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“Right here,” Bea said, indicating the space she’d left for the bread bar. Sage had requested it specifically, and she’d wanted only maple-frosted doughnuts from Gourmet Goods for her “birthday cake.”
“I have the doughnuts,” Harry said as he entered the kitchen with an enormous pastry box. It was light blue, so clearly from Gourmet Goods, and he pushed it into some of the jars of jam Oliver had put down as he made room for it on the counter.
“What’s for dinner?” Bessie asked.
“She said she didn’t want a big thing,” Bea said.
“Right,” Bessie said slowly, brushing her newly cut bangs out of her face. “So…what’s for dinner?”
“She catered,” another woman said, and they all turned toward Lauren as she breezed into the kitchen with a sombrero on her head. She wore a bright smile to match the red, green, and yellow headgear, and Bea sputtered at her.
“I—it’s not Mexican night.”
“Did you or did you not order a taco bar?” Lauren put an oversized bag of tortilla chips on the blue box of doughnuts.
“That’s her cake,” Bea said, quickly swiping the chips off the box lest the weight bow in the top and ruin the frosting. “And yes, I ordered a taco bar. It’s barely food.”
Lauren’s eyebrows went up, disappearing under her ridiculous hat. “Barely food? You should see how much stuff they have in the van outside then.” She glanced around the kitchen, and while it was four times bigger than the house Grant and Bea had lived in previously, it still wasn’t huge. “We better make some room. I told them to start bringing everything in.”
“Let’s put the cake over here,” Bea said, nodding to the counter beside the sink. “Harry?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Grant put the chair he’d been using back at the table. “There’s more room now that I’m out of the way.”
“Breads first,” Bea said. “Move it down to the end here, Oliver.”
He started doing that, and Bessie weeded out more than half the loaves, opening the cold oven and tossing them inside. “Those are for you guys, and they don’t need to be out,” she said. “You can take them home later.”
Bea grinned and turned her attention to Cass as she came in. “Everything good out there?”
“Right as rain.” She took in the decorations, which consisted of the golden age balloons, as well as a brightly colored banner that read “Happy Birthday!” that Grant had hung across the sliding glass doors. The tableware matched that of a fiesta, and Cass’s eyes landed on Lauren. “I didn’t realize we were dressing up for this.”
Lauren rolled her dark eyes and took off the hat. Her dark hair clung to it a little, some of it rising due to some static. “Happy now?”
“I just think a sombrero will be hard to cram in at the table,” Bea said as she plucked it from Lauren’s hands. “I’ll put it in the bedroom.” She ducked out of the kitchen to do that, catching sight of the Mexican restaurant workers coming down the hall. “Food’s incoming!”
She hurried into the master and threw the sombrero, not caring where it landed. As she returned to the main part of the house, she found Joy and Scott had arrived in that split second she’d been gone. “Hey, you.” She put her arm around Joy and squeezed. “How’s school going?”
Joy grinned at her. “Good.”
Scott had Ghost on a leash, and the dog stayed right at his side. “Is Sage bringing Gypsy?”
“The real questions is if Sage is bringing Ty,” Joy said, her eyes wide and questioning.
“She told me to set her a plus-one,” Bea said, not wanting to give away any of Sage’s secrets.
“But that’s for Thelma.”
Bea put her nose further into the air. “Thelma RSVP’ed on her own.”
“Oh, boy.” Joy squealed. “That means she’s bringing him.”
“Are you Bea?” a man asked, and she took the invoice he extended toward her.
She barely looked at it, because she trusted they’d brought the beans, rice, and meat she’d ordered. She signed on the line and smiled at them. “Thank you so much.”
They left, and the front door got closed for the first time in several minutes. The house smelled like spicy meat and cheese, with just a hint of maple underneath that. Bea just needed to give everyone a ten-second lecture before Sage arrived.
