“We are the faces of this town, bud. Not a good look to have us bloodied and bruised at Spud Day.” Buster looked calm.
“You!” Noah pointed a finger at him but had no words, so he jabbed him in the forehead. “Fuck off!”
He then stormed inside and slammed the door of the Howler. The only problem being, it was one of those self-shutting doors, so it closed slowly. Buster stood there laughing as Noah fired several obscene gestures at him through the glass. He then turned and ran up the stairs to his room. Closing the door, he sat on his bed and contemplated taking a vacation.
Chapter Twenty-One
The next day was pretty frantic at the Howlery. They had plenty of orders, and everyone seemed to want cupcakes with some kind of potato decoration.
“I don’t get this,” Lani said as she piped frosting on a dozen cupcakes. “I mean, isn’t it all about decorating and baking your own potato cakes?”
“These have been ordered by the book club to sell for fundraising, like the cake you made for Buster. We need to get a new shade sail for the kids’ play area at the daycare.” Mrs. C was doing dishes dressed in a flowing purple and orange kaftan. Her hair was wrapped in an orange silk headscarf. Today’s nails were purple.
Buddy snored softly on the mat she’d bought him, with Bandit—Mrs. C had named the cat—curled up beside him. Looking at the dog, Lani knew that he was hers now, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. When she left Lake Howling, he’d be going with her. Bandit, however, she would need to find a good home for, as the road was no place for a cat. The thought of leaving one of her sleeping companions behind made her chest ache.
“Now, tomorrow we’ll set up a stall outside and both man it, but there should be some time to look around.”
“I don’t need to look around. I can man it, and you can spend time with your friends.”
“Will you be here for Thanksgiving, Lani?”
“I don’t think so, Mrs. C.” She’d told herself she’d be gone by then. Thanksgiving had always been a special time with her parents, and now that they were gone, she spent it alone remembering them.
“I’d like you to join my family if you are.”
“Thank you, but I don’t think I will be.”
“Well, just think about it. Hank would love you to be there; he’s fond of you and Buddy. Of course Bandit is invited too.”
She liked Hank too. He was kind and gentle and worshipped his eccentric wife. It would be a wrench leaving them both, and that was why she had to do it soon.
“All right. Well, the offer’s there, Lani. I’ll miss you when the time comes.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
Mrs. C sniffed. “We’ll leave that subject alone for now.”
Lani could feel the sting of tears too and swallowed them down.
“I want you to enjoy the festival too. There is nothing quite like Lake Howling when we’re celebrating something. We do it better than anyone else. Plus, we’ll be selling a few cakes of our own. That order for the Bilks was cancelled, as that foolish man of hers went and got drunk and broke his foot, so they had to spend their anniversary in the hospital. We can sell that too.”
“It says ‘Happy Anniversary to the Man I Love’ in gold writing on top.”
“You can do something with that, I’m betting. We’ll make a few dozen cupcakes and slap some icing on those.” Mrs. C waved her purple nails at Lani. “May as well make the most of it and have some extra money in the till to bank at the end of the week.”
“It is the end of the week. It’s Friday, in fact.”
Mrs. C waved her hand again. She did that when she didn’t want to answer.
“I got some cakes out of the freezer, and we’ll put frosting on those, and maybe pipe on a few flowers.”
“I’ll do some,” Lani said quickly, remembering the complaints she’d had about Mrs. C’s flowers.
Lani finished up the cupcakes and boxed them, then moved on to the rest of the things she needed to do. She iced the freezer cakes with simple decorations that went with the potato and fall theme. The Bilks’ cake was a bit harder, but she managed to scrape off the words and re-ice it. She then piped pumpkins and fall-colored leaves all over it.
“Lovely. You really have a gift for this, Lani.”
“Thanks. It’s fun.”
