“I know,” she laughed. “That’s why I’m going to show Vivianne my secret recipe.”
My mouth fell open mid-slice. “You’re going to show her, but you won’t show me? Your favorite son?”
“Favorite son?” David snorted as he walked into the kitchen and straight to the coffeepot. “I think not.”
“Mom’s going to show Viv how to make her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.”
David stopped mid-pour. “Mom? Is that true? An outsider?”
“Outsider?” Vivianne pouted with mock hurt.
Mom rolled her eyes as she grabbed another bacon slice and put it in the pan. “She’s hardly an outsider. Besides, have either of you ever baked a thing in your life?”
I huffed. “Yes. You made us learn how to make bread. You taught me how to make your Oh My God Brownies.”
“Oh My God Brownies?” Vivianne laughed. “Why are they called that?”
David was stirring some sugar into his coffee when he looked up and smiled. “Because after the first bite, you say, ‘oh my God.’ No joke. Every single person I’ve ever seen take a bite of one says that. So Ladd renamed them a few years back to Oh My God Brownies.”
“Okay, Nellie, you’ll need to share that recipe with me as well.”
Mom laughed. “Trust me, sweetheart, starting tomorrow, you’ll get your fair share of baking when we start prepping for Christmas. David, would you mind being in charge of the eggs? Let’s keep it simple and make scrambled.”
“I can cook the eggs,” Vivianne said.
My mother held up a staying hand. “You, young lady, are a guest in this house. No guest of mine cooks—well, except for baking. Go sit your pretty little self down over at the table and supervise from there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied with a salute and a smile.
My father walked in and held up a jar. “Ran into Betty Townsend in town. She informed me Lisa’s trying to perfect her grandmother’s raspberry-plum jam. She said she’s getting close and shared a jar with me. Betty also told me to tell you to give Lisa a call, David. Something about Lisa going on and on about a promise to go see a movie when you came home from school?”
David’s face lit up. “As if this Christmas couldn’t get any better.”
“Lisa?” Vivianne asked.
“Lisa Townsend is the only daughter of Betty and Marcus Townsend, and David’s high school crush,” I said as I glanced at a smiling David.
He held up his hands in defense. “I won’t argue with you that Lisa was, indeed, the one who got away.”
My father let out a bark of laughter. “The one who got away? You’re only twenty, for Pete’s sake, David. I hardly think she got away. And from what her mother told me, she’s very single.”
David smiled, then it faded. “I feel bad that she never went to college.”
“Why didn’t she?” Vivianne asked.
Drawing in a deep breath, David exhaled. “She wanted to, and was planning on it. She was going to go on a cheerleading scholarship to the University of Texas.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, she was pretty happy about it. Her dad, who runs the local grocery store in town, got really sick and passed away right before she was set to graduate. She was in Ladd’s class.”
Vivianne frowned. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Nodding, David went on. “Yeah, it sucked for the family.”
“Marcus wasn’t from River Falls, but Betty is. He drove through on his way to Denver and fell in love with the town. We had a small store in town, and he bought the owner out, expanded, and gave River Falls a real full-blown grocery store, with a full-time butcher and baker,” Mom explained.
“Made such a big difference in the town,” my father added. “Plus, he added a number of jobs, of course. Which helped our little town as well.”
