Page 75 of A Dead End Wedding

But I couldn't hate her. She'd brought me chocolate.

She swallowed and licked the frosting off of one of her fingers. "So, are you with the Navy? You said AWOL."

I shook my head. "No, I'm an attorney. I just opened up a small practice in town. But I grew up as a Navy brat. Dad was a Chief Petty Officer when he retired and went corporate. Away Without Official Leave was a pretty common term when he and his buddies were complaining about the latest crop of squids. What about you? You said household goods."

She grinned. "My husband works for a firm that does a lot of business with the Navy. It's hard to escape all the jargon."

I took another bite of cake and almost moaned in ecstasy. It was a sad truth that chocolate was more important to my life than sex these days.

For the past couple of years, to be honest.

"This cake is unbelievable. Did you bake this yourself? My Aunt Celia is going to adore you." I finished the slice and looked longingly at the rest of the cake, but resisted. No need to be a total pig in front of the neighbors and make a bad first impression.

"I adore her. She and Nathan are darlings," she said. "I'm going to have another piece, December. To heck with the diet. Want more?"

Ilovedthis woman. "What do you do, Emily?"

"I do a little of everything, but mostly I'm a stay-at-home mom. Elisabeth is four and Ricky is six, so they keep mereally busy. T-ball practice and games, ballet lessons, swimming lessons, camp, scouts. Go, go, go, as you might imagine. They're out at McDonald's with Daddy right now, so Mommy could have a little quiet before her head exploded." She laughed again, but seemed way too calm and together for any head exploding. Especially if she could bake chocolate cake this scrumptious for stress relief.

The doorbell rang. That made two more unexpected guests in one day than I'd had in the past five years. Florida was certainly a friendly place.

6

"Will you excuse me a second?" I said to Emily, and then I walked down the hall to the front door. But my new guest started pounding on the door.

I yanked it open. "What do–Max? What are you doing here? Come in and have some cake. It's chocolate."

"You always saychocolatethe way a person dying of thirst would say Evian, December." She thrust a bouquet of wildflowers at me. "Little housewarming present, even though you couldn't be bothered to invite me over."

"That is so sweet. Maybe they'll fit in a paper cup? And you know I was planning to invite you over when my furniture arrived. I'm totally going to hit you up for help to unpack, old buddy, old pal." I smiled hugely.

"Oh, no. Not that shark grin. I'm always in trouble when it's the shark grin."

"Shut up, already. I have someone I want you to meet. This is?—"

"Emily! It's so good to see you again. What have you been up to?"

"Max! I haven't seen you since the fundraiser. How have you been?" She gave Max a big hug.

"I'm great. Working with December at her new firm, now. What about you? How was Atlantic City?"

"Oh, same old, same old. Not to be trite, but you win some, you lose some." She grinned and put her plate and fork in an empty plastic bag. "Now, I have to get going and check my e-mail before the kidlets get home. It was so nice to meet you, December. If your stuff ever gets here, and you need any help to unpack, let me know. Oh, and we're going to have a block-wide garage sale and then a barbecue the week of July Fourth some time. We'd love for you to join us at either or both. Bring this sweet southern girl with you, please."

Max fanned herself with one hand. "Oh, it's an honor just to be here, darlin'."

I offered the plate with the rest of the cake to Emily. "Thank you so much. You should take the rest of this home to your family."

"Oh, no. You keep it and eat it for breakfast or something. I don't want to lose points on the Welcome Wagon scale. See you later." I watched through my window as she crossed to the house right next to mine.

I turned back to Max. "Wonder if she'd be willing to swap houses? Did you see that beautiful garden? What are those little purple flowers all over the front?"

"Impatiens."

"No, I'm not impatient. I've just got a yard full of weeds, and I want a garden like that. Now." I laughed. "OK, maybe I am impatient."

"No, not impatient, impatiens. The name of the flower, December."

I rolled my eyes. "Like I've had time to be Nature Girl during the past fifteen years, between college, law school, and working.I know a rose from a carnation, but the rest are mostly justLook at the Pretty Flowers."

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