CHAPTER 15
“Avery? Y’all home?” I heard a voice call from the back door.
“In here!” Avery answered as she put away the last of the breakfast dishes.
Annabelle ran out of the living room where we were playing Go Fish to greet Heather. “Auntie Heather! Is all of that for my birthday?”
I got up, heading into the kitchen to see if Heather needed any help unloading whatever she’d brought this time. If she kept delivering pastries regularly, I’d have to step up my weekly mileage. But when I saw the enormity of what Heather had created, I knew this wasn’t an ordinary baking day.
Avery came in through the back door behind Heather, bringing in another load while Annabelle ran around excitedly, opening boxes to peer in at their contents. I glanced around uncertainly, wondering exactly what I’d just walked into.
There were ten pink bakery boxes of different types of cookies, a freshly iced, three-tiered strawberry cake on the counter, a styrofoam block dotted with two dozen cake pops on sticks, an aluminum platter overflowing with chocolate tarts, and three trays of scones in plastic storage containers. All of that would be fine — maybe — if more things weren’t entering the kitchen in the arms of Avery and Heather.
I took another cake from Avery’s hands — carrot, I think — and made room for it on the kitchen table while Heather set down four long boxes filled to the brim with fresh donuts. Avery ran back to snag the remaining grocery bags she’d set right outside the door, and when every dessert finally had a resting place, we all stared around the room for a second.
“Wow!” Annabelle cried.
“Um, Heather?” Avery ventured. “You know the party isn’t for a few weeks, right?”
When Avery had mentioned she wanted to throw a fourth birthday party for Annabelle, with cake and pony rides at the ranch, I told her I’d help with whatever she needed. I’d be okay with giving Annabelle anything, including a life-sized pony cake if she had her heart set on it, but somehow I felt like everything spread out in our kitchen wasn’t exactly what Avery had in mind.
“This is just my trial run, silly!” Heather laughed nervously, glancing at Avery as she fussed with the icing on the bigger of the two cakes. “For the actual day there will be much more. You said the theme was Candyland, right? Candyland means sweets!”
“Well, yes,” Avery admitted. “But I thought I’d just use a little Kool-Aid in the ponies’ hair and get a cupcake piñata.”
I tried to hide my smirk, and for the first time since she’d blown in with a year’s worth of baked goods, Heather looked over at me like she just noticed I was there. “Oh, hi, Fox.”
“Hey,” I said slowly, looking from her to Avery. Something was up with Heather, and from Avery’s subtly pointed eye widening in my direction, I got the hint that maybe it was time for me and Annabelle to clear out of the kitchen.
“I’m just going to—” I gestured vaguely in the direction of the living room. “Bells, want to go finish our game?”
“And then later can we eat some of this?” Annabelle asked.
“Here,” Avery said, shoving a box of cookies into my hands. “You guys can take these.”
“We’re having cookies before lunch?” Annabelle tugged on my arm excitedly.
“Looks like it,” I told her, herding her out of the kitchen.
Once we were settled back in the living room, I realized I could still hear most of what Avery and Heather were saying. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but I figured it wasn’t my fault if I accidentally overheard something that pertained to the situation with her and Lucas.
“Do you have any reds?” Annabelle asked. Her special deck of Go Fish cards was age-appropriate, which was good because yesterday when she was counting with Elmo I noticed she knew her numbers by heart but not necessarily by sight. We’d have to work on that.
I gave her two red cards and a cookie.
“Am I a cold bitch?” Heather asked from the kitchen.
I stopped my hand with my own cookie midway to my mouth.
“What?” Avery asked incredulously.
“Am I? Am I callous and bitchy?” Heather wanted to know.
“Why would you ask me that?” Avery said warily. “What happened?”
Heather sighed. “Nothing. I got into a fight with Lucas a few days ago.”
I couldn’t believe Lucas would say something like that to her. If so, it was really fucked up, and he and I probably needed to have a conversation about it.
“He said that to you?”
I guess Avery couldn’t believe it either.
“Of course not.”
Well, at least now I didn’t have to kick his ass.
“Your turn, Fox!” Annabelle chirped at me.
I played my turn, one ear still tuned into the girls’ voices.
“I don’t understand,” Avery was saying.
“Do you remember Brandon?”
This conversation was giving me whiplash.
“From high school? Cute, nice guy that you broke up with for no real reason? Sure.”
“He’s getting married.” Something clattered into the sink.
“Married? Who told you that? And, um… why do you care?”
My thoughts exactly.
“Do you have any greens?” I asked Annabelle, and she shook her head.
“Go fish!”
“His mother saw my mother at the grocery store. He met a pre-law girl in college, they’re getting married in a few months, and his mom wanted to know if I’d make the cake. Apparently it’s hard to find a specialty baker in the bride’s hometown, and his mom tried the vegan no-sugar cupcakes I’d made for Selma Arnold’s baby shower and thought they were delightful.” Heather laughed bitterly. “Delightful!”
“And…?”
“Fox! I asked you for blues!”
“Sorry, Annabelle.” I handed her my only blue card. “Go again.”
“Am I not receptive to love? Do I push people away when they try to get close to me?” Heather asked sadly.
“You mean that thing you warned me not to do with Fox?” Avery asked, and I stifled a laugh.
So Avery remembered what Heather had told her when we were first dating — she wasn’t kidding about giving out relationship advice. Hell, she’d given me some just yesterday. But now they were discussing her relationship. What had Lucas said to her? Avery and I had been so wrapped up in everything between us that we hadn’t noticed whatever was going on between Heather and Lucas until now.
“What bullshit excuse did I give you about Brandon? Too tall? Somehow skipped the seemingly mandatory awkward phase? Always had that freshly showered smell?” Heather demanded.
“No. Something about how he couldn’t eat your pastries.”
“Oh.” Heather said in a small voice. “And you didn’t call me out for being a horribly superficial and insensitive person, not to mention a liar? You know I love a baking challenge.”
“I know you well enough to be able to tell when you’re grasping at straws, Heather. I figured it was part of your process,” Avery said sympathetically. “Plus, I got the real story from him.”
“So he told you about his early acceptance to Ole Miss, then? And how he asked me to come with him? And how I might or might not have freaked out and broken up with him because I had lots of feelings?”
“Pretty much.”
Hmm. Heather wasn’t that good at getting close to people, either. She and Lucas really had their work cut out for themselves, then.
“Fox? Can you hear me?” Annabelle waved her little hand in front of my face as she climbed into my lap. “Can I have another cookie?”
“I don’t know,” I said, tickling her ribs until she giggled. “Will it spoil your lunch?”
Annabelle scrunched up her face as she laughed. “Maybe!”
It was my turn to laugh. “At least you’re honest,” I said, handing her the biggest one from the box. I looked at our cards. “I think you won the game.”
“It’s because you weren’t paying attention,” she said seriously. “Mama says we should always pay attention and do our best.”
“She’s right. Want to play again?”
Annabelle considered for a second. “No. I’m going to go play with my dolls. Can I bring my cookie?”
“Sure, but bring this napkin, too,” I said, snagging one off of the coffee table. I watched as she skipped down the hall to her room. I’d go check on her in a minute, maybe see if she wanted to head outside and help me wash the truck.
“I cried into a thousand gallons of ice cream for two weeks afterward, but I was too stubborn to admit I’d made a mistake. Turns out I’m terrible at taking my own advice,” Heather was saying.
“Everyone has to be terrible at something,” Avery told her. “I wish you would’ve told me all of this back then.”
“I’m happy for him, really, despite the unfortunate timing in regards to my current personal life. He deserves someone who appreciates him and I’m glad he found her.” She paused, and I heard her blowing her nose daintily. “I’m going to make them the best damn sugar-free cake in the whole state of Texas.”
“Of course you will.”
“And Lucas can take a hike.”
“I’ll be sure to tell him.”
“On second thought, don’t.”
“I wasn’t actually going to… but you know he’ll be here in a few days, right?”
Heather laughed and sniffled at the same time. “I know. I’ll figure it out. And go ahead, I know you’ve been dying to ask me the details.”
“Well, of course.”
“At the wedding… we really hit it off. After y’all left to go up to your room, we danced all night, talked, drank champagne. It was a great evening.”
“It really was,” Avery said wistfully.
Hearing Heather and Avery discuss our wedding day reminded me just how much I was missing. I’d watched the videos, the small moments I’d managed to capture, but it wasn’t the same as remembering the whole day. I hoped that someday I would.
“Anyhow, we’re both busy — my special event work is really taking off, and Lucas has been back and forth to London for that band, not to mention his work in Los Angeles and New York.We talked on the phone and on Skype… a lot. But until the hospital in Seattle, we’d only seen each other twice since the wedding.”
This was news to me. Heather talked to Lucas all the time? And she’d seen him? When?
“When?”
Avery wanted to know too, obviously.
“He came out to Dallas when I did that big wedding on Valentine’s Day.”
“He did?”
That sneaky bastard. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to shake his hand or punch him for making things even more complicated in my world.
“And also, remember that long weekend when I told you I was visiting my aunt in Austin? He flew me to Los Angeles, and we spent the whole time together.”
“What about your aunt?”
“Oh, I went to see her first. But only for a day,” Heather admitted.
Well, well, well. This was getting interesting. My brother had a secret girlfriend in the form of my wife’s best friend. It suddenly occurred to me that non-amnesiac Fox might’ve known about this development, but then I decided that wasn’t very likely. I probably would’ve told Avery immediately, and it was obvious that she had no idea.
“And then what?”
“A few weeks before Fox’s accident, Lucas and I got into an argument because he gave me an ultimatum.”
“Really?”
I agreed with Avery, that didn’t sound like Lucas.
“Well, sort of. He said we either needed to move forward or put things on hold for a while. He was tired of the long distance — he wanted us to spend more time together.”
“What did he suggest?”
“That I move to Los Angeles.”
Avery’s silence reflected exactly how I felt. I didn’t expect that, but I had to hand it to Lucas for going after what he wanted.
“I really liked it there, Avery,” Heather continued. “And seeing as I’m getting more into the specialty baking, Lucas thinks I could easily build up a clientele who would appreciate my style — he called it a mix of Crisco and consciousness.”
Avery laughed. “Is Lucas your new agent?”
Heather laughed too, but more softly. “I really considered the move. You, Fox, and Annabelle were going to New York, and I’d be here by myself. We’ve been best friends since we were six, Avery. What was I going to do without you?”
“So, you’ll be in L.A. and I’ll be in New York?” Avery’s voice was a mixture of sadness and disbelief.
Heather sniffled. “You know I don’t take kindly to strong suggestion, and so when Lucas wouldn’t shut up about me moving, about how great it would be, I told him to back off.”
I could just imagine Heather telling Lucas to shut up already. It was good for him, this girl who kept him grounded. I’d pass Heather’s advice on to him — try not to screw it up any more than you already have. I knew firsthand how fucking annoying Lucas could be when he didn’t get his way.
“Back off like how?” Avery asked.
“Back off like break up,” she admitted. “But then Fox was in the coma, and when I saw Lucas in Seattle I couldn’t stick to it. I care about him so much, and I hated to see him hurting. It was an awful time for three of the most important people in my life.”
“I appreciated your support more than you’ll ever know. Annabelle and I are really lucky to have you. Fox, too. But where does that leave you and Lucas?”
“I don’t know,” Heather sighed. “We talked, but I still feel the same way. I loved being on the West Coast, but I’m just not sure it’s for me. I don’t want to move so far away from everyone I know.”
Avery was silent for a few moments. “We have that place in Seattle,” she said finally. “And we could visit, vacation. All of us together.”
“It’s a big step,” Heather said. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“Don’t count it out. Lucas cares about you a lot, it’s obvious. Don’t push him away.”
“I know. I’m trying not to, but…”
“You’re terrible at taking your own advice, I remember.”
“Thanks for being my best friend and putting up with all my crap.”
“Same, girl, same.” Avery paused. “How long did it take you to make all of this stuff?”
“I might’ve had a small baking meltdown,” Heather admitted.
I smiled to myself as I got up to go get Annabelle from her room. It was too nice outside to be cooped up in here. I was pretty sure I could count on Avery to fill me in on the important points of the rest of their conversation. The last thing I heard was Avery’s laugh.
“You know I like to eat my feelings, Heather, but this is ridiculous.”