‘Ha!’ snapped Grandma. ‘Jo has her head screwed on right. Life is far easier when one doesn’t have to pander to a man. Not that you’d know about that, Eadie.’
Ouch! Jo winced on her aunt’s behalf.
‘If Jo married me I’d be a very lucky man.’
Jo’s fingers tightened about her cutlery and her stomach churned. What game was Mac playing?
‘If you married him you could eat like this every night,’ one of her grandmother’s cronies said.
They ate then, mostly in silence, all relishing the amazing food.
Eventually Great-Aunt Edith pushed her plate away. ‘Ladies, don’t forget to leave room for dessert.’ She shot Jo a smirk. ‘I take it there will be dessert?’
‘But of course.’
‘Ah, but will it be the promised dessert?’ She folded her arms and glared down the table. ‘What I want to know is if she’s managed to pull off what she promised she could. Lucy? Did she or did she not make you a macaron tower?’
Her grandmother smiled benignly. ‘Where are the stakes?’
Jo rolled her eyes when the contested pearls were placed with ridiculous ceremony in the middle of the table.
Mac cleared the plates. ‘I’ll pour the dessert wine,’ he said, moving to the sideboard. ‘Jo, you can bring in the dessert.’
‘The dishes?’ she asked him.
‘All cleared.’
‘The puppies?’
‘Safely tucked away in the laundry.’
Good. Right. She drew in a breath, rose, and moved to the kitchen.
As carefully as she’d ever done anything in her life, Jo picked up the first tower that she’d made and backed out of the pantry. She paused outside the doorway to the dining room for a moment, to pull in a breath, and balancing carefully on her new heels entered the room.
Gasps rose up all around her.
She set the concoction in front of her grandmother and with a quiver of relief stepped back again. Mission accomplished.
‘Happy birthday, Grandma. I love you.’ She kissed her grandmother’s cheek.
They sang ‘Happy Birthday’, but throughout the song she couldn’t help but notice, even though Great-Aunt Edith’s voice was the loudest, how her aunt’s gaze kept returning to the tower in awe. And she recognised something else there too—hunger and yearning.
When the song finished Jo left the room and returned with the second tower. She set it down in front of her great-aunt. ‘I made this one for you Aunt Edith, because I love you too.’
‘But...’ Grandma spluttered. ‘It’s not Eadie’s birthday.’
‘Maybe not, but you both deserve pretty, beautiful things. To me, you’re both the most beautiful women I know, and you’ve helped to make me the woman I am today.’
They stared at her, but neither spoke.
‘My real gift to you today, Grandma, is to bring this ridiculous feud of yours and Aunt Edith’s to an end.’ She reached across the table and took the pearls. ‘These now belong to me. I have no cousins. It’s what Great-Grandmother would’ve wanted. Besides...’ She clasped them around her throat. ‘They go perfectly with my outfit.’
The sisters’ jaws dropped.
‘Those towers consist of your individual favourite macaron flavours. The combination is perfect—much better than if they were just one or the other. Just as the two of you are perfect together.’
Both women’s eyes had grown suspiciously damp.
‘I love you. I know you both love me. I also know you love each other—even if you find the words too hard to say. Great-Aunt Edith, it’s time for you to come home. This is where you belong and this is where you’re wanted.’
Grandma blew her nose loudly. ‘She’s right, Eadie.’
Great-Aunt Edith cleared her throat—twice. ‘Lucy, I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear it.’
‘Excellent.’ Mac broke into the moment. ‘Now that that’s settled, I’m stealing Jo away.’ He raised a hand before anyone could argue with him. ‘She’s not fond of macarons, so I’ve made her a dessert of her own.’
He took her arm.
‘Jo?’ her grandmother and her great-aunt said in unison.
‘It’s okay,’ Jo said. ‘I’ll shout if I need rescuing.’
With that, she allowed him to pull her into the kitchen.
He turned with a grin that turned her heart over and over.
‘That was masterfully done,’ he said.
‘Yes.’ It had left her feeling powerful. ‘What dessert did you make me?’
He handed her a plate. ‘Pineapple upside-down cake.’
She took a mouthful and closed her eyes in bliss. When she opened them Mac was staring at her with a naked hunger he didn’t try to hide. It only made her feel more powerful and assured...and bold.