Chapter One
Darcy took off her apron and tossed it into the bin in the corner of the kitchen. She hung her ball cap in her cubby and pulled out her bag, taking a final look around to make sure ovens were off and everything had been properly put away. Instead of heading out the back as she usually would, she walked through the swinging door to the front of The Flour Pot.
The usual cleanup was underway, with Jeff cleaning the espresso machine and Alex wiping down tables. Lia sat at a table by the window, staring intently at her computer screen. Darcy caught Alex’s eye. “Are you ready for your last pre-wedding consultation with your caterer?”
Alex smiled and set down her towel and spray bottle. “Please tell me there are no more decisions to make.”
Darcy returned the smile. “You’re in the home stretch, I promise.”
“If I’d known how complicated weddings were, I’d have suggested we elope.”
Lia closed her computer and pulled out her wedding binder. She gave Alex a bland look. “There’s still time.”
“I’m kidding.” Alex squeezed her thigh. “You’re so organized, it feels like I’m hardly doing any work at all.”
“Good answer.” Lia gave Alex a quick kiss before flipping to one of the tabbed sections. “So, we pared down the ideas after our last meeting, but I think something might be missing. I know it’s more than enough food, but it feels a little chintzy. Like it’s not a full meal.”
The seating would include tables on the patio, so Alex and Lia didn’t want it to feel like a sit-down kind of thing. Darcy liked their plan of stations paired with passed hors d’oeuvres, but she knew what Lia meant. She drummed her fingers on the table. “What if we add something a little more substantial?”
Lia tipped her head to the side. “Like what?”
“Something warm, with protein. Like…” Darcy rolled her hands in front of her while she thought it out. “Mini beef Wellingtons.”
Lia’s eyes lit up. “You can do that?”
Darcy nodded. “Alex is already making puff pastry. All we need is beef tenderloin and some mushrooms.”
Alex smiled. “I’ll add it to this week’s order.”
They went through the photos and notes that Lia had compiled for everything else. In the end, Darcy felt good about the results. She was pretty sure Lia did, too. And with the two kitchen hands Alex hired on top of waitstaff, she’d have no trouble. “So, is everything else set?”
She admired the cake design again, along with the flowers. Alex excused herself so Lia could show off a picture of her dress, which Darcy hadn’t yet seen. It was simpler than a traditional wedding gown, but lovely, not unlike the kind of dress Darcy would pick for herself. Assuming she ever got married, that is. She liked the idea of a partner, but finding one sat pretty low on her priority list. Liam was her focus. And while she didn’t choose to be celibate, the bar to join her family was high.
When they wrapped up, Lia stood to give her a hug. “I love that you’re the caterer, but I hate that you’re not going to be able to enjoy the party.”
“I’ll enjoy it plenty, I promise.”
“I hope we’ve kept it simple enough for that to be true.”
“D. Belo Catering has everything under control. Who is your DJ?”
Lia grinned. “Karen. She does things at the Pied sometimes. She and Alex have been friends for years.”
“Nice. What about the photography?”
“This artist friend of Alex’s, Emerson Lange. She’s mostly a painter, but does photography, too. I’ve met her a few times. She’s nice. Cute, too.”
Darcy raised a brow. “How cute?”
“In my book, full-on hot. Short, jet black hair. Maybe Asian, or at least part.”
“Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever met her.” Darcy laughed. “But she sounds like my type.”
“I can find out if she’s single,” Lia offered.
“No, no, no. I’m not looking. I just like to look.”
“I hear you. How’s Liam?”
Darcy smiled. “Eight going on eighty.”
“That’s my favorite thing about him.” Lia’s face softened, making Darcy wonder if she and Alex had started talking about kids.
“He’s all about his science project and how often I take him to the library.”
“How often do you take him to the library?”
“Once a week.”
“Let me guess. That’s not enough?”
“I’m not complaining. Trust me, I’d never complain about a kid whose favorite thing to do is learn stuff.” Darcy loved Liam’s bookish side. She just wanted to make sure he had a good balance.
“I know. I’ve got a good amount of science nerd in me. Maybe I can take library duty every now and then.”
“Why do I get the feeling that would be as much fun for you as it would be for him?”
Lia shrugged. “Because it would.”
“How about after the wedding? You’re kind of busy right now.”
“I have no idea what you mean. Everything is completely under control.”
“What’s under control?” Alex asked from across the room.
Lia and Darcy replied in unison. “Everything.”
Lia turned back to Darcy. “I don’t want to keep you. I know you need to get home.”
“I should go. But if you have changes, you know where to find me.”
“I do. Thank you for doing this. There is no one else I’d rather have in charge.”
“It’s going to be fun. And since I’ll be behind the scenes, I don’t have to worry about finding a date.” Not that she couldn’t find one. It just rarely turned out to be worth the effort.
Lia, who was more of an introvert than Darcy, nodded appreciatively. “I’ve so been there.”
Darcy hugged Lia and gathered her things. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?”
“Thanks. I think we’re good.” Lia smiled, then took a deep breath. “Ask me again after my whole family gets here.”
*****
Darcy passed the school bus as she turned onto her street. Even though Liam rarely beat her home by more than a minute or two, she hated the idea of him coming home to an empty apartment. Even if he was the one who insisted it was no big deal in the first place, and that aftercare was for babies.
Inside, she found Liam with his head in the cupboard. He emerged with a granola bar, turned to her, and smiled. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, honey. How was school today?”
He rolled his eyes. “We had library, which was awesome, but then Kevin and Bella got into an argument and we had to go back to class early.”
Darcy had to suppress a smile. “I’m sorry your time got cut short.”
“It’s okay. I already had my three books and when we got back to the room, Ms. Shields let us read for a while. I just don’t get why kids have to be so dumb.”
Darcy snickered, doing her best to cover it up with a cough. “We don’t call other people dumb.”
Liam rolled his eyes again. “I know. But they were fighting about this book I read in like first grade. Or kindergarten.”
He said the last word with such disdain. “I guess they can’t all be voracious readers like you.”
“Be what?” Liam had taken a bite of his granola bar, asking his question around a mouthful.
“Chew, then talk.”
He made a show of chewing and swallowing, then repeated the question.
“Voracious. It means eager, like not being able to get enough of something.”
“Voracious.”
Having an intellectual child could be challenging, but she loved that she could almost always distract him by sliding a new word into a sentence. “People use it to talk about wanting lots of food in particular. He had a voracious appetite.”
Liam nodded. “I have a voracious appetite for pizza.”
She smiled. “Indeed you do. Maybe we can go out for pizza this weekend.”
“Yes!” Liam jumped around like he’d just won the lottery.
“Tonight, however, is spaghetti. How about I get started on that while you do your homework?”
Liam finished his granola bar and walked past her to throw away the wrapper. “Okay. I have a pretty voracious appetite for that, too, especially if there are meatballs.”
“I think that could be arranged. Do you want to do your homework at the table?”
Liam shrugged, as though her question was odd, but not unpalatable. “Sure.”
He plopped his backpack on the table and took out a pencil and a folder of perfectly neat pieces of paper. Unlike her, who remained organized through discipline, the kid had a natural tendency to be tidy—one of the traits he got from his father. Along with his eyes and his propensity to snore like a freight train. “Let me know if you need any help.”
“Thanks, Mom, but it’s all pretty basic.”
Darcy pulled out ingredients for their dinner, stealing glances at him while he worked. Other than their trip to the science museum and aquarium in Boston, she didn’t think he was ever as happy as he was doing homework. When she brought their plates to the table, he’d finished everything and was reading one of his library books. She looked over his math problems and the worksheet of spelling words, along with his attempt to draw a cell and all its parts. She expected the first two to be flawless, but the quality of the drawing caught her off guard. “This is really good.”
“Cells are so cool. We watched a video of them splitting and then we got to look at real ones under a microscope.”
“I always thought biology was pretty cool, too.” Maybe she shouldn’t admit it, but she was more impressed with the artistic ability. “You didn’t trace this?”
He slurped a string of spaghetti and shook his head. “I used the picture on the sheet as a guide.”
They finished eating and Liam helped her with the dishes. He wasn’t enthusiastic about chores, but he did them without complaint. Mostly. When they were done, he looked at her hopefully. “Do you want to play chess?”
“How about you take a bath, then we play one game before bed?”
“Okay.” He dragged the word out for several seconds. Darcy smiled. Baths and bedtime reminded her that her kid was still a kid.
“Don’t forget it’s shampoo night.”
Liam, who’d already started down the hall, groaned.
Darcy finished wiping the counters, pulled out the chess set, and sat at the table. When Liam emerged, his hair was wet and he wore a set of Spiderman pajamas. All the maturity, all the seriousness that so often made him seem older than he was, vanished. In that moment, he remained a little boy, her baby. Saying as much would lead to huffs and eye rolls, so she gave him a stern look. “You didn’t just wet your hair, did you?”
That earned her an eye roll, but a playful one. “Mom.”
Darcy shook her head and tsked. “I don’t know. You better let me smell it.”
He made a dramatic show of walking over to her, sticking his head under her nose. “I used gobs of shampoo.”
True to his word, he smelled like superhero shampoo, which smelled more like oranges than superheroes in her opinion. Since the question was more about teasing him than not trusting him, she took advantage of the proximity to wrap her arms around his middle and tickle him. He giggled and squirmed, but didn’t try to get away—a fact that melted her heart. “I guess it’ll do.”
“Sheesh,” he said, extricating himself and taking the seat next to her at the table.
They set up the game and began. He was at the stage where she didn’t put all her attention into beating him, but also didn’t deliberately let him win. In that scenario, he won at least half the time, which she considered quite impressive. This time, she beat him and let him talk her into a rematch. When he took the second game fair and square, he pushed for a tie-breaker.
“Tomorrow. It’s almost bedtime.”
They read a chapter of Harry Potter together, then she left him with his library books for half an hour. She didn’t expect it to last much longer, but more nights than not, he was already asleep when she returned to turn off his light.
Tonight was no exception. Darcy showered and pulled on a T-shirt and boxers, then stopped into Liam’s room to turn off the light. She flipped on the night light that projected the Milky Way onto his ceiling, more out of habit than any need he still had for it, and quietly closed his door.
She curled up on the sofa in the living room and switched on her iPad. She had an email from Nick, confirming the dates of Liam’s weekend visits for May and June, along with his two-week stay in July. She picked up her date book and wrote in all the details. She poked around Pinterest for a little while, adding recipes, a few outfits, activities for Liam, and some vintage photos of lesbians to her various boards. She had to laugh at the assortment, but they were a pretty accurate approximation of her interests, and her life. Maybe it felt sometimes like she was trying to be a dozen things at once, but she wouldn’t change any of it.