Sugar Read online

  "All the more reason to find someone to help. That's what it's all about. Why, thank you, Sugar, that was quick work. The salad is for a potluck this evening at Bible Study. You're welcome to join us."

  "I'll probably be decorating most of the day." Sugar steeled her¬self for Gran's attempt to change her mind. "I've never done a cat before."

  "I know it's a lot of hard work. I thought you might want to meet Judy's daughter, the one who lent you the clothing yesterday. She's a lesbian, too."

  The potato she was cutting bobbled out of Sugar's hands. "Oh, is she?"

  "Yes, and she's a dentist."

  "I've never worn a dentist's clothes before." Lesbian—Grannie Fulton had actually said lesbian. Good lord, Sugar thought. The house burns down and I'm in some sort of alternative reality. "I've never dated a dentist, either." She sighed. "I've really dated very little. Slaving in a restaurant didn't leave much time, and it's very

  true that you'll work harder for yourself than anyone else."

  Gran's phone rang and Sugar hopped up to answer it.

  Patricia never wasted time on preliminaries. "How did you burn the place down?"

  "It wasn't my fault," Sugar told her eldest sister indignantly. "The oven wiring was installed wrong and the fire could have started at any time, even with the oven off. I was lucky I was awake!"

  "But you're okay?"

  "Yes, I'm just fine." She turned to face Grannie Fulton and added mischievously, "Gran's just now trying to set me up with a woman at Bible Study tonight."

  "You are such a liar—"

  "She's says I'm lying, Gran."

  "Her name's Denise and she's a dentist," Gran said loudly enough for Patty to hear.

  "See?" Sugar was pleased for once to have left Patty speechless. "But I've got a long, complicated project to finish so I'll have to take a rain check. What's new with you?"

  "I was just calling to find out how you are, but you seem to be quite cozy with Gran all of a sudden."

  "I'll be here a while. The place where I lived was totaled. I've got enough cash to keep going, but not for a new place until I get my deposits out of the landlord. I need to talk to you about needling him."

  "Can you fax over the rental agreement?"

  "Oh, I don't know if I have it." Sugar closed her eyes to visual¬ize its whereabouts. She kept stuff like that in the footlocker with her CDs, and everything in the footlocker had seemed to survive. "Yes, I do have it. I'll fax it."

  "Then we'll fire off a letter demanding the deposits back."

  "Ouch. Do you think you could use another metaphor?"

  Patty's tone was borderline exasperated, but then it nearly always was. "We'll also find out who the claims adjuster is for the premises."

  "He did try to steal my stuff, too." Sugar quickly explained about the garage, the sheriff and the photographs she'd taken.

  "Now we're getting somewhere." Patty actually sounded as if she might be smiling. "This could be fun. I can virtually guarantee you that you'll get your deposits back. Maybe we'll enclose a photo of your warped Tupperware."

  "Sometimes I like the twisted way you think, Patty."

  "Thank you." Patty's voice fell back into a more businesslike cadence. "Until then I could loan you first and last, if that's what you need for your own place."

  Sugar wanted to shake Patty. They'd tried that the last time, and Patty had wanted approval on every place that Sugar looked at. Most apartments didn't have a properly sized oven, and Patty had never appreciated that a small oven was an absolute deal-breaker. "I don't think that's going to work. I'll be here and save my pen¬nies." She started to mention Gran's surgery but thought it was up to Gran to talk about it.

  Patty seemed uncommonly flustered. "I'd have thought you'd be miserable. I mean, Bible Study? You?"

  "That's turning out okay. Not sure why."

  "You seem settled, then."

  Sugar had the distinct impression that Patty was disturbed by that. "I am, for now. A couple of months, I think."

  "For as long as you like," Gran said firmly.

  They agreed on an appointment next Wednesday, and Patty was still proposing alternative arrangements when she hung up.

  "I don't care what time it is, it's too early for my sisters," Sugar said. "Quinn'll be next. Rose will weigh in at some point. They'll all know what's best."

  "They love you and want to help."

  Sugar shrugged. "Funny way of showing it."

  "Love is no guarantee you'll know how to go about helping the best way. I told Quinn so just a few weeks ago."

  Sugar was still blinking in surprise at that revelation when she went to answer a knock at the door. And there stood Quinn, who

  had sworn publicly that she'd never darken Grannie Fulton's door again.

  "Hey, you don't look singed," Quinn said. She gave Gran a hug on her way to the coffee maker.

  "I was lucky." Okay, so, she'd had her head down for quite a while trying to drum up business and pay her bills, discover new, faster ways to do everything in her craft, and so as a result her entire family had changed personalities.

  "Do you need a warmup?" Quinn hefted the pot in Gran's direction.

  "No, dear, I've had my one and that's all I get these days."

  Quinn settled at the table as Sugar resumed dicing the peeled potatoes.

  Any other day of any time in the past, Sugar would have pre¬tended there was nothing wrong with the picture of the three of them sitting harmoniously at the same table. Any other day in the past, she'd do what they did in their family, which is ignore the dis¬sension until somebody couldn't take it anymore and started yelling.

  It's a new era, Sugar thought. Gran knows I'm gay and she and Quinn are speaking again. "So, I have to say I'm surprised to see you here, Quinn. I think I've missed a few things."

  "I finally had the courage to tell Quinn I was sorry I'd been such a fool." Gran assessed the potatoes in the bowl. "Jacob has been a wonderful husband and father. He's a good man and I behaved badly."

  Any minute now the earth would start to spin backward. Grannie Fulton had admitted she was wrong} That her hunger strike, and case of the faints before, during and after Quinn's wed¬ding had been bad behavior? Jacob's grandmother had been much the same, but that didn't make it easier on anybody. The rabbi at their wedding had said that just getting to the wedding day some¬times was proof a couple could go the distance, sentiments echoed shortly thereafter by the minister representing Quinn's faith. It

  had been one of the most fun weddings Sugar had ever been to, aside from the fainting grandmothers, that is.

  She mused that the cake hadn't been very good. Maybe that was the day she'd decided she would try to outdo that baker someday. Considering how much wedding cakes cost it seemed to her they ought to be the best cakes anyone had ever tasted.

  Quinn shrugged in Sugar's direction. "Gran called me out of the blue and apologized, and it was one of the happiest days of my life. The kids hardly knew her and Richie's going to high school next year."

  "Sugar is going to stay for a couple of months while I have sur¬gery on my hip," Gran was saying. "Though a fire isn't the way I'd say God chooses to work, it's still allowed both of us to get some¬thing we needed. A mutually satisfactory arrangement."

  "Oh, I'm glad," Quinn said sincerely. "I was actually going to talk to you on my way home from my class this afternoon, but then I got Sugar's e-mail this morning and hurried on over. But it's all settled now and a much better solution than I could have ever offered."

  "Patricia seemed bothered that I was staying," Sugar shared. "Not quite sure why."

  The look in Quinn's eye said she had a guess but wasn't going to say in front of Gran. "Don't worry about Patty. Heard from Rose?"

  "No. What's new?" At forty, Rose was six years older and the closest in age to her, but Sugar had always felt they were strangers, possibly because Rose was relentlessly, aggressively, openly in-your-face heterosexual.

  "Divorce court. Again
." Quinn shrugged. "It's not as if any of us, including her, expected it to last."

  "I hoped," Grannie Fulton said. "I did hope. But..."

  "Did he ever find any kind of job?" This would be Rose's third trip to Oops, I Did It Again.

  "Nothing legal." Quinn rolled her eyes. "And when they raided that so-called club of his it was sheer luck Rose wasn't there."

  "I am so behind the times." How could so much happen in five

  months?

  "You missed Easter," Gran said mildly.

  "True," Sugar admitted. "I was quite busy with bunnies and lambs. I thought of you and Jacob, Quinn, because I baked and decorated one cake under rabbinical supervision for Passover. Well, without the leavening it was more of a torte. I learned a lot."

  "Sounds like some seder," Quinn observed.

  "It was at a restaurant with people who'd met in Europe at the end of World War Two. I wish I could have stayed. I left just as the very first guest arrived and the tears were flowing."

  "Food-service people are the ones who miss holidays with their families." Gran sighed.

  Sugar dumped the last of the potatoes into the mixing bowl. "I hope someday to be successful enough to be able to finish every¬thing two days early so I don't get into the habit. I'm sorry I missed the gathering," Sugar added. "That must have been some Easter."

  "It was a beautiful meal," Gran said, though the expression on Quinn's face said it had been quite a day. "Patricia outdid herself."

  Quinn stayed a little longer, helping with dicing celery and peeling hard-boiled eggs. When Sugar scraped the test fondant off the marble slab, Quinn agreed with Gran—there was no taste of smoke at all.

  "And that's delicious—pure sugar, huh?"

  "Sure," Sugar admitted. "But fat free and all natural."

  "Everything's a trade-off," Quinn observed. "I should be going. I'm teaching in Issaquah this afternoon."

  "Oh!" Sugar looked at her sister hopefully. "I don't suppose I could hitch a ride, could I? My car is still at my old place, parked on the street."

  "Sure," Quinn said easily. "We'll catch up."

  Sugar quickly rewrapped the fondant, then grabbed a sweater and keys. The day had turned brisk with an inland-blowing breeze.

  As she walked out with Quinn to her car, Quinn said, "You're handling this very well."

  "I would be a lot worse off if it wasn't for Gran. She's been great."

  "I guess when she fainted at Easter she got religion." Quinn cracked a smile.

  "She fainted?"

  "Nobody told you?"

  "No!" Sugar was incensed. It was one thing to treat her like a baby, but quite another to keep her in the dark about Gran's health. Her seat belt clicked with an angry snick.

  "Well. That'll be something to convince Patty of. She's sure you heard about it and promptly made your way here."

  "Why? Okay, I know Patty thinks I'm a do-nothing sponger now, but my business is steadily improving." Honestly, you'd think she hadn't spent eight years of her life working ten hours a day, six days a week in that five-star hellhole in downtown Seattle. "I was hoping to hire help starting at Thanksgiving."

  "Patty always has her two cents. It's about the two cents." Quinn backed out of Gran's driveway and turned in the direction of East Lake Sammamish Parkway. "Gran fainted and I guess Patty and Rose had her in her grave by the end of the year. So Patty updated Gran's estate papers. Remember? She did them after Grandpa died."

  Sugar nodded. "What was so strange about that?"

  "Well, that was eight years ago, and the last appraisal of the house at that time was already ten years old. So her estate was valued on the price of this house, eighteen years ago."

  Sugar blinked. "Oh. It'll have gone up?"

  "To put it mildly. Gran may be on a fixed income but she's living in a millionaire's mansion in the dot-com real estate econ¬omy. Patty and Rose are concerned that Gran's affairs be handled equitably."

  "I couldn't give a crap. I mean—"

  "I know." Quinn sighed as she negotiated traffic. "I lived seeing Gran only at holidays for fifteen years. I'm thanking God every night now that Gran and I are okay again. She says she saw Jesus

  when she fainted, and he scolded her. I don't care what happened. She's happier than I ever remember. I hope she outlives all of us."

  "So Patty thinks I'm going to try to edge everybody out on a piece of this house? That's . . . that stinks." Sugar cleared the quaver from her voice. "I work damn hard and I'm pretty proud of what I'm trying to do. I may not have anything to show for it, but someday I will. And even if Gran was the way she used to be I'd still want to help her out. I didn't know she was putting off surgery. And doesn't anybody care why she fainted?"

  Quinn put her hand briefly on Sugar's. "She told me her doctor said it was probably low blood sugar, though I'm not convinced. But she accepted that explanation. And I believe you're not here to slip a new will in Gran's hands to sign. They won't. Want a piece of advice from your bossy older sister?"

  Sugar laughed. Of her three sisters, Quinn was the one she'd always gotten along with best, even if she was nine years older. "Okay, lay it on me."

  "Don't let Patty and Rose get to you. Ignore them. It makes them absolutely bonkers, which is part of the fun. My goodness, look at the lake. Isn't it a lovely day?"

  Sugar had to agree. Lake Sammamish sparkled with glittering wind-sculpted waves. "The paper said there's a chance of rain tomorrow afternoon."

  "So? What else is new?"

  They chatted companionably for the remainder of the drive. Quinn's worries included her eldest's study habits and if her con¬tract as a part-time arts teacher would be renewed. Sugar was relieved to see her Honda undamaged as Quinn pulled alongside. ' She didn't look toward the ruin of her house, but Quinn did.

  "Holy ma-joley! I'm so glad you weren't hurt."

  "Oh, me too," Sugar said fervently. "Hang on and let me make sure the old girl starts up, okay?"

  Quinn idled as Sugar slid gingerly into the driver's seat. Having been closed up, the car now smelled like wet carpet. It had seen a lot of abuse in its two hundred thousand miles. Being overrun by

  firefighters was the capper. She turned the key with trepidation, but with the second attempt the engine grumbled to life. She and Quinn shared cheery waves, then Sugar turned back in the direc¬tion of Gran's. The little car valiantly chugged all the way there and smelled much better by the time they reached home. She left the windows down and headed back inside. She was very glad to have been able to fetch the car, but she had a tickle of concern that she'd not yet accomplished enough on Emily's cake.

  Gran's potato salad had progressed. The large bowl held cooked, cooled potato dices, crunchy celery and onion and chopped egg. Gran was stirring up a dressing of Miracle Whip and mustard. After Sugar had settled into her own work, Gran said seriously, "So, now tell me. What exactly is rabbinical supervi¬sion?"

  Sugar grinned. "First off, you have to get a rabbi who's approved to do it, and the restaurant had one, of course. I had to do everything there. Rabbi Weinstein knew incredible stuff about food. I mean—I wish I'd had him at culinary academy. So then everything is cleaned like you have never seen." She set out the yellow and black tints and cut a baseball-sized lump of fondant away from the rest. The cat had patches of tan fur all up and down—she glanced at the picture—her sides. "Cookpots filled to the brim with water to a rolling boil, and then you throw a rock in to be sure the lip gets boiled, too."

  Sugar measured tint colors while Gran measured turmeric and celery seed. Soon the quality and properties of peppers were dis¬cussed and they moved on after that to kosher versus sea salt. I was lonely, Sugar thought with a flash of clarity. After the bedlam of restaurant work, having no one to please but herself had seemed heavenly. But solitude had been a kind of invisible trap. Chatting while she worked felt wonderful, and very... homelike.

  Driving with Quinn had felt fine, and the sunshine and fresh air had made the fire seem long ago. She
'd been inside too much. A drive to Mercer Island tomorrow was suddenly an exciting prospect. Thoughts of a get-together with Tree and a businesslike

  meal with Emily weren't far from her mind either. There wasn't time in her life for romance and heavy dating and certainly not set¬tling down or anything like that. But maybe there was time enough for coffee or dinner.

  By early evening, Sugar had the colored and textured icing ready to apply to the finished cake, and the ganache filling was made. One of the reasons she'd suggested a pose of the cat on its back was while the cake itself would be harder to sculpt, the belly and inner legs were a single color, saving her an enormous amount of time. She'd stack and secure the layers in a little while and begin sculpting, but she was in serious need of a break first.

  She didn't understand why she was so tired. She'd worked that long on a single project before, many times. Her vision was fuzzy at the edges, yet she'd had plenty of water.

  Bridget, Gran's closest friend from church, had stopped by at the appointed hour to take their various goods to the shelters. Gran wouldn't be back until after Bible Study. Sugar realized guiltily that no call had been made to Gran's doctor. Another thing to take care of on Monday, she thought tiredly.

  Thinking her weariness was from leaning over her work, Sugar decided it was time to determine the damage to her computer and printer. Both were gently resting upside down on towels in the garage. If the laptop didn't boot up, she'd head out to the Internet cafe again for a real break.

  Following the guidelines she'd found on the Internet, she used the blow dryer on cool to force air into the CD slot and every other opening she could. She wasn't sure she didn't hear water sloshing inside it, but that could easily be her imagination. She stood with the power cord in her hand for a long time, trying to make herself plug it into the wall outlet. What if it exploded? What if she burned down Gran's house?

  She wasn't willing to examine closely why she thought of Charlie. Well, she had promised she'd call about that order. Given