Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Cara was back at the bakery, on two feet, and feeling tender, but good, a week later.
She was still wearing a wrap to make sure that she didn’t undermine any of the healing that she had done, but she was feeling much better and much more herself.
It was a good day to be off crutches, and Cara was feeling fantastic. She wasn’t back to feeling like she could race around at full speed, but she was feeling all right.
Marlowe had tried to field the delivery that she was making to the hotel, so that Cara wouldn’t have to do it, but Cara wanted to do it. She had been so tired of taking time off. So tired of sitting at home.
Getting out and about was a total relief.
She had a whole box of petit fours and cupcakes for a baby shower held at the hotel.
It was a first for the Painted Ridge Resort, and even though Cara didn’t typically do cake decorating, she was competent enough to do pastel yellow, pink, and blue swirls of buttercream.
Plus, she just felt… she was tired of marinating in her own thoughts. A lot of it was fear. Reliving what had happened, and what could’ve gone wrong. But then also… Zane.
The way that it had felt when he held her. The way that he’d been when she’d come over for dinner at Cody and Marlowe’s. How attentive, like this brooding, looming guardian angel that didn’t radiate light, only an intense sort of dark energy that made her feel drawn to him.
Yeah, it was good to get out and not think about that.
She also gave thanks when she got out of her car, crutch-free, and was able to grab the boxes of sweets all on her own.
Instead of going through the reception area, she followed the trail out to the expansive back lawn of the hotel.
It was down below the pool deck, and a river rushed gently across the other side of the lawn, with a glorious backdrop of mountains behind.
It seemed like the hotel was at a reasonably full capacity, because she could see that there were people reclining on the pool deck, and some swimming. It had been warm and dry since the thunderstorm that had tried to kill her.
And today was particularly warm.
Luckily, there were large shade trees over parts of the lawn, and the area that was set up for the baby shower was entirely shaded.
There were chairs with white covers over them and big pink bows on the back, and the table that was set out had a pink cloth, and a huge arrangement of flowers at the center that were all fuchsia.
She heard the sound of uproarious laughter and looked across the lawn to see a group of women all dressed in floral playing a game of cornhole that seemed to be going hysterically poorly.
She smiled and walked over to the table to get the sweets set out.
“Thank you.”
She turned around and saw Marlowe rushing up to her, looking smooth and put together as always, though there was a sheet of sweat on her forehead.
“I also have a bachelor party, and this is a very different group. So we have them down at the river, and they are going to do a rafting trip led by Nolan, and all we have to supply is a whole lot of beer. But still.”
“Wow. Are we offering rafting trips?”
“I don’t know that we were going to, but there has been a demand for it, and it’s something that Nolan has done before. He’s been a river guide, I mean. So…”
“Right.”
“Is that the baby shower?” She asked, gesturing toward the floral girls.
“It is indeed.”
“That’s so nice,” she said.
There were at least fifteen women in the group. Cara couldn’t imagine having that many friends.
Having such a deep sense of community.
Her sense of community had been entirely… Her mom. In the end, that was what it had been. Marlowe, of course. But everything in her life had gotten smaller and smaller.
Watching somebody so joyfully living this expansive life, with a new life on the way… It made Cara have feelings.
She didn’t really know if she wanted to have kids. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She hadn’t even kissed a man before, not really, so how could she ever know if she wanted children?
But she wanted her life to have that possibility. Wanted it to feel… Bigger. Like she was part of this place, part of this community, so that someday if she did have a baby shower, she knew she would have a bunch of people at it.
“Yeah, this is giving me baby fever,” Marlowe mused.
“Is it?”
“Yes. I’ve wanted them forever. And… You know that.”
“I do. But my brother is a douche.”
Marlowe snorted. “You said it, not me.”
“Are you going to marry Cody?”
Marlowe smiled. “Yes. I am. He hasn’t asked yet, though.”
“Well, what’s he waiting for?”
“I think he was waiting for me to be actually divorced, and then I think he was trying to wait for a reasonable amount of time. It hasn’t been a reasonable amount of time. But it feels like I’ve known him forever. It just feels right. You know?”
“I don’t. I mean, not personally, but I agree that it’s right with the two of you. He’s wonderful.”
“He is. I want to have his babies.”
“Are you going to run this hotel with a baby on your hip?”
“I damn well am. I’m at the point where I want all of my dreams to come true.
Because why not? I didn’t want my life to be demolished, but it really clarified a lot of things, and I’m much happier on the other side of it.
Sometimes, really difficult things lead to the greatest things, and then you’re braver.
So you can do even better things with what you have. Does that make sense?”
She nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“Well, I just think… If I had met Cody without all that stuff happening with Aiden, I don’t think I would’ve been as brave. But I’ve spent a lot of years marinating and just okay, and I’m over it. Done with it. I’m not doing it anymore. Neither should you.”
She blinked. It was uncanny the way that Marlowe read what she was thinking. “I’m going to get out there. I want to have new experiences.”
“Good.”
“Jackson Carey has kind of been sniffing around my bakery, he got my number. But honestly, watching Walker deal with Addison over the phone is making me feel wary of that.”
Marlowe laughed. “I don’t blame you. I haven’t had direct involvement with it, but I’ve heard him and Laney moaning about the situation with the menu for both the bachelorette and the wedding, because she keeps changing it.
It isn’t only her, it’s her father. He’s bound and determined that it be the best wedding the town has ever seen. You know, he used to be the mayor.”
“I gathered that.”
“Now she’s running for mayor. I get the feeling she’s their ultimate princess. So maybe Jackson isn’t so bad. Maybe he’s not fully involved in all of that. Sometimes the favorite child is the worst one.”
“Speaking from your best experience with siblings?”
Marlowe was an only child.
“No. But speaking of somebody who works in hospitality and sees a whole lot of family dynamics. Maybe you should say yes. Let him call you, let him take you out. Do something wild, Cara. Because you only get to live once. So, you can be like me, sitting around waiting for the brilliant thing to happen to you, and then end up having life jolt you out of your safety and comfort, or you can get ahead of it.”
“For now, I think I’ll just set up the petit fours.”
She didn’t leave until the table looked perfect, but Marlowe’s words were lingering in her mind.
Was she just repeating her same patterns here? She knew that she was. Defaulting tonight at home, knitting, but she had just had a sprained ankle. It wasn’t like she had been able to be out and about. She had tried, it was the reason she had the sprained ankle.
She chewed the corner of her fingernail as she walked back into the bakery.
She probably just needed to worry less. Marlowe had said the other day that it was understandable things hadn’t changed overnight.
Yes, part of her had hoped that she would be flipping a magic switch on her life and moving into a whole new place, who didn’t wish for things like that sometimes? But she could be realistic.
This meant that she got to start her survival lessons with Zane soon. She was pinning a lot on those.
And trying not to make it about him and her fascination.
She’d left a roll on the counter in the morning, as she had instructed her staff to do while she was away.
But by mid-morning, it was still there.
She turned to Amelia. “Has he been in while I was gone?”
“Oh no,” she said. “I mean, we put the roll out every morning like you said, but he never came to get one.”
That made the back of her neck prickle for most of the day.
She was taking a break, sitting down with her notebook and thinking about new flavors for her signature rolls, when Zane walked in through the front door, nearly sending her off the edge of her chair.
“Oh. There you are.”
“I heard you were in.”
She wondered who had told him that. Who thought that he might be interested in knowing it.
But she didn’t ask that.
“Yeah. I am. I’m surprised you didn’t come get your rolls while I was gone.”
“I didn’t know that you’d have them out.”
“Yeah. Of course. I wasn’t going to just quit feeding you.”
“This may surprise you, but I’m not so much of a caveman that I don’t know how to feed myself.”
Heat crept into her face. “I mean, I do know that.”
“Just making sure. I feel like sometimes Cody and the others say things about me, and it gets a little bit out of hand.”
“What kinds of things?”
“I feel like it’s been implied that I might be a serial killer.”
“Oh, never that. A sociopath, yes. But not a serial killer.”
“Is there a fundamental difference between the two?” he asked.
“Well, yes. There is. A pretty big difference. Because one doesn’t experience emotions and the other one has killed a whole bunch of people.”
“Fair enough.” To her surprise, he grabbed the back of a chair, pulled it out, and sat across from her. “So, are you interested in starting our lessons?”
“Yes,” she said. “I am. I’m going to the doctor tomorrow to find out how much longer I have to keep my bandage on.”
“Great. I have a whole program.”