Page 78 of Cherry on Top

She hadn’t made a conscious decision to start including her girlfriend in her posts, but there had been one when they were walking in the woods last spring. Cherry had been taking photos and videos of the gorgeous trees, the just-blooming daffodils busting up through the soil, the green buds on the trees, and there was Ellis. Standing in a spot where the rays of spring sun filtering through the trees looked almost ethereal, making Ellis’s blond head glow. She took the shot, and it was too good not to post, so she did, with the caption,This is Ellis and she’s my actual girlfriend. No tricks. No lies. No deceit. I am a lucky woman, loves. #nofilterThe likes had exploded, and from that point on, she would occasionally include Ellis in a video or a photo. She’d talk about her, about them.

And now?

She watched as Ellis used cinnamon dots for buttons on her snowman, the tip of her tongue out and at the corner of her mouth.

“Does the tongue thing help you concentrate?” she asked.

“What tongue thing?” Ellis asked, glancing up.

Cherry mimicked her, and Ellis’s eyes went wide.

“Oh my God, am I doing that?”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s adorable.”

“Noooooo, you can edit that out, right?”

“Absolutely,” Cherry said, then did her head shake to the camera.

They finished up the cookies, and Cherry took the camera off thetripod, got some shots of them to splice into the video, and then they were done.

“Whew!” Lila said. “That was so much fun! I feel like I’m behind the scenes at a movie shoot.”

“Well, thank you so much for letting us use your kitchen. It’s so pretty and way better than either of ours.” She wasn’t kidding either. Lila had a large, gorgeous kitchen with lovely white cabinets and a gray granite countertop. The island made the perfect spot for shooting cooking videos—something Cherry had started doing more of, mostly because she wasn’t great at cooking, and she wanted to show others it was okay if you weren’t a gourmet chef. You could still learn, and you could still cook successful meals. She’d already had a couple of companies send her products to try.

The back door opened, and suddenly a tall, fair-haired young man came in. Noah. Home from college two days ago for the holidays. Noah. Her brother. She still couldn’t get over that sentence. She said it in her head more often than she cared to admit.My brother, Noah.It had a nice ring.

“Hey, Ma,” he said and crossed to hug Cherry. “How’d the shoot go?”

“Just finished,” she said. “Wanna help me edit later?”

“Seriously? That’d be dope.” His eyes lit up, and he moved to hug Ellis.

When she shifted her gaze from him to Lila, she noticed Lila’s eyes were extra wide. “Mom? You okay?” she asked.

“Are you kidding? This is all I’ve ever wanted.” And then Lila’s tears spilled over, and she glanced away, clearly embarrassed, waving a hand in front of her face as if that would make the tears disappear.

“Us making a mess of your kitchen?” Ellis was excellent at lightening the mood with humor. “’Cause we did a damn good job, if I say so myself.”

It worked. Lila laughed through her tears, but she made an all-encompassing gesture with one hand. “This. This. My kids together, in my house for the holidays.” She looked from one to the next to the next. “My heart is full,” she finally said, her voice soft. She laid a hand on her chest and said it again. “My heart is full.”

“Aw, now you’re gonna make me cry,” Ellis said and went around the island to hug Lila. Because Cherry had realized recently that shewasn’t the only one who’d been missing a mom. And Lila was more than happy to step into that role for the both of them.

Cherry went around the counter and joined them until they were a wriggling mass of arms and heads and laughter. Over the top of Lila’s head, she met the blue of Ellis’s eyes, and she smiled, and she knew that Ellis was thinking the same thing she was.

This. Love and warmth and family. She had all three now.

This.

This was the cherry on top.