Baked with Love

by Peggy Jaeger

  “What do you mean?” Robert asked her. His cheeks immediately pinked when all eyes landed on him.

  “If your new spouse wasn’t exactly pleasin’ to the eyes, lad, then too bad. Ya were legally wed, and there was no reneging on th’ deal now that you’d gotten a gander at her. Or him.”

  Robert’s mouth fell open. “You mean they never saw what they looked like before they got married?”

  The horror in his tone was comical, and I had to cover my mouth to prevent a loud laugh from spewing forth.

  “Think about it,” Lucas told his son. He was having his own problems keeping his laughter contained. “You think you’re getting a swimsuit model or an action hero, and you wind up with, well, neither of those.”

  “Your father’s tryin’ to be a diplomat, lad, and skirtin’ around the truth, which is there was many an ugly duckling from diseases, birth problems, and poor nutrition back then. Daughters fathers couldn’t marry off because they were homely as sin or covered in pock marks. Sons fathers worried weren’t manly enough in the procreatin’ department or unpleasing to the eyes. Their looks were kept a secret until after the vows were said and the license signed. No such thing as divorce back then. ’Twasn’t legal or condoned, punishable by stonin’ or even death.”

  Robert’s face went from flushed to milky white. I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed at my grandmother’s candor or her crack about divorce, but whichever it was, I didn’t want him upset.

  “To answer your question, Nanny,” I said, trying to divert the conversation back to the original discussion, “Mac’s staying here tonight in one of my empty rooms.” I didn’t mention it was the one I’d reserved for my parents. I’d assigned a different room to him originally, but when my parents bailed, I switched him to the bigger suite. “That way Cathy gets her good omen wish, and Mac has a place where he can get ready in peace tomorrow morning.”

  Nanny smiled across the table at me and held up her wine glass in a salute. “ ’Tis a good lass you are, darlin’ girl.”

  I grinned back at her.

  The evening wound down early. Colleen pleaded exhaustion, and with a big day tomorrow, she wanted to be well rested. Slade, the ever-hovering, always-comforting husband, whisked her home right after I served dessert. In all fairness, she did look done in.

  Nanny was spending the night with Cathy, but before they packed up to leave, Mac pulled his intended away for a few moments of alone time. Robert and Lucas helped me clear the table, even though I told them both to leave everything and I’d get to it once everyone was gone.

  “I’m kind of an expert at bussing now,” Robert said while he helped me rinse and load the dishwasher.

  I hip-bumped him and said, “Don’t forget you’re also an up-and-coming cake decorator.”

  His cheek-wide grin was so like his father’s my heart sighed.

  “Robert, you got this?” Lucas asked. “Cuz I need to talk to Maureen about something.”

  The boy nodded.

  Lucas ticked his head toward my office. Once we were inside, he closed the door. When he flipped the lock, my eyebrows lifted.

  “What’s so important you have to lock the door to discuss?”

  “This.”

  He pulled me into his arms with one smooth move and pressed his lips to mine. The only thought in my mind before I lost all capacity to think was I was glad he’d secured the lock.

  I lifted up on my toes, my arms shooting up and around his neck to hold on tight, while his hands snaked around my waist and settled on my hips, pulling me as close as he could.

  “All afternoon and evening long, I’ve been wanting to do this,” he whispered against my cheek, then brought his lips back to mine. “I couldn’t concentrate on a thing Father Duncan said.” He trailed down my neck, captured my earlobe between his teeth and then bit down, hard enough for me to jump, but soft enough so the erotic sensation shot straight down to my toes. “Every time I looked your way, all I could think about was getting you alone. It’s getting harder and harder not to touch you like I want to when there are people around, Maureen.”

  From the intimate way we were pressed up against one another, I could tell that wasn’t the only thing getting hard.

  He cupped my chin and swiped at my cheeks with his thumbs. Little blasts of electricity sparked throughout my system from his touch. It was a good thing he was keeping himself in check around the others because I don’t know how I would have hidden how my body responded to his touch if he’d made good on his desires.

  “The wedding is tomorrow, and then we can take a breath,” I said, as I ran my finger across his lips. “With Cathy and Mac on their honeymoon and Colleen and Slade staying close to home until the baby arrives, you and I can have some quiet time together. Okay? Let’s just get through tomorrow.”

  One corner of his delicious lips tilted up. “I always thought Cathy was the rational, logical sister. Seems I’ve been wrong for years.”

  I rolled my eyes and hugged him. “Don’t let her hear you say that. She’ll have an anxiety attack. Come on.” I pulled back and grabbed his hand. “I don’t want to be gone too long. If we’re missing, it’ll lead to questions neither of us wants to answer right now, especially from my grandmother. I’m not in the mood to be raked over the coals by Nanny.”

  I unlocked the door, but before I could open it, Lucas tugged me back into his arms.

  “Just one more to hold me over.” He pressed his lips to mine in the sweetest kiss I think I’ve ever received. It was filled with such tenderness and intent, the notion to relock the door and simply feast on this man blew straight into the front of my mind.

  That rational, logical trait Lucas mentioned beat it back.

  I stared up at him and was in such danger of telling him how much he meant to me, I had to pull deep for control. It wouldn’t do to tell him. Not now. Not ever. Quirking my lips and dropping my chin so I could look up at him through my lashes, I asked, “What are you, three? You need a kiss to hold you over like you need a cookie before dinner because you’re starving?”

  His eyes went to half-mast and he trailed his tongue along the seam of my lips.

  “I’m starving, all right.” His voice was soft and dark and dangerous. My thighs shook as it whispered over me. “But only for you, Maureen.” He kissed me once, hard. “Only for you.”

  I had no defenses again this man, try though I might.

  I swallowed, then said, “Hold that thought until after the wedding.”

  The grin he shot me was pure sexy male.

  After dragging in a huge calming breath, I opened the door. Robert, Cathy, Mac, and Nanny were all in my kitchen. When Lucas and I came in, the three adults in the room all threw us questioning stares.

  “Slade took Colleen home,” Cathy said. “She was practically asleep at the table. Robert told us you two had something to discuss.” She lifted an eyebrow. “In private.” The implication of those two little words echoed through the room. I hadn’t watched my older sisters deal with my parents and my grandmother my entire life without learning several lessons on how to worm my way out of hairy situations and avoid punishment for bad behavior.

  Nonchalantly, I nodded. “We did. And if you make me tell you, it’s gonna ruin tomorrow’s surprise.”

  She peered at me across the room, indecision blowing across her face. Ask or don’t ask; push me to confess, or let it go.

  I stayed calm while Lucas got the hint and nodded at his son. “You ready to head out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We’ll see you all at the church,” Lucas said.

  “Don’t be late,” Cathy told him.

  “Have you ever known me to be late? For anything?”

  “Always a first time,” she mumbled.

  Lucas stopped to kiss her cheek as he walked past, and said, “Not gonna happen, Counselor, so don’t worry.”

  “I’d like to get on home, too, lass,” Nanny said, rising from the kitchen chair. “It’s worn out, I am.”


  Minutes later, after Mac kissed his fiancé, then Nanny, goodnight, they left.

  “Need a wake-up call?” I asked my soon-to-be-brother-in-law.

  He shook his head. “I’ll be up and ready to go on time. No worries.”

  I hugged him. “I’m really happy you’re marrying my sister.”

  “Not as much as I am,” he said back, with a grin.

  Later, just as I was about to snuggle down in bed, my cell phone pinged with an incoming text.

  —I’m still starving— Lucas wrote.

  I laughed out loud and texted back —Have a cookie and go to sleep.—

  While three little waving dots undulated across the screen, I shut my bedside light.

  —I’d rather have you.—

  That thought was enough to make my heart flip over.

  —After Cathy and Mac are married we can have all the…cookies we want.—

  The line of laughing emojis he sent back went a long way in helping me fall asleep with a smile.

  Chapter 10

  When Cathleen married her first husband, she wore my mother’s outdated, old-fashioned wedding dress as her something old and borrowed. Nanny had loaned her an ancient garter she’d already worn to two of her own weddings as her something blue, and Colleen, Eileen, and I combined all our allowance money for two months to buy her a beautiful gold cross she wore around her neck as her something new. She’d been barely eighteen years old and was marrying the only boy she’d ever kissed. The wedding had been the definition of a no-frills affair. Her bouquet was a sprig of bluebells and baby’s breath from my grandmother’s lake property. My father had elected to wear a suit instead of renting a tuxedo, and he’d driven the two of them to the church in our old family minivan.

  Now, twenty plus years and a lifetime of growth later, her wedding dress was handmade from a designer shop in Concord (her something new), the lace veil she’d had commissioned by a local seamstress was made from the one Nanny wore to marry our grandfather (her something old), Colleen had loaned her the pair of three-carat diamond earrings Slade had gifted her on their wedding day (something borrowed), and I’d bought her an antique comb shot through with sapphires to wear in her hair as her something blue.

  Since Colleen was in charge of all the wedding details now, she’d decreed Cathy and Mac were going to have a wedding to remember.

  She’d hired a white Rolls Royce complete with a liveried chauffeur to take Cathy and Nanny to the church. The church itself exploded with flowers. Arrangements of white and pink roses garnished the end of every pew, and the altar was chockablock with standing creations as tall as Lucas.

  A trio of classical musicians sat to one side of the altar, hired to serenade the guests as they waited for the bride, and then to play her down the aisle to meet her groom. Colleen’s trusted and talented photographer, Kolby, had volunteered to shoot the wedding as a gift to Cathy and Mac, and they were assured a magnificent photographic memory of the day.

  All in all, her second marriage was completely different than her first, save for the church. Father Duncan had married her the first time and would again, something he told us during the rehearsal he was delighted about.

  After making sure everything was set for the wedding brunch at the inn, I then got myself ready. The dress Cathy had picked out, with Colleen’s veto approval, was a mid-length, pale green, and cap-sleeved chiffon creation cinched in at the waist and billowing downward. The color and cut were perfect, and if I had to be dressed in something other than jeans and a T-shirt, this was perfection. As my wedding-planner sister had instructed, I’d worn my hair down for once instead of up in a knot secured with a pencil and had pulled it back on the sides and away from my face. Convinced I was as good as I was going to get, I drove to our family church, appropriately named Heaven on Earth, and pulled past the sign on the lawn which read God never takes a summer vacation. Remember to worship when you’re away from home.

  I parked around the rear, grabbed my shoes, and slid into the back entrance. The sounds of a classical melody drifted in the air, accompanied by the quiet hum of lowered voices. I made my way to the setup room, commonly called the bawl room, in the back of the church where my sister was getting ready.

  The forceful voice drifting from the room told me my middle sister was in command mode. With a headset and microphone secured around her head and her electronic clipboard in her hands, she was ensconced in a Queen Anne chair with her feet up on a stool, her eyes darting all over the place.

  Cathy and Nanny were seated, plastic aprons covering them from neck to knees as individual hairdressers and makeup artists worked on them. I’d opted out when Colleen had asked me if I wanted my hair and makeup done, knowing I was in a time crunch with getting the brunch ready. This was Cathleen’s day, and she should be the one pampered and fussed over. I considered it a major concession I’d agreed to wear a heeled shoe.

  “Hey,” I said to the room when I entered.

  Colleen zeroed in on me while she spoke into a microphone, her gaze raking down from my head to my toes and zeroing in on my flip-flops. The rise of her left eyebrow when she saw them told me she was prepared to have a come-to-Jesus lecture with me about footwear, so I lifted the shoes in my hands into her line of sight. She bobbed her head and tapped at her earbud.

  “You need blush,” she said once she disconnected. “You’re gonna look like a ghost in pictures.” She pointed to one of the makeup girls. “Make sure she gets some lipstick, too.”

  “I think you look pretty,” Cathy told me with a smile.

  “And I think Mac’s gonna be drooling the entire ceremony once he gets a gander at you.” I air-kissed her cheek so I wouldn’t disturb her makeup. Cathy had elected to wear her hair in a loose chignon, the comb I’d gifted her holding it in place. Her beautiful, clear, and unlined skin, a DNA gift from our grandmother, radiated and glowed. Colleen only worked with the best professionals, and this was the proof. My sister was gorgeous without makeup, but the enhancements to her eyes and face were subtle and only served to heighten her beauty.

  I repeated my air-kiss with Nanny.

  “Did ya feed Mac a good breakfast, lass? Wouldn’t want him peckish during the mass, now.”

  I laughed. “No worries, Nanny. He’s all set.”

  “It’s getting close to time, isn’t it?” Cathy asked. “When is Lucas due?”

  “He just got here,” Colleen said, tapping her earpiece again. “Charity’s bringing him back.”

  The workers removed the apron from around Cathleen, and I got to see her in her dress for the first time. I’d only viewed it once before on the day she’d ordered it, and the sample dress had been a few sizes too big when she’d decided it was the one.

  Now, with the alterations completed to perfection, the dress was more beautiful than I remembered. Layers of white organza floated from her waist down to the floor and hid her just-showing baby bump completely. You’d never know she was expecting. A silk bodice was covered with an intricate hand-stitched overlay in a pattern of roses winding on vines. The design extended down the sides of her torso and stopped at mid-hip. The sleeves had the same lace and pattern dropping down to just below her elbows and were attached to the bodice with illusion material covering her collarbones and décolletage.

  With her porcelain skin and striking red hair, she looked like she’d stepped out of the pages of a book about fairy princesses and wood sprites.

  As she stood before us, happiness radiating from her every pore, tears swelled in my eyes.

  “You’d better not be wearing regular mascara,” Colleen chided from her chair. “You know better.”

  I rolled my waterproof-mascaraed eyes at her and shook my head.

  “Ah, now darlin’ girl, ’tis a vision you are.” Nanny beamed at Cathy, her voice shaking with emotion. “Mac Frayne’s a lucky man, he is.”

  “I’m the lucky one, Nanny.” Cathy took her hand. “I never thought I’d find a man I could love like this again.”

/>   “You’re a wonderful woman, Cathleen Anne, and you’re deserving of a wonderful man. I couldn’t’a handpicked a better one than Mac for ya if I’d been given the task to. I can’t tell ya how happy I am for ya both.”

  Nanny squeezed her long, gnarled fingers around Cathy’s, and to say I was surprised to see tears start to build in my grandmother’s eyes wasn’t an exaggeration. Nanny reserved her tears—as she’d told us numerous times—for sad occasions like funerals and not happy ones like weddings and births.

  “No crying,” Colleen bellowed from her throne because, really, that’s what it was.

  “Okay, I won’t cry.”

  All heads in the room turned to the male voice, lit with laughter, coming from the doorway. Since every head in the room was female, the looks tossed at Lucas Alexander were pure feminine appreciation, my own included. Even Nanny’s eyes twinkled when she got a gander at him in his classic-style tuxedo.

  “Oh, thank goodness.” Cathy lifted her hand to her chest.

  “I told you not to worry, Cath.” Lucas shook his head and grinned at her. “I’m never late.”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” she said. “But you’re here, and that’s all that counts.”

  He moved to her and grabbed her hands. “You look beautiful,” he told her. “I don’t want to muss you, so I won’t kiss you. Mac gets the honors today. BTW, he just pulled in alongside me.”

  “He’s here? Thank God.”

  “You couldn’t have been worried he wouldn’t show up.”

  She tossed him her lawyer glare. “It can happen,” she said, pulling a pout. In the next instant she asked, “How is he?” as worry slid across her face.

  Lucas’s grin lit the already bright room. “I’d like to tell you he’s as calm as a clam, but he’s not.” When he laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I’ve never seen him anything but cool and collected, but his hands are shaking right now like a leaf during a windy peeping season. Told me he’s never been so nervous or so excited at the same time in his life. It’s not like this is the first time he’s getting married and doesn’t know what to expect.”