Page 13 of Finding Forever

It was just as well she didn’t work on Thursdays, and Susan and Julie had some spare time. Otherwise, she would have been experimenting with different recipes on her own.

Susan mashed a banana. “Nine cakes in one afternoon, Beth. Have you lost your mind?”

“I hope not, but I made a list in case I did forget something.” Beth wiped off a buttery thumbprint before holding it up. “There are only two chocolate cake recipes I want to try, because they’re the ones I trust. We have four banana cake recipes. Mabel said hers will be the best, but I want to try the others. And last but not least, we have the three carrot cake recipes I downloaded off the Internet.”

“I looked at the recipes you emailed to me,” Julie said, tying her apron like a woman who was bracing herself for the recipe to defeat her. “There’s a whole science to baking carrot cake. Something about the oil keeping the cake moist longer than butter would.”

Beth checked the counter to make sure her friend had the correct oil. “As long as they rise, we’ll be fine.”

Julie cracked an egg with more confidence than her aim deserved. A thin string of white ran down the side of the bowl. “I made a loaf last week that came out of the oven shaped like a canoe. Cole still ate two slices.”

Susan smiled. “Cole would eat the pan if you asked him to.”

“He’s sixty-four, not blind.” Julie wiped the counter, laughing. “Although I’ll admit love does strange things to a man’s taste buds.”

Beth measured cocoa into the first bowl, grateful for the noise, the mess, and the simple, ordinariness of an afternoon that wasn’t about budgets or building inspections.

“So, tell us properly,” Susan said, leveling a cup of flour with the back of a knife. “When is Kayla and Tyler’s big day?”

Beth set the measuring cup down. “May twenty-third.”

“That’s less than four months away,” Julie said, already counting on flour-dusted fingers.

“And Kayla graduates from culinary school in June,” Beth said.

Julie picked up a spoon. “And the center opens at the end of April.”

Susan let out a low whistle. “Spring is going to run you off your feet, Beth.”

“Spring is already running me off my feet, and it’s only January.”

“You’ll survive it,” Julie said. “Before you know it, half the year will be over and you can finally take a deep breath.”

“I’m looking forward to that moment already.” Beth carefully mixed the chocolate cake batter, then poured it into the first pan. The chocolate was dark and glossy under the kitchen light. “Tyler picked the carrot cake layer. Kayla wanted me to make sure I told you that part. She says it’s the one detail of the entire wedding he really wanted.”

“A man who fights for carrot cake,” Susan said. “I like him already.”

“He says it’s the only cake that tastes like it’s healthy. His exact words.” Beth smiled at the memory of Kayla relaying it over the phone. “He was happy with whatever else Kayla wanted for the wedding.”

Julie lined a cake pan with parchment paper. “I hope Cole is as relaxed as Tyler. So far, our biggest disagreement has been over what kind of coffee to serve at our reception.”

“What did he want?”

“Dark roast. I wanted something lighter.” Julie shrugged, a smile tugging at her mouth. “He won. I still can’t believe we’re getting married.”

Beth slid her cake into the oven and smiled at her friend. “I can. After the first time I saw the two of you together, I knew there was something special happening. If the carrot cake turns out as good as Mabel said, Cole might be willing to give it a go for your wedding.”

Rachel slid her cake batter into a pan. “I made a carrot cake for my wedding. It was four tiers high, far too tall for the venue, and it leaned to one side for the whole reception. My husband told everyone that it was trying to get a better look at the dance floor.”

“Did it fall?” Beth asked.

“Right as we were cutting it.” Rachel’s eyes had gone soft and far away, the look of a woman visiting a memory she’d long since made peace with. “Everyone thought it was part of the entertainment. We laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe. I think that’s the moment I thought our marriage might work, strange as that sounds. If we could survive a collapsing cake without blaming each other or crying, we could survive almost anything.”

“So what went wrong?” Beth asked, gently.

Rachel wiped her hands on her apron. “We were two different people, leading separate lives. We had some good years, so I don’t regret a single tier of the cakes, even the parts that landed on the floor.”

Beth thought of Jessie, of their own modest wedding cake. They’d bought it from a grocery store bakery because neither of them had two spare dollars to rub together. She hadn’t cared at all, not for one second, because Jessie had looked at her as though she was the sun, moon, and stars all wrapped in one amazing parcel.