Episode 22: What's Love Got to Do With It?

Previously:

Patrick asked Noelle for her forgiveness.

The Carrolls get ready for a large reception at the Vineyards.

Jeff and Paige prepare for Monday’s show.

Episode 22
What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Just then, Jolie began to cry in the next room.  Noelle went in to try to comfort her.  She came out with the tiny baby in her arms and offered her to Patrick.

    “Would you like to hold her, oncle Patrick?”

    “I’m afraid I may drop her,”  Patrick responded.

    “Come on to the sofa,” Noelle motioned.  “It sounds like she needs a bottle.  I’ll show you how to feed her.”

*****
    Suzanne and Blaine had just finished baking a large sheet cake and were letting it cool when Natalie walked in.

    “Oooh, what flavor is it?”

    “Chocolate,” Blaine replied.
   
    “With chocolate icing?” Natalie asked.

    Suzanne nodded.

    “How good are you at making buttercream flowers?”

    “You’ll have to show me,” Natalie said. “I can do little stars and things, though.  And I can write ‘Happy Birthday’.”

    “We’ll have to think of something else to write,” Suzanne said. “What do you think?”

    Blaine replied. “We should leave it blank.  It would be tasteless if we wrote anything.”

    Suzanne and Natalie thought about it for a second, and agreed.


*****

    As Patrick was feeding baby Jolie, his cell phone rang. She began to cry.

    “I think she wants her maman,” Patrick said. He looked at the caller ID on his phone.  The number was unfamiliar to him, but he did recognize a Toronto area code.

    “Patrick MacPherson here. What can I do for you?” he answered.  The conversation was punctuated with “uh-huh”s, “yes”s, and other forms of agreement.

    “The 6:30 segment?  That’ll be fine. And you’ll be in touch?”

    After he hung up, he let out a long breath.

    “I hope you’ll be somewhere near a TV next week,” Patrick said.  “Jeff Perkins wants to interview me about my book for Breakfast in Canada.” 

*****

    The sitting rooms at the Vineyards began to fill with people. It seemed that all of Claypool was there to remember Seth and his life.

    Louisa sat in a corner and began to cry, the emotion and exhaustion overcoming her already.  Natalie walked up to her.

    “Is there anything else I can do for you?”  Natalie asked.

    “Just see that our guests are well taken care of,”  Louisa replied.  “I’ll be out there when I can.”

    Louisa took a tissue to her tear stained face and blew her nose with it.  “I’ve got to put on a brave face,” she muttered to herself. “People expect it.”

    Just then, she heard a knock at the door.  “Come in!”  she called out.  A tall, auburn haired man with a mustache and maple leaf toque stood in the doorway, Molson in hand.

    Louisa took a second look.  The man had a vaguely familiar look about him, as if she had seen him before.  She couldn’t place where.  Did he work at the mall?
    “Well, come on, don’t stand in the doorway,”  Suzanne said, looking at Louisa and the stranger.  “Aren’t you going to invite him in?”

    “Of course.  And you are...?”

    “Cody Stiles,” he supplied. 

    “Louisa Carroll.”

    She escorted him in.

    “Ms. Carroll, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

    “Did you say...”

    “Oh, my God,”  Suzanne said.  “The Cody Stiles?”