Her face transformed immediately with a smile. “Sure!”
She was fourteen years old. She was on the cusp of wanting to be fully independent, but she was still young enough to desire adult attention.
“First we need eggs,” I said as I headed toward the walk-in. Waverly wasn’t far behind me.
I showed her how to separate the egg whites and then measured out the sugar, vanilla, and cream of tartar. And then we blended it all together.
“You want to know how you test to see if it’s done?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said eagerly.
I turned off the mixer and removed the mixing bowl. I flipped the metal bowl over my head, causing Waverly to laugh.
“See? It’s not going anywhere.” I set the bowl down on the counter.
“What do we do with the egg yolks?” she inquired.
“We’ll use them to make custard, which will go in the banana pudding. What do you say? You want to make custard next?”
She nodded. “Yeah, let’s do it!”
By eight o’clock, I was zonked, and everyone else was, too. Because of the extra hands, we were moving along at good pace. The following day, I would dedicate all my time to the wedding cake.
“Let’s call it,” I said, rubbing the small of my back.
“Thank God,” Connie muttered.
I grinned.
“Can I come back tomorrow?” Waverly asked me, big blue eyes pleading.
“It’s okay with me if it’s okay with your sister,” I said.
“Can I, Willa?” Waverly asked as she tromped over to her sister.
Willa reached out and gently dusted flour off her sister’s cheek and then wrapped an arm around her bony shoulders. “Yeah, we’ll both come back.”
“What about you guys?” I directed my question to Savage and Duke.
“We’ll be here,” Duke assured me. Savage nodded in affirmation.
“I can’t thank you guys enough,” I said. “It really…yeah.”
I felt myself getting misty-eyed.
“Uh-oh, hormone central,” Duke said, slinging an arm around my shoulder and hugging me into him.
“Guess this is the part where I take over.”
I whirled. Slash was leaning in the doorway, looking casual and amused.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I wasn’t supposed to be finished for another two hours.”
“I had a feeling you’d be done earlier.” He pushed away from the doorway and came to me. Duke squeezed my shoulder in platonic friendship and let me go.
“You had a feeling,” I remarked suspiciously.
He winked. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”