband and kids pitched in when they could. Do you know what it must be like to care for a dying parent, one who at the end is essentially bedridden, incontinent, who requires special food, constant care?”
Not just sad, she realized. Angry. Very angry. “I can only imagine. It must be a terrible strain, physically, emotionally.”
“Two years, with the last six months all but around the clock. She bathed her, changed her, did her laundry, fed her, took care of her finances, cleaned her house, sat with her, read to her. Her mother changed her will, left the house, its contents—but for some specifics—and the bulk of her estate to her daughter. Now that she’s gone, now that the client and her brother from California made all the funeral arrangements, the sister’s contesting the will. She’s accusing my client of unduly influencing their mother in her favor. She’s livid, and has privately accused her of stealing money, jewelry, household items, turning their dying mother against her.”
When Laurel said nothing, Del set his own coffee aside. “Initially my client
