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Kat’s scowl deepened, which Casey didn’t think was possible. “Then why ask her? She doesn’t care about Home. She doesn’t live here. She doesn’t even shop here.”
Sylvia turned pointedly to Casey. “I don’t shop here because every time I come into the Market, she practically chases me out with a broom. That she’s riding on.”
“Ha!” Kat took a vicious bite from her canape. “I don’t need her looking down her snooty nose at my shop because it doesn’t measure up to your big city places.”
“As it happens,” Sylvia said to Casey, “when I lived in the city, I did most of my personal shopping at the corner bodega.”
“Bodega, shmodega. She—”
Casey stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loud enough to cause both women to flinch. “Time out. In the first place, both of you are here in this room and you need to talk to each other, not triangulate the conversation through me. Secondly, as I understand it, this feud has been going on for almost fifteen years. It’s time for it to stop.”
“She started it,” Sylvia muttered.
“Like fun I did,” Kat growled.
“What did I just say?” Casey narrowed his eyes. “Blame is immaterial. We’re focusing on solutions here. Also—” He jerked his thumb at the framed cross-stitch over his head: Welcome Home. Don’t be a dick.
Both of them huffed, nearly identically, and turned away. Casey set his jaw and plowed on.
“Kat, I spoke to Sylvia about why she didn’t use you to source the supplies for Summer Kitchen. The reason had nothing to do with disapproval of the Market. She was new to the area and had other stressors in her life, so she fell back on suppliers she knew, even though they were more expensive and difficult to manage from a distance.”
“She could have asked,” Kat said.
“From what I understand, once you found out about where she ordered the Summer Kitchen supplies, you were hardly approachable.”
“So if she doesn’t look down on us here in Home, why does she live in Merrilton? I know Dev’s offered to rent one of the empty Harrison properties to her.”
Sylvia gripped her glass with both hands. “Since I only run classes in the summer, Casey, and since enrollment has dropped off, there’s no reason for me to be here most of the year. And there are no meetings in Home.”
Kat blinked, looking at Sylvia for the first time since Casey had entered the room. “Meetings?”
Sylvia met her gaze for an instant before focusing on her lap. “Yes. Meetings. Merrilton has several, in the library, the town hall, and the Oddfellows lodge, so it’s more convenient for me to live nearby.”
“I… forgot,” Kat said quietly. “That you’d need those. I’m sorry.”
Sylvia shrugged one shoulder. “It is what it is. I probably should have made more of an effort once I’d been around for a while. But change is hard, you know?”
“Yeah.” Kat rose and scooted her rocker closer so she was within reach of the canapes. She snagged another one. “I get it. And I could have been nicer. Pete tells me rabid badgers would be better at customer service than me.” She snorted. “Like he’s got room to talk.”
“Great.” Casey clapped his hands. “Now. Kat, Sylvia’s agreed to let me order all the supplies for Summer Kitchen, and I want to use you as you as my source.”
“Really?” Kat asked, a canape stalled halfway to her mouth. “You’d do that?”
“I agreed to let him try,” Sylvia said.
Casey could detect a chill creeping back in, so he grabbed a canape and held it in his palm. “Sylvia made these this morning.”
Kat looked at the pastry in her hand. “I thought you made them, Casey.”
“Are you kidding? If I wasn’t the only Summer Kitchen student, Sylvia would probably have expelled me by now for gross incompetence and reckless endangerment. And Sylvia? Kat sourced the goat cheese, the microgreens, and the radishes from local farmers.”
Sylvia looked from the empty canape tray to Kat. “That chevre is amazing. It’s really local?”
Kat nodded. “The produce too.”
“See?” Casey leaned forward, projecting earnest entreaty for all he was worth. “Cooperation. That’s what we need. What I need. What Home needs, from you both.”
Kat’s gaze flicked to the cross-stitch and then to Sylvia. “All right.” She gripped her knees and nodded decisively. “I’m in.”
