Evelyn picked up the checklist and glanced at it.“I’m getting ready to do some test baking. Want to be sure I know how this oven heats. Commercial ovens are so different than my own. Anyway, I’ll bring the food home tonight for dinner.”
“That’s one great thing about having you live with me for a bit. You’re always cooking and you’re a way better chef than I am.”Donna grinned.“Although I’m going to pack on the pounds if you don’t quit with all the sweets.”
“I’m just going through all of great-grandmother’s recipes. Trying to figure out which ones to use. I’ve decided I’m going to rotate through them. Different things every day. Hoping that will keep people coming back to try different items. Then, I’ll probably settle on a few that we have available all the time.”
“I hope you decide to keep Grace Parker’s peach pie as a regular. I do love that.”
“I know that’s your favorite. Has been since we were little girls.”
“Looks like you and Olivia have this whole cafe thing under control.”Though she was worried about it. Not that she’d say anything to Olivia. She hoped the cafe could bring a profit to Parker’s because they really couldn’t afford to keep it open if it didn’t. And then what would they do with all the expanded space? They’d have to sell it and try to squeeze their inventory back into the original Parker’s space, a task she dreaded to think of now that they’d moved so much over and connected the two buildings. The main Parker building was now looking like a cute, old-fashioned general store instead of the packed-in-every-single-inch shop it had become before the expansion.
“Olivia is a smart businesswoman. Wish I’d been that smart at her age.”Evelyn frowned.“Then maybe I wouldn’t be in this whole divorce mess without any money.”
“Your lawyer still hasn’t found a way for you to get anything?”Donna frowned.
“Not with that prenuptial I signed in my silly, naive youth.”Evelyn shook her head.“And Darren is pushing for a quick divorce.”
“I’m so sorry, Evie.”
Evelyn shrugged and turned to continue loading the shelves.“I’m getting used to the idea that I’m soon going to be a divorced woman. And I was lucky to find this job at the cafe with Olivia. It’s not like I’ve worked any jobs. I was just Darren’s wife and threw business dinners and ran charity events.”
“You did a great job with the grand opening of The Cabot.”
“Oh, that reminds me. Guess what? Delbert wants to hold a big Christmas party there and he’s hired me to plan and run that, too. He pays…really well. I’m hoping with working here at the cafe and taking on some more event planning jobs that I’ll soon be able to save up enough to move out.”
“There’s absolutely no hurry on you moving out,”Donna insisted. She actually liked having someone living in the house with her again.
“But I want to move out. Not that I don’t like living with you,”Evelyn hurried to explain.“But I’ve never once lived on my own…and now it’s become this big goal of mine. Find my own place. Live alone.”
“Then I’m sure you’ll make it happen.”
“There you two are.”
Donna and Evelyn whirled around in unison at the sound of their mother’s voice.
“Mother, what are you doing here?”Donna couldn’t remember the last time her mother had walked through the doors of Parker’s.
“I came to see what all this brouhaha about a cafe inside of Parker’s was all about.”She glanced around at the disarray in the kitchen.“Really, Donna, why are you doing this? It makes no sense. Not to mention, the days of a general store are long past. Don’t you think it’s time to move on? I bet you could get good money for selling Parker’s. It’s in a great location.”Their mother’s disapproval was clear. But then Patricia Beale never was one to keep her opinions to herself.
“I think the cafe was a wonderful idea.”Evelyn jumped in to support Donna’s decision.
She sent her sister a grateful look, but gutsy move on her sister’s part. It didn’t usually go well to contradict their mother.
“Mother, I have absolutely no plans of selling Parker’s. Ever. It’s been in the family for generations. Why would we sell it?”
“Because the property is worth so much now?”Her mother picked up a bag of sugar from the counter and frowned at it like it was some kind of foreign object before setting it back down.
“And you.”Her mother turned to look directly at Evelyn.“Have you squashed this silly divorce nonsense? Made up with Darren for whatever you did that annoyed him into this ridiculous request for a divorce?”
Evelyn squared her shoulders.“Mother, I didn’t do anything. Darren just decided to move on with someone new. Someone younger. Whatever. He’s the one wanting the divorce.”
“But have you talked to him? Surely you can convince him how silly the idea of a divorce is. We Beales don’t get divorced.”
Their mother apparently had forgotten about Donna’s long-ago divorce. Or, more likely, was just ignoring it.
“What will people at the Country Club say?”Their mother shook her head, her mouth curved with a look of censure.
“I wouldn’t know, Mother. Darren has taken me off our membership and none of the ladies there have spoken to me in months.”
