Free Coming Home to Love (Lakeside Porch Series Book 2) by Katie O'Boyle

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    “Take that!” Sara proclaimed.
    Gianessa laughed from her belly. After untying her apron and balling it up for the hamper, she lobbed the baking utensils into a dishpan full of sudsy hot water, rinsed her hands and reached for a towel. “What a mess.”
    Sara surveyed the countertops. “You think?” Open bags of rice flour, hazelnut flour, millet flour, and sugar rested on a dusting of spilled ingredients. Butter wrappers and measuring spoons lay where Gianessa had tossed them. Cans and boxes and bags sat open, and a bottle of vanilla lay on its side with a brown puddle under its mouth.
    “There are better ways to have fun, you know.” Sara watched the frown lines melt away from her roommate’s forehead.
    “You are right, Sara. Please teach me how to have fun in Tompkins Falls.”
    Perfect . “Do you think Remy will ever give you a Saturday off?”
    “As a matter of fact, since I filled in when he was out with the flu, he’s giving me this Saturday off.”
    Double perfect . “That could work. Manda’s classes start the first of February, and I keep telling her she needs a break from the hospital. Don’t you agree?”
    “What are you planning?” Gianessa eyed her roommate. “A chick thing?”
    “Yes, and it would be great if you’d come with us.”
    Gianessa’s eyes brightened. “Where? What? Tell me.”
    Sara held her arm in front of her and wiggled her hand, setting four bangle bracelets jingling.
    Gianessa came closer to finger the bracelets. “Gorgeous.”
    “I want to resume the Great Thrift Shop Adventures that Manda and I started last year.”
    “These are enamel, hand-painted, worth a bundle. You got them at a thrift shop?”
    “A buck apiece.”
    “No way.” She stepped back and gave Sara a skeptical look.
    “Way. In Ithaca.”
    “I’m in.” Gianessa held up her hand.
    “I figured.” Sara gave her a high-five. “We went all over the Finger Lakes and ended up with four favorite destinations.”
    While she helped clean up the kitchen, she told Gianessa about their biggest finds and how little they’d spent. “Bottom line, we figured about ten bucks each for lunch, and both of us put a personal limit on what we could spend. Manda’s limit was twenty bucks, and usually she didn’t spend it all. Mine was ten, but whatever I didn’t spend one week, I’d roll it over to the next.”
    “My limit will be the first tip of the week.”
    Sara hummed with excitement. “I’m so glad you want to do this. It’s no fun alone. Manda was crazy busy her first semester of grad school. And then Joel’s accident. She said something the other day about missing our adventures, and when I said ‘soon’ she said ‘maybe’.” Her eyebrows arched impossibly high. “Let’s both work on her for this Saturday, okay?”
    “Absolutely. I can’t drive, obviously, but I can spot a bargain and I might have two bucks to spend by then.”
    “That would get you two of these.” Sara jangled her bangles one more time.
    “I love the butterscotch one with the—”
    “Hah. Not for sale.” She sniffed. “Is something burning?”
    Gianessa turned in alarm and opened the oven door. Smoke wafted toward them. “Totally burned.” She muttered, “Why didn’t I set a timer?”
    Sara opened the kitchen window a few inches while Gianessa turned off the oven. They both fanned the smoke toward the open air.
    “You know,” Sara said without thinking, “usually you’ve got it all together, but sometimes lately you’re a total scatterbrain.”
    “I know. I’m overwhelmed with getting my work back on a professional track and trying to . . .”
    “Trying to what?”
    From the way Gianessa’s eyes shifted and the little smile on her face, Sara doubted she was going to get a totally honest answer. What’s she hiding?
    Gianessa busied herself putting away the bags of flour and boxes and cans. “Just trying to fit in here,” she said evasively. “You’re a sweetheart to include me in the plans