Page 124 of Boston
“No, ma’am,” Julie said. “But you Silvers are the exception, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Cora murmured. “Thank you, Julie.”
“Do you want me to go get you some?”
Cora debated for a moment because she didn’t want special treatment from the beverage bar, but she also didn’t want to treat Julie like a personal assistant. The woman had a hospitality degree and a master’s in marketing, and she worked with high-end clients on events here at the lodge.
“I’m not sure I have the number to the beverage bar,” Cora said. “Could I maybe just get that from you?”
“Sure thing, Miss Silver. It’s seven-one-nine.”
The fact that she didn’t even have to look it up made Cora’s heart sink a couple of inches in her chest. “Thank you, Julie. I really appreciate your help.”
“Any time,” she said, and the call ended.
Cora dialed the right digits and put in an order for some coffee with vanilla creamer and sugar, and she went back to work.
A few minutes later, someone rapped on her partially open door, and her adrenaline spiked. She could really use a hit of caffeine, but it wasn’t someone from the beverage bar delivering her coffee.
“How’s Kat doing?” Belinda asked, looking sharp in a bright blue blouse, though she leaned into the office doorway a bit strangely.
Cora forced a smile to her face. “She’s doing great,” she said. “The babies haven’t had to go to the ER again, so there’s that.”
Belinda laughed. “My church sewing group put together some blankets for them.” She filled the doorway fully, and Cora realized she’d been leaning against it, hiding the quilts. “Two of them, actually.”
“Wow,” Cora said as she got to her feet. “These are gorgeous.”
Belinda glowed under the praise. “We’ve been working on them for months,” she said. “They would have been done if she hadn’t had the babies seven weeks early.”
Cora ran her hands down one side of the quilt that had been done in squares of blue, from the lightest baby, through sky, to azure, to bright, to navy. The intricacy came in the quilting, as if the sewing together of hundreds of squares wasn’t impressive enough. Her hands reached the end corners, and she lifted it while Belinda held the top.
“It says Silver Sage. See?”
“I do see,” Cora said, nodding. “This is incredible.”
“Would you mind taking them to her?” Belinda asked. “They’re the same, except one has the words on the top of the logo and one has them underneath. I don’t want to intrude when she and Jeremy are still getting settled.”
Cora nodded, because what choice did she truly have? Belinda passed her the quilts and, beaming, stepped out of the office. Cora laid down the bottom one and refolded the top blanket before laying them both over the chair in front of her desk.
The babies had turned a month old yesterday, and she wondered when they would stop being newborns. She strongly disliked this resentment that had been building inside her, because she truly loved her sister and, of course, she was happy for her.
But the fact was,Cora’slife had also imploded with the birth of the babies, and no one brought her food or checked on her, asked her how she was doing, or brought thoughtful gifts that had taken months to create.
She sighed as she sank back into her desk chair and ran her hands through her hair and pressed her palms against her temples.
“Miss Silver?” a man said, and she looked up, trying to find the brightest energy she could.
“Yes?” she asked.
“I’ve got your coffee here.”
“Thank you so much,” she said. “Can you just put it right here on my desk?”
He entered with a full-service tray in his hands—a carafe of coffee and a single mug, a smaller pitcher of cream, and a sugar bowl. Cora had nowhere to put that on her desk, and she stood and started unloading the items into smaller spaces.
“I don’t really need the tray,” she said.
“Sorry.”
