Page 21 of This Thing Between Us

“You look ridiculous.”

I shrugged. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” I held my arm out like they did in one of those Jane Austen movies Whitney made me watch. She took it and we finally went home.

Chapter 10

Whitney

“Meetat the diner at six. The gala planning committee meeting will start right on time.” Barb didn’t give me much else about how much work the group had already done, but I figured I could learn all that tomorrow.

Fortunately, I had already made a binder for the event with blank copies of my party planning templates, which were divided up under the various tabs: food, beverages, music, venue, A/V, invitations, etc.

As a professional party planner, I knew exactly what all went into making an event successful. Though smaller than what I’m used to, the Haver’s Creek Police Officer’s Gala would be a huge hit, one this town had never seen before.

I started collecting everything I needed for the planning process immediately after leaving Jack at the police station.

Work focused me, and it’s where I needed to pour my energy if I had any hopes of avoiding Jack Montgomery.

But with the binder ready to go, I looked around Savannah’s kitchen and decided to do another thing I did well: bake.

Baking had been my refuge growing up.

Well, baking and Jack.

I made my first batch of cupcakes at Jack’s house one evening when his mom needed to prep for the school bake sale. The smell of chocolate wafting through the house had drawn me out of Jack’s room like a moth to flame. While Nancy taught me the basics, I experimented on my own, making creations and selling them at school to earn a little cash. Jack’s parents worked a lot, so using their kitchen wasn’t a big deal. And with the money I made, I covered my supply costs, while squirreling away money for Savannah and me to eat when my mom forgot to get groceries.

During the hours I spent baking in his family’s kitchen, I earned the nickname Sprinkles. I both loved and hated it. Jack would spend hours just watching me from his kitchen island, reading to me our homework assignments and then jotting down the answers for both of us. Somewhere along the line he’d become great at forging my handwriting.

Pushing those memories to the side, I got to work. Savannah had all the fixings for my favorite brownie recipe.

I pulled the brownies out of the oven just as the garage door sounded. Placing them carefully on a trivet, I peeled off my gloves before greeting my sister who had two large bags of fast food in her hands.

“Uh, need any help with that?” I laughed, reaching for one of the bags. A quick peek inside revealed several cheeseburgers. “I hope your bag has the fries.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about the fries.” Savannah set her bag down on the table, sat down, unwrapped her burger and dove in.

“I take it this is what a pregnancy craving looks like? National Geographic should definitely do a feature story on this.”

Savannah slumped in her chair, a look of pure bliss on her face.

“Hits the spot, huh?”

She flashed me a smile before taking another bite. Hungry, I unwrapped my own burger and dug in. I loved a Dairy Queen burger, not that I ever let myself eat them. To think of it, I don’t think I ever saw a Dairy Queen in LA, but we did have a lot of gourmet burger joints. Not that they compared to this.

We ate in silence until we couldn’t stuff our faces anymore.

“You feel better?”

She rubbed her nonexistent baby bump, a look of a relief on her face.

“Much.”

I got up and kissed the top of her head before grabbing our wrappers and throwing them in the trash.

“Damn, we did some damage.”

“That’s for sure.” Savannah inhaled deeply. “Are those brownies I smell?” She hoisted herself out of her seat, arms outreached towards the still warm brownies.

I smacked her hand away. “Those aren’t ready for you yet. I still need to frost them.” I cleaned up the rest of our mess before getting the powdered sugar down from the cabinet to start on the frosting.

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