Chapter 6
As soon as she knocked on the door of Willa’s house, it was flung open. At first she thought that there was no one there, but the next second she looked down and saw a curly-haired little boy staring up at her with wide blue eyes.
”Are you Mama Willa’s friend?”
A little girl ran to join them, sliding on the hardwood floor when she tried to come to a quick stop in her pink and purple socks.
”Are you going to teach her how to bake?” she asked. ”Because she tried to make cupcakes for my class but they were as hard as rocks and the bottoms were black and so we had to get up early and drive to the grocery store for cupcakes but the grocery store only had chocolate cupcakes and I don’t even like chocolate cupcakes and so we bought cookies instead but then Sasha was mad because I told her that I was going to bring cupcakes.”
Keely blinked a couple times, taking in the sudden assault of words. ”Yeah, I came here to bake with you guys. Can I come in?”
”Come in, come in.” The little boy ducked behind her, put his hands on the small of her back, and pushed her through the door.
”Are we making cupcakes?” the girl asked.
”Yes, Willa requested cupcakes. I sent her the recipe for my favorite kind. They’re strawberry lemon.”
”Yuck.” The little boy closed the door with a nerve-rattling slam.
”Finn, you love strawberry lemonade,” the girl scolded.
”So?”
”So imagine strawberry lemonade cupcakes.”
Finn thought that over for a moment. ”I guess that sounds okay.”
The little girl smiled at Keely and rolled her eyes as if to say, Do you see what I have to put up with?
”You’re here!” Willa walked in through the back door and greeted her with a hug. ”Sorry, I was out in the garden. I’ll just wash up and we can get started. I see you’ve already met Finn and Ellie.”
”Where’s all the stuff for cupcakes?” Finn asked, peering into the small bag that Keely carried. ”Where’s the flour and the eggs and the mixer?”
”We bought it all with Willa after school the other day, remember?”
”No.” He glared belligerently at his sister and crossed his arms over his chest.
”Remember you picked out the dinosaur sprinkles?”
He gasped and threw his arms wide. ”I forgot about the dinosaur sprinkles! Can we use the dinosaur sprinkles?” he asked, spinning to look at Willa.
”Yes,” she laughed. ”Come wash your hands, and we’ll get started.”
”I want to do the sprinkles!”
”We have to make the cupcakes first.”
”And let them cool,” Ellie added. ”And make the frosting.”
”Sounds like you are already an expert,” Keely said as she followed them through to the kitchen.
”I used to bake with my Auntie Ruthie. I’m really good at it.”
”Good to know,” Keely chuckled.
She led them through the steps of the two recipes that Willa had shopped for. First they made dough and rolled out pie crusts. Then, while those baked, they mixed up cupcake batter. Or rather, she and Ellie mixed up cupcake batter while Willa ran intermission and did her best to stop Finn from wreaking havoc.
He insisted on helping when the chocolate came out and helped stir together the filling for the French silk pie. Once the cupcakes were in the oven, the kids lost interest and went out into the backyard to play.
”Tell me when it’s time for sprinkles!” Finn shouted as he ran out the back door.
”Goodness.” Willa smiled and leaned back against the kitchen counter. ”I live here, and their energy still catches me by surprise sometimes.”
”They’re full of energy,” Keely agreed mildly. It was crazy to think that Nick and Chloe would have a little boy running around their place before long.
She started in on the dirty mixing bowls that had piled up, but Willa shooed her away from the sink.
”You sit down. You’ve done enough. At least until it’s time to make the buttercream frosting. Mine never turns out right.”
”Okay if I make some coffee?” she asked, eyeing the coffee maker that was tucked under one of the cupboards. She had been up late into the night working through the stack of library books that she had borrowed. They were much better company than the shadowy figures who populated her bad dreams.
”Coffee would be amazing,” Willa said. ”Thank you.”
She got that going, and the sharp scent of coffee joined with the warm smell of baking cupcakes and cooling pie crests.
By the time the dishes were finished and the coffee had been consumed along with good conversation, cold rain drove the kids back inside.
Ellie helped to whip up the strawberry buttercream, and then Willa supervised cupcake decoration while Keely finished making the French silk pie. Once that was in the fridge, she washed the next round of bowls and mixers. Willa was too busy trying to contain the chaos of sprinkles to stop her this time.
They had just settled the kids at the kitchen table with a cupcake each – Finn’s seemed to be more sprinkles than frosting – when someone knocked at the front door.
Willa hurried to answer it while Keely bit into one of the cupcakes. No sprinkles, just Meyer lemon pound cake with fresh (well, frozen) strawberry buttercream. It was phenomenal, even better than the first time she had tried the recipe. She had doubled the lemon zest this time and added some to the frosting as well, which pushed the small cakes into over-the-top deliciousness.
Even the kids were quiet, too busy enjoying the strawberry lemon cupcakes to tell stories or bicker the way that they had all through the making of them.
There was a mix of voices in the front room. Keely walked to the doorway, cupcake in hand, to see that three of Willa‘s friends had dropped by all at once. Nat and Willa were deep in conversation about something related to Community Property Restorations, Ali was unwinding a scarf of ridiculous length from around her neck, and Chloe beamed when she saw Keely.
”Funny seeing you here!” She hurried through the living room and gave her a hug, leaning forward to avoid squishing her round belly. ”This must be your baking day. The kids were so excited. What is that? It smells amazing.”
”Lemon strawberry cupcakes. We made plenty.” She backtracked and grabbed one of the sprinkle-crusted cupcakes off the cooling rack.
”That’s… festive.”
”Sorry about the sprinkles,” she said quietly. ”The kids were in charge of decorations.”
”I see.” She surreptitiously removed the gold and silver baubles – technically edible, but apparently not something that Chloe was willing to feed her unborn child – and disposed of them before biting into the cupcake. When she finally did, her eyes widened.
”This is amazing. Wow. I knew you were a great baker, but this is next level.”
Keely felt her cheeks color. ”Thanks.”
”Nat!” Chloe walked out into the living room and interrupted Nat and Willa’s conversation, utterly unrepentant and waving her cupcake in their direction. ”You have to try these.”
Nat looked annoyed. ”The fundraiser is in one week and we–”
”I know, and Keely is the perfect person to cater.” Chloe turned to look at her, wide-eyed and smiling. ”You will, won’t you? I’ve got the savory stuff covered, but if you could handle the dessert table, the event will be a knockout.”
Her mouth was open in surprise, and she quickly shut it. ”I’ve never catered an event before.”
”But you totally could. This is amazing. If you don’t have enough room for everything at your place, you could bring the overflow to me. You could even use my oven if you needed to.” As she spoke, she took another cupcake from the kitchen and carried it over to Nat. She accepted it with a frown – but when she bit into the cupcake, her irritation fell away.
”This is really good,” she said through a mouthful of lemon cupcake and strawberry frosting.
”I know, right?” Chloe fetched another cupcake for Ali, who was equally quick with her praise.
”It’s not a big event,” Willa said thoughtfully. ”I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to. Only if you want to, of course.”
”Obviously we’d pay you,” Nat said through another mouth full of cupcake.
”Would you swallow that and then speak?”
”Fine, Mom.” She rolled her eyes.
Chloe gave her a wide-eyed look as she cleaned a bit of pink frosting off of her thumb. ”So? What do you say?”
”How many people?” Keely asked.
”We don’t have a final number yet.” Nat sounded a bit frustrated. ”We pulled the whole thing together last minute when our new donor said that he wanted to bring a few friends down from the city to learn more about us. These are potentially huge donors, so we want to get this right.”
”And they’re big foodies,” Chloe added, ”so we want to knock their socks off.”
”No pressure,” Ali joked. ”But seriously, if everything you make is as good as these cupcakes, you would knock this out of the park.”
”We were thinking about bringing ice cream from Kula at the end of the night, so it would be amazing if you could bake something to complement that. Scoops of ice cream feel like… not enough.”
”Apple pie à la mode?” Ali suggested.
”No,” Keely said thoughtfully. ”Something that complements the more unusual flavors that they offer. I could make ice cream sandwiches. A different flavor of cookie for each kind of ice cream?”
”I love that,” Chloe said.
”Maybe too messy for this group though,” Nat said.
”Ice cream cake?” Ali suggested.
”That could be fun,” Keely agreed. ”I could make something that looks really chic and fancy, but then when we cut into it, we have a layer of boysenberry or something. That bright purple one. I could make a few small cakes, all different flavors.”
”I love it!” Chloe enthused.
”So you’ll do it?” Nat asked.
”Sure, I guess so. Next weekend?”
”Yeah.”
She looked at Chloe. ”And you’re doing the savory stuff?”
”I was going to, but honestly if you want to help me with that, it would be a lifesaver. We had great caterers for the last event, but this one was too last-minute and they’re already booked.”
She nodded thoughtfully. ”Got it. How about we meet up tomorrow and figure out a menu?”
”Perfect.”
”We should get going,” Nat said. ”We’re headed to the worksite, just wanted to stop by on our way over. I’ll get you the number of people attending as soon as I can.”
”Okay, thanks.”
”And you’ll work out a price per head?”
She nodded, already feeling like she was in too deep. She had never cooked for a big group of people before, never mind worked out the pricing. But Chloe came closer and squeezed her arm.
”We’ve got this. We’ll figure it out together.” She kissed her on the cheek and followed Nat out the front door.
”You got the library job, by the way,” Ali whispered as she looped the scarf back around her neck.
Her jaw dropped. ”I did?”
”Yep. Paperwork hasn’t gone through yet, but Ingrid said that you were the best candidate. See you at work.” She winked at her and hurried to catch up with the others. Then she doubled back and stuck her head through the doorway. ”Ingrid will love you double if you bring cupcakes.”
Keely laughed. ”Noted.”
”She’ll call you Monday, I think. See you soon!”
”Two jobs in ten minutes.” Willa gave her a playful shove on her way past. ”You’re settling into Pelican Point real quick.”
”Am I?” she asked, more to herself than Willa.
She watched through the front window as Nat’s truck rolled by. Behind her, she heard Willa scolding the kids for claiming another two cupcakes each.
A warm feeling of home kindled in her chest, and she smiled.
”I guess I am.”