Rebel Without a Cake by Jacklyn Brady

Author:Jacklyn Brady
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Edie and I spent our lunch break talking about the baby and Edie’s plans for decorating the baby’s nursery. She’d even offered me the chance to change my mind about being the baby’s godmother. Since she’d more or less tricked me into saying yes, I could have backed out with a clear conscience, but I didn’t. The idea of taking on a lifetime of responsibility made me a little dizzy, but I kept hearing Aunt Yolanda telling the teenage me that sometimes things weren’t all about me, and I knew this was one of those times.

I still thought Edie could have made a better choice, but she’d been caught off guard by the pregnancy and she was scared to death by the looming reality of becoming someone’s mother. I guess we’d just have to muddle through together.

She didn’t bring up the argument she’d had with River after our trip to the hospital, and I didn’t ask. I didn’t want her to think I’d invited her to lunch to lecture her about her choices. She got far too much of that as it was.

On the way back to work, I paused in front of a gift shop to admire a Halloween tea setting in a store window. A delicate black lacquer teapot had been paired with black-and-white plates and crisp white napkins tied with orange satin ribbon. I’m not a tea drinker, but the setting appealed to me.

“You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

I glanced away from the window. I must have looked confused because Edie said, “I mean, I enjoyed having lunch together but, well, you didn’t have to.”

“I didn’t do it because I had to,” I assured her. “I asked you to have lunch with me because I get tired of eating alone.”

“You asked me because I had a meltdown at work,” Edie said, but she was smiling—and she was right—so I didn’t argue.

I craned to see the price tag on the teapot and made a mental note to come back and look at it more closely when I had some free time. “I have an appointment with a woman named Simone O’Neil tomorrow afternoon,” I said when we started walking again. “She’s in charge of the decorations for the Belle Lune Ball. Have you ever heard of her?”

Edie nodded. “I’ve seen her name around, usually connected with charity work, but I’ve never met her.”

“What about Evangeline Delahunt? Why does everybody freak out when they hear her name?”

“You met her,” Edie said. “What do you think?”

“I thought she was thoroughly unpleasant. Is she always like that?”

Edie hitched her purse higher on her shoulder. “She and I don’t exactly hang out,” she said, “but I hear she’s a real pain in the neck.”

“Who do you hear that from?” I was pretty sure I knew the answer, but I asked anyway in case she’d picked up talk from someone other than Ox.

“Ox knows her,” Edie said. “Philippe knew her.”

Back in pastry school, Edie had nursed a crush on Philippe.

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