“In desperate need of pie,” Didi told her. “I would like peach, with the cinnamon whipped topping, and a cup of coffee with cream on the side.”
Josie looked at her. “Cinnamon whipped topping?”
It was an extra thing that only those “in the know” were aware of. His grandmother had always added cinnamon to her whipped cream topping for peach and apple pies. Those were the only things she put it on and she’d only done it at home. Not in the bakery.
Cam leaned in. “Did you have cinnamon whipped topping with my grandma?”
Didi looked like that was an extremely stupid question. “Well, of course.”
“They don’t do that here,” Cam said. “That was something she only did at home when she made pies.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous,” Didi said. “Tell her to do it now. I’ve been looking forward to having that topping on my pie again ever since Dean died.”
Dean, her husband, had passed away about a year ago. Cam blinked at her. “Why haven’t you come in before this?”
“I’ve been very busy with the funeral preparations,” Didi said.
Cam nodded. “I suppose so. When was the funeral again?”
He knew when it had been. He’d thought about coming home for it. For Whitney. But his friends had talked him out of it.
But it had killed him to know that Whitney might be sad and hurting. He’d finally sent flowers. To her directly. With only, I wish I could meet you at the bridge on the card. She would know it was from him. Meet me at the bridge was the note he’d slip into her locker or leave on the dash of her car.
“Last week,” Didi answered. “It was lovely.”
She thought Dean’s funeral had been just last week? Cam glanced at Josie, who just lifted a brow. She was clearly letting him take the lead here. “Do you think… the kitchen… could make something special?” he asked.
Josie was the kitchen here. Along with Zoe, of course, but Josie was the more creative cook of the two.
“I think we can manage it,” Josie said with a bemused smile.
“Thanks. I’ll have the same,” Cam told her.
Josie nodded and moved off.
“Dean wouldn’t have wanted you having Letty’s whipped topping?” Cam asked Didi. If Didi thought the funeral was just last week, that was something much different from her just getting a date mixed up from a year ago.
“Oh goodness no,” Didi said. “Dean didn’t like anything having to do with Charlotte.”
Very few people called his grandmother Charlotte, but it seemed that Didi was one of them. “Did she call you Dorothy?” he asked, very curious about their relationship. He had been at various times over the years, but Letty hadn’t liked talking about Didi so he didn’t know much. He liked the idea of getting more history about them from Didi.
“She does,” Didi told him, referring to Letty in the present tense. His grandmother had also passed away.
“Dean didn’t like you to have anything to do with my grandma then?” Cam asked.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t even make any of her recipes. He knew which ones were hers and he wouldn’t eat anything I’d learned from her.”
Cam felt his eyes go wide. “Wow. Really. How did he know which ones were hers?”
Didi smiled at him. “Because she cooked for him all the time when they were dating.”
Cam stared at her for several seconds. She was a little confused, obviously, thinking Dean had died last week and that Letty was still alive. But this was interesting.
“They dated?” he asked. “I didn’t know that.”
In fact, he wondered who did know that. He wasn’t sure his mom and dad even knew that. If they did, it was a well-kept secret. The Lancasters and McCaffreys had hated each other Cam’s entire life. It had always been understood that it was because Didi stole Letty’s recipe for the now famous Butter Sticks that had launched Hot Cakes.
But damn, there might be even more scandal behind it all.
“Oh, yes.” Didi leaned back in her chair, folding her hands on her lap. “She turned down his proposal and he never got over it.”
Cam swallowed hard. “Dean Lancaster proposed to my grandmother?”
“Of course. She was a catch,” Didi said. “Beautiful, independent, smart, sassy.”
Yep, that was his grandmother.
“Why did she say no?”
“Because Dean was an ass.”
Again Cam was speechless for a moment. “But… you married him.”
Didi nodded. “Horrible mistake. Except, of course, I have Whitney because of him.”
Her granddaughter. Not her two sons, not her three grandsons. Didi only named Whitney.
And Cam had to agree that Dean had been an ass. Along with their son, Eric, and their grandsons, Whitney’s brothers Wes and Will and her cousin Brent.
Cam leaned in. Didi seemed in the mood to share and he was going to take advantage. Maybe she was always like this, but in case she wasn’t, he wanted as much of the story as he could get.
“So tell me what happened,” he said.
Didi shrugged. “He and Charlotte dated for a few months. He fell in love, she didn’t. He proposed, she said no. He never got over that. Though part of it was his ego and the fact that people didn’t say no to him. After Charlotte and I split up and I was on my own, Dean asked me out. He was very handsome and charming and I was feeling very alone. I said yes. He romanced me and I got pregnant.” Didi lifted a shoulder again. “And that’s that. He took over the business and made me a very rich woman.”
Cam was happy that Josie delivered the pie and coffee just then. He had to process all of that. There was nothing about the story that was familiar to him at all. Other than that part where she and Letty split up.
“Let me know what you think of the topping,” Josie told Didi, setting her plate down.
“Oh, it will be perfect,” Didi said, sitting forward and picking up a fork. She seemed genuinely eager. “Charlotte’s concoctions are always perfect.”
Again with the present tense
