Page 60 of Her Favorite Fumble
“Must be a draft,” Mattie said as she took a lighter from Willow and relit it.
Lucy made her wish and was drawing in another breath when the candle went out again. She laughed and looked at Willow. “Does this seem more like Lavinia or Jacob to you?”
“Definitely Lavinia. Jacob likes to stomp up and down the stairs and clink glass bottles in the cellar, but he doesn’t really come upstairs. Lavinia, though? She likes to be a part of things.”
“So do you think she doesn’t like my wish?” Lucy asked. “Does she want to be part of the fun or does she not like open flames?”
“Or there’s a draft,” Nick muttered.
Lucy waved a hand at him. “Don’t be grumpy.”
He snorted. “At this point, I’m not even sure what you think grumpy means.”
“Well, I tried to look it up in the dictionary, but it was just a picture of you,” she shot back, and everybody groaned. Possibly even Lavinia and Jacob. “Okay, that was bad.Oldand bad. I deserved that.”
“Okay, one more time,” Mattie said, relighting the candle. “Maybe wish for something else this time.”
In that moment, Lucy’s only wish was that she could have friends like these in her life forever. And this time, the candle didn’t go out.
* * *
It was tight quarters in the tiny scone shop, and it was getting warm. But Nick was the reason they were here in the first place, so he wasn’t about to complain.
They should have hosted the party at his house. It was far enough from the center of town so Taylor and Carson wouldn’t have had to sneak in like burglars trying to avoid cameras. There was plenty of space, and they wouldn’t have had to come up with a ridiculous plan for how to cover the windows.
But if they’d had it at his house, his brothers would have been there. There was almost no chance they’d get through the entire party without one of them revealing Nick’s bedroom had been sitting empty for a few days.
Heprobablycould have skated by on the same excuse he gave Gray, but he’d rather not take the chance he’d be forced to confess to Lucy that he couldn’t bring himself to leave her.
“The cake was amazing,” Lucy said, setting her empty plate on the table with a sigh. “As was the ice cream. I don’t think I’ve ever had vanilla ice cream that was so creamy.”
The rich chocolate cake with raspberry filling and frosting, as well as the ice cream, were excellent. And Nick was glad they’d had big servings because as he was taking his first bite, he realized his hasty plan for getting Lucy to the party hadn’t included getting supper into her first. He’d gotten hung up on the jobsite and was running late, but cake and ice cream was a good supper.
“Making ice cream is one of Carson’s hobbies,” Taylor said. “He loves to try fun flavors that people wouldn’t expect, but vanilla’s always best for a party.”
“Okay, we have to do presents before Mattie has to go,” Willow said, clapping her hands. “Mine first!”
“Presents?” Lucy sounded as if she was going to cry. “This is too much.”
Willow scoffed as she pulled a stack of gifts from behind the counter. Nick recognized his gift as the one on the bottom, making the base of the stack. He’d dropped it off that morning on his way to work because he didn’t see any way to smuggle it in with Lucy in tow. And he hadn’t wanted to forget it.
She opened Willow’s first because Willow was handing them out and she thrust it into Lucy’s hands. Inside the wrapped box was a photo frame, and both women got a little weepy.
Nick didn’t think to bring a pocket pack of tissues to a birthday party but, knowing Lucy, he probably should have.
The photo showed two girls, maybe twelve or thirteen, holding hands as they leaped off a floating dock into the water. Judging by the cloud of red hair in the photo and the way the two women hugged now, it was them, back during one of Lucy’s visits to town.
When they’d used napkins to mop their faces, Willow tried to hand her the next gift, but Taylor snatched it away, startling all of them.
“No,” she said, clutching it to her chest. “I changed my mind. It’s too corny, but I’ll get you something else tomorrow.”
“I love corny gifts,” Lucy said. “Please?”
Taylor tipped her head back and heaved such a dramatic sigh, Nick had a flashback to middle school when she was a Drama Club darling. “Fine.”
Lucy took her time with the ribbons and paper, clearly enjoying Taylor’s suffering. They all craned their necks to see when she lifted the lid, but the elegant gold bangle bracelet didn’t look all that corny to Nick.
“It’s gorgeous,” Lucy said, clearly as confused as everybody else.
