210 - Spice Cake of Life

210 - Spice Cake of Life
Spice should be an integral part of life and cooking. It keeps you on your toes, makes things interesting and, if done right, can clear your sinuses. - Sid

After handing the two cupcakes to his father-in-law, Darkness cut two pieces of the Louisiana shaped cake. Carrying the two plates, he went in search of his mother-in-law. Sid was not obsessed with the sweets like her husband did. Trigg did not like the spice as much as his wife did.

Sid looked at the cake and smiled. The look that she gave Darkness caused him to chuckle. She accepted the cake, but he could tell that she was just humoring him.

Darkness sat down at the table and pulled two plastic forks out of his cut pocket. Handing one to his wife’s mother, he grinned at her. “Do me a favor and just try it.”

“You do know that it’s my husband that is the sweet fiend, right?”

“I do.” He started scraping the icing off the top and sides of his own slice of cake. “This cake was made with you in mind.”

“Me?”

“You,” grinning he sliced off a piece of cake with his fork. “Cayenne pepper chocolate cake with swirled fire chocolate.”

“Cayenne pepper chocolate cake?”

Smiling, Darkness nodded as he took a bite.

“With swirled fire chocolate?” Sid asked as she nudged her own slice with her fork. “Like the fire swirl bark that Nessie makes me?”

He thought for just a moment, then shrugged, “Similar. The bark is tempered; this is more like a ganache and there are candied peppers in it.”

Grinning, Sid cut off a piece of cake and bit into it. She closed her eyes and made a soft sound of appreciation. Opening her eyes, she started to scrape off the icing just as Darkness had done.

“You, sir, are my new favorite son-in-law, and there’s a lot of you, so you should feel very special.”

“In that case, I feel very special.”

“You should.” Pointing at the table where Rosie sat with Dutch’s preteen daughter Sid said, “She’s good for them. All of them.”

Nodding in agreement, he looked at his mother-in-law, “You’re okay with the arrangement?”

“Arrangement?” Sid laughed. “Rosie and Spider have basically moved in. It’s a full-on relationship at this point. Hell, I think that they are both listed as emergency contacts with the schools now.”

“That’s good, because she has something that she’s worried about telling them.”

“She’s pregnant, isn’t she?”

“Please don’t say anything,” Darkness said softly. “She hasn’t confided in anyone yet.”

“Then how do you know?”

He cut his eyes at her, “Do you really want to hear about me talking to my dead grandmother?”

“Maybe not,” Sid said with a smile. “You can always just tell me that you have your suspicions.”

“We’ll stick with that.”

“I’m just hoping that the baby is Spider’s.”

“Really?”

“My son only seems to make daughters. They need a little boy in the house.”

Darkness laughed. “You always surprise me, Sid.”

She scoffed at him. “I have six daughters. I know the hell of an estrogen filled house. The good, the bad, the ugly, the fights over bathrooms, clothes, makeup, boys and just about anything else that could be fought over. Then there’s also the – I may hate my sister, but you cannot insult her. Best of friends and worst of enemies.”

“Your boys were better?”

“Honestly, I think that there was the perfect amount of time between the boys that the older ones saw it as their job to corrupt the younger. And my most corrupt,” she shook her head when her eyes landed on Critter where he sat at a table surrounded by women, “I don’t think will ever settle down. To be honest, I’m surprised I don’t have any grandkids from Critter.”

“Is Allison doing better?”

“She is,” Sid looked around the room until she found her second youngest daughter. “Did Evie tell you that Allison is going back to Austin with Dixie and her men?”

Darkness nodded as he looked over at where his friend sat with her family. “I think that will do them both good. Dixie always needs someone to take care of.”

“Her three men aren’t enough?”

Chuckling, he shook his head, “Never. She always needs more to take care of. Especially after she nearly lost Isiah.”

Automatically, he looked at the other man’s arm where it was still in a sling. A shootout following a police chase left him with a shattered hand and an early retirement.

“It’s Isiah that’s the one that really needs someone to take care of, isn’t it?” Sid asked and Darkness grinned. “He needs someone else to focus on.”

“He does,” Darkness agreed.

“By the way, why are you over here with me and not your bride?”

“Because my bride had to go feed our son before she started leaking all over her dress.”

“That’s a good reason to be hanging out with me.”

“I thought so,” he agreed. “When she gets back in here, we’ll do the garter and bouquet.”

Sid looked at his profile, and he refused to look at her. “You two are up to something.”

“Possibly.” He admitted. “You want anything to drink?”

Gathering the plates that only had icing and forks on them, he stood up and walked away. Sid watched him walk across the open space of the bottom floor of the Shack. Just like they always did with big events that were hosted here, extra tables had been set up throughout the area. She looked around at the various tables and saw people from all the local Saints clubs, a sister club from Boston, and two that were out of state clubs.

All these people came because they loved her daughter and son-in-law. She was thinking about this when Trigg sat down next to her. He angled his chair and she shifted in her chair to lean her back against his chest.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he kissed her hair, “Something is on your mind.”

Shifting to look at him, Sid buried her hand in his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. When the kiss ended, he lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes caressing her face. Gently, he reached up and ran a knuckle down her cheek.

“Your daughter is up to something.”

“I have six, you have to be a little more specific.”

“Your baby.”

“Oh, yeah,” Trigg chuckled. “She’s always up to something.”

There was a commotion and they looked up to see that Toad and Scrapper were gathering the bachelors.

“Rosie!” Trigg called out. “Get your men up there! They need to make an honest woman of you!”

Dutch flipped his dad off, but him and Spider moved into the crowd. Darkness tossed the garter over his shoulder and Mia’s oldest son caught it. Pagan groaned because his daughter, Ashlyn, had a crush on him.

The women gathered for the bouquet and Camille turned to face them. She looked through the group before handing the flowers to a woman with blue hair. Turning her around, the woman gasped at the man on his knee behind her.