Page 38 of Finding Forever

Paris returned the flowers to their buckets. “Beth tells me you’re testing the wedding cakes today.”

Kayla groaned happily. “I’ve been looking forward to it all week.”

“You’d better leave room for the cake after we have lunch,” Beth said. “If the cakes are as good as they look, they’ll be delicious.”

“I never thought they wouldn’t be,” Kayla said with a mischievous smile.

Paris laughed. “Have you decided which flavors you want?”

Kayla nodded. “Banana, chocolate, and carrot cake.”

“You’re having three flavors?”

“One for each tier.” Kayla’s enthusiasm made Beth smile. “Tyler’s favorite is carrot cake. Mine is chocolate.”

“It’s my favorite, too,” Beth admitted.

Kayla slipped an arm around her shoulders. “That’s because you have excellent taste.”

“In cake, anyway.”

Paris glanced at the clock on the wall. “You’d better go before I keep you talking all morning.”

Kayla looked around the workroom. “Thank you, Paris. Seeing everything like this makes it feel much more real.”

“That’s the fun part.” Paris hugged her again. “Enjoy the cake testing.”

“We will.” Beth thanked Paris and followed Kayla toward the door. The bell jingled behind them as they stepped into the cold.

Kayla immediately tucked her hands into her coat pockets. “I love the flowers, Mom.”

Beth grinned. “I could tell.”

“Was I that obvious?”

“You’ve had the same expression on your face since you were five whenever you really loved something.”

Kayla laughed as they walked toward Beth’s truck. “Then I suppose it’s lucky Tyler likes pink.”

“He’d probably agree to orange flowers if you wanted them.”

“He would,” Kayla agreed. “Which is why I’m not taking advantage of him.”

Beth smiled as she unlocked the truck.

They had several more stops to make before the cake testing, but Kayla had been talking about one place almost as much as she’d talked about cake.

The arts center.

By eleven-thirty, the snow had stopped and weak sunshine was breaking through the clouds when Beth turned onto Main Street.

“There it is,” she said, pointing ahead.

Kayla leaned forward in her seat.

Beth had driven past the building so many times over the last few weeks that she sometimes forgot how much it had changed. The old hardware store she’d first walked into with Natalie had been dark, cold, and neglected.

Now, even from the street, it looked different.