The truth was, she didn't want him watching if she messed up. He believed a little too much in the myth of the perfect baker. And she was in another person's kitchen, using what tools were at hand to do her best to pull something together. With the cake out of the oven cooling, she set to work mixing all the ingredients she thought she'd need. Lou tested and tasted at intervals to make sure she'd got it right.
It took her a couple of minutes, but she ended up with something serviceable that she wasn't ashamed of. "Just about done. If you want it quicker, I can frost the individual pieces, instead of the whole cake."
Lucy hadn't given a second thought to how her spending time at the sheriff's house would look. People would talk if they were going to. In her life, she'd given them enough legitimate reasons to gossip about her, though with the casino and encroaching 'immorality' they should have been kept busy enough. She hadn't thought anyone's opinions should stop her then and she didn't think it now. Right now, she worried about the frosting consistency.
Her second beer still sat unopened by the couch. She wasn't going to keep up with him. If he teased her about it, she'd probably make more of an effort, but she was content right now just to work on the cake. The rest of her gender would have to fend for themselves and uphold their rank in the wars without her help.