Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(8)

“Doc!” Delores turned and gave him what Hannah and her sisters had always called Mother’s glare of imminent death.

“Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t have told them that,” Doc said by way of apology, but Hannah noticed that his eyes were sparkling with laughter. “Am I forgiven? Or do I have to jump through hoops?”

“You have to jump through hoops,” Delores said and then she did something that surprised both Hannah and Andrea. She laughed. “I’ll expect you to make the coffee tomorrow and that’s a win-win situation for me. I never get a good cup of coffee when I make it.”

“Deal,” Doc said, slipping his arm around her shoulders and giving her a hug. “By the way, I agree that Hannah looks lovely tonight, but she always looks good, even without any makeup.”

Delores nodded. “You’re right. Hannah’s beautiful, no matter what. I really shouldn’t . . .” She stopped and looked thoughtful. “What is that word you use for what I just did?”

“Harangue? Plague? Bully? Criticize?” Doc gave her another little hug to let her know he was teasing. “It’s okay, Lori. The girls wouldn’t know what to do with you if you didn’t criticize them. You’ve done it all their lives and if you changed now, it just wouldn’t be you. They know you love them and want the best for them.” Doc turned to Hannah and Andrea. “You do, don’t you?”

“Of course we know.” Hannah was the first to respond.

Andrea reached over to give her mother a pat on the hand. “Hannah’s right. We grew up knowing that.”

Delores looked slightly tearful and Hannah began to think that leopards really could change their spots overnight. Their mother had just admitted that she was too critical and that had never happened before. There was a moment of silence that was beginning to become just a bit uncomfortable when Doc spoke again.

“We planned to get here earlier, but I wanted to stay at the hospital until Warren Dalworth’s visitor left.”

“It was someone from Minneapolis with some papers for him to sign,” Delores told them. “That didn’t take long, but then Roger came in and Doc needed time to talk to him.”

“How is Warren doing?” Hannah asked, hoping that there was some good news.

Doc shook his head and sighed. “Not well. He’s comfortable, but he knows he’s terminal and he can’t last much longer. The hardest part was telling Roger.”

Hannah shivered slightly. Roger was an only child and his mother had died several years ago. He’d just gotten over one loss in his immediate family and now, today, he’d learned that his father didn’t have long to live. “It must be horrible to get news like that,” she said.

“It is,” Doc told her. “And delivering that news is almost as difficult as getting it. It’s one of the hardest parts of being a doctor.”

“Is Roger all right?” Andrea asked.

“Yes. He took it well. Of course it wasn’t totally unexpected. Warren’s been battling cancer for the past four years. There’s also the fact that Roger and his father have never been that close, but it’s still hard to hear that a parent is dying.”

Andrea and Hannah exchanged glances. Hannah didn’t want to think about that, and she could tell that Andrea didn’t either.

“Did Roger go to see his father?” Andrea asked.

“Yes.” This time Delores answered. “And he told us he’d be staying in Lake Eden indefinitely so that he could see his father every day.”

This time there was a three-way glance between mother and daughters, and Doc gave a little nod. “I caught that. You’re doing that mother-daughter telepathy thing again. All three of you are worried that if Roger stays in Lake Eden, Doctor Bev will stay, too.”

“That’s right,” Delores said, giving him a fond look. And then, in her best British upper-class accent she exclaimed, “By George! I think he’s got it!”

The tension that had settled over them with Doc’s news dissolved as all four of them laughed. They were still smiling when Barbara Donnelly walked up to their table.

“Hi, everyone,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

“You’re not late,” Delores told her. “We didn’t get here until five minutes ago. Sit down and have some appetizers. They look lovely.”

Barbara glanced at the appetizer tray that sat in the center of the table. “Did you do these, Hannah?”

“No. We only catered the cupcakes. Roger hired a catering company from Minneapolis to do the rest of the food.”

“Sit here, Barbara.” Andrea pulled out the chair for her husband’s secretary. “But first turn around so that I can see your skirt. It’s just beautiful.”

“It’s more than beautiful, it’s gorgeous,” Delores corrected her as Barbara turned all the way around. “You look lovely, Barbara.”

“Thank you.” Barbara smiled as she sat down. “Claire ordered this outfit especially for me. She remembered that I just love monarch butterflies.”

“The colors are incredible against the black background,” Hannah said, admiring the dozens of embroidered monarch butterflies scattered over the material of the skirt.

“The buttons on the blouse are the perfect touch,” Delores told her. “They’re monarch butterflies too, aren’t they?”