An hour later, Heather pulled them back into the chaos and put them to work organizing who’d said yes and who’d said no.
Kate slipped away to text Jack.Okay to tell your mom and sister the truth?
The answer came back instantly.Yes.
“Don’t wear your fingers out,” she mumbled and went back to work.
The people didn’t leave until 8:00 p.m., and Kate texted Jack that they were gone. Minutes later, he and Sara were back there—and the house was blissfully quiet.
Sara and Kate were bursting to tell each other all that had happened, while Jack sat at the kitchen counter and listened. They unloaded the casseroles from the fridge and reheated them.
When it came to eating, they were like the Three Bears. Jack ate lots of anything; Sara ate no carbs or sugar; Kate ate as low-calorie as she could manage.
Through it all, Sara and Kate talked while Jack smiled.
“Ivy was great,” Kate said. “She’s going to sit in the little room during the memorial and get the messages. She’ll open them, read them, then text us if we should know something. We set up a group text so we all get every message.” She glared at Jack. “Will you please stop grinning?”
“Just glad to see that you two hit it off. Did anybody bring any dessert?”
“A chocolate cake,” Kate said, then she and Sara looked at each other and groaned.
With a great show of effort, Jack hobbled into the kitchen and cut himself what had to be a quarter of the cake: seven-layer chocolate with chocolate frosting.
He took it back to the family room and the women watched with longing as he ate it. “So what’s for tomorrow?” He was licking the fork. “Who made this? It’s really good.”
“Janet,” Kate said. “I think. Can you get the box done by Tuesday?”
“I used some moldings I had in the shop, so it can be installed tomorrow. This cake really is good. Wonder if I can get the recipe.”
Kate couldn’t take any more of watching the forbidden chocolate being devoured.
She stood up. “I’m going to bed.”
“Don’t forget what tomorrow is,” Jack said.
“The day you go into a sugar coma and don’t wake up for thirteen and a half years?” Kate smiled sweetly.
“It’s your date with the Viking god.”
“Oh, yeah. I wouldneverforget that.”
“Been thinking about it all day, have you?”
“Every minute.” She had her hand on her bedroom door.
“Sure you don’t want some cake? It’s awfully good.”
“I’d rather go to bed and dream about tallblondmen.” As she closed the door, she heard Sara laugh.
On Saturday, people seemed to think that the planning was to be continued at Sara’s house. But she’d had enough. Every time the doorbell rang, she answered it. She told the person standing there, laptop in hand, that the house had been quarantined with cholera. Or typhoid. Or smallpox. When she got to leprosy, Kate told Jack to stop laughing and do something. He called the security guards back in and they finally had peace. Only Ivy and Heather joined them.
With the help of his sister, Jack prepared to cut a hole in the wall of the little study off Sara’s bedroom.
Kate hadn’t seen the room and she marveled at it. With the two-story ceiling, it was like a tower and it had bookcases all around and all the way up. A ladder rolled about on a brass railing.
“It’s Beauty’s library,” Kate whispered. “I love it.” There was a deep window seat with a dozen big, soft pillows.
“Thank you,” Jack said.
