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“What? No,” I said, adding a psshht to the end for emphasis. “I just stopped over there before I left.”
“Then why couldn’t he let Star out by himself, dear?” Mrs. Violet asked. I could see from the corner of my eye that she was trying not to smirk. Ivy was practically vibrating with all the questions she wanted to ask.
I had to play this carefully. Breaking Irving’s trust now would be game over and that was the last thing I would let happen. I motioned with my hands for them to settle down. “I have access to his apartment in case he has a problem, especially right now with his hand. I’ve had to help him out a few times with household stuff. I went to his apartment and told him to stay in bed and then let Star out so they could sleep in. That’s all.”
“That’s nice of you, dear,” Mrs. Violet said.
I let out a breath. Mission accomplished. I had to be more careful about what I said around this group. They were too savvy, and with so many of them, someone always picked up on an innocent comment and ran with it.
“Irving is a great guy and a solid work colleague. As we’re the only two living in the building, it makes sense that we’re friends too. Anyway, I told him I’d fill him in on anything that changes after the meeting. Something tells me we aren’t here to talk about the event as much as we are to have breakfast and gossip.”
“Maybeeee,” Ivy said, dragging the word out while we all laughed. “We do have business to attend to first. Audrey, how is it coming with the council members?”
“Five out of six ain’t bad?” she asked sardonically.
The diner was filled by the groan heard around the town. “Mr. Thompson?” Ivy asked, and Audrey rolled her eyes.
“Who else? That’s okay, though. I’ve already talked to Russ from the paper and he’ll be attending. He has every intention of doing a big write up about the event and New Beginnings. If Henry doesn’t show up, Russ will call him out on it. I’ve also made it known that the paper will be there taking pictures for an article.”
“You’re diabolical,” Becca said laughing, but the words were filled with love. From what I’d gathered, Audrey had taken Becca under her wing once they found out about her circumstances. When it came out that Becca couldn’t read well, Audrey had sat right down to tutor her so she could get her GED and go on to take business classes. My guess was, if I had a dollar for everything Mrs. Violet did in this community, there would be hundreds more for the things she’d done that no one knew about.
“I like to think of it as inventive,” Audrey said, giggling as she took a drink of her coffee.
“It’s going to be disappointing if he doesn’t show up, so thank you for trying so hard, Mrs. Violet.”
“It’s Audrey, dear, and it’s no problem. Henry has always been stuck about four centuries behind the times. I don’t know how he got on the council, but he’d better figure out how to change with the times or when his term comes up, I’ll make sure someone runs against him that will fill his seat with some modicum of human decency.”
Everyone in the room was silent. It wasn’t often that Audrey said something so pointed and with such fervor.
“I mean, she’s not wrong,” Ivy said with a shrug of her shoulder. “If I had time, I’d run, but lord knows that’s not happening for another eighteen years or so.”
Becca put her hand on her baby bump. “Same here. I can’t believe I’m halfway through the pregnancy already. It’s almost time for the gender reveal.”
Ivy stood up instantly. “Do you know what you’re having?”
“Uh, no,” Becca said, laughing at Ivy’s dramatics. “That’s kind of the point of a gender reveal.”
“When do you have the ultrasound?” Mel asked, flipping her notebook open.
“Tomorrow.”
Mel raised a brow. “Want to do a gender reveal on Saturday at the farm for family day? We could make it fun and have the kids decorate stroller cookies in pink or blue frosting. The adults could guess for a chance to win a gift card to the store. After Stephan reads the book, we’d have you and Cameron cut a cake where the frosting on the inside will be pink or blue.” Again, the room was silent as we all glanced at each other in curiosity and amusement. Mel huffed. “Fine, so maybe I’ve been thinking about a fun way to do a gender reveal for Becca!”
We all bust out laughing, including Becca, until she finally waved her hands in the air. “I love this idea, Mel! We’re all about the farm, so this is a perfect way to let our regular Saturday families participate too. I’ll have to run it past Stephan, but—”
“He’s going to squeal, clap his hands, and run to find a book about a new baby joining the family!” Heather said as they all laughed.
“Who’s Stephan?” I asked, glancing between them for answers.
“You mean you haven’t been to the farm to meet Stephan?” Indigo asked, obviously taken aback.
“No, I haven’t been to the farm at all, honestly. I was going to suggest it, but I know it’s not exactly wheelchair friendly, so I didn’t want Irving to feel left out.”
Indigo waved her hand in the air. “It is accessible. At least the pathways and the store as of now. I know you guys are working on making the other paths accessible as well, right, Becca?”
“Oh, yes,” Becca said. “We’ve got a parking pad for people who use wheelchairs that’s heated underneath, so there’s never ice or snow on it, and the same goes for the walkway to the store. Since we couldn’t do that for the tree paths, we laid down rubber tiles of sorts that run through the first part of the cut your own tree lot. That makes it easy to keep them cleaned off of needles and snow. It’s not great once we get a lot of snow, but by then, Christmas is usually over. That said, we always have precut trees you can pick from if you don’t want to cut your own. You guys should seriously come out! Cameron has put a lot of thought and effort into making the farm accessible and welcoming to all since he met me.”
“She’s right,” Indigo said, finishing her cinnamon roll. “Lance is so busy working with the culinary kids out there that he had to give up his work here.”
