Baked With Love 2

by Tina Martin

  “Looks delish.” Felicity sipped coffee.

  “So, what’s up?” Gianna asked. “I see you got your binder, looking all official and whatnot.”

  Felicity grinned. “Well, I had to come with my binder because well, this is sort of a business visit.”

  Gianna tilted her head. “A business visit? With me?”

  “Okay, let me explain. Do you remember me mentioning a problem client I had?”

  “The most recent problem client. Yeah. You said something about him refusing to look at the matches you sent to him or something.”

  “Yes. That’s the one.”

  “Okay. What about him?” Gianna took a sip of coffee.

  “So, since I wasn’t doing a good job, apparently, of matching him with someone, he asked me if he could browse through the website and find his own potential matches. You know me…I told him to go for it because I was already fed up at that point, and I was sure he’d come running back for my help eventually, but he didn’t. He walked into my office with an arrogant stride and brought me the profile of the woman he said he wanted.”

  Felicity removed the sheet of paper from the pocket of her binder, then placed it on the table in front of Gianna. She bit into her cupcake watching Gianna’s face scrunch up as her eyes scanned the profile.

  “This—this is my information,” Gianna said in shock, looking up at Felicity.

  “It is. Remember you added it for me when we were testing out the system?”

  “Yes, but you inactivated it.”

  “No, I thought I inactivated your profile. I didn’t. Even still, it’s surprising that someone even looked at it being you didn’t have a profile picture. Profiles without pictures usually get skipped.”

  “Okay, so what now?” Gianna took another sip of coffee.

  “Aren’t you the least bit curious to know who the guy is?” Felicity asked her.

  “Doesn’t matter. I’m not being set up with anyone and I’m definitely not marrying some dude I don’t know, so you can tell whoever it is that it’s not going to happen.”

  Felicity narrowed her eyes at her friend. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not, Felicity.”

  “Because you’re afraid to try new things. Live a little.”

  “No. Because I have better things to do with my time than trying to please a man.”

  Felicity giggled. If she only knew who the man was…

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m curious about something. Remember the guy you went out on that date with? You should remember because it’s the only date you’ve ever been on and you described it as a complete disaster.”

  “Yes, I remember.”

  “What was his name? You told me about the date, but you never mentioned the guy’s name.”

  “His name is Ramsey,” Gianna answered. “But how’s that relevant to—”

  “Last name, St. Claire?” Felicity interrupted to ask and couldn’t drop the grin from her face as she watched Gianna’s eyes brighten.

  “Yes. How’d you know that?”

  “He’s the guy, Gianna. My problem client—the man who brought me your profile. He wants you.”

  Gianna grinned a little before actual, real laughter erupted. She laughed so hard, tears came to her eyes. This had to be a joke. It had to be, but though amused, Felicity wasn’t laughing.

  When her laughter subsided, she looked at Felicity and asked, “What are you trying to do right now because this is funny. Well, not really all that funny, but still…” she said, still tickled.

  “I’m not joking, Gianna. Tall, dark, and extremely fine, Ramsey St. Claire walked into my office with this piece of paper and said he wanted to put a ring on it.”

  All traces of humor went away from her face. “Wait…you’re serious?”

  “Yeah!” Felicity said, brightening her eyes. “I am. So, what are you going to do about it?”

  “B-b-but this can’t be. Why would he want to marry me?”

  Felicity shrugged. “He said he was attracted to what a person was on the inside and didn’t pay that much attention to the outside which is probably why he didn’t want women with implants and fake…well, fake everything.”

  “Huh?”

  Felicity explained, “During one of our meetings, he told me he didn’t want a lot of fakeness. He said he wanted a true, genuine, down-to-earth woman.”

  “So, in other words, he thinks I’m ugly.”

  “No. That’s not what that means. And why didn’t you tell me he was the guy you went out with?”

  “How was I supposed to know that you two actually knew each other, Felicity? I didn’t know Ramsey was a client of yours. He never told me anything about joining Wedded Bliss.”

  “Skip what he didn’t tell you. I want to know about all this stuff you didn’t tell me. Like the fact that he SPENT THE NIGHT WITH YOU!”

  Gianna hid her face behind her hands. “I can explain.”

  “Please do you lil’ thot…trying to play the innocent role and got this man all up and through your crib and God only knows what else he done been all up in.”

  She eased her hands down on the table and looked at Felicity, rocking a smile on her face. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Felicity. It was nothing like that. What happened was, I was in the grocery store trying to buy some food and my credit card declined. Ramsey was there, too—he wasn’t with me, he just happened to be there—and he paid for my food, followed me home and helped me put the groceries away. Then we talked and I fell asleep. According to Gemma, he put me to bed.”

  Felicity lifted a brow. “Put you to bed how? Like tucked you in, or put you to bed like J. Holiday? With your eyes rolling back in your head and all that?”

  Gianna laughed. “You’re awful.”

  “And you didn’t answer.”

  “It was completely innocent, Felicity. I can assure you.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  “He came here, to the bakery two weeks ago, staring me down. No, well he actually startled me while I was on the phone with Gem.”

  “And you two just hit it off from there?”

  “I guess you can say that. He told me straight up that he had a connection with me. Told me I could use him any way I saw fit. Said he was my real-life guardian angel.”

  Felicity quirked up her lips. “He actually told you those things?”

  “Yes, and he meant them. He hired a nurse to watch after Gemma while I’m working. All these little updates you see around here—he did them. Now, I’m wondering if this was all a part of his plan to get me to agree to this,” she said gesturing towards the profile.

  “So, what if it was? Do you like him?”

  “Yes. I like him. I told him he was a good person, and I meant it.”

  “Then marry him. You know the motto for Wedded Bliss…marry today, get to know each other tomorrow. It’s the way of the future.”

  Gianna shook her head.

  Felicity continued, “He said he would pay me double if I could see this through. It costs ten grand for my services. He’ll pay twenty.”

  “If I agree to marry him, he’s going to pay you twenty thousand dollars?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “This is insane,” Gianna said. “And it sucks. I thought he genuinely liked me. I didn’t know he had ulterior motives.”

  “Wait…slow down. Based on my meeting with him, I do think his like of you is genuine. And, he’s expressed a desire to do more in regards to helping Gemma.”

  Gianna’s stomach balled up in knots. She hugged herself, leaning forward. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

  “Hey, it could be a good thing, Gianna.”

  “Are you kidding me? I have no idea what to do with a man. Besides, Gemma needs me now more than ever and—”

  “And you need someone, too. I try to be there as much as I can, Gianna, but I’ll admit…it’s hit or miss. I’m just as busy as you are these days. This man, for whatever reason,
chose you and I think you need to give it some serious thought.”

  “He told me he was incapable of falling in love, Felicity.

  “Then there you have it. You don’t want love anyway, right? This is the perfect setup.”

  “But what if I start having feelings for him? Then what?”

  “That’s a big if.”

  “Yes, but it’s not totally unfeasible. I don’t want to be stuck with a guy who I love and he can’t love me back.”

  “Honestly, I didn’t like it when he told me that.”

  “Told you what?”

  “About his inability to love, but to offset that flaw, he told me things he was willing to do for you in exchange for your companionship. He said he’d take care of you. He told me he wanted to get Gemma the highest form of care possible. Said he would pay every outstanding hospital bill Gem has and he would prevent your house from going into foreclosure. Not to mention paying off your car and get this—he even said he would pay the lease on the bakery for the next ten years.”

  “How does he know—?” She frowned. “Have you been telling him all this personal stuff about me and my finances?”

  “No. I was very particular about what I told him. He came at me with this. I thought you told him.”

  “Okay, maybe Gemma told him about the hospital bills, but how does he know about the house, the car and the lease on the—? ” She stopped talking and said, “O-M-G…that night he stayed at my house, he probably saw my shoebox of bills.”

  Felicity snapped her head back. “Your what?”

  “I’m old school, I know, but I’ve been keeping all the bills I can’t afford to pay in a shoebox on my dresser.”

  “You keep your bills in a freakin’ shoebox?”

  “Yes, but don’t lose sight of the more important issue at hand, here. Ramsey must’ve gone through them! How else would he know I’m behind on this place? And my car. And my bakery. And the house.” Gianna covered her face with her hands and said, “Oh my God. This is so embarrassing. He’s known all this time.”

  “Gianna—”

  “I mean, if having my card decline three times at the grocery store isn’t embarrassing enough, now he knows everything. That I’m broke…on the verge of bankruptcy.”

  “So what?”

  “You can’t see how embarrassing this is for me, Felicity? He’s this great architect dude and I’m just a wannabe business owner who can’t afford to pay her own bills. And I’m supposed to marry him so he can make all of my troubles go away.”

  “Sounds like a sweet deal to me.”

  “Felicity!” Gianna stood up and paced the floor. “It’s not a sweet deal. It’s me admitting that I’m a failure and I need a man to rescue me. It means he thinks I’m so desperate, I’d enter into a marriage with a man who could never love me.”

  “You make it sound so harsh,” Felicity said, trying to downplay Gianna’s concerns. “Listen, just think about it, Gianna. You don’t have to make a decision now. But as a part of your decision-making process, please, please, puh-leese take into account that I’ve only had two successful clients this year and if you agree to this one, it’ll be a two-for-one deal since he’s paying double. And I’m a good judge of character. You know this.”

  “Yeah, and you hate him. He’s your problem client, remember?”

  “Well, he was being a jerk to me, but hey, that’s me. Maybe our personalities didn’t click. It’s a totally different story with you. He really was genuine about his request.”

  “If he’s so genuine, why didn’t he mention anything about this proposal when I saw him last night?”

  “Well, he did hire me to find him a match. I suppose he thought it was my job to do so. And look at all the nice things he’s already done for you. I think it’ll be the perfect arrangement.”

  “That’s the thing, Felicity. I don’t know if I’m ready for an arrangement. I just want to take care of Gemma. That’s all.”

  “And think about how much better you’ll be able to do that with the support of your new hubby bear.” Felicity waggled her eyebrows.

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It is easy. Sign a few papers and, bada bing bada boom—you’re the future Mrs. Gianna St. Claire.”

  The sound of that twisted her stomach.

  “Just think about it,” Felicity said, gathering her notebook when a few customers came inside of the bakery. She stood up and said, “Listen…I have to run by the office, but I’ll be back around lunch to help you out today.”

  “Fine, but I won’t have an answer by then,” Gianna said, then walked behind the counter to greet her customers.

  “Good morning. What can I get for you?” she asked the couple and when they responded, she watched their mouths move, but didn’t hear a word they said. She could only focus on what Felicity had just told her about Ramsey. What was she going to do now?

  Chapter 9

  She would be the first to admit that she was naïve, but something about the way she and Ramsey had met seemed legitimate. Now, she was having second thoughts. Maybe he’d planned their initial meeting as precisely and down to the detail like he planned his building designs in hopes of acquiring her. Would he be that methodical and if so why was he plotting this with her?

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said softly. “Why would he go to such extreme measures for me?” she asked while stirring baking soda with flour and sugar in a bowl, adding butter, then mixing more. This would be the last batch of blueberry lemon cupcakes for the day. She was glad of that. She couldn’t wait to close shop so she could get her head on straight again if that was even possible. Felicity had come there this morning and shook up her entire universe. It still hadn’t quite registered.

  After preparing the mixture, she filled two cupcake pans and placed them in the oven. Checking the lobby, she saw a few customers still there. She wiped down the counter by the register again and cleaned up at the coffee station. Several times she had to catch her balance. Thinking about the possibility of being with a man like Ramsey had her dizzy. She couldn’t be with him. No way! Everything about the proposal Felicity pitched felt wrong, and he was a distraction she didn’t need, especially when it came down to where her attention should’ve been focused – on Gemma.

  * * *

  Ramsey – dressed in a dark navy, Armani suit with a crisp white shirt and blue and white diagonal striped tie – left his home in Lake Norman, heading for Charlotte. He had business to attend to today at the office but his mind wasn’t on St. Claire Architects or Dan Davenport. It was solely on Gianna. Today, Felicity was to present his proposal and he could about imagine how Gianna would react to it. She’d think he was nuts. In a way, he had lost his mind and it was all her fault. Well, not primarily her fault, but he couldn’t deny himself of the attraction – the pull he felt to his abdomen every time their eyes connected. He hadn’t felt anything remotely close to this in fifteen years.

  In a way, it scared him. What if this was infatuation like Regal had claimed? He frowned, made the turn down her street toward her house, heading to see Gemma. With an hour and some change to work with, he had ample time to get to the office to meet with his brothers. But first, he wanted to spend some time with Gemma.

  He pulled in the driveway. Seemed weird since Gianna wasn’t there but he needed to have a real, open, honest, uninterrupted conversation with Gemma.

  Harriet opened the door. “Hey, Ramsey,” she said as she did so. “What are you doing here?”

  “I need to speak with Gemma,” he said as he stepped inside.

  ‘‘Oh. She’s eating her breakfast,” Harriet said as she walked to the kitchen.

  Ramsey was right behind her, watching Gemma’s face light up when she realized he was there.

  “Ooh...look at you,” she said.

  Ramsey could tell she was trying hard to be upbeat – trying to wake herself up even though he could see how tired she was. He turned to Harriet and asked, “Harriet, can you give me a
moment with Gemma?

  “Sure,” Harriet said, leaving the kitchen.

  “You look nice,” Gemma told him as she stirred her oatmeal.

  “Thank you.”

  “Where are you off to?”

  “I have to go by the office. I have an important meeting today,” he said, analyzing her. He saw the darkness and chafeness around her eyes. She looked more fragile today for some reason. And when she picked up a spoon to eat, her hands shook.

  “I’m going to talk to Gianna about this, but I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

  “Discuss what?”

  “Your health. Your condition isn’t improving.”

  Gemma coughed. “Well, I just started taking the pills on Monday. We have to…have to give them a chance to work.”

  “While you’re giving them a chance, you’re letting time pass when you could be starting something else that’s guaranteed to work.”

  “Like what? A miracle of some sort?”

  Ramsey grimaced. “No. There are other treatment options your doctor failed to offer you because he knows you can’t afford it.”

  Gemma sighed. “Did Gianna put you up to this?”

  “No.”

  “Then, why are you smiling?”

  “Just the mention of Gianna’s name makes me smile.”

  “Seriously?” Gemma smiled beautifully.

  “Yes, seriously. Gianna has no idea I’m here.”

  “Well, listen, Ramsey. I thank you for the positive thinking—” she coughed, “But I can’t keep putting my sister through this. I can’t keep putting myself through all of this.”

  “All of what? Trying to get better?”

  “Yes.”

  He frowned. “So your alternative is to give up? Is that it, because if it is, I’m sorry. That’s not acceptable.”

  “Not acceptable for who?”

  “For me, for Gianna, and you shouldn’t accept it either.”

  Gemma cleared her throat. “You have no idea how it feels to be poked and prodded, filled with hope one day and falling down to the lowest level the next.”