Erin nodded as she quickly swallowed her bite. “This is amazing. Whoever organized this event did an amazing job.”
Ellis’s smile faltered. “Yeah, they sure did.”
“I was wondering if maybe you could help me connect with them?” Erin asked, setting her plastic fork down. “I would love to be involved with future events.”
“Weren’t you involved with tonight? I thought I sawyour name on a lovely cake over there.” Ellis turned and pointed at one of the dessert-filled tables.
“Yes.” Erin wiped the content of her mouth with a napkin. “But I mean in a bigger capacity. I’d love to help with planning or decorating or ... ” She waved her hand in front of her. “Whatever they need.”
Ellis chuckled and gave Logan a look. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.”
“In the meantime.” Ellis gave Logan’s back another smack. “I’d like to talk to this guy, if you don’t mind?”
“I guess so.” Erin looked over at Logan. They’d fallen back into a comfortable friendship during the last few weeks, but nothing so close that Ellis needed to ask her for permission to talk to Logan. Still, she was sad to see him go, and it reminded her of just how painful it would be when he left for good.
“Great.” Ellis stood back to give Logan room to get up.
Logan pushed his chair back and stood. “Why don’t you guys go check out all the desserts while I talk to Ellis?” He leaned down toward Samantha and Parker. “Pick me out something really good?” He smiled when they both nodded and turned his attention to Erin. “I’ll catch up in a bit.”
She watched the two men as they walked away. Seeing them together made Erin wish, not for the first time, that Logan would have taken the job at the Chamber. Part of her had thought that was the reasonLogan had visited Ellis a couple of weeks ago—the visit when he’d found the flier—but he hadn’t said anything to her about taking the position, or about changing his mind about leaving Frostford.
It was confusing. And painful.
Their friendship was as strong as it had ever been. Erin looked forward to the nightly dinners around Aunt Betty’s dining room table, and Logan’s company as they cleaned up together afterward. He’d started helping with the kids when he wasn’t working on things around Aunt Betty’s house, or going off to meetings about it, presumably about permits.
As they rekindled their friendship, Erin began seeing Logan in a more romantic light. Her heart skipped when she saw him. She smiled more now than she had in a long time. Logan had started praying with her and the children before bed and had gotten Samantha to pray again.
There was no denying the shift. The idea of falling for someone new was both exciting and terrifying. Whenever she imagined anything more than friendship with Logan, Erin was also hit with guilt from the idea of betraying her husband. Not that Logan had ever tried to erase Jake’s memory or shoo him under the rug. In fact, he’d done the complete opposite. He asked about Jake, looked at family pictures from the last decade, and had always encouraged Erin to share memories. It was like he was trying to show Erin that there was room for both of them.
That was assuming Logan still looked at her that way. There were times when she thought Logan might still harbor feelings for her, but she worried she was seeing things that weren’t there. Maybe she imagined the way his gaze lingered on her when they were together or the way he seemed to work his schedule to spend more time together. He hadn’t said anything else about his feelings for her—not since the night he’d confessed his reasons for leaving. If he still loved her, he would have said something by now, wouldn’t he?
This was neither the time nor the place to sort through those thoughts. She forced herself to look away from Logan’s retreating form and smiled at her children. “What do you think? Should we go look at all the amazing desserts?”
“Yeah!” they both squealed in unison.
She smiled as she turned to Aunt Betty. “Would you care to join us?”
The older woman leaned back in her seat. “Oh, honey. I’m still too full to even think about dessert right now. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll find you.”
“Sure thing.” Erin gathered the plates from the table and tossed them in the trash. And then let her children lead the way as they explored each of the tables.
The way the fundraiser was set up gave people two ways to purchase desserts. There were the standard things you would see at a bake sale—cookies, brownies, and cupcakes. These could be purchasedthroughout the evening and enjoyed right away. Then there were bigger items—cakes, pies, cheesecakes. These were all part of a silent auction that would be ending soon. The highest bidder for each dessert would take them home at the end of the night.
“Look at this,” Parker said, pointing to a cupcake display. Each cupcake was topped with a picture of a man in a cape. Even though he hadn’t mentioned Rock Man for a couple of weeks, Parker still loved superheroes.
“Would you like one?” She waggled her brows at him.
He jumped up and down. “Yes.”
Erin had been careful with her money, but this was such a special fundraiser, she wanted her children to enjoy it. Plus, it was for a good cause. She paid for the cupcake, and they continued their perusal of the dessert tables. Samantha found some cake pops decorated like unicorns, and Erin bought one of those as well. Happy with their purchases, the children ran back to Aunt Betty’s table to show off and eat their desserts.
Erin continued to walk around the community center, looking at all the desserts. She hadn’t found anything for herself. Nothing jumped out at her for Logan either. When he returned from talking to Ellis, they could possibly do the rounds together and see if they could find the right thing.
While she waited for the silent auction to end, andfor Logan to return, Erin decided to go look at the auction items. She was curious about how her cake was doing and really hoped that it sold for a lot of money. Even though she wouldn’t see a penny of that money, the idea of it blessing another family filled her with happiness.
Erin picked up the paper in front of the cake. On it was a description of the cake, with a dedication to Jake. She looked at the list of prices underneath. They went up in ten-dollar increments, and it was really getting up there.
