Free Cupcake Club 04 - Honey Pie by Donna Kauffman

“Cupcake Club?”
    Lani grinned. “You know, like having a book club. Some women bitch and knit, or bitch and read, we bitch and bake.”
    Honey found herself smiling again. “I like it.”
    â€œYou’ll have to come next week. It would be a good way to get to know folks here. We’re a good bunch. A little eccentric, maybe.”
    â€œWell, I think it goes without saying, I have you all beat on that score.”
    Lani laughed again and Honey found herself laughing with her. Seriously in Wonderland, she thought.
    Any minute she’d wake up and this wacky dream would all be just that. Except, she realized, she didn’t want to wake up. Because, as dreams went, this one was a little odd, okay a lot odd, but had the potential to be pretty awesome.
    â€œBesides, if you really do own half the place, I could hardly keep you out,” Lani said on another laugh.
    Honey’s smile faded, as, true to form, cold, harsh reality crept right back in. “Yes, that. I still don’t know about, well . . . any of it, I guess.”
    â€œDo you want to go next door and see it?”
    Then some other realization struck Lani because her face paled, just a little. “Oh my God. If you thought Bea still lived upstairs over the shop when she passed, then, did you—? Were you planning on living there?”
    â€œKind of.”
    â€œOh, shit.”
    â€œThat, too.”
    Lani’s mouth quirked at that. “You can’t know this yet, but I promise you’re going to fit in here just fine. I can’t wait to introduce you to Charlotte. And Kit. You’ve already met Alva.”
    Lani picked up a pencil, tapped it on her desk, her expression growing serious. “We’ll figure something out. We will. I mean, we have to get it all sorted out legally, of course, but—” She stopped and looked up at Honey as another thought apparently struck her. “Double shit. Were you planning on reopening her shop? Are you a tailor, too? I thought Bea said you were an artist.”
    â€œI am an artist. But about the shop space, yes, I was planning to use it. Bea wanted me to open up a storefront. I’ve had a mail-order business for years, but she knew it was time to get out of the barn and into a real life, and she was right.” Honey stopped, knowing it was pointless to explain further. The bakery adjunct was built and ready to open for business. Even if she had the legal right to take the space back, she didn’t have the funds to reconstruct it from a kitchen to her little artisan shop. It wouldn’t have taken much to shift it from the way Bea had had it to meet her basic needs; then, as the shop progressed, she would have made further improvements until she had it the way she wanted it.
    And kicking the cupcake ladies out wouldn’t exactly be the way to endear herself to her new customer base or her new neighbors. Not that she wanted to kick them out.
    â€œListen, I don’t know what will happen,” Honey said, not wanting to think abut the shop she’d finally let herself envision, only to lose it before it even began. “Obviously, I need to talk to Bea’s lawyers. I didn’t come here to make trouble. I came here—”
    â€œTo make yourself a home,” Lani finished, and it was only because she was smiling so sincerely, without an ounce of pity in her voice or on her face, that Honey took it as the kind gesture it was intended to be. “I know something about that, too. A lot of something, actually. As does my husband, and a few of my closest friends. Trust me, you couldn’t be surrounded by more understanding people. We know what you’re going through.” She grinned again. “Well, the starting over part, anyway. As for the rest . . . you just tell us what you’re comfortable with and what makes you uncomfortable, and we’ll work around it.”
    She said it so simply. As if that was all there