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“Probably. If not, I’ll ask Poppy.”
“Why not Chris?”
Lauren went silent a moment. “Poppy is closing with me. I’ll ask her as soon as I hang up.”
“Cammie doesn’t want men at her place, does she?”
Lauren’s voice softened. “I’m not saying anything more about it.”
Which meant yes.
“And I won’t ask.”
“Thank you,” Lauren said. “Depending on the size of the unit, Cammie and I should manage just fine. She’ll let Poppy help, if we need her.”
“Help with what?” I heard Poppy say in the background. “The coffee grinder jammed again, so unless you want me to crush the beans by hand, I need you.”
My phone buzzed with an incoming text. “Can I talk to my sister a second?”
“Here,” Lauren said. “Talk to Rowan.”
“What?” Poppy said. She sounded stressed, and I felt a stab of guilt for what I was about to ask.
“First, Lauren might need your help tonight moving one of the old AC units to Cammie’s.”
“She can have them all. I stub my toes on them all the time.”
“Ok, I’m sure Mom won’t care. Second, I’m making all the desserts for the block party. I was wondering if you’d like to help me decorate a cupcake tower. I think the kids would really like it.”
“Um, yeah. That sounds fun.”
She didn’t sound sarcastic, but it was hard to tell without seeing her face.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. As long as you bake the cupcakes. Try to find some 4th of July wrappers and grab a box of food color gel and a shit ton of confectioners sugar. Oh, and a tub of Crisco. It holds up better in the heat than butter. We can talk about the shape of the tower later. I have some ideas. Get candy melts too.”
“What colors?”
“Really, Rowan. I can’t believe you just asked that.”
“Sprinkles?”
“I mean if you want to be generic. Modeling chocolate if they have it. Red, white, and blue, obviously. See if they have gold and silver decorating dust. I could do a sparkler theme.”
“What the heck is decorating dust?”
“Never mind, I doubt the grocery store has it. Just get what you can. I’ll go to the craft store in Jericho tomorrow for the rest. Oh, do you think you can make different fillings for the cupcakes?”
By the time I hung up, I had ten items to add to Mom’s list and spent the next hour collecting everything. Unloading it all at the checkout and loading it into the station wagon sent a throb of pain up my back. I needed to rest, but unfortunately no one would be home to help me carry everything inside. To make matters worse, a row of ominous clouds had rolled over the mountains.
The first drops of rain hit the windshield as I turned onto Sullivan Street. I opened the hatch as the dark clouds overhead opened with a crack of thunder. It was too hot to leave anything in the station wagon for more than a few minutes and no telling how long the storm would last. The milk jug was already sweating in the grocery store parking lot. I grabbed as many bags as I could with both hands and dashed to the porch despite the sharp pain shooting up my spine. I’d just made it back to the car when a speeding SUV screeched to a stop in front of the house.
“What are you doing?” Cal yelled as he ran from the SUV.
A flash of lightening shot across the sky, and I turned back to the trunk to gather more bags. Cal reached into the trunk as well and together we got everything and ran to the porch. I slipped on the top step, and Cal dropped the bags in his arms to catch me. Luckily, the eggs were in the first load.
“Perfect timing,” I said, setting down my bags and bending to right the ones he’d dropped.
