A Simple Wedding

by Leigh Duncan

“Hmm.” She delicately licked the sample. “Do we have to? I think it’s perfect just the way it is.”

  “Okay,” he agreed, looking anywhere but at her. “There’s nothing better than a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. But then, I might be slightly prejudiced.”

  “You think?” Jenny teased.

  He refused to get sucked in by the sparkle in her eyes. Setting his lips into a grim line, he demonstrated the proper way to fill a piping bag. But no matter how hard he tried to remain aloof and detached, he grinned when she spun perfect circles across the tops of each of the cupcakes.

  “They look good enough to eat,” she declared as she polished off the last cupcake with a delicate swirl.

  “You can add toppings if you’d like.” He pointed to a row of bins built into one wall. Each housed a different confection, ranging from crushed candy bars to candied fruits. “Or how about a dash of cinnamon?”

  “I might have to try one before I can know for sure,” Jenny said, clearly angling for a taste test.

  “Spoken like a true baker.” He lifted one of the cupcakes from the rack while Jenny did the same. By mutual agreement, they took their first bites at the same time.

  “Not bad,” Nick pronounced. The chocolate nearly overpowered the sweetness of the cupcake, but for a first effort, Jenny had done quite well. He glanced at her to see if she felt the same way and stilled.

  She stood, her eyes closed, a expression of pure bliss on her face.

  He’d always thought she was pretty, but seeing her standing there, her beauty shone brighter than it ever had before. There was a dreamy air about her that he’d expected to see when she spoke about her fiancé. It was a look he’d begun to wonder if she was even capable of. Yet, there she stood, right in front of him, practically rapturous over a simple cupcake.

  His heart melted. All of a sudden, he couldn’t fight his feelings anymore. His heart thudding, he decided to take a chance.

  “Jenny?” he whispered and stepped closer.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The heady mix of chocolate and buttercream overwhelmed Jenny’s senses. She closed her eyes. Sure, she’d had better cupcakes. Nick’s daily specials had more complex flavors. The texture of this one wasn’t nearly as fine. But she’d definitely give it an A for effort. Especially since it was the first one she’d ever baked by herself.

  Well, with more than a little help from Nick, she corrected. She licked her lips. How could she thank him?

  Air brushed softly across her shoulders. Something—or hopefully, someone—had moved nearby. Praying Nick had taken a step toward her, she pried her eyes open wide enough to peek out through her lashes. He had definitely moved closer. Her heart responded by kicking into high gear. A giddy thrill passed through her as the realization that she was about to be kissed struck home.

  She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth and sighed. She couldn’t kiss Nick until he knew her secret. She had to tell him the truth, no matter what the cost. Then, and only then, could she find out how he really felt about her, about them.

  Music blared, and she flinched. Her eyes sprang open just in time for her to see Nick double-stepping a hasty retreat. He didn’t stop until his hips rested against the counter behind him.

  Another blast of music struck. Recognizing the theme song from her cousin’s last hit movie, Jenny firmed lips that had softened in preparation for a kiss that was so not going to happen. “Perfect timing,” she muttered while a potent disappointment swirled through her chest. Fighting it, she reached for the device she’d stuck in her back pocket when she’d left the bed and breakfast. “Hello,” she said, thumbing the button.

  “Where’ve you been? I’ve been trying to reach you all day!” So much for the dulcet tones Kay used whenever she appeared before the cameras. Strident, her voice grated across Jenny’s raw nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.

  “Really?” Figuring this was not a conversation she wanted Nick to overhear, she held up one finger, asking him to give her a minute. At his nod, she speed-walked through the swinging doors to the public side of the bakery. On the way, she pointed out a decided lack of voicemail to her cousin.

  “You know I never leave messages.” Although Kay didn’t say as much, Jenny couldn’t miss the implication that such mundane tasks were beneath someone who’d achieved her level of stardom. “So, where were you?”

  “I was out,” she answered on a long, low exhale. She’d spent the day wandering in and out of the shops on Honeymoon Avenue and thinking about Nick. She probably should have returned Kay’s missed calls, but her feelings for the baker were too new, too fresh to share with anyone, much less with the cousin who’d sent her to Heart’s Landing as a pretend bride. “I planned to call you when you got home from the studio tonight.”

  “But I needed to reach you right away. We have a huge problem.”

  “What now?” She didn’t have any problems other than a cousin who’d just interrupted the most important moment of her life. Honestly, sometimes Kay’s flair for the dramatics rubbed her the wrong way. This was one of those times.

  “It’s a crisis. And you’re the only one who can fix it.”

  Phooey. Just when she thought things had been going so well. Kay hadn’t ordered a single change to the wedding plans in nearly a week. She should have known it wouldn’t last.

  “It’s the cake. It’s all wrong.”

  Say what?

  Jenny squeezed her eyes tight. Nick had designed a stunning, multi-tiered creation that Kay’s guests were sure to rave over. She pointed out what they both already knew. “It’s exactly what you said you wanted.”

  “And now I don’t,” Karolyn said, her voice petulant. “Everyone in Hollywood is on this new diet. They’d rather die before letting one drop of sugary icing touch their lips. We can’t. We just can’t. I’d be mortified.”

  “Karolyn,” she said, trying to make her cousin see reason, “your wedding is a special occasion. People make exceptions for events like this. Think of Thanksgiving or Christmas. You wouldn’t serve Thanksgiving dinner without pumpkin pie, would you?”

  “No, but—”

  She rushed on. “What about Christmas? Remember how we used to leave cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer? You can’t have Christmas without gingerbread men, can you?”

  “I guess not.”

  She crossed her fingers in the hope that she was getting the point across. “It’s the same with weddings. Because it’s your wedding, your guests will expect something spectacular.” Nick’s rich icing piped to match the lacy pattern of Karolyn’s dress was just the ticket.

  “What I want is beside the point. People are flying across the country to see me walk down the aisle. The least we can do is serve them something they’ll want to eat. We have to make allowances.”

  Jenny shook her head. “There’s no such thing as a sugar-free, carb-free cake.” Well, there was, but it looked and tasted like cardboard.

  “I’ve made up my mind,” Karolyn insisted. “I want a naked cake.”

  “I don’t even know what that is.” Jenny rubbed her head. Behind her eyes, a drummer pounded a familiar beat.

  “It’s exactly what it sounds like, a cake without any frosting. Hang on. I’ll send you a picture.”

  Seconds later, her phone dinged to signal an incoming text. Jenny swiped it and stared open-mouthed at the bare edges of cake layers glued together by a thinnest layer of icing. Someone had tucked flowers between the tiers, but without water to keep them fresh, the blossoms had wilted. The whole thing resembled the last item on the bake sale table at the church bazaar. “You can’t be serious,” she gasped.

  “Oh, but I am.” Kay’s voice dropped. “You need to make this happen.”

  “But N—the baker. He’ll have a conniption.”

  “I don’t see why. It’s a lot less work for him
, and he’s still getting paid the same amount. He’ll probably thank you.”

  Her cousin obviously didn’t know Nick. Jenny pictured the storm clouds that would gather in his eyes when she broke this piece of news to him. He was going to hate it. “I don’t think—”

  “What you think doesn’t matter. This is what I want.” Kay’s voice turned deadly quiet. “I’m depending on you to make it happen.”

  For a moment, the weight of three thousand miles stretched between them. At last, Jenny shook her head. Between a rock and a hard place—that was exactly where she was. Though she refused to let Kay turn her into one of her many yes-men, she had sworn to give her cousin the wedding of her dreams. She could at least present this latest idea to Nick. “I’ll do my best,” she said without making any promises.

  “What’s going on with you lately?” Kay asked on the heels of her answer. “We used to be simpatico. Most of the time, you knew what I wanted before I did. But we’re not on the same page anymore. It’s like you’re not even trying to understand me,” she said, ending on a breathy sigh.

  Jenny bit down on the first response that popped into her head. Her cousin probably wouldn’t appreciate her pointing out how different the wedding was now from the intimate family gathering she’d first planned. That alone had caused some friction between them, but there were other factors at work, as well. Other people weighing in with their opinions. “Aunt Maggie is there with you. I’m sure she’s been a big help. But it’s only natural that she’d have a few suggestions about the festivities. And then there’s Chad. He has his own ideas about how things should be done. They’re great, but I’m having a hard time keeping up,” she admitted. “And I’m not the only one. All these changes have the people I’m working with spinning in circles.”

  “It doesn’t help that I keep calling with more demands.” Kay’s voice softened. “You probably think I’ve turned into Bridezilla.”

  Jenny heard the faint stirrings of insecurity in her cousin’s laugh. Knowing how quickly one of Kay’s mercurial mood swings could lead to a dramatic meltdown, she struggled to stay calm and collected. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned by coming to Heart’s Landing, it’s that every bride wants her day to be special. I’ll do my best to make your wedding everything you want it to be, but we can’t get so wrapped up in the details that we lose sight of what’s really important. This is a celebration of the love you and Chad have for each other.”

  “You always know just what to say. I miss having you here.” Karolyn’s voice grew the tiniest bit melancholy. “It’s never going to be just you and me again, is it?”

  “Things will be different,” she agreed, “but you have Chad now. He’s a keeper.”

  “He is that.” Kay chortled.

  “And, soon, you’ll be starting your new lives together.”

  “I can’t wait! In less than a week, I’ll be Mrs. Chad Grant.”

  Thinking of the changes the marriage would bring, Jenny smoothed one hand over her hair. Once the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon, there’d be households to combine, schedules to mesh, and tough staffing decisions to make. The married couple wouldn’t need two housekeepers, two cooks.

  Or two personal assistants?

  She gulped. Losing her job was something she hadn’t wanted to think about. Worrying about it now wouldn’t do any good. Karolyn would make the decisions when the time came and, no doubt, she’d do whatever was best for her career.

  Jenny tapped her finger to her chin. She had other wedding details to discuss with her cousin while she still had Kay’s attention. “How’d your appointment go with Madame Eleanor? Did you find a wedding gown?”

  “I did! Oh, Jenny, you should see it! It’s perfect. It’s the most beautiful trumpet-style gown with what Madame Eleanor called a royal train. The cap sleeves are a gorgeous see-through lace, and the neckline plunges way down in front. The back—oh, you should see the back—it hugs me in all the right places, if you know what I mean.”

  After helping the movie star dress for countless awards shows over the years, she wasn’t a bit surprised to hear that Kay had selected a form-fitting gown.

  “There’s just one little problem.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Jenny relaxed. Whatever it was, it was Madame Eleanor’s to fix.

  “My gown isn’t exactly made for dancing. I’ll probably bust out a seam if I so much as breathe wrong. I need a second dress for the reception.”

  No problem. “Madame Eleanor would be only too happy to sell you another one.”

  “She would.”

  Sensing trouble, Jenny stiffened. “Why do I think there’s a but at the end of that sentence?”

  “My gown needed some alterations. Madame couldn’t handle those, plus the fittings for my second dress. But I spoke with the owner of Dress For A Day. She has the gown I want in stock, and she’s put her seamstress on standby. I need you to go there, try the dress on, and buy it for me.”

  Jenny rubbed her forehead. Working for a Hollywood mega-star, she’d handled some strange requests. But this had to be one of the oddest. “How is that even going to work?”

  Kay paused. “We’re practically the same height. And the dress laces up in the back, so it’s very forgiving. It should look the same on both of us as long as you haven’t, like, gained thirty pounds or anything since you’ve been out there.”

  “Not hardly.” She might have eaten a dozen cupcakes, but between the stress of arranging the not-so-simple wedding and her daily workouts on the B&B’s treadmill, she’d burned off every one of the extra calories. “That’s one thing that hasn’t changed.”

  “Okay, then. This will be easy.”

  “Uhh…” There were a lot of words she’d choose to describe trying on her cousin’s wedding gown. Easy wasn’t one of them, but she stopped herself before she could protest. In California, whenever Kay needed a special dress, she’d picked up the phone and called her cousin’s favorite designers. Within hours, their assistants would wheel racks of options into the house. To help narrow down the choices, Jenny had often modeled their top picks.

  Trying on a wedding gown wouldn’t be that different, would it?

  “Sure,” she said, glad Kay had finally given her a task she could accomplish without upsetting half the shopkeepers in Heart’s Landing. “Any particular instructions?”

  “Well, the one I want has a mermaid silhouette. Strapless, of course. I plan to dance the night away, so make sure it’s not too low in front. A wardrobe malfunction would ruin everything. I’m sending you a picture of it now.”

  As her phone chimed an incoming text and the image scrolled across the screen, Jenny tried to imagine dancing in a dress that called for industrial-strength Spanx despite a corset-laced back. “Better you than me,” she murmured, thinking the gown wasn’t her style in the least.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s going to look beautiful on you,” she assured her cousin.

  “Thanks, Jen. You’re one in a million. Just call the shop tomorrow and see when they can fit you in.”

  Jenny swallowed a long-suffering sigh. She should have known better than to expect Karolyn to schedule an appointment. Dutifully, she added it to her list of things to do.

  “I owe you a big hug when we see each other. I miss you so much!”

  “Speaking of seeing each other, it won’t be long now.” Even though Kay had copies of the itinerary on her phone, it never hurt to remind her cousin of the schedule. “You and Chad, your attendants, and Aunt Maggie are flying out of LAX Thursday night. Your plane gets in at ten on Friday. I’ve arranged for limos to pick everyone up. The driver will take you straight to the Captain’s Cottage where you’ll spend the weekend. I’ll meet you there. We have a lot to do, so be ready to jump right into it.” Mentally, she added time for a fitting to a list that included the rehearsal dinner and assembling the gift bags.r />
  “Uh-huh. I’ll run everything by Chad and get back to you. We’ll talk later. I’ve got to dash now. Ciao.”

  Listening to dead air, Jenny shifted uneasily. She couldn’t put her finger on the exact cause, but something Kay had said didn’t ring true. She tugged on a loose strand of hair. Whatever her cousin had up her sleeve, she’d find out in due time. For now, she had more immediate problems. Her stomach sinking, she flipped to the picture of the naked cake.

  She tsked. The ugly layers looked worse that they had the first time. “Nick will never forgive me for this,” she whispered. Gathering her courage, she drew in an unsteady breath and prepared to tell him about the most recent change of plans. “Nick,” she called, plunging through the swinging doors long before she was ready. “We have to talk.”

  Just talk. Their almost-kiss had evaporated like the morning dew the instant her phone rang. She and Nick wouldn’t pick up where they’d left off. In fact, she’d count herself lucky if he didn’t cancel her entire order once he heard her latest demands.

  Nick was nowhere to be seen when she walked into the kitchen, but he’d obviously been busy while she was in the other room. The bowls and implements that had littered the counters had either been washed, dried and put away, or loaded into the dishwasher. Every trace of powdered sugar had been removed from gleaming countertops. Except for a tray holding ten cupcakes on one end of the counter, no one would ever guess they’d spent two hours making a mess of things.

  The soft squeak of a door opening and closing drew her attention to the back wall. Warmth flooded her when the tall baker appeared. She gave him her best smile. “I was wondering where you’d gotten off to.”

  Crossing the room, Nick brandished an empty tin can. “Had to feed the cat. I’ve sort of adopted a stray. That was her crying in the alley.”

  Without warning, tears stung Jenny’s eyes. A lesser man would have lost his temper when she’d plowed into him the day they’d first met. Nick hadn’t. In fact, from that moment on, he’d plied her with cupcakes, helped her line up appointments, offered advice, and given her a place to hang out when the other shopkeepers looked at her like they couldn’t decide whether to wring her neck or ply her with tea and sympathy. When she’d needed a break from the pressure of planning a wedding, he’d even adjusted his busy schedule to spend time with her. The man who did all that fed stray cats, too? Without a doubt, he was one of the best people she’d ever met.