Marlowe had tried to field the delivery that she was making to the hotel, so that Cara wouldn’t have to do it, but Cara wanted to do it. She had been so tired of taking time off. So tired of sitting at home.
Getting out and about was a total relief.
She had a whole box of petit fours and cupcakes for a baby shower held at the hotel.
It was a first for the Painted Ridge Resort, and even though Cara didn’t typically do cake decorating, she was competent enough to do pastel yellow, pink, and blue swirls of buttercream.
Plus, she just felt… she was tired of marinating in her own thoughts. A lot of it was fear. Reliving what had happened, and what could’ve gone wrong. But then also… Zane.
The way that it had felt when he held her. The way that he’d been when she’d come over for dinner at Cody and Marlowe’s. Howattentive, like this brooding, looming guardian angel that didn’t radiate light, only an intense sort of dark energy that made her feel drawn to him.
Yeah, it was good to get out and not think about that.
She also gave thanks when she got out of her car, crutch-free, and was able to grab the boxes of sweets all on her own.
Instead of going through the reception area, she followed the trail out to the expansive back lawn of the hotel.
It was down below the pool deck, and a river rushed gently across the other side of the lawn, with a glorious backdrop of mountains behind.
It seemed like the hotel was at a reasonably full capacity, because she could see that there were people reclining on the pool deck, and some swimming. It had been warm and dry since the thunderstorm that had tried to kill her.
And today was particularly warm.
Luckily, there were large shade trees over parts of the lawn, and the area that was set up for the baby shower was entirely shaded. There were chairs with white covers over them and big pink bows on the back, and the table that was set out had a pink cloth, and a huge arrangement of flowers at the center that were all fuchsia.
She heard the sound of uproarious laughter and looked across the lawn to see a group of women all dressed in floral playing a game of cornhole that seemed to be going hysterically poorly.
She smiled and walked over to the table to get the sweets set out.
“Thank you.”
She turned around and saw Marlowe rushing up to her,looking smooth and put together as always, though there was a sheet of sweat on her forehead. “I also have a bachelor party, and this is a very different group. So we have them down at the river, and they are going to do a rafting trip led by Nolan, and all we have to supply is a whole lot of beer. But still.”
“Wow. Are we offering rafting trips?”
“I don’t know that we were going to, but there has been a demand for it, and it’s something that Nolan has done before. He’s been a river guide, I mean. So…”
“Right.”
“Is that the baby shower?” She asked, gesturing toward the floral girls.
“It is indeed.”
“That’s so nice,” she said.
There were at least fifteen women in the group. Cara couldn’t imagine having that many friends.
Having such a deep sense of community.
Her sense of community had been entirely… Her mom. In the end, that was what it had been. Marlowe, of course. But everything in her life had gotten smaller and smaller.
Watching somebody so joyfully living this expansive life, with a new life on the way… It made Cara have feelings.
She didn’t really know if she wanted to have kids. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She hadn’t even kissed a man before, not really, so how could she ever know if she wanted children?
But she wanted her life to have that possibility. Wanted it to feel… Bigger. Like she was part of this place, part of this community, so that someday if she did have a baby shower, she knew she would have a bunch of people at it.
“Yeah, this is giving me baby fever,” Marlowe mused.
