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Show 49. finished early, which she always did, she'd read some of Kay's magazines or go in the bathroom and smell her cosmetics. Sometimes Kay asked her to do some touch-up ironing. That was her favorite job. The blouses and knit pantsuits were pure luxury, always expensive and always smelling faintly of the natural earth scents Kay liked. That Saturday afternoon Stephanie decided to bake the packaged devil's food cake she found in the cupboard. She was just swirling the buttery smooth frosting around the sides when Kay came home. "Ooh, what's for dessert?" Mrs. Eagleton called from the front door. "Smells delicious." She entered the kitchen still unbuttoning her leather coat (from Neiman Marcus, the label said) and engulfed Stephanie in her arms. "Cinderella!" she smiled, rapturuously, "you've done it again." Stephanie laughed. It was so easy to please Kay. Whatever she made in the kitchen, Kay thought it was the greatest. "This is the happiest part of Saturday, to come home to find you here." She ran a finger along the edge of the cake plate. "Hmmm. Marvelous!" "JD says I'll never learn to cook--" Kay wrinkled her nose in protest. "Your mother's spoiled him. He just won't admit to your great talents." Stephanie finished frosting the cake while Kay took off her coat and checked the mail. "Now don't say a word," she came back into the kitchen, "because right now we're going to cut into this creation and have a piece together." "Oh, do you really want to?" Stephanie usually left as soon as Kay got home. "Yes, really," she smiled again. "For two reasons," Kay sliced down through the layers. "First, we never take time to talk. And we should, with no children of my own . . . milk?" Stephanie nodded. "And secondly . . ." she poured a glass for each of them, "I'm just as bad as everybody else. I'm dying to know what happened to you and JD last weekend at the Gorge." Stephanie laughed. So that's why she was asked to stay. |