“Sorry I’m late,” said Tessa in a throaty drawl as she walked into the parlor. “Traffic was backed up on the Tri-borough Bridge.”
“You’re not late, Theresa. Simone and Faith just got here,” Lucinda said.
Tessa picked up a coffee pod, inserted it into the coffeemaker, placed a cup under the spout and pushed a button. “Does anyone want a cup?”
“I’ll take one,” Simone volunteered. “Please make it black.”
Tessa frowned at her sister. “I’ve never known you to drink black coffee, because you claim it stains your teeth.”
Combing her wayward curls off her forehead with both hands, Simone closed her eyes. “I knew I shouldn’t have had that drink last night.”
“What were you drinking?” Tessa asked.
“I had a Long Island Iced Tea.”
Now Faith knew why Simone hadn’t taken off her sunglasses. “Where were you last night?”
Groaning, Simone opened her eyes. “Somewhere I didn’t need to be.” She saw Faith and Tessa share a glance. “I wasn’t with Tony,” she spat out.
Lucinda opened a book filled with samples of color swatches and fabrics. “Girls, please let’s get started. Remember, I only have five months to design and sew at least four gowns.”
Tessa placed a saucer under a cup, handing it to Simone. “You can eliminate my gown, Mama. I’ve decided to wear one of the gowns I bought from you last year.”
With wide eyes, Lucinda stared at her youngest daughter. “Which one did you choose?”
“The strapless silk-satin gown with the kimono-style sash. The only thing I want you to change is the color of the sash from bronze to platinum.”
Simone took a deep breath after swallowing a mouthful of steaming coffee. “What’s your color scheme?”
“Varying shades of gray with a robin’s-egg blue.”
“Elegant.”
“Chic.”
Faith and Lucinda had spoken in unison.
It took five hours for the Whitfield women to decide on the designs for the attendants, the size and shape of the cake, along with the filling and the wedding jewelry. Lucinda, after taking the dress measurements of her daughters and niece, retreated to her sewing room.
“Do you have time to go over what you want for your flowers?” Simone asked when Tessa glanced at her watch.
Tessa nodded. “Let’s do it. I don’t have to be back in the city until six.”
Faith sat back, listening intently when Tessa told Simone that she wanted a bouquet of sparkling white roses and orchids tied together with the same material as her wedding gown. Using a stylus, Simone entered the details of the arrangements for Tessa’s headpiece, the maid of honor’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets into her PDA. The list continued with the groom’s, best man’s and groomsmen’s boutonnieres, mothers’ corsages, fathers’ boutonnieres and other special guests’ corsages.
Simone, having removed her sunglasses and perched them atop a wealth of curly gold-tipped hair, took a breath. “You don’t have to tell me now, but you should think what floral arrangements you’d want for the church pews, altar and candle holders. You also have to consider flowers for your reception—entryway, bar decorations, dining-table centerpieces, bride and groom’s chair decorations, buffet table, cake and cake table and of course the powder room.”
“Do you want flowers on your cake?” Faith asked. Tessa, in following through with the Asian theme, wanted a cake in four rectangular layers, each supported by three smaller squares that would be covered in white fondant and plaques featuring Chinese symbols for love, luck, happiness and prosperity. Faith had suggested to Tessa that she would cover the squares in a gunmetal-gray fondant in keeping with her wedding colors.
Tessa wrinkled her nose. “Even though some are edible, I don’t want real flowers on the cake.”
Faith reached for her notebook and pen. “I can make seven gum-paste cymbidium orchids. There’ll be two at the corners of each layer and one on the top layer. And as soon as you give me a final headcount, I’ll have my assistant make the individual cake souvenirs.”
Tessa waved her hand. “Don’t bother with the cake souvenirs, Faith. I know you’re going to be tied up with your book project—”
Faith held up her hand, stopping Tessa. “Enough,” she interrupted softly. “I have my book project under control thanks to Ranee Mason. Together we’ve completed twenty cakes, and if we keep to our present timetable I should have them all baked and decorated by late April or early May. That will give us more than enough time make your little souvenirs.”
She would fashion the tiny cakes by trimming the edges of a sheet cake, then cutting it into squares. She and Ranee would cover each square with sugar paste and top each miniature cake with a gum paste cymbidium orchid. The cakes could be stored in airtight containers up to two weeks before the wedding.
A telephone rang, and the three women reached for their cell phones at the same time. “It’s mine,” Tessa said, pushing a button to answer the call. Faith shared a smile with Simone when they heard her mention Bridget Sanborn-Cohen’s name. “Yes, Bridget, I’ll tell Simone and Faith about it.”
“Tell us about what?” Simone asked when Tessa ended the call.
Running her fingers through her short hair, Tessa dropped the phone into her handbag. “Bridget and Seth are inviting us to their place this Saturday for a little get-together. She says both of you can bring a guest.”
A slight frown dotted Faith’s forehead. “What’s the occasion, Tessa?”
“It’s nothing special. Bridget said it’s going to be the first time she and Seth will entertain as a married couple. Micah told me that Bridget and Seth do a lot of entertaining on the weekends.”
Tessa remembered what Micah told her—that the activity in the two-bedroom condo on weekends had prompted him to move out and relocate to Staten Island. He eventually sold the apartment with the panoramic views of the water and the Throgs Neck Bridge to his sister and brother-in-law.
“Are you bringing your boyfriend, Faith?” Simone asked.
Tessa sat forward on her chair. “Come now, cousin, don’t tell me you’ve been holding out on me?”
Faith couldn’t stop the wave of heat burning her face and neck. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Simone sucked her teeth loudly. “Yeah, right! You could’ve fooled me.”
With her gaze going from her sister to her cousin and back again to her sister, Tessa asked, “What am I missing?”
Simone sucked her teeth again and rolled her eyes. “Only that Miss Prissy here shared more than a friendly kiss with her prince when he dropped her off. And, judging from the bag he took out of the trunk of his car, she’d probably spent the night with him.”
Slumping against her chair’s cushioned back, Tessa tented her fingers, grinning. “’Fess up, cuz.”
There weren’t too many things Faith hid from her cousins, because she trusted whatever she said to them would go no further. But, for a reason she couldn’t fathom, she didn’t want to talk about Ethan. Everything she’d shared with him was too new and too fragile to divulge.
“The only thing I’m going to say is that he hasn’t shown any frog tendencies.”
“What does he look like, Simone?” Tessa asked her sister.
“Scrumptious. He’s tall and slender. His voice is so deep that it sounds as if it’s coming from his ankles. And forget about his smile.” Simone poked her cheeks with her forefingers. “The man is blessed with dimples deep enough to drown in.” Like quicksilver, she sobered. “I have to admit he’s the first guy I’ve seen Faith with who complements her beauty and style.” There was a pulse beat of silence as the three women exchanged looks.
Tessa leaned forward and captured Faith’s hand. “Is he good to you?”
Faith’s dark eyes met a pair in clear brown with pinpoints of gold. “He’s good for me, Tessa. It’s the first time I’ve actually been courted by a man, and I must admit that it’s a wonderful experience. Most times
when guys take me out for dinner they expect me to become their dessert, or I have to spend time fighting them off because they believe it’s their right to touch me without my consent.”
Simone emitted an audible sigh. “Do you like him, Faith?”
She nodded. “Yes, I do. In fact, I like him a lot.”
It’d been a long time since Faith had been able to admit that to anyone. She’d found herself thinking about Ethan when she least expected, and whenever they parted she missed everything about him. The topic of conversation shifted from Ethan to the men in their pasts who at one time they’d believed they wouldn’t be able to live without.
Kicking off her shoes, Simone pulled her feet up under her body. “Not only did I believe that I couldn’t exist without Tony but I was dumb enough to marry the lazy slug.”
Tessa shook her head. “You don’t have a monopoly on poor judgment. There was no way I could marry Bryce Hill because his lying ass was already married.”
Faith wanted to tell her cousins that at least they weren’t foolish enough to live with a man they weren’t married to as she’d done with her former instructor, a man who’d been much too jealous, possessive and controlling.
“Who are you bringing with you, Simi?” she asked Simone.
“I’ll ask one of the guys I bowl with on Wednesday nights.”
Simone had become a member of a bowling league with Tessa, Micah and more than half a dozen police officers from his former Bronx precinct. At first she’d balked about going out at night, but after their first meeting she’d found herself looking forward to socializing with the male and female officers. She’d joined several of them the night before at a club in New Rochelle for a birthday celebration. She’d drunk only one cocktail that resulted in a pounding headache.
The conversation shifted again to Tessa’s wedding plans until Lucinda came to announce that she’d prepared an early dinner. They all filed into the kitchen to eat thinly sliced lemon-herb chicken breasts, celery slaw with shrimp and a roasted corn salad. At exactly five o’clock Tessa tapped the face of her watch to let Faith know it was time to return to the city. They hugged and kissed Lucinda, then Simone, promising to see her the following week for their bimonthly Monday get-together.
“We covered a lot,” Tessa said as she started up her vehicle and maneuvered out the driveway of her parents’ home.
Faith nodded. “Are you sure you want a buffet reception instead of a sit-down dinner?”
It was Tessa’s turn to nod. “Yes. I like the informality of a buffet because it allows everyone to mix, mingle and eat as much as they want. I don’t want anyone going home hungry.”
“You know right well that’s not going to happen with Uncle Malcolm and Daddy cooking. Remember the food that was left over from Simi’s wedding? People were taking home shopping bags.”
“And there was still enough left to donate to several soup kitchens in the neighborhood,” Tessa reminded Faith. “Our fathers went overboard because they were ticked off at Yolanda’s mother, who wouldn’t let them cater her reception when she married Vernon.”
“That’s because Annajean almost lost her mind when Yolie broke off her engagement to Dr. Chauncey’s son to marry your brother.”
“It’s apparent she made the right choice because she and Vernon are still very much in love.”
“Of course she made the right choice,” Faith insisted. “Vernon isn’t a junkie.”
Tessa gave her cousin a quick glance. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Yolie told me that she went to Terrell’s office one night and caught him with a hypodermic stuck in his leg. He’d injected himself with morphine, and he was so high he hadn’t realized she was even in the room. All she thought of was him being under the influence when writing prescriptions or treating his patients.”
With wide eyes, Tessa shook her head. “I always wondered why he gave up practicing medicine. Do you think she reported him?”
Faith lifted her shoulders. She and Yolanda Evans had attended the same parochial school. “I don’t know. But right after she married Vernon he gave up his practice and moved to the West Coast. The last I heard was that he was teaching biology at a San Diego high school.”
“I’m glad my brother and Yolanda are moving back to New York. I really miss spoiling my nephews.” Henry and Malcolm Whitfield’s plans included closing the doors to Whitfield Caterers at the end of August to concentrate on opening an upscale bowling alley in downtown Mount Vernon the following year. Schoolteachers Vernon and Yolanda Whitfield were relocating from North Carolina to their native Westchester County to go into business with the elder Whitfields.
“Save some of that spoiling for your own little Sanborns,” Faith teased.
A wave of apprehension gnawed at Tessa’s confidence. “Every time Micah mentions starting a family I’m faced with what-ifs. What if I don’t get pregnant? What if I’m not able to have children?”
“Stop beating up on yourself, Tessa. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if you don’t have a baby. Look at Rosalind. If she hadn’t adopted Micah, then chances are you never would’ve met him. The Sanborns adopting him was a blessing, a blessing you and Micah can pass along to another child or children who’re looking for a home and parents to love them.”
Tessa smiled. “You always know what to say to make me snap out of it.”
“That sounds good, because I have answers for everyone but myself.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve met a man who’s as close to perfect as one can be, yet I’ve put up an emotional barrier to keep him at a distance because I don’t want another failed relationship.”
“That’s not realistic, Faith. We’re in the wedding and the happily-ever-after business, and do you think when our clients exchange vows they believe their union isn’t going to last? No,” Tessa said, answering her own question. “I knew Micah exactly one week before I did something I’d never done with any other man. I slept with him. Did I feel uncomfortable? No. Did I experience guilt? No again. I did it because I wanted and needed him at that time. If you want and need Ethan, then you’re going to have to trust him and trust your own instincts. You’ve admitted that he’s good for you. Let go and let him be good to you,” she said in a quiet voice. Tessa paused, waiting for a response from her cousin. “Are you in love with Ethan?”
Tessa’s query rendered Faith mute for several seconds. She knew she wasn’t in love with Ethan, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t falling in love with him. “I don’t think so.”
“If he is everything you say he is, then give yourselves a chance to find out whether you could have a relationship, or even a future, together.”
Faith emitted a nervous laugh. “Let us get used to having a relationship before you start talking about a future.”
“Remember Simone and I always said you’d be the first one to get married.”
“Well, Simi beat both of us to the altar.”
“Anthony Kendrick doesn’t count,” Tessa countered. “He and Simone dated longer than they were married.”
“What a waste.”
“I suppose my sister had to go through what she did with Tony so she could recognize an unadulterated certified bum.”
Laughter bubbled up from Faith’s throat and spilled over as her features became more animated. “What’s worse on a scale of one to ten—a bum or a frog?”
Tessa’s laughter joined her cousin’s. “From what you’ve told me about the men you’ve dated, I’d have to say they’re running neck and neck.”
The cousins laughed hysterically about the boys with whom they’d grown up, dated and had given their hearts and innocence to. Fifty-five minutes after leaving Mount Vernon, Tessa dropped Faith off in front of her Greenwich Village apartment house, then continued on to Brooklyn.
Faith walked into her building, retrieved her mail, made her way up three flights to her apartment. Once inside she stripped off her clothes and headed for the ba
throom. After a leisurely shower, she slipped into a pair of sweatpants and pulled on a T-shirt; she checked her voice mail, grateful that there were no messages. Not having to return calls meant she could relax and catch up on paperwork for her bakeshop. She had to do the biweekly payroll and sign quarterly payroll-related tax returns her accountant had mailed to her at the patisserie.
She planned to go into Let Them Eat Cake early tomorrow morning to bake and hopefully decorate one more wedding-theme cake. Then she would download the digital photos and type the recipes and decorating instructions. If they kept to their present schedule, then Faith projected that she and Ranee would be able to decorate at least forty cakes before Valentine’s Day. A smile tilted the corners of her mouth. There was no doubt she would be able meet Peter Demetrious’s deadline.
When she’d asked Tessa about a wedding photographer she said she’d asked Peter to do still photos of her ceremony and reception, while also obtaining the services of a videographer. Peter hadn’t committed but promised Tessa that if he could shift his schedule, then he would be honored to photograph her very special day.
Spending most of the day planning Tessa’s wedding reminded Faith of the two Valentine’s Day weddings and Tomasina Fiori’s granddaughter’s birthday party. She had to talk to Ethan about her flight schedule to Palm Beach before committing to Tommi’s request. She also wanted to ask him to come with her to Bridget’s house on Saturday.
Two hours later she reached for the cordless phone and walked over to the window seat and sat down. Crossing her legs in a yoga position, she dialed his number. She smiled when his sensual voice came through the earpiece. Simone was right. His voice was definitely X-rated.
“How are you, Ethan?”
“Much better now that I hear your voice.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it isn’t,” he said much too quickly. “How can something be wrong when I’m talking to the most beautiful woman in New York?”
Her smile widened. “Are you flirting with me, Ethan McMillan?”
“I’m trying to. You have to let me know whether I’m succeeding.”
“You are.”
The Sweetest Temptation Page 14
