Page 21 of Keeping Secrets

"Would you swallow that and then speak?"

"Fine, Mom." She rolled her eyes.

Chloe gave her a wide-eyed look as she cleaned a bit of pink frosting off of her thumb. "So? What do you say?"

"How many people?" Keely asked.

"We don’t have a final number yet." Nat sounded a bit frustrated. "We pulled the whole thing together last minute when our new donor said that he wanted to bring a few friends down from the city to learn more about us. These are potentially huge donors, so we want to get this right."

"And they’re big foodies," Chloe added, "so we want to knock their socks off."

"No pressure," Ali joked. "But seriously, if everything you make is as good as these cupcakes, you would knock this out of the park."

"We were thinking about bringing ice cream from Kula at the end of the night, so it would be amazing if you could bake something to complement that. Scoops of ice cream feel like… not enough."

"Apple pie à la mode?" Ali suggested.

"No," Keely said thoughtfully. "Something that complements the more unusual flavors that they offer. I could make ice cream sandwiches. A different flavor of cookie for each kind of ice cream?"

"I love that," Chloe said.

"Maybe too messy for this group though," Nat said.

"Ice cream cake?" Ali suggested.

"That could be fun," Keely agreed. "I could make something that looks really chic and fancy, but then when we cut into it, we have a layer of boysenberry or something. That bright purple one. I could make a few small cakes, all different flavors."

"I love it!" Chloe enthused.

"So you’ll do it?" Nat asked.

"Sure, I guess so. Next weekend?"

"Yeah."

She looked at Chloe. "And you’re doing the savory stuff?"

"I was going to, but honestly if you want to help me with that, it would be a lifesaver. We had great caterers for the last event, but this one was too last-minute and they’re already booked."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Got it. How about we meet up tomorrow and figure out a menu?"

"Perfect."

"We should get going," Nat said. "We’re headed to the worksite, just wanted to stop by on our way over. I’ll get you the number of people attending as soon as I can."

"Okay, thanks."

"And you’ll work out a price per head?"

She nodded, already feeling like she was in too deep. She had never cooked for a big group of people before, never mind worked out the pricing. But Chloe came closer and squeezed her arm.

"We’ve got this. We’ll figure it out together." She kissed her on the cheek and followed Nat out the front door.

"You got the library job, by the way," Ali whispered as she looped the scarf back around her neck.

Her jaw dropped. "I did?"

"Yep. Paperwork hasn’t gone through yet, but Ingrid said that you were the best candidate. See you at work." She winked at her and hurried to catch up with the others. Then she doubled back and stuck her head through the doorway. "Ingrid will love you double if you bring cupcakes."

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