Chapter Nineteen #2
I created an elaborate charcuterie board and a vanilla tarte tatin that smelled like my best dreams. Beside those, I set out bottles of wine and water. There wasn’t enough time to read a book, so I’d simply sent the invite as a way to reconnect. We could pick the book for next month as a group.
Alicia dithered in the kitchen while I paced nervously in the living room, keeping watch through my front window. “My god, everything looks so good,” she called. “I’m starving, and I want to eat it all.”
I laughed. “Eat, then,” I said. “It’s for you too.”
“No. I’m waiting. I can’t be caught with a mouthful of bruschetta or basil leaves in my teeth when everyone arrives.”
Might not be a problem, I thought, dryly. Who knew if anyone would actually come?
The back door opened, and Ilona’s voice echoed through the first floor. “I brought a cheese ball. Am I late?”
Alicia moaned loudly. “I love a good cheese ball. Bring it here.”
I smiled. “Please help yourself and tell Alicia to eat too.”
We settled in the living room a few minutes later, small plates of goodies in hand.
“How’s the search for your dad going?” Alicia asked.
I’d called her the moment I found the new photo, and together we’d searched until after midnight for a lead on his whereabouts. As it turned out, there were dozens of towns in France with restaurants called Le Bistro on streets called Rue Pasteur.
“So-so.” I frowned. “It’s a slow process.”
“You’ll find him,” she said. “I’m starting to think you can do anything. Just hang in there.”
A car slowed on the street beyond my front lawn, and I wrenched the curtain wider. “I think that’s Jeannie’s car,” I said. Then the vehicle backed up and pulled into the driveway. “It is!”
A moment later, she and three others climbed out.
Alicia clapped, then opened the front door to wave from my porch.
My chest tightened, and my eyes lightly stung. “They came.”
“Of course they came,” Alicia said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
I batted away the burgeoning tears and pulled in a shaky breath.
How did my life keep getting better when, on paper, everything looked worse?
I’d lost my mother and ended a long-term marriage last summer.
I’d inherited endless unpaid bills and back taxes.
My husband had filed for bankruptcy. Yet I’d never felt so filled with peace and joy.
“Welcome,” I called as the foursome piled into my home.
“Sophie!” They shouted my name with wide smiles and open arms, then passed me around, delivering warm hugs and a million words of affirmation.
I introduced the ladies to Ilona, and thirty minutes later we gathered at my dining room table. Alicia opened a second bottle of wine.
“We were so excited when you texted,” Jeannie said. “We refused to have book club without you.”
I grinned, speechless and overwhelmed with gratitude.
“These are delicious,” Jeannie said. “Did you make these?” Something I couldn’t name ignited in her expression.
The other ladies exchanged similar looks.
“I did,” I said. “I’m a pastry chef at Chez Margot now. So my skills are improving all the time.”
“You did it,” Jeannie said. “You were unhappy, and you got out. Now look at you. You have this adorable little home in the cutest neighborhood I’ve ever seen. You’re doing what you love. You look incredible, and I hear you’re about to become a mother-in-law!”
I laughed. “That’s true. They haven’t set a date, but Camilla and Jeff are tying the knot.”
We talked for hours before I walked my friends to Jeannie’s car. As Alicia chatted with the others, Jeannie took my hand and held me back.
“Hey, this is probably nothing,” she said, “but do you remember your old HOA president? Joyce Futes?”
“The angriest woman in Virginia?” I asked. “Why yes. How could I forget?”
Jeannie’s button nose wrinkled. She glanced at Alicia and the others before turning her eyes back to me.
“She’s head of the PTA at my kids’ school this year, and she’s a real stickler for parents making big efforts for the many special events and activities.
She has a way of quietly tearing down moms who buy cupcakes and treats instead of making them.
She says everything should be customized for the occasion, and she belittles folks who just don’t have time. ”
I pressed my lips together. “I’ve known a lot of people like that. I’m sorry you’re experiencing it too.”
Jeannie bit her lip, and for the briefest moment, I thought she might ask me to bake for her.
“Go on,” I said, smile widening.
“Her oldest son plays high school football with one of Alicia’s boys, and apparently he had a delivery job this summer for a company called the Invisible Baker.”
My jaw dropped, and my gaze snapped to Alicia.
She was joking and laughing, obliviously, with the women at Jeannie’s car.
“You know who that is.” Jeannie said. Her words weren’t a question.
My cheeks flared with heat, and my tongue seemed to swell. I didn’t want to lie, but I wasn’t ready to tell the truth, not even to Jeannie. Information spread too easily. This was a perfect example. “I mean—”
She waved a hand, expression satisfied, and nodded her head. “That’s all I needed to know. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Everything okay?” Alicia asked. Her smile faltered as she took in my expression.
“Yep!” Jeannie kissed my cheek and strode away. “Just getting her recipe for that cheese ball.”
Alicia quirked a brow as Jeannie dropped behind the wheel and drove away.
Ilona watched from the porch as I headed back inside. “Hey! That was my cheese ball. Whoa,” she said, quickly changing tones. “I was only teasing.”
I blinked, and the earth tilted slightly beneath me.
If Joyce figured out that overworked moms were hiring a personal baker, and the baker was me, a neighbor who’d recently left the community without notice, she’d tell everyone who’d listen.
That news would undoubtedly get back to Robert, who’d immediately aim his proverbial gunfire at my company, and he’d do all he could to burn it down.
I walked to the dining room, unsure what Jeannie’s news meant to me, or what it could amount to, if anything. Then I poured three glasses of wine before turning to Alicia and Ilona. “I’m not sure, but I think I might have a cataclysmic problem.”