Page 106 of New Day at the Beach House

Lisa smiled at Willie. “The seamstress will be here any moment to fit your dress.”

“Thank you,” Willie said.

Lisa smiled at Roxie and Trina next. “Don’t you two look lovely. Any adjustments needed?”

Both Trina and Roxie shook their heads.

Willie gestured at them with her cup while speaking to Lisa. “We’re taking those outfits, too.”

“Very good,” Lisa said. “You’re all going to look so beautiful. I hope I get to see a picture.”

Willie nodded. “I promise to come back and show you one.” She sipped her drink. “All right, my girls. Let’s get this show on the road. I’m about ready for a nap.”

Roxie laughed. “Okay, Ma. We won’t be much longer. Just let us change.”

Lisa smiled. “I can take those outfits up to the register as well and have you all taken care of shortly.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Willie had no idea how much she was about to spend, but she didn’t care. Although there was some irony in the fact that her last husband was making it so easy for her to marry her next husband.

She lifted her cup in a silent salute to Zippy, may he rest in peace. She hoped she got to tell him someday just how much he’d done for her family.

Claire was exhausted. They’d spent nearly two hours at Classic Closet and between the three of them, had bought enough stuff to fill Kat’s trunk.

Jules had spent the most, but then the fringed suede jacket had been sixty-five dollars. That seemed like a lot to Claire, but she was still learning about how thrift shops priced things. Jules had sworn it was a steal.

Jules was so happy, she’d promised to make dinner for all of them. A healthy chopped veggie salad with grilled chicken, homemade vinaigrette, and parmesan shavings on top.

Claire would have eaten anything at that point and been grateful. The shopping had really worn her out. It was all the trying on. Something about getting dressed and undressed a hundred times sapped a person’s energy.

Now she was sitting on the couch refining her lists for the bakery and organizing them into types of product. Her mom, who’d gotten home a few minutes after them, was in her chair, watching a show about a missing persons case. Kat was organizing her closet with her new things. Jules and Cash were in the kitchen working on dinner.

Roxie and her family were getting ready for dinner downstairs, too. Claire knew, because she’d run down there to say thanks again to Roxie for introducing her to Classic Closet, telling her all about the fun day they’d had there.

Roxie had in turn filled Claire in on Willie’s big news.

Claire couldn’t believe Miguel and Willie were getting married next weekend. Then again, the Rojas men seemed to charge forward when they made a decision about something, so maybe it wasn’t that surprising after all.

Roxie had asked Claire about making a wedding cake, something simple with a beach theme. She’d offered to pay, too.

Claire had agreed but refused payment. Instead, she’d told Roxie that the cake would be her wedding gift to Miguel and Willie, but she’d made it clear that fancy cakes were not her thing, so simple was the best she could do.

Roxie had said that would be fine and was grateful that Claire had agreed to make the cake on such short notice.

Claire already had some ideas. Mostly graham cracker crumbs for sand, some chocolate molds that she could use to make gum paste shells and starfish, and a decent quantity of edible glitter. She thought Willie would like that bit the most.

Claire planned to scour Pinterest later to see what else she could come up with. She knew she wanted two tiers, and each tier would be three layers, so that would be a lot of baking, but she’d get the cakes done early. That would give her plenty of time to perfect the decorations.

She’d need to get pans, though. Even if she brought back what she had at the Landry house, she didn’t have pans large enough for the bottom layer. It wasn’t a big deal. She’d use them again, so whatever money she spent wouldn’t be wasted.

A suitable bride and groom topper probably wasn’t something she’d be able to purchase, however. Those generally didn’t come with gray hair and wrinkles. But Claire was thinking about doing two beach chairs and putting an M on one and a W on the other.

She smiled just thinking about it. Beach chairs would be a super cute cake topper. Large shells with their initials was another option.

Her only hope was that the outside of the cake looked as good as she was imagining. She wasn’t worried about the flavors. Willie wanted pina colada, something Claire knew she could easily achieve. It was just a matter of deciding whether to combine the flavors or do a coconut cake with pineapple buttercream.

Or maybe she should do a pineapple cake with a coconut buttercream filling and then a vanilla buttercream for the exterior layer. She wasn’t a fan of fondant-covered cakes. Yes, it made a nice smooth surface for decorating, but it generally tasted like sweetened moist cardboard.

Not a great thing to eat on your wedding day. Or any day, really.

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