“And the chocolate cake, too,” Filly said. “We’ve all had our fill of it, and tomorrow, I want to make dumplings.”
“I’ll help you carry it,” Josh offered.
“Thank you, again, for everything.” Sophie stood and picked up the pot of chowder.
Josh cut off a piece of cake. “Something for my midnight snack,” he said and then set the rest of the loaf of bread on the empty end of the cake pan. “I like chocolate cake and a glass of good cold milk before I go to bed.”
“Me too,” Sophie said. “Thank y’all for saving some supper for us.”
Filly waved her away with a flick of the wrist. “We’re family. We take care of our own.”
“Have you and Em been friends for a long time?” Josh followed behind her with the cake and bread in his hands.
“We were inseparable until we were about twelve years old.” Sophie stepped up onto the porch. “Then she had tutors that came to the house to educate her, and I stayed in public school. The first semester of college we saw each other some, but I hadn’t actually seen her in more than a decade until today. She went to one college and I went to another, and they were only about fifty miles away from each other, but she went home after the first semester.”
“I hope she finds peace here,” Josh said.
Peace might be stretching her expectations for Emma. If she could just gain a little self-confidence and be like the little girl that Sophie had known all those years ago, that would be a great start.
“So do I.” Sophie opened the door and went straight to the short bar separating the kitchen from the living area. “Supper has arrived, Em,” she called out as she set the pot of chowder down. Josh handed the pan in his hands off to Sophie, bobbed his head in a quick goodbye, and was out the door before Emma made it to the kitchen.
“I haven’t had chocolate cake in forever,” Emma said. “Oh!” Her voice showed more emotion than it had all day. “A cat! Can I pet it?”
“Yes, you can pet her. She’s very tame. Her name is Coco, and she loves attention,” Sophie answered. “Did Victoria ever let you have a pet? I remember that you always said you wanted a cat when we were kids.”
Emma dropped down on her knees and picked up the cat, hugged her to her chest, and kissed her on top of the head. “I love cats, but Mother says they shed all over everything, and she said that I’m probably allergic to them anyway.”
“Well, we don’t care if Coco sheds, and you aren’t sneezing, so I don’t think you’ve got an allergy,” Sophie said. “Coco brings us all so much joy that we’ll gladly brush the cat hair off the sofa or run the vacuum over the carpet. Out here in the boonies, you can enjoy her all you want. You want some chowder? It’s been hours since you had lunch.”
“We had a snack up near Odessa when you stopped for gas,” Emma reminded her. “I’d rather have a piece of that cake right now.”
Sophie cut off a big slab and plopped it down on a paper plate. “We don’t have a table, so do you want to eat it on the bar or sitting right there on the floor?”
Emma’s eyes showed a faint bit of light. “Right here on the floor, and after I eat it, maybe I will have some chowder.”
“Remember that old saying about life being short?” Sophie got misty-eyed at the idea of Emma getting so excited over chocolate cake.
“Eat dessert first,” Emma finished the old adage. “I should sketch those words in fancy lettering and make a plaque to hang on my wall if I ever get a tiny house.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, but first you have to pick up some brushes or at least crayons,” Sophie said.
Emma held her plate above the cat’s head and took the first bite. “This is so danged good. When I was in college, I ate whole boxes of chocolate cupcakes, but they didn’t taste like this. I remember when Rebel let us have a picnic on a quilt one time. We had peanut butter sandwiches, and Rebel had brought chocolate cupcakes that she’d made. They tasted like this, but I felt guilty later. You never came back to my house again. Mother said that Rebel left because she