Page 15 of Forever Home

“Yeah, she’s filled out a bit from school. But she’s still a loud-mouthed brat.”

We both laugh at that, but I don’t find her attitude offensive. It’s just her personality, and if there’s one thing we can count on with Madi, it’s that she won’t leave you guessing what she thinks.

I was surprised when I saw her, though. When I told Ash she’d really filled out, I meant it. Back in high school, she was a stick. So thin that the girls were able to toss her in the air for tricks during games. The flier of our high school cheerleading team. But now… She’s a knockout now. No longer the stick I once knew. Instead, Madi has curves in all the right places. A firm voluptuous ass and big perky tits that accentuate her tiny waist. It was all I could do not to stare at her at Mrs. Kendall’s house, imagining her in front of me once again.

Glancing down at my phone.How did it get so late?

“Well, bro, I need to take off,” I say, standing and tossing some bills on the table to pay my tab.

“No problem,” Ash stands and shakes my hand. “Don’t let this be the only time we get together. We need to do it again.”

“Sounds like a plan. Hit me up, and I’ll meet you.”

Chapter Seven: Madison

From the moment I wake up, I find myself feeling a little lighter than I usually do, but still going through the motions of everything. Though I can’t begin to understand where it’s coming from, especially after everything that’s happened over the last two days. But nonetheless, it’s as if Mrs. Kendall herself is pushing me to get on with things. Which, deep down, I know is exactly what she would say to me.

She’d tell me to stop moping around and to get her a coffee. Just thinking about her coming in and saying that brings a soft smile to my face, even if the tears I hold back threaten to fall; an image of Mrs. Kendall with a smirk on her lips as she takes her seat at the corner table fills my mind.

“Good Morning!” I try to say cheerfully to my mother the moment I step into the bakery. Her eyes shift to me, looking slightly duller than usual as she lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head.

“How much coffee have you had this morning?”

“None,” I remark, matching her vibe. “But on that note, I could go for some.”

She rolls her eyes, causing me to smile. Our mornings together usually went like this. Although right now both of us are still very much grieving from the loss of Mrs. Kendall. Now, the lightness I woke up with is more forced than anything.

“I was thinking about the service,” she finally says after a few moments, her words making me pause mid-step in the process of placing coffee grounds within the white filter.

“Oh?” The service isn’t something I honestly want to consider right now, but it’s clear that my mother has it on her mind. I’m not about to cut her off if she wants to talk about it. “What about it?”

The last thing I expected was to discuss this first thing in the morning, but I can understand why it may be on her mind. My mother has always been the planner, and with Mrs. Kendall having no other family, it doesn’t surprise me she wants to make sure everything is in order.

Though discussing it sure is a damper on the happy mood I woke up in this morning.

“Well, I was thinking that maybe we should make it a bit larger because of how involved with the community she was. Maybe I can reach out to the school?”

Pushing the start button, I turn to face her. There’s much I’d like to say on this topic starting with how she needs to let someone else handle this no matter how close we were to her. My mother isn’t in the best position to take on this task. After my grandmother died, she barely held it together. Mrs. Kendall was the glue that helped us keep going. And now with her gone… a surrogate mother to my mother in a way… I can only imagine how hard she is taking it, so I choose my words carefully.

“Mom, maybe before you start planning we should wait to see what her lawyer says.” I smile gently. “I mean, she had it already planned out with me and my friends getting her place without anyone knowing. So I can only assume she may have her funeral planned out too. I don’t want you going too heavily into planning, only to have things change.”

Standing quietly, I watch her expression soften as she nods. “You’re right. I just can’t stop thinking about it all.”

“I know, Mom. Why don’t we dive into baking and try and relax? You’ve always said that any negative emotion can be cured with freshly baked bread… and looking at this kitchen… I think we need your blueberry scones.”

My exaggerated comment causes a small smile and laugh to escape her as she shakes her head and nods once more. “Very well… scones it is.”

Half an hour later, with a hot cup of coffee in my system, I am ready and prepared for a day, doing what I love the most. The kitchen is my studio, and the ingredients in front of me are the paint for my edible canvas.

Or at least that’s what I like to tell people.

“Hey, Mom,” I call out, looking over my shoulder to where she stood by the large steel mixing bowl preparing the dough for the batch of daily fresh bread. “I had this idea for a new pasty we could try that I saw on thatPremium Pastriesshow I watch. I was thinking maybe I could try them in the store?”

Her eyes meet mine for a brief moment before she lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head. “You know how I feel about that kind of stuff, Madi. If we were in a large city, maybe. But the customers around here like easy things. Not the fancy stuff.”

“I know,” I reply with irritation as I continue to put the puff pastries on the baking sheet. “But I think you might be surprised… I mean, it doesn’t hurt to try just once.”

The sound of the mixer dies with the silence that fills the area between us. Glancing over my shoulder at her once more, I watch her quietly pull out the dough moving it towards the wooden block countertop next to it. “Madi, one day when you have your own bakery, or when you take over this one, then you can cook whatever you want. But until then… we do it my way.”

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