Chapter 11 #3
“In all my life…best birthday ever,” she whispered as he held her close.
His words were both a vow and a promise. “Love you, Briar. So much it hurts.” Then he kissed the top of her head and tilted her chin up, until they were locked in each other’s gaze.
It was the sound of a truck coming up the driveway that broke the spell.
He pulled a little box of matches out of his pocket and lit the single candle.
“Better make that wish now, before the horde arrives.”
She was wiping away tears as she paused, then leaned over and blew out the candle. “You’ll need a knife to cut cake, and a dessert server too,” she said, and took them out of a nearby drawer.
“You choose the first piece,” he said, and watched her cut into the corner with all the roses and put it on her plate. Then she cut his piece from the next spot over and put it on his plate.
“Thanks for breakfast, and the best birthday ever,” she said, took a bite, and then rolled her eyes. “It’s as good as it is pretty.”
Tate tasted it and nodded. “It’s good cake, but you’re my kind of dessert.”
She heard the garage door going up and laughed. “Here they come. Don’t abandon me just yet.”
Tate pointed. “Want me to save your dad a piece?”
She shrugged. “Sure, I guess. But I told you he would forget.”
“I’ll drop it by his office on my way home,” he said.
“Then take two pieces. One for him. One for Rita.”
“Will do,” he said, and cut two pieces, put them on little plates with a fork beside them, and covered them with foil, then confiscated one of the gift bags he’d brought to carry them in.
At that moment, the roofers walked into the kitchen. “Morning, Briar. The shingles truck is on the way. Thought we’d get an early start before it got so hot.”
“You’re all just in time,” Tate said. “Today is Briar’s eighteenth birthday. I brought cake enough for her to share. And, she has big news. Briar, honey…tell them about your scholarship letter.”
“Tate and I both graduate early. We’ll be high school graduates by Christmas, and I just accepted a four-year, full-ride scholarship to Tulane, beginning this coming January semester.”
The men whooped. “Not a bit surprised… Smartest kid I ever worked with! Way to go, Briar!” The comments continued as Tate began cutting pieces of cake and plating them, while the workers continued to arrive and join in the celebration.
After the first round of cake was eaten, and the congratulations to Briar were over, the men went to work.
Briar reluctantly bid Tate goodbye, then carried her star map and her Star Wish Bear up to her room, put them on her bed, and went back downstairs to get to work, while Tate headed for Roger Lowe’s insurance agency.
Tate knew this was going to shame her father, and he didn’t give a tinker’s damn. He’d spent a good portion of his life seeing her hurt and drying her tears because of what her parents had said, or what they’d left undone.
He parked in front of the agency, picked up the bag with the cake, and headed inside the office.
Roger was going through emails he’d put aside yesterday because of the unexpected trip out of town, and Rita was going through the morning mail, when Tate walked in.
Roger looked up, startled by Tate’s unexpected appearance, and then even more so by what he took out of the bag and put on their desks.
“Briar asked me to drop off a piece of her birthday cake for each of you before the work crew ate it all.”
Roger’s heart sank. “Where did birthday cake come from?”
“From me. For her eighteenth birthday today.” Then he turned and walked out.
“Oh, yum,” Rita said, as she took the foil off of her piece and forked a bite. “I love bakery cakes. They make the best buttercream icings, don’t you think?”
Roger nodded, but the guilt was strong within him, and he couldn’t bring himself to taste it for fear it would taste like crow.
He sat for a few minutes, trying to think what he could do to rectify this disastrous oversight, but the reality was that it was already too late. He wondered if Mariah remembered, then decided it didn’t matter. This was his failure.
The downside for Roger was that the only florist shop in town was still in disrepair, so there was no way to order flowers. It was like Briar said. He’d never put her first. Not even when she was a child. There were no fences left to mend. Just a waiting game until she was packed up and gone.
* * *
Andy Sparks was dealing with his own disappointment.
When Tate came into the store to pick up the cake he’d ordered from the deli bakery, he wanted to ask Tate if he’d reconsidered.
He knew school was about to begin but even thought about begging him to come back to work just on weekends.
Only he didn’t have the guts to put Tate in that position again.
He understood and empathized with the reason he’d quit, but it didn’t change the fact that Andy was down one employee, so as soon as Tate left the store, Andy put up a HELP WANTED sign in the front window.
* * *
Tate went home after dropping off the cake. His mother was outside in her vegetable garden, and Tate was facing an uncertain future. He changed into work clothes and went out to help.
She was bent over a long row of green beans, and there was an empty bucket sitting at the end of a row of tomatoes. He walked over to where she was working.
“Mama, let me,” he said. “You hate picking beans. You pick tomatoes. I’ll finish these.”
Lilith straightened up, groaning slightly at the kink already in her back. “I won’t refuse the offer,” she said. “Did Briar like her birthday present?”
He grinned. “She loved every bit of it. I took a piece of cake to her dad and his secretary on the way home.”
“That’s nice. I’m sure he was grateful,” she said.
“And I’m sure he was wishing I didn’t exist, because he hadn’t gotten her anything. He didn’t even remember it was her birthday until I gave them the cake. I sincerely hope his conscience hurts.”
Lilith shook her head. “They have to be the most unnatural parents I’ve ever known. Anyway, thank you for the help. It’s already getting hot.”