Miranda stretched and yawned for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. As a baker, her days generally started at dawn, but by mid-morning she had usually caught her second wind. This morning, however, she just wanted to crawl back into bed. Fortunately, Tommy was happily playing with all the other kids from town in the supervised childcare area, and everyone else was too busy prepping for the party this afternoon to notice.
She poured a large glass of tea, needing something to wake her up. There was a big day ahead of her—serving food, keeping an eye on guests to make sure nothing got out of hand, not to mention the constant running back and forth to replenish food supplies. Plus, Tommy would want to stay up late to play with the other kids, and Drew wasn't going to be any help. He'd be too focused on his date for that.
His date. Miranda's heart did a flip-flop and she ran into the bathroom before anyone could see the tears that threatened to fall. How was she going to make it through a whole day of watching Susie Billings throw herself at Drew, when the mere thought of it threw her into a gigantic tailspin? It had been like this all week long, ever since the scene at his new house. She splashed some water on her face and gave herself a good shake. May as well get over it, because there was nothing to be done about it now.
"Hey." Kayla's voice rang out from the porch attached to the backside of the kitchen. "Can you give me a hand carting this food outside? People are starting to pile up already."
"Yeah, okay." Miranda sniffled.
"Are you all right?" Kayla said. "Your face is beet red and you look exhausted. Have you been crying again?"
"It's okay."
"No, it's not. You should go talk to Drew. Tell him you were wrong, that you want to be with him."
"I can't do that," Miranda said. "He's with someone else now."
"Hmph...Drew is not 'with' Susie Billings. He might be killing time with her, but he's not 'with' her. There's only one woman Drew wants." Kayla grabbed a tub of potato salad and headed toward the door. "It's just too bad that woman is too dumb to realize it."
∞ ∞ ∞
By mid-afternoon, Miranda had served enough potato salad to last a lifetime. It had long been a tradition for the Elliott family to serve the guests at the party. Generally, Miranda took pride in the fact that she was considered one of their own, but today she could have done without it.
The day was hot and muggy, and Susie Billings had barely left Drew's side, even though he was stuck manning the carving station. They were situated just close enough for Susie's grating voice to carry above the crowd, right to Miranda's ears.
"Drew, honey," she said. "Please cut Mrs. Harper a slice of ham."
Irritating.
"Baby," she spoke again, "Mr. Jackson would like another piece of roast beef."
Infuriating.
"Do you really have to go inside again, sweetie?" Susie asked. "Can't someone else bring the tray out? I'm going to miss you while you're gone."
Nauseating and more than Miranda could bear.
Miranda grabbed her things and stepped away from the table. "I'm going to the dessert station to see if it needs to be restocked." She didn't wait for Kayla's response. She couldn't be held responsible for her actions if she were forced to listen to one more word from that girl's mouth. Especially those awful terms of endearment for Drew. They hadn't dated long enough for that, if what they were doing could be called dating, that is. Miranda had never used any special names for Drew when they were together, not the nice kind anyway. He would have hated it. A pang of longing and anxiety ripped through her. She stole a sidelong glance at Drew, talking and laughing—apparently having a hell of a good time with Susie. Maybe Miranda had been wrong. Maybe someone like Susie was what he had really wanted all along.
The dessert table was a disaster. It was a good thing she'd been unable to take any more of Susie Billings, after all. Someone had to straighten and replenish it. She took a moment to ask one of the wait staff hired just for the party to run in and ask Nancy for some more pie and cupcakes. Those seemed to have taken the greatest hit.
She finished combining a tray of black forest and carrot cake slices. "Mmm," she said licking a stray bit of frosting from her finger. It didn't matter how many cakes she made in her lifetime—she would never get tired of buttercream.
"Oh, that looks delicious, dear. Would you give me a slice please?"
"Certainly, Mrs. Harper." Miranda's face flushed, hoping Mrs. Harper hadn't seen her licking her finger like a school girl. "What kind would you like?"
"A little of both, please." Now it was Mrs. Harper's turn to blush. "Just a tiny slice of each."
"Just a tiny slice." Miranda smiled as she placed two extra-large slices of cake on Mrs. Harper's plate. The dear elderly lady was a regular at the restaurant and was known for her sweet tooth.
"Thank you," Mrs. Harper whispered conspiratorially. "Why isn't your young man helping you today?"
"Jordan?" That had to be who Mrs. Harper was talking about. "He's manning the beverage station today." She smiled at Mrs. Harper's quizzical look. "Never enough hands for an event like this, you know."
"Yes, dear. I visited Jordan's station just a few minutes ago. Lovely young man." She raised a champagne flute filled to the brim with a pale orange liquid. "I told him a proper lady doesn't imbibe until early evening, but he convinced me a mimosa was more juice than champagne, so it hardly qualifies."
Miranda laughed. "I like his way of thinking, Mrs. Harper."
"Me, too. But, that's not who I was referring to, dear."
"Oh? Then who?” Miranda's heart fluttered. She knew exactly who.
"You know. That adorable Elliott boy. The one who's building the house on the hill."
"He's at the carving station, Mrs. Harper. But he's not my young man. We're just friends."
"Oh? I thought he was the father of your boy."
"He is." This conversation was getting uncomfortable. "But that was a long time ago. It's purely platonic now."
"I don't think so, dear." Mrs. Harper gave Miranda a knowing glance. "I've seen the way he looks at you. Nothing 'platonic' about that."
"Well, maybe once. A long time ago." Miranda paused. The lilting voice of Susie Billings carried across the courtyard, anchoring her to the present. She gestured toward the carving station. "He's someone else's 'young man' now."
"Really—who?" Mrs. Harper turned to follow Miranda's gesture. "Her? The Billing's girl?" She turned back toward Miranda, a look of incredulity on her face. "Don't get me wrong now, she's pleasant enough, I guess. But, a nice young man like Mr. Elliott would get tired of someone like her after a while." She leaned toward Miranda, looking around for eavesdroppers before continuing. "Now, don't you breathe a word of this dear. I play bridge with that girl's grandmother every Friday evening and I would hate for her to think I was spreading gossip, but she is what we called 'fast' in my day."
Miranda's eyebrows rose, and she gave Mrs. Harper a smile of encouragement. Being that she was a business owner in the community and wanted to maintain at least a semblance of neutrality, she refused to actively participate in this conversation. She certainly wasn't above listening to it, though.
“When I was a young girl, we would never think of stepping out in some of the clothes she wears." Mrs. Harper made a clicking sound with her tongue. "Nothing left to the imagination. Of course, there were a lot of things different in my day." Mrs. Harper sighed. "A girl would have been mortified to have gotten herself pregnant. She certainly would not have gone out in public and flaunted herself to her boss in front of the entire community."
"What?" Miranda made a mental note to remind herself to be offended later, as she had essentially done the same thing, but the topic had taken a sudden turn. Was Mrs. Harper trying to say that Susie Billings was pregnant?
"Oh yes, dear." Mrs. Harper smiled. She had Miranda's full attention now. She leaned in closer still, her breath a strange combination of mimosa and buttercream. "I've got it straight from her grandmother that Susie is with child. Just found out a week ago."
Miranda paled. She felt incredibly sick to her stomach. One week. As far as Miranda knew, Drew and Susie had only been dating for about a month. Of course, that didn't mean anything. A girl could certainly get pregnant in that amount of time. Then again, they could also have been seeing each other for much longer than she thought. It had been a couple of months since she and Drew had called it quits, after all, and it wasn’t a secret he’d went out with her the first night he was back home.
"Are you all right, dear?" Mrs. Harper's thin lips were pursed into an interested look of concern.
"I'm fine," Miranda murmured. "I just…" her voice trailed off, as a peal of Susie's laughter floated across the courtyard. "I need to run into the house to see what's taking those cupcakes so long."
"Oh, of course," Mrs. Harper said. "I know you're busy today. I didn't mean to keep you."
"No problem. Have a wonderful day, Mrs. Harper," Miranda somehow managed. She rushed toward the Inn, barely noticing anyone or anything around her. Somewhere, in the distance, she thought she heard Kayla calling her name, but she couldn't be sure. Everything was in a haze.
She burst through the kitchen door and raced up the back stairs toward her bedroom. Thank goodness no one was in the kitchen, for once. She managed to hold back the tears until she reached the relative safety of her room. She was too late. Even though she had spent the last couple of months pushing Drew away, part of her knew she would eventually give in. And she had been close. She had been so close to freeing herself of the chains of spite and mistrust. She'd been so close to admitting she was wrong and starting a new life. But, she was too late. She had waited too long, and Drew had found someone else—was having a child with someone else. Life would never be the same again.