Chapter 13: What Cass Heard

I unlocked the front door because there was nothing else to do.

Cass came in with the cold on her coat and a coffee in each hand.

She looked at me, then at the steel table, then at the sleeping woman on my flour sacks.

Lark had my coat pulled up to her chin and a streak of flour across her temple.

Two aprons lay on the floor beside the mixer, and neither of them was tied.

"Oh," Cass said.

She set both coffees on the counter very gently.

"Cass, let me..."

"Don't. Give me a second. I'm doing math."

She walked the length of the kitchen and back.

She looked over the cake layers on the cooling racks and the two empty mixing bowls.

She did not say anything about the table.

"How long?" she asked.

"Since Labor Day."

"The reunion."

"Saturday night. Before that, the walk-in cooler."

"You cornered her in your cooler."

"I did."

"On the first night." Cass pressed her hand over her mouth, and her eyes were bright. "On the first night you met her."

"Yes."

"And on Tuesday you sat across from me with a spoon of carrot cake and let me tell you to leave her alone."

"I did that too."

"You said you would make me the best cake of my life."

"I meant it."

"I know you meant it! That's what makes it a lie!"

She said it loudly, and Lark woke up all at once.

She sat up with my coat in her fist and looked at Cass.

"Hi," she said, in a small voice.

"Hi, Lark."

"This is my fault too."

"I'm sure it's a lot of people's fault," Cass said. "Sit still. I'm not done being upset."

Lark sat still.

I turned on the oven and pulled butter and sour cream from the fridge, because I needed to do something with my hands.

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