After the Sirens by Sharon Farrell

Author:Sharon Farrell [Farrell, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-10T22:47:06+00:00

Cate set her orca up in the middle of the table, trying hard to not smudge the blue waves of icing.

This whale was going to be the most epic birthday cake in the history of birthday cakes. However old Matty lived to be, all other cakes would pale in comparison to the orca of birthday number six.

She took another picture.

Cate had volunteered for cake duty (a) because she enjoyed baking but (b) because she knew her skill in this area was both unexpected and impressive. She’d spent more on ingredients and specially shaped pans than she would have ordering a cake from the bakery, but that wasn’t the point. Making someone a lumpy, half-collapsed pile of cake ingredients with melted icing could be romantic in its way, but making someone a cake that looks like it came out of a patisserie window in Paris that morning . . . That’ll make people wonder what else they don’t know about you.

She liked that.

In reluctant deference to the whims and tastes of a six-year-old, Cate created the massive killer whale out of Funfetti cake with black-and-white buttercream icing. All from scratch. It might not scream Paris, but it was a hell of a whale. Matty loved whales.

Tell EMS people to bring food and there will be food. Most of the action was around the grill and a giant smoker someone brought in on the back of a pickup truck, but Cate and one of the EMTs, Steph, concentrated on the long tables of potluck food in the truck bay and tried to make the most of what was a movable ocean/firefighter/soccer/PAW Patrol theme. It was mass mayhem to be honest, but everyone was into it. A bunch of people came in off duty and brought even more food. Cate kept looking for Adrian, even though he had an away game and wasn’t due to arrive until Matteo and Sara were already back. Every time she heard the door lock pop as someone badged in, she turned around.

She didn’t want to, but she did.

It had been a long week.

A child’s birthday party might not be the most normal second date ever, but that might be what was happening. If the first date had been a date. She thought it was, it definitely was, when they left the restaurant, Adrian’s hand pulling her across the street to the beach.

But.

There hadn’t been a kiss.

There had been a nice walk on the beach. Adrian was quiet. Not in an awkward way. In fact, it was the first time that night it wasn’t awkward. Down on the beach, in the dark, a new breeze coming off the water, it felt like they’d found somewhere. Just for them. Marina’s attack seemed to solidify something in Adrian. A choice Cate and the beach were a part of. But whatever it was, it went unsaid. They just walked. They didn’t need to talk. It was . . . rare. That was the only word she could think of to describe it.

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