Page 113 of Bountiful
Lately, Dave and I had been spending almost every night together. Every morning I woke up to find him in my bed, usually with his hand lying possessively over my hip. I let myself enjoy it. On the mornings when I wasn’t opening the bakery, we all woke up slowly together, snuggling in the bed after Nicolewokeup.
I didn’t know why she’d picked this moment in time, but my baby stopped asking to nurse. She still wanted cuddles, of course. But she drank her milk out of sippy cups and stopped reaching under myshirt.
That meant there weretwothings lingering in the periphery of my consciousness, threatening to break my heart. Dave’s departure, and my baby not needing me as muchanymore.
And he was leaving in a matterofdays.
The Thursday night we all got into his rental car to go to the Shipleys’, he was down to less than a week in Vermont. We didn’t talk about it. Neither of us wanted to. But the number of phone calls he had with the team staff went up, and sometimes when I glanced at him, I knew his mind waselsewhere.
I bit my lip and said nothing. What was myalternative?
When he parked the car beside the Shipley farmhouse, I popped out and unbuckled Nicole from her car seat. Then I fetched the peach tart that I’d made. By the time I had balanced it on one hand, Dave was already carrying Nicole on one arm and a half-bushel sack of pears in theother.
“She could walk,” I pointed out. “I’ll hold her hand on thestairs.”
“I got her,” he said mildly. He walked up onto the porch while I admired his muscled ass in a pair of khakis, and then he somehow managed to hold the door open forme,too.
I held back a sigh of longing and followed him through to thediningroom.
“Well hello there, little lady!” Grandpa Shipley boomed at Nicole. “Who did you bring with youtonight?”
Nicole, who loved a crowd, bounced on Dave’s arm. “Dada!” shecrowed.
I swear, all the women in attendance got a little starry-eyed. Even Griffin looked a little less grouchy at the sight of Dave carrying Nicole intotheroom.
Audrey rushed over and relieved him of the pears. “Ooh! These are fantastic. Have they been chilled off?” she asked. Pears needed a few days at a near-freezing temperature to ripenproperly.
“Yes they have,” I assured her. “I took them out of the cooler yesterday, so give them two or three days in a bag. Or refrigerate half of them if you don’t want them all to ripenatonce.”
“I can’t wait,” she said, hustling toward the kitchen door. “I’m going to make a pear and goat-cheese salad with balsamicvinaigrette.”
“And bacon!” Zach called from a seat at the table. “I think bacon goeswiththat.”
We were shown to seats on the bench that stretched along one side of the huge table. Dave greeted Zach and Lark, and was introduced to Jude and Sophie and the Shipley twins, Daphne andDylan.
I took a seat next to Kieran. “You need to hire a full-time employee,” he said withoutpreamble.
“Good evening to you, too,” I said, unfolding my napkin as Ruth and May put the last dishes on thetable.
May’s bitchy girlfriend seemed to be missing tonight, and I couldn’t help wonder why. Dare I hope they’dpartedways?
“Audrey’s going to have this baby,” Kieran continued. “And you have your hands full with Mr.Hockey,here…”
Dave gave him an amused glance, and then accepted a glass of cider from Griffin. “This tastes just like perry,” he said withawink.
Griffin rolled his eyes andmovedon.
“…and I can’t give you more hours,” Kieranfinished.
“I know you can’t,” I said, patting his arm. “And I appreciate the advice, but every month we put it off is another bunch of moneysaved.”
“No, it isn’t,” he argued. “If someone else was cooking you could do more cateringorders.”
“He’s right,” Griffin said from across the table. “It’s time to hire someone. If a business is going to work out, you have to invest, even when it’sscary.”
“And I have the gray hairs to prove it,” Ruth added, taking her seat beside Grandpa at the head of the table. “Can we saygrace?”
I grabbed a warm roll out of the basket and handed it to Nicole to keep her busy. Then I joined hands with Kieran and Dave and bowedmyhead.
