Mom led me into her cottage, and she showed off her cake with pride. It was a simple chocolate cake with buttercream icing, but it looked great.
“It looks like the cakes you used to bake for our birthday,” I said.
“I was thinking the same thing! Ryan used to love helping in the kitchen, and he would eat half the batter before the cake was done, so I had to make another batch.”
I laughed. “I remember. I wasn’t much better with the icing.”
“Between the two of you, I always had to bake three cakes, and only two made it to the oven.”
We laughed, and Mom put on the kettle to make two cups of instant coffee. While she did that, I took out small plates and a cake knife from the drawer. I cut the cake into eight even slices and served a slice onto each plate.
When the coffee was ready, we carried our mugs and cake to the small round glass table in the garden and perched on the cast iron chairs. Mom had salvaged them from old Mrs. Hubert who’d moved to an assisted care facility and had wanted to get rid of them.
“The weather has been great,” Mom said. “I’ve been working out here a lot. It’s good to be in touch with nature.”
“You’ve been working?” I put a piece of cake in my mouth and memories of my childhood rushed back at me.
“Yeah, those articles I told you about. I submitted two last week, and I’m working on another two. They’re due soon.”
“I’m proud of you, Mom,” I said.
Mom beamed at me before she shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “Someone has to bring in the bacon, right?”
“Right,” I said. I sipped my coffee and the combination of chocolate cake and coffee was divine.
“Tell me about work,” Mom said. “I saw an article about Veronica Richmond in the tabloids I read when I was doing a bit of research.”
I sighed. “Yeah, she decided her dad should go with a different designer, so Tony Richmond canceled his contract with me.”
“Oh, that’s terrible!”
I nodded. “It seemed as though I wouldn’t be able to balance the books this month, but I think I have worked around it. Have you heard of the Conrad brothers?”
“Of course, I’ve heard of them! There’s always at least one of them in the news. Isn’t your brother friends with one of them?”
“Yeah, Parker Conrad. He’s the one I’m decorating for right now. A new contract, just to keep it together until I find more clients.”
“That’s a good direction, honey,” Mom said. “A good name to have on your portfolio.”
“I thought so too.” I took another bite of cake and chewed slowly, thinking about Parker. It gave me butterflies when I did.
“So, he’s more than just a client, huh?” Mom asked.
I looked up at her, surprised. “What?”
“Do you like him?”
“No,” I said. “I mean, that would be unprofessional. And he’s Ryan’s friend. It’s not right for me to date him.”
Mom ate her cake in silence and sipped her coffee. I glanced around the garden.
“You’ve done a lot with the garden the past while,” I said. “I love those perennials there.”
“I moved them last week. I think they’ll be happier when they’re not in the sun all the time. You can’t live your life according to what Ryan thinks.”
We were back on that. I’d hoped the perennials would draw Mom’s attention away.
“I just don’t want to go behind his back.”