AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s gorgeous,” Bessie said as she stepped back from the cake. She looked at Sage, who couldn’t look away from the birthday cake she and her best friend had been working on for the past couple of hours.
Tears filled Sage’s eyes, and she turned into Bessie. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“He’s going to love it.” Bessie was the best at reassuring Sage. She nodded against her friend’s shoulder and then pulled back.
“I hope so. I’m not the baker you are.” She also felt sticky from head to toe. “I couldn’t have ever made it look like this either. Those instructional videos make everything look so easy.” She grinned at Bessie, because they’d complained about this before. “It’s so not.”
“Definitely easier when you have the right tools,” Bessie said. “You’re heading to his place now?”
“Mm, yeah. I’m going to get a bunch of balloons on the way. Tie those around. Put the cake on the counter. Take in my gifts.” She turned to follow Bessie over to the sink in her bread kitchen. Hillie, the woman who baked with Bessie every morning, continued to hum at another counter where she worked with a batch of dark dough.
“You’re really pulling out all the stops for this.” Bessie glanced over to Sage. “I know you like him, Sage.”
She got her hands wet in the semi-warm stream. “Of course I like him, Bess.” She smiled as the stickiness ran off her skin. “I know what you want to know.” She met her friend’s eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I love him. I don’t know how to trust those feelings.”
She soaped up with a sigh. “It’s frustrating to be fifty years old and not be able to trust yourself.”
Bessie didn’t say anything. Bea or Cass would’ve told her that of course she could trust herself. Thelma’s mantra was to let go of the past so she could move into the future. Lauren and Joy tended to watch Sage with almost beady eyes, and Bessie usually had something kind, tender, and reassuring to say.
Unassuming, like she didn’t dare think she knew more about Sage than Sage knew about herself. She’d always appreciated that about Bessie.
“You know, I didn’t come here to find someone to fall in love with,” she said.
“Neither did I,” Bessie said. “I wanted the bread bakery. It was my only focus.”
Sage nodded, because Bessie had that. She and her daughter had made their dreams come true. “Maybe it’s because I don’t have any dreams,” she said. “Or that my dreams aren’t business-focused.” Maybe she needed something to work toward that wasn’tEnjoy the slow summer nights on your deck.
“What do you mean?” Bessie asked, handing her a towel.
Sage didn’t know how to explain it. “I just…You and Wyn moved here with a purpose. A goal. The bread bakery. I moved here with Thelma to outrun her abusive boyfriend and to keep the Supper Club together. I have no purpose.”
“Of course you have purpose,” Bessie said, sounding like Bea now. “You had dreams to get that house, and you got it. You’re living your waterfront way. You can’t diminish that just because you didn’t open your own marketing firm.”
“Or a bread bakery,” Sage said as she stared at the terrycloth. “Or an interior design business. Or…whatever.” Bea and Joy hadn’t started their own businesses here on Hilton Head either.
Sage sighed in frustration when she didn’t want to be frustrated today. “It’s too much to add an outside entrance to that office. So I could have people go through the house, but I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like what I want.”
“You want that house to be a sanctuary,” Bessie said. “Without the outside entrance, Sage.”
“Yeah,” she said. She drew in a breath. “Okay, it’s Ty’s birthday, and I’m not going to let anything drag me down today.” She hung the towel on the hook beside the sink and drew Bessie into a hug. “Thank you so much for helping me with the cake. It’s beautiful.”
“Anytime, my friend.” Bessie squeezed her, and then Sage returned to the three-tier, bright-blue-frosted birthday cake. Bessie had done swirls of rainbow-dyed frosting around each tier, and Sage would put those big chunky number candles it the top right before she sang a solo ofHappy Birthdayto him.
After getting the balloons, Sage pulled up to Ty’s pink house knowing he wasn’t home. His pups would be, and she hoped Sherman would behave and let her tie the balloons to the backs of chairs. Maybe a lamp or two. She’d have to keep her eye on the black lab in the kitchen too, because he loved sweets, and she had that birthday cake riding shotgun.
She got out and collected it from the passenger side, then went up the steps to the front door. No dice. She hadn’t truly expected Ty to leave his front door open, and she turned toward the garage.
Tapping in a four-digit code and then pressing the pound sign sounded easy enough. But Sage held a three-tier cake in her arms, and the buttons on his keypad didn’t seem to depress. It took her four tries, and she was just about to hurl the cake on the concrete, burst into tears, and drive back to Texas when the door finally rumbled upward.
Relief streamed through her, and she took a deep breath to calm her emotions. She’d taken today off of work so she could dedicate the whole day to Ty, and she’d already spent the morning assembling everything to make his birthday absolutely amazing.
Sage knew she was good at this type of thing. She’d made birthday cakes, hosted parties for friends or just family, for each of her children growing up. Year after year. Jerry too. Her children had since told her that she’d always made them feel special on their birthdays, and she worked hard to do so.
With her confidence high, Sage entered the house and called, “Hey, puppies. It’s just me,” to the dogs. Barking ensued, but it took several long seconds for Sherman and Brother to get off Ty’s bed and navigate their way into the kitchen. By then, Sage had the cake safely on the counter.
She grinned at the dogs as she bent down to pat them and say hello. “Yes, you know me, don’t you?” They did, and as she rose again, she looked at the cake. Then Sherman. “I don’t trust you. Come on, let’s go out while I bring in everything.”
Every time she got home, no matter the time of day, she opened the door for Gypsy. Her dog expected it, and Ty’s did too. So Sage opened the sliding glass door for them, and both Brother and Sherman went right out, no balking. They went down the steps to the yard, and Sage watched them for a moment, smiling, before she went back outside to bring in the ballons and the gifts.
